Rogue Cells / Carbon Harbour

Rogue Cells / Carbon Harbour resumes The Chaos Quincunx novel series and presents two ironically dystopic visions of the speculative future.

In Rogue Cells, Oober Mann emerges from his cryobed on high alert in New Haudenosaunee, a "First" nation at war with the mysterious territory Nutella. It is a critical election year when citizens live in dread of celebrities who carry out terrorist actions in defense of their own fundamentalist belief systems. Mixed up in an assassination plot under investigation by ISM (Insurgent Saddo Management) and DNA-specialist cops, Mann begins to wonder about not only the nature of reality but also the new woman in his life, a femme fatale known only as The Librarian.

It is the Age of Aquarium in the speculative "green" dystopia of Carbon Harbour. Omni-magnate Cornelius Quartz is overseeing the merger between Bildung Endustries and Foreign Objects despite numerous distractions: a double wedding for himself and his daughter is imminent; he is about to lose his best promoter and lover to his rival Zirconium Bluff; and working conditions are terrible in the rehashing core and on the wind pharms for hardlucks. There bio-material is harvested to produce architecture, clothing, and other swag for a luxury class of hardcore gamers (they pay for "pollution fantasies" with carbon credits while on extended getaways to Putridworld).

Garry Thomas Morse is the author of six books, including Discovery Passages, which was nominated for the Governor General's Award and the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize. Morse is also recipient of the 2008 Vancouver Mayor's Arts Award for Emerging Artist.