Littéraires - Niout - Oscar Y. Chant

Science fiction fans should mark their calendars - ‘Niout’, a dazzlingly original and vibrant new book by Oscar Y. Chant, has arrived, and it’s set to be the most exciting debut of the year. 

Chant, writing under a pen name, has created a reality that feels terrifyingly close to possible, given the current global political climate. Enabled by an innovation in energy to escape modern society, a group of vagabonds leave land on an enormous floating raft and anchor in the middle of the Pacific to start a new society based on socialist, not capitalist ideals. Thirty-two years later, when the story truly begins, there are 350 mega rafts in the ocean, each hosting 12,000 residents and vast industrial and agricultural sites. 

When outside forces threaten to invade the fragile peace of his city, Clarr, a Niout-born resident, must take on the mantle of defence and attempt to protect the society his ancestors built… 

Cinematic, engrossing and unputdownable, ‘Niout’ is the must-read science fiction book of 2023.

Three million people living in the middle of the Pacific dream the same dream. Can they defend it? Can they protect their love? Will their world survive?

What if the innovation of a new energy storage technology enabled a bunch of adventurers to start an alternative civilization in the ocean thousands of miles away from the nearest piece of land?

It has been thirty-two years since their voyage. You will read their past and present, their quest for freedom from the seemingly invincible reality of the modern world, their affairs, passion, and their struggle to shield their haven from threats, as well as their flexible and occasionally controversial approach to politics, economy and faith.

“English is not my first language,” says Chant, who is writing under a pen name for this publication. “But ‘Niout’ is most certainly my story to tell, and I think it’s a very important story in these times.”

Continuing, “It might be controversial, with its themes of outlawing clergy and churches in Niout, or disallowing capitalist policies, but I think there are a lot of discussions to be had around why these things might make our society the utopia we all wish it to be. It’s something that was fascinating to explore at any rate, and I hope my fans will feel the same way.” 

‘Niout’ is available now: https://amzn.to/3VGtwKT

About the author:

Though the probability of achieving approaches zero as you increase the number of years to live, thus bringing a biological cap on the numerical length of our life, it can be hypothesized that one can live more than one lives in the given period of time. You can live lives of different people in your own mind and body, can't you? Your hands can be holding a pen today, a brush or a guitar tomorrow, maybe even a pistol or a rifle the other day. Your mind can be full of mathematical equations, faith in a divine being, or sweet love for a human being. You can throw yourself in a whirlwind of reckless trials and errors, experiments of a wide spectrum of feelings, pleasure or pain. You get to know more, for sure, of life and the humans. But you also know more about how easily death can capture you in one of those alleys you have been taking a turn into so thoughtlessly. Probably one day that will exhaust you, and you will miss a quiet and foreseeable life style. What's more, you understand, while trying the extremes, you may be missing on the core realities of life. 

We dream. We realize that our lifetime will never be long enough to see the other end of our galaxy, but that will not stop us from dreaming of that, and making stories about it. We dream about hope, not as far as the end of the galaxy, perhaps. 

Author Oscar Y. Chant decided to talk about it. Life and hope! That is it, in a nutshell.

Editeur : Independently published

Nombre de pages : 335 pages

Prix : £13.66