holohaus-10

holohaus returns with six works from the futures to the seconds in the present, between apocalypses and the unreal.

Moonlight Cantata /  renko chazakiël rodenburg

supernatural, urban fantasy, experimentation, dolls, high school, amsterdam, magical, changelings,

>>synopsis:

self-consciously normal Dutch teenager Marieken discovers she (like her idol Maria Mithras) is a changeling - one of the non-human “Periphery Demographics” that have reappeared since the return of magic, powered by belief, to a world that medicates, instrumentalizes, surveils, and eventually wants to drive them back out of existence

>>chapter-03

Marieken begins to grasp the implications of who she has killed, what she has become and the violent world that awaits her as a Periphery Demographic

Swords Under the Phosphor Sky / Nekosattva

teen soldiers, influencers, internet culture, satire, near future, Eastern Europe, Zone, literary, modernism

>>synopsis:

yelena wanders the zone populated by paramilitaries, influencers and the children of napalm and static breeding across the desert until even its sands dye into the blue-light glimpsed before artillery fire

>>chapter 09

Yelena reunites with Christine and resurfaces long-held fantasies and resentments, as Little King Samuel prepares a rite to fertilize the heavens with force and fire

Mercenary Planet / Gabriel Wainio Theberge / Escher McDonell

military sf, first contact, speculative science, space exploration, leftist, butch transfem protagonist, black transfem love interest, social realism, messy relationships, strategy, complex factions, very weird aliens, lesbian space atrocities, rationalfic, dark hopepunk, bittersweet

>>synopsis:

clinging to a single desperate prayer, leona meets halation, a visitor from that supposed better world once held remote by the thousands of atrocities that littered the earth, and draws war and peace towards a collision spanning the galaxy.

>>entry 10: Eros & Thanatos/Erosion & Explosion (The Soldiers' Road 5)

war goes hot and ideological doubts come to a head as the Earth forces and their allies strike back against the auxiliaries from Hammer

Scarred Zeruel / vape escapist

abstract, experimental, modernism, cyber-surrealism, dreampunk, reality ambiguity, multiple storylines, smart drugs, wetware, magitech, speculative religion, unfamiliar terminology



>>synopsis:

several inhabitants in this digital, how could our affections still travel between the thousand strands of data between us

>>violation 10: THE HARDEST IN THE WORLD TO SETTLE DOWN (Σ) 

Lesia and Chere fight enemies and approach sleeping gods within their parallel planes, from a Pre-Scribe temple to a Hypermall

Psychogramma / caraparcel

cyberpunk, vaporwave, dreampunk, virtual reality, detective, gunfights, episodic, conspiracy, internet culture, urban legends, cyber-spirituality, anime influence, atmospheric prose, urban, firearms

>>synopsis:

users wander the infinite plazas within their internal os. foxtel, one such user, darts between each of these old worlds distinegrating in electric signals, one bullet at a time.

on hiatus

It's a Good Thing the Dark Lord is a Shut-in! / baroquespiral

light novel, hikkikomori protagonist, mental illness, psychological realism, OCD, internal monologue, modern fantasy world, low realism, cringe comedy, multiple storylines, worldbuilding, conspiracy, speculative religion, otaku culture, internet culture

>>synopsis:

Luskonneg remains dormant by a curse and a conspiracy. social peril, online conflicts and miniscule destructions litter the interior of the small Pandora’s box of his life, a hidden cornerstone on which stands an unstable world.

>>failure 10: Crack the (Rib)Cage

the day has finally come for Luskonneg to present himself to an open-minded stranger; will the cycle of his high school failures repeat?

Down by the River to Pray / Amara Reyes

solarpunk, interplanetary civilization, alternate history, space habitat, artificial ecosystem, human speciation, speculative religion, speculative gender, uplifted animals, bureaucracy, noblebright, dialogue heavy, experimental dialogue

>>synopsis:

an emissary vessel from the See of Delphi, learned lawyers and messengers of the Sun, descend to the garden habitat of Savannah to uncover the nature of a mysterious project that might change the very key of the song of humanity.

>>Record 10: in which is spent a strange morning in the city Quarry, featuring the return of a friend and an enemy

in the wake of a warning and greeting from the See to Savannah, Emelry confronts Kuryo about Coteshinoeleon’s plans for the habitat and its fledgling species