This Weightless World

By: Adam Soto

Narrated by: Eddie Lopez

A literary debut subverting classic sci-fi tropes set in gentrified Chicago, Silicon Valley, and across the vastness of the cosmos.

From the streets of gentrified Chicago, to the tech-boom corridors of Silicon Valley, This Weightless World follows a revolving cast of characters after alien contact upends their lives.

We are introduced to Sevi, a burned-out music teacher desperate for connection; Ramona, his on-again, off-again computer programmer girlfriend; and Sevi’s cello protégé Eason, struggling with the closure of his high school; after a mysterious signal arrives from outer space. When the signal - at first seen as a sign of hope - stops as abruptly as it started, they are all forced to reckon with its aftermath. In San Francisco, Sevi fights to find meaning in rekindled love; and Ramona - determined to build an AI to prevent mankind’s self-destruction - begins to feel the weight of past mistakes. And in Chicago, Eason measures his commitment to an estranged childhood friend against the chance of escaping neighborhood troubles.

A dazzling deconstruction of science-fiction tropes, This Weightless World looks to the past for a vision of the future.

©2021 Adam Soto (P)2021 Recorded Books, Inc.

The Great Millenial Novel

I don’t know if anyone is still trying to write the great American novel but for my money This Weightless World is, at the very least, the great millennial novel

It felt like exactly what I needed to read at this moment in our culture.

Especially coming right off of prelude to foundation, which I also loved: Where Asimov’s Foundation encourages me to ponder what could be if humans go on forever Soto’s work lets me feel in great rising waves and concerned concerted fears what is and could be now, this very second.

Soto leads me through thoughts and feelings that give me hope in confronting my worries of inaptitude, feelings of fragility and inconsequence in the face of life and change.

Of knowing and longing and wanting to do whatever I can, yet paralyzed by the understanding that there are costs I am unwilling to pay. Of the concept that we can see the writing on the wall and we can even dream of a formula that might change it- undercut by the understanding that we are all but human.

Beautiful

This is an amazing novel by a writer who understands subtle sci-fi. The characters are lovingly crafted, and each have meaningful arcs. Don't expect alien invasions or super powers. Expect a masterfully understated story that's both small and huge that explores conflicts both pedestrian and existential.