XX
Layered
Artistic
Profound

XX

Rian Hughes2020
The battle for your mind has already begun. At Jodrell Band in England Observatory in England, a radio telescope has detected a mysterious signal of extraterrestrial origin--a message that may be the first communication from an interstellar civilization. Has humanity made first contact? Is the signal itself a form of alien life? Could it be a threat? If so, how will the people of Earth respond? Jack Fenwick, artificial intelligence expert, believes that he and his associates at tech startup Intelligencia can interpret the message a find a way to step into the realm the signal encodes. What they find is a complex alien network beyond anything mankind has imagined. Drawing on Dada, punk and the modernist movements of the twentieth century, XX is assembled from redacted NASA reports, artwork, magazine articles, secret transcripts and a novel within a novel. Deconstructing layout and language in order to explore how idea propagate, acclaimed designer and artist Rian Hughes's debut novel presents a compelling vision of humanity's unique place in the universe, and a realistic depiction of what might happen in the wake of the biggest scientific discovery in human history. Propulsive and boldly designed, XX is a gripping, wildly imaginative, utterly original work.
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Photo of Jason Long
Jason Long@jasonlong
4 stars
Aug 13, 2024
Dizzying
Conceptual
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CD@bibliodenbow
5 stars
Mar 22, 2024
Creative
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Photo of Jeff Jewiss
Jeff Jewiss@jeff
5 stars
Feb 20, 2023
Layered
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Photo of Muriel Trystero
Muriel Trystero@trystero
3 stars
Feb 3, 2023
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Rosie Yakob @rosieyakob
5 stars
Aug 12, 2022
Photo of Moray Lyle McIntosh
Moray Lyle McIntosh@bookish_arcadia
4 stars
Dec 5, 2021
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Talbet Fulthorpe@talbet
3 stars
Jul 29, 2021