S.B. Divya

From the Hugo Award nominee S.B. Divya, Zero Dark Thirty meets The Social Network in this science fiction thriller about artificial intelligence, sentience, and labor rights in a near future dominated by the gig economy. Welga Ramirez, executive bodyguard and ex-special forces, is about to retire early when her client is killed in front of her. It’s 2095 and people don’t usually die from violence. Humanity is entirely dependent on pills that not only help them stay alive, but allow them to compete with artificial intelligence in an increasingly competitive gig economy. Daily doses protect against designer diseases, flow enhances focus, zips and buffs enhance physical strength and speed, and juvers speed the healing process. All that changes when Welga’s client is killed by The Machinehood, a new and mysterious terrorist group that has simultaneously attacked several major pill funders. The Machinehood operatives seem to be part human, part machine, something the world has never seen. They issue an ultimatum: stop all pill production in one week. Global panic ensues as pill production slows and many become ill. Thousands destroy their bots in fear of a strong AI takeover. But the US government believes the Machinehood is a cover for an old enemy. One that Welga is uniquely qualified to fight. Welga, determined to take down the Machinehood, is pulled back into intelligence work by the government that betrayed her. But who are the Machinehood and what do they really want? A thrilling and thought-provoking novel that asks: if we won’t see machines as human, will we instead see humans as machines?

Machinehood

Elizabeth Bear

Arkady Martine

Vandana Singh

Fran Wilde

Sunny Moraine

Vivian Shaw

Marissa Lingen

R.K. Kalaw

The January/February 2018 issue of Hugo Award-winning Uncanny Magazine. Featuring new fiction by Elizabeth Bear, S.B. Divya, Arkady Martine, Marissa Lingen, Sunny Moraine, Vivian Shaw, and R.K. Kalaw, reprinted fiction by Vandana Singh, essays by Fran Wilde, John Wiswell, Iori Kusano, Rebecca Roanhorse, and Sarah Monette, and poetry by Sofia Samatar & Del Samatar, Nitoo Das, Sonya Taaffe, and Ana Hurtado, interviews with S.B. Divya and Sunny Moraine by Caroline M. Yoachim, a cover by Tran Nguyen, and an editorial by Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas.

January/February 2018

Uncanny Magazine Issue 20

The Minerva Sierra Challenge is a grueling spectacle, the cyborg's Tour de France. Rich thrill-seekers with corporate sponsorships, extensive support teams, and top-of-the-line exoskeletal and internal augmentations pit themselves against the elements in a day-long race across the Sierra Nevada. Marmeg Guinto doesn’t have funding, and she doesn’t have support. She cobbled her gear together from parts she found in rich people’s garbage and spent the money her mother wanted her to use for nursing school to enter the race. But the Minerva Challenge is the only chance she has at a better life for herself and her younger brothers, and she’s ready to risk it all. Runtime is S. B. Divya's exciting science fiction debut. PRAISE FOR RUNTIME “A thrilling romp through a gleaming cybernetic future that's neither dystopia nor utopia, but embedded in our reality— I wish more science fiction were as exciting and relevant as Runtime.” — Ken Liu, Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Award winner and author of The Grace of Kings "S.B. Divya is a new light on the science fiction scene, a writer with the promise and talent to become one of our genre's stars. Have a read; she's a wonderful storyteller. — Catherine Asaro, Nebula Award winning author.

Runtime

Zero Dark Thirty meets The Social Network in this “clever…gritty” (Ken Liu, author of The Grace of Kings) science fiction thriller about artificial intelligence, sentience, and labor rights in a near future dominated by the gig economy—from Hugo Award nominee S.B. Divya. Welga Ramirez, executive bodyguard and ex-special forces, is about to retire early when her client is killed in front of her. It’s, 2095 and people don’t usually die from violence. Humanity is entirely dependent on pills that not only help them stay alive but allow them to compete with artificial intelligence in an increasingly competitive gig economy. Daily doses protect against designer diseases, flow enhances focus, zips and buffs enhance physical strength and speed, and juvers speed the healing process. All that changes when Welga’s client is killed by The Machinehood, a new and mysterious terrorist group that has simultaneously attacked several major pill funders. The Machinehood operatives seem to be part human, part machine, something the world has never seen. They issue an ultimatum: stop all pill production in one week. Global panic ensues as pill production slows and many become ill. Thousands destroy their bots in fear of a strong AI takeover. But the US government believes the Machinehood is a cover for an old enemy. One that Welga is uniquely qualified to fight. Welga, determined to take down the Machinehood, is pulled back into intelligence work by the government that betrayed her. But who are the Machinehood, and what do they really want? A “fantastic, big-idea thriller” (Malka Older, Hugo Award finalist for The Centenal Cycle series) that asks: if we won’t see machines as human, will we instead see humans as machines?

Contingency Plans for the Apocalypse And Other Possible Situations

Ken Liu

Mur Lafferty

Cory Doctorow

Celebrate the fifteenth anniversary of cutting-edge science fiction from the hit podcast, Escape Pod. Featuring new and classic stories from Cory Doctorow, Ken Liu, Mary Robinette Kowal, Ursula Vernon and more. From editors Mur Laffterty and S.B. Divya comes the science fiction collection of the year, bringing together bestselling authors in celebration of the publishing phenomenon that is, Escape Pod.

Escape Pod: The Science Fiction Anthology

A sickly biologist shuts herself off from the world and its deadly pollutants to research her beloved microbiota in peace – until a chance encounter drives her to venture out into an unliveable Bangalore. In a dystopian Arizona, a couple performs forbidden life-saving abortions amid the threat of tanks and drones, the strict report of automatic weapons and the spying eyes of neighbours. A young woman competes in a gruelling challenge, determined to win a place in a world where body modifications equal class and grant people the privilege of transcending gender. In this collection of 14 layered stories featuring dying cities, undying humans, amorphous bodies, cyborg racers and magic beetles, internationally acclaimed writer and data scientist S.B. Divya treads the line between the present and the future, while exploring the eternal conundrums of identity and love in speculative worlds.

S.B. Divya

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