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Substrate Phantoms
The space station Termagenti—hub of commerce, culture, and civilization—may be haunted. Dangerous power surges, inexplicable energy manifestations, and strange accidents plague the station. Even after generations of exploring deep space, humanity has yet to encounter another race, and yet, some believe that what is troubling the station may be an alien life form.
Jhinsei and his operations team crawl throughout the station, one of many close-knit working groups that keep Termagenti operational. After an unexplained and deadly mishap takes his team from him, Jhinsei finds himself—for lack of a better word—haunted by his dead teammates. In fact, they may not be alone in taking up residence in his brain. He may have picked up a ghost—an alien intelligence that is using him to flee its dying ship. As Jhinsei struggles to understand what is happening to his sanity, inquisitive and dangerous members of the station’s managing oligarchy begin to take an increasingly focused interest in him.
Haunted by his past and the increasing urgent presence of another within his mind, Jhinsei flees the station for the nearby planet Ash, where he undertakes an exploration that will redefine friend, foe, self, and other. With Substrate Phantoms, Jessica Reisman offers an evocative and thought-provoking story of first contact, where who we are is questioned as much as who they might be.
Jhinsei and his operations team crawl throughout the station, one of many close-knit working groups that keep Termagenti operational. After an unexplained and deadly mishap takes his team from him, Jhinsei finds himself—for lack of a better word—haunted by his dead teammates. In fact, they may not be alone in taking up residence in his brain. He may have picked up a ghost—an alien intelligence that is using him to flee its dying ship. As Jhinsei struggles to understand what is happening to his sanity, inquisitive and dangerous members of the station’s managing oligarchy begin to take an increasingly focused interest in him.
Haunted by his past and the increasing urgent presence of another within his mind, Jhinsei flees the station for the nearby planet Ash, where he undertakes an exploration that will redefine friend, foe, self, and other. With Substrate Phantoms, Jessica Reisman offers an evocative and thought-provoking story of first contact, where who we are is questioned as much as who they might be.
300 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 16, 2017
334 people want to read
About the author
Jessica Reisman
19 books28 followersI have always loved any fiction or art that opens doors -- or windows or cracks in the air -- to possibility, that lets wonder into the room.
The first things I wrote, at nine years old, were fantastic literature, and that's where my heart has always been -- whether you call it science fiction, fantasy, horror, dark fantasy, magic realism, or fabulism. My writing is about two things: exploring and expanding limits and notions of the possible, and feeding the body and spirit through language and story.
Having lived and gone to school in Philadelphia, parts of Florida, California, and Maine, I make my home these days in Austin. Well-groomed cats, family, and good friends grace my life with their company. I've been employed as a house painter, a blueberry raker, an art house film projectionist, a glass artist's assistant, an English tutor, teaching assistant, and an editor, among other things. I dropped out of high school and now have a master's degree. I was a Michener Fellow in grad school, graduated from the Clarion West workshop, and have a large collection of Hong Kong movies. A narrative junkie from a young age, I have always found inspiration and solace in books, movies, and television. Also in animal life, nature, good food with friends, artful cocktails, and rain.
Some of these facts are only tangentially related.
The first things I wrote, at nine years old, were fantastic literature, and that's where my heart has always been -- whether you call it science fiction, fantasy, horror, dark fantasy, magic realism, or fabulism. My writing is about two things: exploring and expanding limits and notions of the possible, and feeding the body and spirit through language and story.
Having lived and gone to school in Philadelphia, parts of Florida, California, and Maine, I make my home these days in Austin. Well-groomed cats, family, and good friends grace my life with their company. I've been employed as a house painter, a blueberry raker, an art house film projectionist, a glass artist's assistant, an English tutor, teaching assistant, and an editor, among other things. I dropped out of high school and now have a master's degree. I was a Michener Fellow in grad school, graduated from the Clarion West workshop, and have a large collection of Hong Kong movies. A narrative junkie from a young age, I have always found inspiration and solace in books, movies, and television. Also in animal life, nature, good food with friends, artful cocktails, and rain.
Some of these facts are only tangentially related.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
August 6, 2017
I am not sure what to make of this book. I liked it, unexpectedly, as it was off to a slow start. It was poetic in parts. Interesting ideas. A fascinating first contact story. It made me feel sad for long stretches. Confused in the beginning. Slow build-up, slow paced, with a twist at the ending that I saw coming, but that worked well.
