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Sisyphean
Even after the world and humanity itself have been rendered nearly unrecognizable by genetic engineering, a day in the office can feel… Sisyphean.
The company stands atop a tiny deck supported by huge iron columns a hundred meters high. The boss there is its president—a large creature of unstable, shifting form once called “human.” The world of his dedicated worker contains only the deck and the sea of mud surrounding it, and and the worker’s daily routine is anything but peaceful. A mosaic novel of extreme science and high weirdness, Sisyphean will change the way you see existence itself.
A strange journey into the far future of genetic engineering, and working life. After centuries of tinkering, many human bodies only have a casual similarity to what we now know, but both work and school continue apace. Will the enigmatic sad sack known only as “the worker” survive the day? Will the young student Hanishibe get his questions about the biological future of humanity answered, or will he have to transfer to the department of theology? Will Umari and her master ever comprehend the secrets of nanodust?
The company stands atop a tiny deck supported by huge iron columns a hundred meters high. The boss there is its president—a large creature of unstable, shifting form once called “human.” The world of his dedicated worker contains only the deck and the sea of mud surrounding it, and and the worker’s daily routine is anything but peaceful. A mosaic novel of extreme science and high weirdness, Sisyphean will change the way you see existence itself.
A strange journey into the far future of genetic engineering, and working life. After centuries of tinkering, many human bodies only have a casual similarity to what we now know, but both work and school continue apace. Will the enigmatic sad sack known only as “the worker” survive the day? Will the young student Hanishibe get his questions about the biological future of humanity answered, or will he have to transfer to the department of theology? Will Umari and her master ever comprehend the secrets of nanodust?
429 pages, Paperback
First published March 20, 2018
116 people are currently reading
2548 people want to read
About the author
Dempow Torishima
3 books23 followersDempow Torishima was born in Osaka. He graduated from Osaka College of Art and worked as a freelance designer and illustrator. He won the Sogen SF Short Story Prize with his debut fiction “Sisyphean” (Kaikin no to) in 2011. Since then, he has been writing a series of stories in the same far-future world of Sisyphean, which was published as Sisyphean and Other Stories in 2013. The book was chosen as the best SF of 2013 in SF Magazine, won the Japan SF Award, was nominated for the Seiun Award in 2014.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 61 reviews
June 12, 2018
Translated from Japanese by Daniel Huddleston, Dempow Torishima’s Sisyphean consists of a series of four novellas set in a grotesque but familiar universe. It’s a challenging, dense, and provocative read, and quite possibly a work of mad genius.
In “Sisyphean,” the first story, a worker emerges from a sleeping pod each day to work in an oppressive facility for the President, an amorphous creature once called human. Purpose-built for slavery, this genetic technician endures horrifying working conditions to build bones, organs, and tissue for important clients. Here’s a taste of his workday in the lab:
“Using tweezers, he plucked off the wing, and with it came vivid, sunset-pink muscle tissue that had been connected to the wing axis. It was still expanding and contracting. Frightened, he threw it to the floor. The wing with its attached flesh traced out a parabola through the stagnant air as it fell to the grated floor. There it stuck to the grate for only a moment before being snatched away by a tentaclelike appendage from beneath.”
The worker is beginning to question who he is or where he came from, with horrible consequences due to biological failsafes designed to prevent this from happening.
In another story, “Cavumville,” a student lives on a moon whose population is reborn with random mutations, and whose entire technology and economy is based on strange harvested animals. Picture panes with marrow ink, chairs with the seats made of pelvic bone, school boards made of skin. Here’s an excerpt of harvesting occurring after a “Descent from Heaven”:
“Hanishibe thanked them gladly and set off running. He had now gotten used to running on this unstable surface. The road ahead, however, was blocked by a single gigantic momonji. A quartet of ebisus were effectively using their long forearms to push it backward as it twisted its thick trunk in resistance. Like a loaf of bonemeal bread, its body was of uniform thickness and covered in white down through which its rippling, pale-peach skin could just barely be seen. Whenever one-half of its body reared upward, a double row of claw-legs could be glimpsed. Completely useless for locomotion, they were one more example of all the unnecessary body parts momonji had.”
The student seeks to uncover why the residents are brought back from the dead in new life forms, what happened before his current life, and what happens in the next. He becomes an instrument of enforcing rigid official orthodoxy until he begins to glean the truth of his world.
