The Jellyfish Device

by William Marshall

[Cameron Trost]

"They finished the champagne and enjoyed the evening and each other's company. Still, Kevin felt uneasy with himself confabulating with billionaires while the Apostles were busy planning Armageddon."

The year is 2054 and we embark on an atomic adeventure with Kevin, a hacker and veteran, and Jade, a gorgeous and dangerous Chinese-Canadian girl working in a bar and trying to put her past behind her.

The Jellyfish Device is near-future sci-fi injected with a powerful shot of noir and political thriller. Above all, it's an exploration of a Canadian dystopia. There's no far-fetched stretch of the imagination in this novel. William Marshall's plot is action-packed and entertaining, but the canvas used is merely a logical extrapolation of the social, political, and technological trends of today...insatiable billionaires, the religious right, growing poverty, and rampant drug addiction. The fact that this novel is set in Canada and reflects issues specific to the Canadian experience also made it very interesting, and while I'd recommend it to fans of dystopian sci-fi from anywhere in the world, I'd particularly recommend it to Canadians.

This is a promising first novel from William Marshall and I'm eager to discover what he offers us next.