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The Years Shall Run Like Rabbits
Semifinalist for the Small Spec Book Awards in Science Fiction
Silver Medal Winner for the 2024 Foreword INDIES Award for Science Fiction
Longlisted for the 2025 Sunburst Award for Excellence in Canadian Literature of the Fantastic
A gorgeously complex work of literary speculative fiction that spans centuries The Years Shall Run Like Rabbits starts in 2014 with a winged alien sowing the seeds of a strange forest on the moon. The novel then moves through humanity’s colonization of the moon and its consequences, onto a war with alien beings within a space-going whale, a cyborg mind that sleeps for hundreds of years after sheltering the city of Toronto from the worst of the war and finally a re-creation of humanity. Ghan poses thoughtful questions about artificial intelligence, humanities quest for the stars and ecological destruction in this wide-ranging story, which is held together equally by beautiful writing and deft characterization. The end result is an ambitious debut that leaves the reader contemplating many amazing possibilities for the future of our world.
Silver Medal Winner for the 2024 Foreword INDIES Award for Science Fiction
Longlisted for the 2025 Sunburst Award for Excellence in Canadian Literature of the Fantastic
A gorgeously complex work of literary speculative fiction that spans centuries The Years Shall Run Like Rabbits starts in 2014 with a winged alien sowing the seeds of a strange forest on the moon. The novel then moves through humanity’s colonization of the moon and its consequences, onto a war with alien beings within a space-going whale, a cyborg mind that sleeps for hundreds of years after sheltering the city of Toronto from the worst of the war and finally a re-creation of humanity. Ghan poses thoughtful questions about artificial intelligence, humanities quest for the stars and ecological destruction in this wide-ranging story, which is held together equally by beautiful writing and deft characterization. The end result is an ambitious debut that leaves the reader contemplating many amazing possibilities for the future of our world.
- GenresScience FictionCanada
310 pages, Paperback
Published May 21, 2024
8 people are currently reading
208 people want to read
About the author
Ben Berman Ghan
10 books31 followersBen Berman Ghan is a PhD Candidate in English and creative writing at the University of Calgary. His debut collection of fiction, What We See in the Smoke, was published by Crowsnest Books in May 2019, his novella Visitation Seeds was published by 845 Press in December 2020, and his novel The Years Shall Run Like Rabbits was published with Buckrider Books in May 2024. He is the editor of Bruce Meyer: Essays on His Works, to be published in March 2025 with Guernica Editions. His second collection of Fiction, The Library Cosmic, is forthcoming with Buckrider Books for Spring 2026. His prose, poetry, and essays have previously been published in Clarkesworld Magazine, Strange Horizons, Filling Station Magazine, The Blasted Tree Publishing Co., Pinhole Poetry, and The Ancilliary Review of Books
find him at inkstainedwreck.ca
find him at inkstainedwreck.ca
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
September 25, 2024
I think it's good
April 12, 2024
3.5
The title The Years Shall Run like Rabbits is from a W.H. Auden poem, but that might be your last connection to Earth as we know it in this outwardly tale. This book reads like a technicolour acid trip, confusion and chaos in the best way, difficulty finding your footing, excited to see what is next. It also has incredibly poetic prose and big, imaginative ideas and could be called a genre defying piece of work, horror and sci-fi, literary, and dystopian. This is a great read for anyone who finds themselves constantly asking, “where is this world going?” and feeling worried about it.
This is a book that starts in 2014 Toronto with a winged angel alien planting seeds that will grow on the moon and then spans centuries into other plants and dimensions. It is an intense piece of speculative literary fiction and requires us to think of what our world is and what it could be. We meet sentient holograms, ghosts, black boxes holding years of memories, aliens, angels, cyborgs, and hybrid creatures you could have never imagined. Suspend belief, because you need to. Let your imagination run wild and allow this novel to float over you.
Ghan also forces us to think about the past sordid actions on this planet by referring to and connecting aspects of his story with slavery, separation of families, immigration, and consumerism. Can you ever remember where you came from, and can we trust our memories? These are some of the questions that will arise while reading. Everyone will surely relate to the feelings of helplessness and struggle that flow throughout this book, like there is never enough we can do to save this world or ourselves.
This book poses a lot of ethical questions and ruminations about the future. What is the future of AI and can AI become sentient? What does it mean to be alive? Who or what is considered alive? Can we ever recover from our mass ecological destruction? Will we ever stop “preaching communal acceptable and spiritual fulfillment through capitalism?” And are humans going to continue trying to conquer more, more, more and to always win the game of escalations? One thing is for sure, the world can never go back to the way that it was, and we must keep moving forward. Ghan does a great job exploring this and underneath it all there is a feeling of hope.
