Convergence Problems

By: Wole Talabi

Narrated by: Ben Arogundade

Length: 10 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's summary

From the Hugo, Nebula, Locus and Nommo award nominated author of Shigidi and The Brass Head Of Obalufon comes a stunning new collection of stories that investigate the rapidly changing role of technology and belief in our lives as we search for meaning, for knowledge, for justice; constantly converging on our future selves.

In “An Arc of Electric Skin,” a roadside mechanic seeking justice volunteers to undergo a procedure that will increase the electrical conductivity of his skin by orders of magnitude. In “Blowout,” a woman races against time and a previously undocumented geological phenomenon to save her brother on the surface of Mars. In “Ganger,” a young woman trapped in a city run by machines must transfer her consciousness into an artificial body and find a way to give her life purpose. In “Debut,” a Nairobi-based technical support engineer tries to understand what is happening when an AI art system begins malfunctioning in ways that could change the world.

The sixteen stories of Convergence Problems, which include work published for the first time in this collection, rare stories, and recently acclaimed work, showcase Talabi at his creative best: playful and profound, exciting and experimental, always interesting.

"Beautiful, vibrant, and electrifying, this has the makings of a modern classic." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

• A Publishers Weekly Top Ten Spring 2024 Roundup pick

©2024 Wole Talabi (P)2024 Recorded Books

A Very Unique and Powerful Collection

Very rarely does a collection by a single author maintain the clarity and quality Talabi manages in Convergence Problems. From the very clever and very worthy theme embodied in the title of the collection, to the engineering detail and uncanny application of just enough detail that unfamiliar places and concepts feel real, this is a masterwork. Too often authors take all the short fiction they have, toss it into a book with a table of contents and send it into the world without direction. This book has a constant theme running throughout... futures and societies where things that seemed so close to perfect, or correct, are not quite accurate, or are violently skewed by the application of reality.

I have some clear favorites in this collection:

"Saturday's Song," offers a group of storytelling siblings finding new ways to reach old truths in a series of very interesting, intertwined tales. "Gangers" confronts a slew of psychological and societal issues, while peeling back the sometimes-stubborn onion we call freedom a layer at a time.

“Nigerian Dreams” is a story that, and I assume this to be at least part of the purpose, sent me down a small rabbit hole of research on the history of that country, trying to get a full grasp on the two very separate opinions on what would constitute the Nigerian Dream.

Some of the works, like “A Dream of Electric Mothers,” need no new comment from me, but I was both amused and somewhat concerned for the world while reading "Debut," where - very similar to the misconception authors have previously presented - that aliens, if they visited Earth, would communicate with us as we do with one another, visits the notion that if AI ever actually created something unique and meaningful, it would not be so to us - but would be targeting other forms of AI.

This is a powerful collection. I listened to the audiobook, narrated by the talented Ben Arogundade, who was the perfect voice, cultured and smooth and able to lend the proper emotion, while perfectly comfortable with the engineering and technical aspects of the prose.

Highly recommended.