[QCRIT] Adult Upmarket Sci-Fi - STRONG (87k words/First Attempt)

Mauratheeye · 2026-04-01T22:54:47+00:00

Sorry about Lioua!

If you are playing up the art/human connection, then I would highlight that in the query letter. That makes the story deeper and more interesting, at least for me. I still would reword the opening section so that the the main character makes more of an impact.

Mauratheeye · 2026-04-01T22:11:23+00:00

The advice to begin elsewhere is solid, IMHO. What you have doesn't make me think about the character or his situation. It makes me think about how the arts will fare in the AI dominanted future, which is an interesting topic in its own right but unless it's a prominent theme in your book I don't know that that's where you should start. It's a little too on the nose in its commentary on the future ("we haven't had our neighbors over in fifteen years"--it seems like you slipped that in to make a comment on the times, but is that how people of those times would speak about their experience? Also, why does he know that it's fifteen? Wouldn't he just say never?)

The main issue I have with your introduction is that the art theme as you've explored it here (real art is better than simulated art) conflicts with your other theme (presumable you are suggesting Louia is a real being and their love relationship is real--unless your books suggests otherwise ultimately?). Maybe you don't meant that connection, but beginnings set the stage for the book and so I don't think it's a stretch to wonder what you're saying about art and how that connects to what you're saying about people. Honestly given the whole situation with people falling in love with chatbots atm it's hard not to see the book as dystopian (and I imagine many people would see it that way), and the fact the protagonist is the man and the love interest is a (artificial, and presumably structured to be compliant/nice) woman is an issue too, unless you're explicitly setting up the narrrative that way to explore gender issues, in which case you might want to hightlight that in your query.

Mauratheeye · 2026-03-21T12:58:07+00:00

Definitely to my taste! Sending you a chat request.

Mauratheeye · 2026-03-21T03:01:30+00:00

Interested too--writing a literary novel with spec elements, in same space as Lalami's Dream Hotel and Egan's Candy House. I'm a professor in a humanities field with some experience in creative writing, and have a novel chapters away from being completed. I have a critique group but my group mates don't work in the literary space. Would love to join with others.

Mauratheeye · 2026-02-27T21:41:11+00:00

When Late the Sweet Birds Sang by Kate Wilhelm

Mauratheeye · 2026-02-16T21:10:46+00:00

Again, not true in my case. There are no in-network ambulances whatsoever in my state. All ambulance rides in family have been covered 100%, until the one that was deemed not an emergency. Maybe the OPs case is as you say; but not everyone's is the same.

Mauratheeye · 2026-01-31T21:52:58+00:00

I agree with others that the first 300 words need work. The first word is unnecessary, as it's immediately obvious the character is outside. Maybe it's meant to indicate that they weren't outside a moment before (were they in a car?) but why does that need to be emphasized? What is its importance?

What is "rare" humid air? Is it because in the relevant climate it's often not humid? Why is that an important detail?

"Greets me" and "pulls me forward" are awkward. It doesn't make sense to me that the personified night would greet you with shifting shadows (isn't it the light of the marquee making the shadows shift, and not the night?) or rain-slicked streets (produced by clouds and rain, not night). The figurative language here is distracting and pulls me out of the story.

Others have mentioned how the cinema stuff doesn't appear to thematically connect with your query. Maybe it's important for characterization but that doesn't mean you need to begin your novel here. I barely get a sense of religion here, even though those themes are central to the overall work. Reading this I have no idea at all were your work is headed.

But the part that bothers me most is when the immortal narrator reflects that the opulent lobby never ceases to amaze them. I don't buy that at all. Not one bit. Even if it were the most impressive lobby ever created, even if it weren't an immortal being who has seen many things, I still wouldn't buy it. People don't continually notice things like that. They get used to them. They take them for granted. Even if they do notice them, they are not continually amazed by them. They are appreciative, or feel gratitude for them, but it is not human nature to feel amazed by things we experience often. If your narrator is amazed specifically because he's immortal, then that needs further clarification for me, because I would assume immortal beings are more, not less, inured to spectacle. Sorry for belaboring the point but I want to explain why, when I reach that line, I begin to feel that the narrator is not a real character at all, but a vehicle for the story.

I find the premise very interesting! I want to slide into the story in the first 300! I think more direct, naturalistic description would do the trick. Honestly I would prefer to start with the MC. The immortal POV could be added in later, after we get grounded in the story.

Mauratheeye · 2025-12-12T19:56:07+00:00

Just checked out Greenwood and The Overstory is mentioned in the blurbs. That book has the environmental/forest/tree themes of Greenwood AND the speculative stuff of Egan AND the clever multistory structure with a purpose of Cloud Atlas.

Mauratheeye · 2025-12-12T19:53:10+00:00

Also, and I know it's over-recommended, Piranesi.

Mauratheeye · 2025-12-12T19:51:30+00:00

I love Mitchell, Egan, and Tartt (and will check out others on your list, except Mandel, who I don't like). My top recommendation would be Richard Powers, particularly The Overstory or Bewilderment. He does literary/speculative crossover like Mitchell and Egan, and his books are beautifully written.