The beginning was a little difficult to get into. I had to come to grips with the unusual vocabulary and odd grammar. It was a good way to impress the otherness of the setting to me. Hard SciFi, I guess. I liked Termagenti station, but even more so the setting down on Ash, with it's landscapes, memorable characters and the amazement of the station-born characters at encountering nature.
I liked the idea of the other characters taking up residence inside of Jhinsei. I wish the author had played around with that more. Maybe the book had felt more solid for me, if the author had explored that more deeply. But even so, lots to think about. I am sure this book is going to stay with me for some time.
World building with a lot of potential. I think I would like to pick up a sequel, to find out where the story takes the central characters.
I received this free e-copy from the publisher/author via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review, thank you!
The beginning was a little difficult to get into. I had to come to grips with the unusual vocabulary and odd grammar. It was a good way to impress the otherness of the setting to me. Hard SciFi, I guess. I liked Termagenti station, but even more so the setting down on Ash, with it's landscapes, memorable characters and the amazement of the station-born characters at encountering nature.
I liked the idea of the other characters taking up residence inside of Jhinsei. I wish the author had played around with that more. Maybe the book had felt more solid for me, if the author had explored that more deeply. But even so, lots to think about. I am sure this book is going to stay with me for some time.
World building with a lot of potential. I think I would like to pick up a sequel, to find out where the story takes the central characters.
I received this free e-copy from the publisher/author via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review, thank you!
July 19, 2017
This is a fascinating, thoughtful take on science fiction's "first contact" trope. Many familiar elements are here, but Reisman reinvents them and puts the narrative together in such a way that all feels fresh and new. There are echoes throughout of the SF New Wave of the 1960s, but in all honesty, what came to mind while reading SUBSTRATE PHANTOMS was Greg Bear's epic far-future tales of humanity. Reisman throws the reader head-first into a future very different from the present, but gives the reader everything needed to get up to speed in short order. She does some clever things here with perception and identity through Jhinsei, the main character, and her Termagenti station is a fine example of world-building from the ground up, so to speak. Recommended.
July 22, 2018
I'm only part-way through this book, but the first section totally pulled me in and dropped me in a world that feels real, in a gritty way that I believe in. It make me think of the first time I saw Alien, or Firefly, or older literary classics like The Left Hand of Darkness or psychological space thrillers like Asimov's Foundation books.
I don't usually write reviews before I finish a book, but I was really surprised by the individual who wrote the review on 5/15, and I wanted to offer an alternate opinion. I think fans of literate sci-fi are really going to like this one.
I don't usually write reviews before I finish a book, but I was really surprised by the individual who wrote the review on 5/15, and I wanted to offer an alternate opinion. I think fans of literate sci-fi are really going to like this one.
May 31, 2017
Edit: I'm lowering my rating because I believe this book was the cause of a recent book slump and after much thought, I can't happily give this book three stars. I think there will be a lot of people who will really enjoy this book, but I had a tough time getting to the end.
When I was first looking into this book, I was most intrigued by the idea of a "haunted space station" and how it was supposed to be a thriller.
Substrate Phantoms is a high fantasy, sci-fi novel. There are definitely tons of science fiction aspects and themes, but the author created her own world, with her own animals, and almost own language and because of this I feel like Substrate Phantoms is more of high fantasy novel than anything else. I really enjoyed the plot line and the action scenes, but what I felt most lacking was the character relationships, and the writing style.
The first half of the book, had so much of the author throwing us into the story, and not telling or really explaining what was happening, that it was almost a little confusing to understand what was going on. I almost feel like the first half of the book was told in two different languages: partial sentences in English and the other half in this mysterious language. So by the time I made it to the second half of the book, it was easier to move through and understand. But, because of this, it made the beginning hard to get through.
Another thing that dragged down the first half, was the lack of relationships between characters. In the first half, it felt as if there were hardly any familial relationships, or friendships, and absolutely zero love interests. So in a way, the beginning felt like one big information dump without any information being cleraly explained. As there were hardly any really intriguing conversations.
Overall, a good read, but one that you won't be able to fly through.
*I received this book in exchange for an honest review. However, this in no way effects the contents of this review or my opinions.
When I was first looking into this book, I was most intrigued by the idea of a "haunted space station" and how it was supposed to be a thriller.
Substrate Phantoms is a high fantasy, sci-fi novel. There are definitely tons of science fiction aspects and themes, but the author created her own world, with her own animals, and almost own language and because of this I feel like Substrate Phantoms is more of high fantasy novel than anything else. I really enjoyed the plot line and the action scenes, but what I felt most lacking was the character relationships, and the writing style.
