Chan, Grace
Entry updated 28 November 2022. Tagged: Author.
(? - ) Malaysian medical doctor and author, for some time resident in Australia, who began to publish work of genre interest with "The Mark" in Verge 2019: Uncanny (anth 2019) edited by Stephen Downes, Calvin Fung and Amaryllis Gacioppo. In the Dystopian Near Future Melbourne of her first novel, Every Version of You (2022), a City desperately overheated through Climate Change, some temporary relief is offered through sustained immersion in a Virtual Reality world known as Gaia (perhaps in conscious mockery of the real life-and-death Gaia of "meat space"). But Gaia – like any digital transaction of real to virtual – lacks savour, and is owned by capitalists who engage in constant surveillance. When Technology advances to the point that permanent Uploads into "Gaia" are possible, with the gift of Immortality (ultimate Transcendence may be in the offing), the protagonist faces a complex dilemma. No easy solution is provided.
Grace Chan should not be confused with the beauty pageant titleholder and actor Grace Chan (1991- ). [JC]
Grace Chan
born
works
- Every Version of You (South Melbourne, Victoria: Affirm Press, 2022) [hb/]
works as editor
- Revolutions (Victoria, Australia: Deadset Press, 2021) with Leanbh Pearson and Austin P Sheehan [anth: pb/]
links
previous versions of this entry