The title The Years Shall Run like Rabbits is from a W.H. Auden poem, but that might be your last connection to Earth as we know it in this outwardly tale. This book reads like a technicolour acid trip, confusion and chaos in the best way, difficulty finding your footing, excited to see what is next. It also has incredibly poetic prose and big, imaginative ideas and could be called a genre defying piece of work, horror and sci-fi, literary, and dystopian. This is a great read for anyone who finds themselves constantly asking, “where is this world going?” and feeling worried about it.
This is a book that starts in 2014 Toronto with a winged angel alien planting seeds that will grow on the moon and then spans centuries into other plants and dimensions. It is an intense piece of speculative literary fiction and requires us to think of what our world is and what it could be. We meet sentient holograms, ghosts, black boxes holding years of memories, aliens, angels, cyborgs, and hybrid creatures you could have never imagined. Suspend belief, because you need to. Let your imagination run wild and allow this novel to float over you.
Ghan also forces us to think about the past sordid actions on this planet by referring to and connecting aspects of his story with slavery, separation of families, immigration, and consumerism. Can you ever remember where you came from, and can we trust our memories? These are some of the questions that will arise while reading. Everyone will surely relate to the feelings of helplessness and struggle that flow throughout this book, like there is never enough we can do to save this world or ourselves.
This book poses a lot of ethical questions and ruminations about the future. What is the future of AI and can AI become sentient? What does it mean to be alive? Who or what is considered alive? Can we ever recover from our mass ecological destruction? Will we ever stop “preaching communal acceptable and spiritual fulfillment through capitalism?” And are humans going to continue trying to conquer more, more, more and to always win the game of escalations? One thing is for sure, the world can never go back to the way that it was, and we must keep moving forward. Ghan does a great job exploring this and underneath it all there is a feeling of hope.
August 21, 2024
A curious life unfurls itself on the moon. A hologram drifts soul-like through a dead airport. A cyborg named Daisy dances and slices. A whale full of angels appears above the earth. An intelligent city experiments on lunar refugees. A shattering impact rewrites the world.
Ben Berman Ghan’s epic, poetic, kaleidoscopically inventive literary SF novel The Years Shall Run Like Rabbits takes your brain places it didn’t know it needed to go. It’s a story of resurrections and assimilations and unspeakable endurance.
Ben Berman Ghan’s epic, poetic, kaleidoscopically inventive literary SF novel The Years Shall Run Like Rabbits takes your brain places it didn’t know it needed to go. It’s a story of resurrections and assimilations and unspeakable endurance.
May 24, 2024
“But you should never have come”
Analytically captivating is how I described this novel.
Speculative fiction, sci-fi with a touch of humanism & at the same time mind-body distinction, involving the use of a cyborg (Daisy), which has a specific program and throughout the story you’ll find the why’s & what’s.
The title itself makes you wonder what rabbits got to do with it, actually only mentioned twice in the book, metaphorically, the story evolves in many facets that will make you think and explore the mysticism of world they are trying to create.
Highly recommended if you’re into speculative fiction that lets you embrace your own imagination & understanding of self-identity, control, power, survival & relevance to this world.
A great novel you can add in a book study under the elements of philosophy.
“This whole world is a dream. It’s just…., not our dream”
Thank you for the ARC.
Analytically captivating is how I described this novel.
Speculative fiction, sci-fi with a touch of humanism & at the same time mind-body distinction, involving the use of a cyborg (Daisy), which has a specific program and throughout the story you’ll find the why’s & what’s.
The title itself makes you wonder what rabbits got to do with it, actually only mentioned twice in the book, metaphorically, the story evolves in many facets that will make you think and explore the mysticism of world they are trying to create.
Highly recommended if you’re into speculative fiction that lets you embrace your own imagination & understanding of self-identity, control, power, survival & relevance to this world.
A great novel you can add in a book study under the elements of philosophy.
“This whole world is a dream. It’s just…., not our dream”
Thank you for the ARC.
July 11, 2024
I'm going to be thinking about this book for a while to come. What a slippery style of plot and character, with an expansive scope that encapsulates...well the universe. Playing with being/organic/machine - there is just so much to think/talk about here. Ghan has written what will be considered a classic in the years to come.
April 4, 2024
A unique read that leaves you thinking! I really enjoyed this book, and the way it leaves you thinking about humanity's future, AI, space exploration, and the future of the planet. I loved the world building, and it was a refreshingly unique read! I'm so glad I came across it!
July 1, 2024
Equal parts despairing & hopeful. Wholehearted. I’m not easily stumped but I feel like I’ll be digesting this one for a while.
October 21, 2024
I felt like it was a pity I discovered this book because while it's a bit of an underrated gem I can't say that this was a book I enjoyed or that I felt was for me.