The rest of the stories continue in this biopunk, Kafkaesque vein, resulting in an intimate visit to a universe marked by familiar flashes of humanity amid strange cultures, grotesque ecologies, and not a little body horror. With this work, Torishima seemingly invented a unique and hard-to-imitate brand of biological SF, a transhuman dream in which humanity has been grotesquely and irrevocably altered, and in which life goes on.
Warning: This is not an easy nor a fast read. In fact, it’s often exhausting. Every page is dense with arcane words, terminology native to the universe, and numerous strange concepts and cultural practices presented as matter of fact and often without explanation. In many stretches, the story becomes virtually opaque, even during a passage that is otherwise titillating, resulting in a story that is sometimes felt rather than understood, not so much read as digested. In the end, Sisyphean isn’t so much a love or hate experience as “love it enough to stick with it or not.” It’s certainly a novel that asks its readers to accept it on its own terms. Daniel Huddleston deserves quite a bit of credit for translating this work into English.
The novellas appear to be interconnected by a series of story fragments depicting a plague of nano dust that is alive and disrupts a spacefaring civilization. They don’t weave together so much as combine to suggest some overarching truth that appears determined to remain obscure. One might interpret the civilization’s “seed ships” as already transhuman and the dust as a mutating plague, causing life to spin out in new evolutionary forms on multiple worlds, but that might be oversimplifying it. Readers will have to interpret what’s going on for themselves.
Otherwise, common motifs connect the stories, including basic human needs and wants translated through an alien filter, cultures forgetting and then attempting to rediscover their origins, and heretical ideas challenging established truths and disrupting societies as a result. All deeply rooted in a transhuman universe where life itself is both technology and economy.
Overall, Sisyphean is a challenging read, but love it or leave it, one will come away with a deep admiration for its ideas, genre boundary breaking, immersive world-building, and the amazing imagination that produced it.
(My review originally appeared on the New York Journal of Books website.)
In “Sisyphean,” the first story, a worker emerges from a sleeping pod each day to work in an oppressive facility for the President, an amorphous creature once called human. Purpose-built for slavery, this genetic technician endures horrifying working conditions to build bones, organs, and tissue for important clients. Here’s a taste of his workday in the lab:
“Using tweezers, he plucked off the wing, and with it came vivid, sunset-pink muscle tissue that had been connected to the wing axis. It was still expanding and contracting. Frightened, he threw it to the floor. The wing with its attached flesh traced out a parabola through the stagnant air as it fell to the grated floor. There it stuck to the grate for only a moment before being snatched away by a tentaclelike appendage from beneath.”
The worker is beginning to question who he is or where he came from, with horrible consequences due to biological failsafes designed to prevent this from happening.
In another story, “Cavumville,” a student lives on a moon whose population is reborn with random mutations, and whose entire technology and economy is based on strange harvested animals. Picture panes with marrow ink, chairs with the seats made of pelvic bone, school boards made of skin. Here’s an excerpt of harvesting occurring after a “Descent from Heaven”:
“Hanishibe thanked them gladly and set off running. He had now gotten used to running on this unstable surface. The road ahead, however, was blocked by a single gigantic momonji. A quartet of ebisus were effectively using their long forearms to push it backward as it twisted its thick trunk in resistance. Like a loaf of bonemeal bread, its body was of uniform thickness and covered in white down through which its rippling, pale-peach skin could just barely be seen. Whenever one-half of its body reared upward, a double row of claw-legs could be glimpsed. Completely useless for locomotion, they were one more example of all the unnecessary body parts momonji had.”
The student seeks to uncover why the residents are brought back from the dead in new life forms, what happened before his current life, and what happens in the next. He becomes an instrument of enforcing rigid official orthodoxy until he begins to glean the truth of his world.
The rest of the stories continue in this biopunk, Kafkaesque vein, resulting in an intimate visit to a universe marked by familiar flashes of humanity amid strange cultures, grotesque ecologies, and not a little body horror. With this work, Torishima seemingly invented a unique and hard-to-imitate brand of biological SF, a transhuman dream in which humanity has been grotesquely and irrevocably altered, and in which life goes on.
Warning: This is not an easy nor a fast read. In fact, it’s often exhausting. Every page is dense with arcane words, terminology native to the universe, and numerous strange concepts and cultural practices presented as matter of fact and often without explanation. In many stretches, the story becomes virtually opaque, even during a passage that is otherwise titillating, resulting in a story that is sometimes felt rather than understood, not so much read as digested. In the end, Sisyphean isn’t so much a love or hate experience as “love it enough to stick with it or not.” It’s certainly a novel that asks its readers to accept it on its own terms. Daniel Huddleston deserves quite a bit of credit for translating this work into English.
