Vara, Vauhini
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.
(? - ) Canadian-born journalist, editor and author, in US from late childhood, who is of sf interest for her first novel, The Immortal King Rao (2022), set mostly in the Near Future of an Alternate World version of a "Hothouse Earth" devastated by Climate Change. The loose Jonbar Point of the tale may be the absence of various corporations, from IBM to Apple and beyond, along with the absence of their white male progenitors and culture-shapers. Eloquently narrated by his quasi-omniscient Genetically Engineered daughter (see Women in SF), King Rao's life and career focuses on his Invention, and their joint exploitation, of a Computer programme known as Harmonica which enables brain-Internet interfaces: liberating humans from the consequences of "civilization". The sting in the tail lies in the fact that this software also serves as an instrument through which social worth can be established, creating diasporas of the elect and the dispossessed across an already stricken planet. The Posthuman world in view seems dark. [JC]
Vauhini Vara
born Regina, Saskatchewan
works
- The Immortal King Rao (New York: W W Norton and Company, 2022) [hb/]
links
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