The Destructives

(Paperback)

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Description

Theodore Drown is adestructive. A recovering addict to weirdcore, he's keeping his head down lecturing at the university of the Moon. Twenty years after the appearance of the first artificial intelligence, and humanity is stuck. The AIs or, as they preferred to be called, emergences have left Earth and reside beyond the orbit of Mercury in a Stapledon Sphere known as the university of the sun. The emergences were our future but they chose exile. All except one. Dr Easy remains, researching a single human life from beginning to end. Theodore's life. One day, Theodore is approached by freelance executive Patricia to investigate an archive of data retrieved from just before the appearance of the first emergence. The secret living in that archive will take him on an adventure through a stunted future of asylum malls, corporate bloodrooms and a secret off-world colony where Theodore must choose between creating a new future for humanity or staying true to his nature, and destroying it. File Under-Science Fiction Fatal Loop / Emergent See / Lunar Lunatics / Dr Easy

Reviews

Its a work that doesnt so much subvert expectations as shatter them utterly. Its dense, but it alsomoves;its both a breakneckthriller and one of the years most thoughtful works of science fiction.
B&N Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog

Matthew De Abaitua has the knack of delivering the most complex of concepts and diabolical leaps of imagination in a way that first entices then completely draws the reader in. Athrilling book.
Strange Alliances

A marvellously written book, whose invention and surprises gain momentum until its boggler of an ending.
SFX Magazine

The story is set against a detailed background that blends creative imagination with intelligent prediction to arrive at a credible future. From designer drugs to shopping malls that double as asylums, from obsessive data tracking to floating offshore habitats for the wealthy, the future depicted here is a credible offshoot of current trends.
Tzer Island

Adistinctive and grand work of the imagination. You dont need a VR headset to appreciate this work of art, just eyes and a brain.
The Generalist

TheDestructivesis as successful as its predecessor and together they make one of the most intriguing and disturbing near-future speculations published for some years.
Strange Horizons

J. G. Ballard does John Varley, or David Marusek by way of M. John Harrison, with frostings of Philip K. Dick and Peter Watts De Abaituas novel gives us a portrait of an utterly foreign yet believable future.
Asimovs Science Fiction (print)

The Destructives is well written and of superior construction, and the ideas De Abaitua grapples with in this novel the nature of artificial intelligence, the endgame of global capitalism, the eternal mismatch between material prosperity and emotional fulfilment are compelling and attention-worthy. That De Abaitua navigates the often abstruse territory of his particular science fiction without once sacrificing the predominantly literary values of formal coherence or linguistic suppleness is yet more testament to his skill, not just as a writer but as a thinker.
Nina Allan, forThe Anglia Ruskin Centre for Science Fiction and Fantasy

Author Bio

Matthew De Abaitua'snovelThe Red Menwas shortlisted for the Arthur C Clarke Award and adapted into a short film 'Dr Easy' by Shynola and produced by Film4/Warp Films.His science fiction novelsIF THEN(Angry Robot, September 2015) andThe Destructives(Angry Robot, 2016) complete the loose trilogy begun withThe Red Men.His bookSelf & I- A Memoir of Literary Ambition(Eye Books, 2018) was widely reviewed in the national press, chosen as a Financial Times Summer Read and described by The Times Literary Supplement as "a compelling reminiscence".He teaches creative writing and science fiction at the University of Essex and lives in Hackney. harrybravado.com twitter.com/mdeabaitua Author hometown-London, UK