Apparently I reviewed the previous version of this book four years ago but have no real memory of it. Did you ever have a dream which was vividly realistic yet somehow slightly askew from reality? Obviously there is no antimemetics division, nor could anyone write a book about it. If they did, their mind would instantly be liquefied and their mere existence would be purged.
So, why is there a new version of the book out and is it worth reading again?
As the copyright page says:
Earlier versions of this material were previously published in serial form on the scp wiki under Creative Commons 3.0, and subsequently self-published by the author in ebook and paperback format. The work has been substantively revised and updated since.
As the FAQ makes clear, getting a "proper" publisher to put money into a CC project is unlikely. So many of the original elements have been rewritten and reworked. The writing, plotting, and characters have all been substantially improved. The ending, in particular, has become something quite special.
The story itself is still recursively memetic and a metacommentary on itself. The bug-eyed-monsters are mindbending and the good guys are all morally compromised. The concepts are gorgeously impossible and the pacing is exciting.
There's simply nothing like it.
The eBook is mostly well formatted. Excellent use of monospace fonts for reports, there are accessible redactions where suitable, and the images all have alt text. Weirdly, one "monster" is named వ - a character which failed to render correctly on my eBook. That gave it a rather sinister appearance! The ghosting of eInk made it look like there were faint words behind the various redactions which was delightfully spooky. An excellent book and a satisfying update.
However, it is worth noting that ███████ this book will ██████████ ██████████ ██████████████ and could lead to ████ █████████████ ██████████████. Although the retailer won't accept refunds on any book stained with █████████ █████████████████ ████ or ████ ██████████, it is possible to summon ██████ ████████████████████ ████████████ ███ ████ ███████████ in an emergency.
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ISBN: 9781804954768
8 thoughts on “Book Review: There Is No Antimemetics Division by qntm”
"But if we have learned nothing else, we have learned this: humans can walk away from, and forget, anything.”
One of my two notes from reading the first edition.
I’m intrigued by your comments on the improvements, but wondering if that means reading v1 before v2.
| Reply to original comment on bsky.app
@Edent I listened to the audioobook of this recently, I liked it. Reminded me of reading Philip K Dick's stuff.
| Reply to original comment on boing.world
@Edent They did the obfuscated sections with pink noise and similar audio fuzzing. 🙂
| Reply to original comment on boing.world
@Edent I'm reading this right now, and it absolutely does get into your dreams like nothing else I've ever read. Incredible.
| Reply to original comment on home.ajacks.net
@Edent “Apparently I reviewed the previous version of this book four years ago but have no real memory of it.”
Forgot to take your Class W mnestics, did you?
| Reply to original comment on mastodon.social
@Edent I found out there was a reworked version of it recently and read it almost immediately.
I really really enjoyed it.
I'd read the SCP wiki version long enough ago that I couldn't quite remember what happened next but it all felt very familiar which felt quite fitting.
| Reply to original comment on en.osm.town
It's a great book. Loved it
| Reply to original comment on bsky.app
@Edent oooh glad you posted this. I read the OG version some time ago, looking forward to the new edition. A good warm up for a replay of Control!
| Reply to original comment on hachyderm.io
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