Memory Silk

Memory Silk is cyber-noir literary science fiction, suffused with ancient mystical philosophy. Eighty three thousand words in length, Memory Silk is Volume One of a series entitled 'MindStream'. It is a novel about a highly conflicted and somehow beautifully flawed artificial life-form who finds himself living with the profoundly human need to transform himself. In this vision of a dark dysfunctional metropolis, the existential journey of self discovery is a deeply human one. The inner life of an artificial person parallels our own and his determination to remember who and what he is, and to transform himself into what he can become, is driven by desire and self belief. Throughout his story, the relentless human pursuit of perfection is brought into question as cruel errors reveal the real humanity of these new lives - people who must co-exist with their creators in a broken society. Told with a cool filmic style using flashbacks and multiple points of view, stands of Taoist Eastern wisdom are interwoven into the plot, creating a dark and nervous metaphysical fabric. In this future city love is a concept in flux, memory has become the art of life, and identity itself may be nothing more than a cruel illusion. Ezee is desperately searching for the memory of his former life in order to discover his identity. His only possession, which he grips tightly in his hand, is a piece of orange silk, his only clue to who he was, and who he is. As a faulty synthetic human being he fights to survive in the unforgiving urban nightmare of Hong Kong in 2071. Aware is neither human nor fully Synthetic, his drive to be whole is guided by an inner voice, an echo of a Monk he feels he once knew in a previous life, but even this voice, like all his memories, is fading fast… Only Viola, a beautiful Synth artist, is able to truly understand the unique flaw in Ezee's soul. She becomes the vital key to his memory and her life connects him to a world beyond his singular consciousness. However, unknown to him his life is being monitored by a Synthetic astronaut, an employee of the ubiquitous C.Y.B.E.X. Corporation, who is observing him from a company satellite in low Earth orbit. They are fully aware of his troubled introduction to this world and have been tracking him from the location of his aborted genesis. Largely powerless to intervene they are forced to extremes in order to alter the future of their product. Like most Synthetics in this City Ezee and Viola work for an underground organisation distributing a semi-legal memory drug but the human head of this business is a ruthless man and whilst the couple reach for hopes and dreams perhaps out of their grasp, the powers that be have no tolerance of imperfection, of mistakes and despise the limitations of the artificial life they themselves have created. With an augmented memory Ezee is able to tap into a vibrant tranquil life he apparently had before arriving in this horribly twisted place. The story of this life, and the friendship of a Monk who gave him shelter and an education, fills his mind and provides a counterpoint to his current situation. This earlier incarnation is a story in itself, but the teachings of the monk, are woven throughout the novel, illuminating his condition and explaining the ultimate relevance of the silk to Ezee's memories, to his identity, and to the nature of his soul.