This Weightless World

Now in paperback, the debut Robin Sloan called the social novel for the 21st century This Weightless World subverts classic sci-fi tropes set in gentrified Chicago, Silicon Valley, and across the vastness of the cosmos. From the streets of gentrified Chicago to the tech boom corridors of Silicon Valley, This Weightless World follows a revolving cast of characters after alien contact upends their lives. We are introduced to Sevi, a burned-out music teacher desperate for connection and fighting to find meaning in rekindled love; Ramona, his on-again, off-again computer programmer girlfriend who is a determined to build an AI that will prevent mankind's destruction; and Eason, Sevi's cello prote?ge?, who struggles to measure his commitment to a childhood friend against the chance of escaping neighbourhood troubles after his Chicago high school is shuttered. When a mysterious signal?at first seen as a sign of hope?stops as abruptly as it started, they all must grapple with its aftermath. Traversing the Soviet Union, late 2000s America, and the vast expanse of the cosmos, this novel explores the lives of people awaiting a great paradigm shift. A dazzling deconstruction of a science fiction trope, This Weightless World looks to the past for a vision of the future.