That said this is very clearly a masterpiece, a well-written scifi epic spanning centuries and a meditation on the future of humanity as we continue to evolve with and alongside the technologies we create.
The plot isn't fully linear and some key things are only explained near the end so I'll summarize the plot like this: set in Toronto and (briefly) a lunar colony called lunar London, this book is about a series of people (and later cyborgs, AIs and alien/angel/other? creatures) who want to preserve Toronto and how their desire to protect the city ends up coming up with huge unintended consequences that are more negative than they intended.
More poetic than most scifi novels and too scifi-y to be fully literary. If those aspects intrigue you or you're worried that about the future of tech or hell, just the long term future of Toronto, give this one a shot.
That said this is very clearly a masterpiece, a well-written scifi epic spanning centuries and a meditation on the future of humanity as we continue to evolve with and alongside the technologies we create.
The plot isn't fully linear and some key things are only explained near the end so I'll summarize the plot like this: set in Toronto and (briefly) a lunar colony called lunar London, this book is about a series of people (and later cyborgs, AIs and alien/angel/other? creatures) who want to preserve Toronto and how their desire to protect the city ends up coming up with huge unintended consequences that are more negative than they intended.
More poetic than most scifi novels and too scifi-y to be fully literary. If those aspects intrigue you or you're worried that about the future of tech or hell, just the long term future of Toronto, give this one a shot.
June 3, 2025
This novel spans almost a millennium as it explores relationships among cyborgs, black box entities, holograms, hybrids and humans, as they explore (endure) the human experience. From capitalism, ecological destruction, colonization, immigration to the emotional bonds of friendship and love, Berman Ghan gives us a story for the ages.
I had the great pleasure of chatting with Ben about this novel and writing, so if you'd like to learn more you can find the video in our channel. This novel was a labyrynthine journey through a world that is allowing itself to fall apart and the people who are willingly participation in its destruction and those fighting against it.
Strongly recommend!
I had the great pleasure of chatting with Ben about this novel and writing, so if you'd like to learn more you can find the video in our channel. This novel was a labyrynthine journey through a world that is allowing itself to fall apart and the people who are willingly participation in its destruction and those fighting against it.
Strongly recommend!
April 12, 2024
Shut up and read this book.
October 31, 2024
I remain biased, especially since I watched this book get written and discussed.
dnf
December 29, 2024but a soft DNF, I'll try again later :)
February 1, 2025
That was surreal, post modern. I admit it was an interesting techno-nature read but some moments more so towards the home stretch left me with..."ok what did I just read?"
Want to read
May 25, 2025this sounds like it will launch me right into an existential crisis
June 26, 2025
I'm not sure if I understood what I just read, only that it made me feel everything.
Read
October 9, 2025This is a Small Spec Book Awards nominee!
December 18, 2025
Stunning, poetic prose. Every chapter is accompanied by a date. The details dripped in ink to rapturous readers are precise and deliberate, even though the story is not told non-linearly.
We meet Daisy, a daughter-class android as she arrives on the moon to complete an eradication mission. She was sent by Toronto's City-AI to destroy the abnormal lifeforms on the moon and guarantee the infection will spread no further.
We're introduced to Made, an AI toaster that acts as a pseudo-companion for Morgan, a researcher working alone at a remote moon base. Morgan teaches the budding intelligence words and concepts, and Made develops its own opinions and attachments. When an explosion disrupts their station, Made performs Morgan's duties until it must leave the base in search of assistance for Morgan.
We read the analytical, mission-oriented, obsession that drives Toronto's City-AI, and the tormenting body-horror, inflicted upon the lunar citizens imprisoned within Toronto's Arrival.
The Years Shall Run Like Rabbits is richly diverse in its delivery. There are modern epistolary sections comprised of emails; interludes of character quotes and letters; dialogue laid out like poetry; and thought-stirring ideas about the not-so distant future.
We meet Daisy, a daughter-class android as she arrives on the moon to complete an eradication mission. She was sent by Toronto's City-AI to destroy the abnormal lifeforms on the moon and guarantee the infection will spread no further.
We're introduced to Made, an AI toaster that acts as a pseudo-companion for Morgan, a researcher working alone at a remote moon base. Morgan teaches the budding intelligence words and concepts, and Made develops its own opinions and attachments. When an explosion disrupts their station, Made performs Morgan's duties until it must leave the base in search of assistance for Morgan.
We read the analytical, mission-oriented, obsession that drives Toronto's City-AI, and the tormenting body-horror, inflicted upon the lunar citizens imprisoned within Toronto's Arrival.
The Years Shall Run Like Rabbits is richly diverse in its delivery. There are modern epistolary sections comprised of emails; interludes of character quotes and letters; dialogue laid out like poetry; and thought-stirring ideas about the not-so distant future.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews