Aurora Rising/The Prefect, by Alastair Reynolds

This week, the Pagenerd crew tackles hyper pigs, consensual cannibalism, corpse-eating architecture, a freaky little child AI, planetary genocide, and a supervillain called “The Clockmaker.” Alastair Reynolds Aurora Rising (originally called The Prefect) is a fever dream of a detective novel that somehow manages to jam all those things into a single story. Sarah, Tommy, Rick, and Andrew attempt to untangle a future powered by quickmatter, debate whether anyone actually understands what's happening, and marvel at Alastair Reynolds' ability to make the absolutely absurd feel strangely plausible. This episode starts as a detective story and rapidly descends into chaos. We recommend surrendering to the experience. If you’d like to support the pod, you can find us on Patreon. Pagenerd is Sarah Stockdale, Tommy Guy, Richard Vieweg and Andrew Corway. Jay Cockburn is the producer. New episodes launch every two weeks. If you want to read along with future episodes then you'll find a full list of what we're reading next at pagenerd.com, and support us at patreon.com/pagenerd.You can reach the nerds at [email protected] — tell us about your local library or favourite indie book store!