The All-Consuming World by Cassandra Khaw
games for re/clones, cyborg babies, bad AIs, and lost/not-lost memories that come back when you find the right program, they have to come back, you have to remember, you have to come back.
I first heard about Cassandra Khaw (they/them) when I picked up the haunting breath-stopper, Hammers on Bone. Since then, they’ve written nothing but bangers, and this month was an incredible one for the Malaysian author. In addition to the release of this week’s feature--Erewhon Books’ The All-Consuming World--their spooky haunted house-with-a-twist Nothing But Blackened Teeth dropped last week from Tor Nightfire and they revealed a writing credit in Crit Role’s Call of the Netherdeep.
Needless to say, they’re on a bit of a hot streak.
We’re diving into The All-Consuming World, a sci-fi space race following Maya, a member of the Dirty Dozen, a group of cyborg/clone outlaws who are continuously resurrected over and over into new mecha-chassises. As the assassins work together to figure out what went wrong on their last mission, they’re drawn deeper into a universal AI conspiracy that threatens to overwhelm their very sense of existence.
First, a note! This book already has a tie-in TTRPG. However! It was a limited release alongside preorders, so if you were lucky enough to snag a copy of Sisyphus by Jeeyon Shim, I would love to hear about your experience playing this game and would love to see your chassis book. Just saying.
Recovering memories is at the heart of TACW, and Caro Asercion’s duet of games Alone in the Station Remnants, and Adrift in the Station Revenants is a perfect pair for the not-quite-inhuman Maya and the versions of herself she left behind over and over and over again.
There is literally no better reason to clone yourself than to start a magnificent, weird clone orgy. Or not, whatever. You don’t have to kiss your clones but… you might have to kill them. Or become them. Or eat them. Who knows! (Play Spin the Bottle to the Death by fen slattery to figure it out though.)
23XX: Inexorable by James Firth is technically a time loop rpg based on Jason Tocci’s 24XX, but it really does fit with the work that Maya, Rita, Verdigris, and Ayane have to deal with in their repeated, wrecking-ball lives.
If the Dirty Dozen can do anything, they can die in space. They’re actually quite good at Dying in Space. This game, by Mags Maenad, is a perfect match for TACW because it combines brutal reality, a tongue-in-cheek humor, and a charmingly disasterous world where you too can die in space! Again! Maybe even three times!
I’ve recommended Pythia (by avunvain) before, but I can’t stop reading this game. This two player games chronicles the slow loss of your identity before your memories spin out of control. $RealName REDACTED [alias: Maya] is the perfect girl/chassis/cyborg, and this game is an evisceration of everything she knows. Or doesn’t. Memory is… odd.
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A New Release: Flowers for the Sea by Zin E. Roclyn
Survivors from a flooded kingdom struggle alone on an ark. Resources are scant, and ravenous beasts circle. Their fangs are sharp. Among the refugees is Iraxi: ostracized, despised, and a commoner who refused a prince, she’s pregnant with a child that might be more than human. Her fate may be darker and more powerful than she can imagine.
Up Next: CASSANDRA KHAW SUPREMACY!!!!
NOTHING BUT BLACKENED TEETH, Oct 30
and then we have… OPTIONS??? Servant Mage (Kate Elliott), Bone Shard Daughter (Andrea Stewart), In the Watchful City (S. Qiouyi Lu), A Marvellous Light (Freya Marske), Light from Uncommon Stars (Ryka Aoki)).
Any of these making y’all happy?? What should I rec next????