I kept returning to The Sign of the Dragon because I got completely caught up in Xau’s story. It was almost an obsession. I thought about it when I was vacuuming, or brushing my teeth, or grocery shopping.
The stories in Avatar focuses on SF’s transformative role in negotiating changes ushered in by digital world and social media, as well as the advances in biotech and surveillance mechanisms augmented by technology, besides the perils of climate change.
Rajat Chaudhuri and Jvalant Sampat discuss science fiction (“sci-fi”), cli-fi (climate fiction), solarpunk, classic sci-fi films, and their respective books:The Butterfly Effect and The Chronicler.
“Upshot” takes place soon after the end of the Guatemalan civil war in the cloud forest, Ixil region, of Guatemala.
“The Ghost Teas of Sakruajima” is a ghost story about love, loss, denial, and acceptance, in Warring States Japan.
I really like the concept of selling and trading unusual, immaterial or even metaphysical goods and explore this idea of an absurd, all-encompassing, terrifying super-capitalism.