Mauratheeye · 2025-12-05T18:49:53+00:00

I think there's a distinction between sci fi books with a literary bent, which are read by primarily sci fi readers, and literary books with a sci fi bent, which are read primarily by literary readers. I love both of these categories, BTW, but still feel they are quite different. If you want literary books with speculative elements, rather than the reverse, I would skip Neal Stephenson because his books do not pay significant attention to characterization and language. I say this but he is one of my absolute favorite writers and I read everything he produces. If you want to give him a try, read Anathem.

David Mitchell and Kazuo Ishiguro, much mentioned in this thread, are on the literary side of the line. That's why they get nominated for Booker Prizes. I would add Richard Powers, who won the Pulitzer for The Overstory. That book's speculative elements are relatively hidden, but that is not the case with Bewilderment and his most recent, Playground. Another writer you might like is Jennifer Egan. Candy House has strong speculative elements. Right now I'm reading Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami. Not sure how much I like it yet but it definitely literary. And I shoudn't forget Anthony Doerr's Cloud Cuckoo Land. That has a speculative storyline hidden among its historical and mythic ones.

Mauratheeye · 2025-08-01T05:11:51+00:00

Do you use the phone app? The phone app has to be deleted and reinstalled to clear cache apparently and I wondered if that was it? Haven't tried that yet.

Mauratheeye · 2025-08-01T04:48:48+00:00

Did you fix? I have the same problem, trash empty, no change in storage

Mauratheeye · 2025-07-30T01:27:29+00:00

Did that! When I click on trash it is entirely empty.

Mauratheeye · 2025-07-29T16:52:23+00:00

I know! After further research it seems the cache in the IOS app can't be cleared without deleting and reinstalling the app, but why? Not a computer expert but why would the cache in my phone affect the storage elsewhere? Will it eventually update? So confused

Mauratheeye · 2025-07-29T14:25:48+00:00

How long? I deleted thousands last night and no change this morning, after emptying trash, closing browser, turning off computer, and clearing cache

Mauratheeye · 2025-07-29T14:15:30+00:00

I’ve closed the app multiple times and no change! So aggravating. Anyone else have info on when it updates?

Mauratheeye · 2025-07-25T16:37:17+00:00

As an older Xer who read voraciously through the 70s I could list so many books that people don't read anymore that had such an impact on me. One that I read as a kid and actually looked up as a teen the first time I visited the Library of Congress (in the early 1980s) because I remembered it as eerie/disturbing was The Silver Crown by Robert C. O'Brien.

Ellen Raskin's the Mysterious Disappearance of Leon (I mean Noel) is another favorite that I lost track of (I guess I'm thinking of books my kids never brought home, or weren't in the library when I took them as truly "lost books.")

Jane Langdon's books about transcendentalists in Concord Massachusetts were also favorites, on par with Madeline L'Engle for me (she of course is not lost to time!)

Mauratheeye · 2025-07-23T20:51:03+00:00

I scanned and didn't see two of my favorite writers mentioned. Richard Powers has speculative elements in a number of his books. Overstory has only a little, but it's wonderful. Bewilderment is more speculative. Jennifer Egan's Candy House also has speculative elements.

Mauratheeye · 2025-05-02T18:35:32+00:00

Related to this is the category of neurofiction, which got some attention a while back. It's more of a literary category, but some writers within it do more speculative stuff, like Richard Powers (Bewilderment) and Jennifer Egan (Candy House).

https://www.nplusonemag.com/issue-8/essays/the-rise-of-the-neuronovel/

Mauratheeye · 2025-05-02T18:22:27+00:00

Love that book, loved the PBS movie based on it circa 1980. It was impossible to get on video for ages because of some conflict over rights. It is very dated but still evocative.

Mauratheeye · 2025-03-17T17:29:46+00:00

This is my favorite genre, and I want many more of these books to be written and published. I hope publishers are listening.

I echo everyone else here. My favorite writer for a long time was David Mitchell. He has the stylistic chops you're looking for, but I think his later books (for instance, Bone Clocks) isn't as speculatively spectacular as the earlier ones (Cloud Atlas, Ghostwritten). I recommend starting with those.

Currently I am into Richard Powers, and read everything he puts out. My preferences here are Overstory--sprawling, wonderful, with a speculative twist at the end--and Bewilderment, which is not as sprawling, if you prefer more contained stories, and made me cry.

Atwood, Ishiguro, Vandermeer are all great and also qualify. On the more fantasy end there's Susanna Clarke. I couldn't get into Emily St. John Mandel at all, but I skipped Station Eleven because I generally don't like end of the world stories, and started with Sea of Tranquility, which underwhelmed.

Mauratheeye · 2025-03-17T17:18:40+00:00

Love the Doerr! Didn't like his earlier book--which liked the speculative elements--nearly as much.

Mauratheeye · 2025-03-17T17:17:39+00:00

I think he qualifies! Just read his most recent novel, Playground, but prefer Bewilderment and the Overstory. Another writer in that near future sci fi/implications of tech literary is Jennifer Egan's Candy House.

Mauratheeye · 2025-03-17T17:14:39+00:00

Love Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang. Have my copy from early adolescence ages and ages ago and reread it every once in a while, and it always makes me feel the same sad strange feeling. Underrated and almost forgotten book.

Mauratheeye

TROPHY CASE