The first half of the book, had so much of the author throwing us into the story, and not telling or really explaining what was happening, that it was almost a little confusing to understand what was going on. I almost feel like the first half of the book was told in two different languages: partial sentences in English and the other half in this mysterious language. So by the time I made it to the second half of the book, it was easier to move through and understand. But, because of this, it made the beginning hard to get through.
Another thing that dragged down the first half, was the lack of relationships between characters. In the first half, it felt as if there were hardly any familial relationships, or friendships, and absolutely zero love interests. So in a way, the beginning felt like one big information dump without any information being cleraly explained. As there were hardly any really intriguing conversations.
Overall, a good read, but one that you won't be able to fly through.
*I received this book in exchange for an honest review. However, this in no way effects the contents of this review or my opinions.
July 9, 2017
If you like your science fiction with deeply rendered characters and fully realized culture. If you love beautiful sentences and a deeply emotional story, then this book is for you!
June 7, 2017
Oh, yes. Jessica Reisman definitely writes my kind of science fiction. The kind which includes wonder. "The space station Termagenti—hub of commerce, culture, and civilization—may be haunted." (Goodreads)
I also particularly enjoy novels about life in a particular place, whether a space station or a starliner. What it is like to live in such a culture.
Kiyr Jhinsei is an outsider, abandoned at age 4 in a station nursery by his mother, who then presumably went back to wherever she had originally come from. He's "adopted" as ward by a Kiyr tube team (work group). He's just starting to find out what it is like to have family (albeit his work group) when a terrible accident kills all members of his team except him. A tragedy which may somehow involve a mysterious derelict ship brought onto the station, that also may be the first evidence of alien life ever discovered.
I also enjoy good worldbuilding. This book is full of not only a richly detailed world but complex well-developed characters who I was sorry to let go. (Sequel, please?) I particularly enjoyed her use of language. This culture has its own slang but there was enough context and enough that reasonably could be extrapolated from today's world that I was able to keep up smoothly.
Most of Ms. Reisman's previous published works are short stories. I was able to find that she had a novel published in 2004 called Z Radiant, also hard science fiction, about another interesting place: "The planet Nentesh is located in an isolated, wormhole-accessed pocket of space known as the Deeps." (Goodreads) (I can't wait to download the Kindle version of that novel, too.)
Substrate Phantoms has it all. A well-told tale and a very satisfying read indeed. I highly recommend Substrate Phantoms to all who enjoy speculative fiction and have not lost their sense of wonder!
I also particularly enjoy novels about life in a particular place, whether a space station or a starliner. What it is like to live in such a culture.
Kiyr Jhinsei is an outsider, abandoned at age 4 in a station nursery by his mother, who then presumably went back to wherever she had originally come from. He's "adopted" as ward by a Kiyr tube team (work group). He's just starting to find out what it is like to have family (albeit his work group) when a terrible accident kills all members of his team except him. A tragedy which may somehow involve a mysterious derelict ship brought onto the station, that also may be the first evidence of alien life ever discovered.
I also enjoy good worldbuilding. This book is full of not only a richly detailed world but complex well-developed characters who I was sorry to let go. (Sequel, please?) I particularly enjoyed her use of language. This culture has its own slang but there was enough context and enough that reasonably could be extrapolated from today's world that I was able to keep up smoothly.
Most of Ms. Reisman's previous published works are short stories. I was able to find that she had a novel published in 2004 called Z Radiant, also hard science fiction, about another interesting place: "The planet Nentesh is located in an isolated, wormhole-accessed pocket of space known as the Deeps." (Goodreads) (I can't wait to download the Kindle version of that novel, too.)
Substrate Phantoms has it all. A well-told tale and a very satisfying read indeed. I highly recommend Substrate Phantoms to all who enjoy speculative fiction and have not lost their sense of wonder!
May 15, 2017
I'm relatively new to scifi and I've been reading a fair variety of it from different decades. I've come to appreciate what it offers as a genre, particularly the social and political aspects (in relation to either the ever improving technology or other futuristic aspects) approached from different perspectives. This book was by far the worst that I've come across. Tragic, really, because I'm a completist, meaning despite the fact that I pretty much didn't care for it from the first sentence, I still had to finish it, all that wasted time. At no point did it improve, nor offered some sort of redeeming quality. Then, at last, it ended. Almost reluctant to even review it, since it's just more time thrown away on it, but maybe at least it'll save someone the evening or two. So here goes...this book had a singular distinction of being so consistently WTF is going on that I still really can't offer so much as a plot summary. The author seems to have so giddily taken up word building that she forgot to tend to the basics like cohesive narrative, compelling characters, dynamic pacing. etc. And the world building, for all that effort, was disappointingly weak. Random linguistic tweaks that came across as typos or just lazy imaginings, weird names, peculiar motivations. This one almost read like it should have been published with its own glossary...or not at all. Vague, uninteresting, tedious, plodding, pretentious, much like the title itself...this book was a huge disappointment. I've come across random kindle freebies that in comparison read like compelling literature. This wasn't even that, this was a Netgalley find. A spectacular dud of a find. Pass.
