21st May, 2025 in Recommended Reads

The Consent of Shadows by Naza Semoniff

“Jack turned from the store display with a quiet sense of loss—not just for the animals that had vanished, but for the unpredictability and rawness of life itself, dismantled invisibly by AETERNIRIS, one subtraction at a time.” The novella, The Consent of Shadows, by Naza Semoniff, leads us through a dystopian society in which present-day fears that artificial intelligence will succeed human life has occurred in sorts. We discover that life is a mirage of freedom, when thought is already anticipated before it occurs and must follow protocol or risk being forcibly forgotten and extinguished.  The novella explores the importance of memory and the necessity in having the ability to make everyday choices in even the most mundane acts of our lives.