The novellas appear to be interconnected by a series of story fragments depicting a plague of nano dust that is alive and disrupts a spacefaring civilization. They don’t weave together so much as combine to suggest some overarching truth that appears determined to remain obscure. One might interpret the civilization’s “seed ships” as already transhuman and the dust as a mutating plague, causing life to spin out in new evolutionary forms on multiple worlds, but that might be oversimplifying it. Readers will have to interpret what’s going on for themselves.
Otherwise, common motifs connect the stories, including basic human needs and wants translated through an alien filter, cultures forgetting and then attempting to rediscover their origins, and heretical ideas challenging established truths and disrupting societies as a result. All deeply rooted in a transhuman universe where life itself is both technology and economy.
Overall, Sisyphean is a challenging read, but love it or leave it, one will come away with a deep admiration for its ideas, genre boundary breaking, immersive world-building, and the amazing imagination that produced it.
(My review originally appeared on the New York Journal of Books website.)
July 14, 2021
This is the most difficult book I have read since Gravity's Rainbow. On one hand, I write that so I can brag about how I am a pretentious masochist for hip, abstruse postmodern art. On the other hand, I write that so you might understand that Sisyphean is also a book where you can read the physical words without a sensible picture ever reaching your brain. A book you read and think "what?... well okay... OH hmmm uhhh wWOOOOAHhh riiiight" but somehow at the end still appreciate it as a complex work of art.
This book was at times disgusting, nightmarish, disorienting, and shocking. Deeply unsettling with biopunk gore. Terrifyingly hopeless and bleak. But somehow, I still feel that Dempow Torishima is a genius. Mixed in with the slimy soup of this novel is a fascinating perspective on human nature and a primordial rawness innately existent within corporal experience. Time is flexible, identity is fleeting, existence is puzzling. Sisyphean's dream logic relies on feelings, ideas, and symbols to create the unique experience of the four related stories.
Yes, thank fuck the book is broken up into four stories. If it was just one riff the whole 450 pages I would be dead. So don't give up hope, if you aren't grasping or connecting with one narrative you can try your luck on the next. Since they're loosely connected and share the same surreal future setting, once you get in the groove of one tale you will more easily understand the approach of others. With a lot of new words and concepts, this is definitely a challenging book - but for the right reader, it can be a rewarding experience. For me, books aren't always escapism or entertainment, but they're creative and intellectual exercises for the sake of aesthetics and expression.
Sisyphean is not weird just for the sake of being weird, but with that said I'm not really sure "what" it is. Torishima based the text on the illustrations (I assumed it was the other way around) so maybe that contributes to the hazy, dense plotlines. It's an artistic exercise, a deeply strange gymnastics for the imagination. It's a post/transhuman science-fiction horror saga that is completely in a league of its own. Destined for the niche of cult classic, this is one book that can't be ignored.
This book was at times disgusting, nightmarish, disorienting, and shocking. Deeply unsettling with biopunk gore. Terrifyingly hopeless and bleak. But somehow, I still feel that Dempow Torishima is a genius. Mixed in with the slimy soup of this novel is a fascinating perspective on human nature and a primordial rawness innately existent within corporal experience. Time is flexible, identity is fleeting, existence is puzzling. Sisyphean's dream logic relies on feelings, ideas, and symbols to create the unique experience of the four related stories.
Yes, thank fuck the book is broken up into four stories. If it was just one riff the whole 450 pages I would be dead. So don't give up hope, if you aren't grasping or connecting with one narrative you can try your luck on the next. Since they're loosely connected and share the same surreal future setting, once you get in the groove of one tale you will more easily understand the approach of others. With a lot of new words and concepts, this is definitely a challenging book - but for the right reader, it can be a rewarding experience. For me, books aren't always escapism or entertainment, but they're creative and intellectual exercises for the sake of aesthetics and expression.
Sisyphean is not weird just for the sake of being weird, but with that said I'm not really sure "what" it is. Torishima based the text on the illustrations (I assumed it was the other way around) so maybe that contributes to the hazy, dense plotlines. It's an artistic exercise, a deeply strange gymnastics for the imagination. It's a post/transhuman science-fiction horror saga that is completely in a league of its own. Destined for the niche of cult classic, this is one book that can't be ignored.
October 12, 2018
It's... dense, confusing and quite impressive. I'm impressed by Torishima's imagination. On the surface it is often hard to understand what is going on and it is an investment of time and concentration to read it. It's slow going. But halfway through I start to understand more about the deeper cosmology of this strange world and about the themes that he addresses. I think it will take rereads to fully understand all the layers in this book.
