THE REALITY MELTDOWN

An SF novel explores the infinite possibilities of sentience when an inventor of educational toys realizes that the inanimate objects in his life are talking to him.

Matthew Beren’s difficulties begin with an obsession with his wife Sofia’s latest painting, Outset, which depicts “a world muted into a bleak, powdered void.” His fascination with the artwork leads him to try to interfere with its sale and then to wander dazedly into traffic, causing a chaotic accident. Matthew’s strong reaction to the painting also sparks an even stranger phenomenon—his possessions begin to whisper to him, causing him to muse to Sofia: “What if objects are more than we think they are?” Matthew has achieved success and wealth manufacturing Melds, “caricature figures that turn into stretchable, shapeable slime when you heat them,” but his livelihood is soon at risk when he is caught on videotape talking to his products. Though at first reluctant to confirm his perceptions, Sofia finally concedes what Matthew has begun to suspect—“Our stuff is alive”—stunning him with the extraordinary statement, “Human, object, there’s no difference. They’re just stages of an overall life experience.” Going even further, she confides: “Some of them are trying to kill me.” Matthew quickly learns that he is unwittingly embroiled in an existential struggle in which most matter is working in collaboration with humans, while a small but powerful element, dubbed “Leopards” by Sofia and her relatives, is “fed-up with the way people…act as if elements are an unlimited, unthinking resource” and fighting back. Through Matthew’s amiably dumbfounded perspective, Cray weaves a quirky and engrossing tale centered on no less a theme than the nature of consciousness and the place of humanity in the totality of existence. This cerebral thesis is enlivened with action and suspense to rival any space opera, for example, in scenes such as the one in which Matthew and Sofia race to escape a home crumbling from the Leopards’ ire only to find the very pebbles on the roadway rising up to stop them. The complex realm of the conscious objects is vividly imagined, and the loving relationship between Matthew and Sofia provides a reassuring anchor in a world in turmoil.

A deceptively deep investigation of human entitlement couched in a rollicking supernatural horror story.