We Lived on the Horizon
Erika Swyler
(Author)
21,000+ Reviews
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Description
The acclaimed author of the "dazzling" (Sara Gruen, #1 New York Times bestselling author) The Book of Speculation returns with an engrossing new novel about a bio-prosthetic surgeon and her personal AI as they are drawn into a revolution. The city of Bulwark is aptly named: a walled city built to protect and preserve the people who managed to survive a series of great cataclysms, Bulwark was founded on a system where sacrifice is rewarded by the AI that runs the city. Over generations, an elite class has evolved from the descendants of those who gave up the most to found mankind's last stronghold, called the Sainted. Saint Enita Malovis, long accustomed to luxury, feels the end of her life and decades of work as a bio-prosthetist approaching. The lone practitioner of her art, Enita is determined to preserve her legacy and decides to create a physical being, called Nix, filled with her knowledge and experience. In the midst of her project, a fellow Sainted is brutally murdered and the city AI inexplicably erases the event from its data. Soon, Enita and Nix are drawn into the growing war that could change everything between Bulwark's hidden underclass and the programs that impose and maintain order. A complex, imaginative, and unforgettable novel, We Lived on the Horizon grapples with concepts as varied as the human desire for utopia, body horror, and what the future holds for humanity and machine alike.
Product Details
Price
$28.99
$26.96
Publisher
Atria Books
Publish Date
January 14, 2025
Pages
336
Dimensions
6.0 X 9.0 X 0.75 inches | 1.06 pounds
Language
English
Type
Hardcover
EAN/UPC
9781668049594
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About the Author
Erika Swyler is the bestselling author of the novels Light from Other Stars, The Book of Speculation, and We Lived on the Horizon. Her essays and short fiction have appeared in Catapult, LitHub, The New York Times, and elsewhere. A graduate of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, she lives on Long Island, New York, with her husband and a mischievous house rabbit.
Reviews
"Erika Swyler's We Lived on the Horizon delivers everything I crave from great science fiction: a pulse-quickening plot, an endless stream of imaginative wonders, and the kind of moral clarity that brings to mind the grand ethical visions of writers like Ursula K. Le Guin and Iain M. Banks. This is an unforgettable novel of ideas, keen to the complex interplays between love and sacrifice, complicity and community." --Matt Bell, author of Appleseed
"Kaleidoscopic and incisive in its themes, We Lived on the Horizon detonates the imperfect symbiosis between A.I. and what it means to be human. From class warfare and systems of oppression to reflections on gender and inherited privilege, Swyler burrows through the walls of genres to critique civilization's cycles of unrest and the costs of our survival. My favorite kind of novel--philosophical, timely, and brimming with intrigue and speculative flair. I couldn't put it down." --Sequoia Nagamatsu, bestselling author of How High We Go in the Dark
Praise for Light from Other Stars "As smart and ambitious as its heroine, Light from Other Stars is an absorbing, propulsive story of exploration and loss." ?J. Ryan Stradal, author of Kitchens of the Great Midwest "A masterful story that hops through time to tell a tale of love and ambition, grief and resilience . . . It is full of joy and wonder, a reminder to never stop looking up into the stars and the infinite spaces in between them." ?Nylon "Keenly wrought characters and evocative prose . . . [a] heart-wrenching, awe-inspiring conclusion. Grand in scope and graceful in execution . . . profound." ?Kirkus Reviews, starred review "Swyler's new novel, Light From Other Stars, bends genres as it explores how the past intrudes on the present . . . Although Light From Other Stars includes plenty of science fiction elements, it's also a coming-of-age story . . . Juggling dual timelines, wonderful mid-1980s period details and a large cast of secondary characters, Swyler has set herself an ambitious task. But the novel is well-paced, with a satisfying twist near the end" ?BookPage, starred review "[Swyler] offers a moving, often heartrending story with lyrical grace. . . Fans of the film Interstellar, Jeff VanderMeer's "Southern Reach" trilogy, and character-driven drama will have a new favorite. Simply gorgeous." ?Library Journal, starred review
"Kaleidoscopic and incisive in its themes, We Lived on the Horizon detonates the imperfect symbiosis between A.I. and what it means to be human. From class warfare and systems of oppression to reflections on gender and inherited privilege, Swyler burrows through the walls of genres to critique civilization's cycles of unrest and the costs of our survival. My favorite kind of novel--philosophical, timely, and brimming with intrigue and speculative flair. I couldn't put it down." --Sequoia Nagamatsu, bestselling author of How High We Go in the Dark
Praise for Light from Other Stars "As smart and ambitious as its heroine, Light from Other Stars is an absorbing, propulsive story of exploration and loss." ?J. Ryan Stradal, author of Kitchens of the Great Midwest "A masterful story that hops through time to tell a tale of love and ambition, grief and resilience . . . It is full of joy and wonder, a reminder to never stop looking up into the stars and the infinite spaces in between them." ?Nylon "Keenly wrought characters and evocative prose . . . [a] heart-wrenching, awe-inspiring conclusion. Grand in scope and graceful in execution . . . profound." ?Kirkus Reviews, starred review "Swyler's new novel, Light From Other Stars, bends genres as it explores how the past intrudes on the present . . . Although Light From Other Stars includes plenty of science fiction elements, it's also a coming-of-age story . . . Juggling dual timelines, wonderful mid-1980s period details and a large cast of secondary characters, Swyler has set herself an ambitious task. But the novel is well-paced, with a satisfying twist near the end" ?BookPage, starred review "[Swyler] offers a moving, often heartrending story with lyrical grace. . . Fans of the film Interstellar, Jeff VanderMeer's "Southern Reach" trilogy, and character-driven drama will have a new favorite. Simply gorgeous." ?Library Journal, starred review