June 5, 2017
A beautiful example of hard SF ripe with an emotional intelligence that the genre sometimes lacks. Its humanity and sensuousness add depth and push this story beyond typical genre tropes. The book does throw a sizable ensemble cast at you fairly quickly, which can be somewhat intimidating initially, but it levels out quickly and organically, giving emotional depth to most all the characters. Reisman's prose conveys a deep love of language, and she refuses to simply the complex, especially in exploring the psychological states and relationships of her characters. Set in the same universe, it is a fine companion to her first novel, The Z Radiant.
June 4, 2017
I really liked the premise of this book but overall found it a slow and unsatisfying read. The author was so focused on building a unique linguistic foray that she lost sight of the character building and plot line needed to make her efforts successful. Her terminology for everyday items (kive wells, Khat, and ceraplas crates) did nothing but make things more confusing as did the complex character names/family associations.
I received this book in exchange for an honest review.
I received this book in exchange for an honest review.
June 22, 2017
I've read quite a bit of this author's short fiction, and have always been enthralled with her way with words, and this book did not disappoint. We're dipped into the world of Termagenti station and its people, and the mystery of the ghosts that haunt Jhinsei draw us along through the story. I recommend setting aside a few hours to read this one soon!
December 17, 2017
a first contact story that focuses almost exclusively on the individual impact of a close encounter with the Other that has some things to say about alienation, found family, ennui and our need for each other. the approach is really interesting but i did want a little more meat on the bones of the culture of the world the protagonists inhabit. I liked the dense, descriptive prose.
September 28, 2017
A brainy beautiful space adventure that conjures wonder from the quotidian detail of everyday life, real longing for authentic community, and language as freshly vivid as the beautiful planets you once imagined—a book that lets you see nets of coruscating light in the darkness
January 4, 2020
Nope.
August 4, 2017
I didn't enjoy this as much as Reisman's previous novel.
The parts I liked were the parts about just struggling by in a dusty corner of a big, old, galactic civilization — Reisman is really good at that. The conspiracy plotline wasn't bad either. The prose has its ups and downs — _The Z Radiant_ hit a sweet spot for overtly made-up sci-fi jargon, and this book dials it up and maybe overdoes it a bit (different levels of pushback from different editors?), but there were enough other things I liked about the writing to offset that.
But the main focus of this book is its first-contact story, and I wasn't really into it. Reisman is aiming for this sort of ineluctable otherworldliness re: the alien that she doesn't quite nail. There are some cool, creepy sequences, but by around the 2/3 point of the book, after the alien started talking like a person, I realized it wasn't going to wrap up in a way that would satisfy me and follow through on the promises of the early book. If you want a really satisfying alien possession/not-possession story, I feel like the Southern Reach trilogy is still the one to beat.
Also, minus a point for what I felt was an unnecessary rape scene.
The parts I liked were the parts about just struggling by in a dusty corner of a big, old, galactic civilization — Reisman is really good at that. The conspiracy plotline wasn't bad either. The prose has its ups and downs — _The Z Radiant_ hit a sweet spot for overtly made-up sci-fi jargon, and this book dials it up and maybe overdoes it a bit (different levels of pushback from different editors?), but there were enough other things I liked about the writing to offset that.
But the main focus of this book is its first-contact story, and I wasn't really into it. Reisman is aiming for this sort of ineluctable otherworldliness re: the alien that she doesn't quite nail. There are some cool, creepy sequences, but by around the 2/3 point of the book, after the alien started talking like a person, I realized it wasn't going to wrap up in a way that would satisfy me and follow through on the promises of the early book. If you want a really satisfying alien possession/not-possession story, I feel like the Southern Reach trilogy is still the one to beat.
Also, minus a point for what I felt was an unnecessary rape scene.
September 11, 2020
A soul from another time and place is riding along inside of Jhinsei. How Jhinsei handles that experience is beautifully told and inspiring.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews