The Shrine of the Siren Stone
Another novel in the universe of The Moon Under Her Feet from Derwin Mak, the author of “Transubstantiation”, winner of the 2006 Prix Aurora Award, Canada’s national science fiction award, for Best Short-Form Work in English.
Ishiro is an otaku, an anime-obsessed geek without a decent job or loving parents. His only friends are Mr. Endo, owner of a maid café in Akihabara, and Yuko, a waitress in a French maid uniform. Ishiro falls in love with Yuko, but she turns out to be an android using him to learn about human love. Does she have real feelings for him or is she just programmed to act like a girlfriend? When Mr. Endo splits the couple apart, Ishiro joins the Japanese Navy and goes to war, and Yuko's behavior becomes increasingly human and rebellious. Their paths cross again at the mysterious Shrine of the Siren Stone, where a telepathic meteorite holds the secret of the human spirit...
"It's Romeo and Juliet meets Benny and Joon in a futuristic Japan. Then stuff blows up! The Shrine of the Siren Stone is a wonderful, female-friendly story and a welcome departure from the stereotypes of the science fiction genre. The plot twists surprised me, I got teary-eyed in a few places, and I laughed out loud in others. What's not to love?" - Liana K, host of Ed and Red's Night Party! on G4.
"Derwin Mak creates a dazzling mix of artificial intelligence, future warfare, otaku romance, and Japanese religion. His characters are comic, then heroic, and finally self-sacrificing. He achieves something of great rarity in science fiction: a novel of heartfelt poignancy." – John-Allen Price, author of The Mutant Chronicles.
Read sample excerpts here in html or in pdf.
Get the new Weird and Wondrous Books edition
Available from:
www.amazon.com