My entire review here: Review of Sisyphean
My entire review here: Review of Sisyphean
June 2, 2018
I’ve discovered that you don’t need to fully understand a story to appreciate, engage or love it. The four novellas that make-up Dempow Torishima’s mosaic novel Sisyphean aren’t, by any stretch, incomprehensible but if you quizzed me on how they all fit together, I’d struggle to provide any clarity.
My uncertainty is a direct result of the lack of exposition. As dense and detailed as the prose is, there’s a distinct lack of explanation of why any one thing, any one revelation is important. For example, at the end of the first story “Sisyphean (or, Perfect Attendants)” there’s a reference to “many parishes” continuing to exist inside the “departed interstellar spaceships.” Do we take from that that the next three stories are all set on these departing spaceships and that the moon described in “Cavumvillle” or the Vastsea that features in “Peregrinating Anima” are, in fact, locations on board these spaceships? And if that’s the case are the insects and their sentient castles in the third story – “Castellum Natatorious” – also one of these many parishes? The interludes set between each novella imply a much larger story about a virus or parasite or corruption infecting these “departed interstellar” spaceships, and the final story suggests that the infection is, eventually, removed, but hand on my heart I can’t say that I’m sure this is the case or even if I’m on the right track.
And do you know what, it doesn’t matter the slightest. What Torishima does so cleverly is overwhelm you in the sights, sounds and smells of his world. It might not be clear what links one novella to the next, but the environment of each story and the day to day challenges faced by the characters is well rendered.
Torishima loves a bit of body horror, he revels in the ripping and tearing of flesh, the wash of blood and other bodily fluids, and this focus on the body, not just its frailties but its many and varied varieties, is a clear theme of the novel. This is a book about life, how it adapts and evolves and mutates across different environments and circumstances. Everyone identifies as human throughout the individual stories, but very few of them look like you and me.
So, no, I didn’t entirely slot all the puzzle pieces together, but I was utterly engrossed in Torishima’s wild, dangerous, brutal, fleshy world. This is science fiction that doesn’t spoon-feed or wait for the reader to catch up, at the same time it’s also science fiction that immerses you in the unique imagination of the author. There’s nothing staid or familiar about Sisyphean. From the first page to the last it’s unrelenting in its originality.
Oh, and a massive pat on the back and well done to the translator Daniel Huddleston. While I’m sure translating is never easy, Sisyphean, with its neologisms and dense prose must have been a unique challenge.
My uncertainty is a direct result of the lack of exposition. As dense and detailed as the prose is, there’s a distinct lack of explanation of why any one thing, any one revelation is important. For example, at the end of the first story “Sisyphean (or, Perfect Attendants)” there’s a reference to “many parishes” continuing to exist inside the “departed interstellar spaceships.” Do we take from that that the next three stories are all set on these departing spaceships and that the moon described in “Cavumvillle” or the Vastsea that features in “Peregrinating Anima” are, in fact, locations on board these spaceships? And if that’s the case are the insects and their sentient castles in the third story – “Castellum Natatorious” – also one of these many parishes? The interludes set between each novella imply a much larger story about a virus or parasite or corruption infecting these “departed interstellar” spaceships, and the final story suggests that the infection is, eventually, removed, but hand on my heart I can’t say that I’m sure this is the case or even if I’m on the right track.
And do you know what, it doesn’t matter the slightest. What Torishima does so cleverly is overwhelm you in the sights, sounds and smells of his world. It might not be clear what links one novella to the next, but the environment of each story and the day to day challenges faced by the characters is well rendered.
Torishima loves a bit of body horror, he revels in the ripping and tearing of flesh, the wash of blood and other bodily fluids, and this focus on the body, not just its frailties but its many and varied varieties, is a clear theme of the novel. This is a book about life, how it adapts and evolves and mutates across different environments and circumstances. Everyone identifies as human throughout the individual stories, but very few of them look like you and me.
So, no, I didn’t entirely slot all the puzzle pieces together, but I was utterly engrossed in Torishima’s wild, dangerous, brutal, fleshy world. This is science fiction that doesn’t spoon-feed or wait for the reader to catch up, at the same time it’s also science fiction that immerses you in the unique imagination of the author. There’s nothing staid or familiar about Sisyphean. From the first page to the last it’s unrelenting in its originality.
Oh, and a massive pat on the back and well done to the translator Daniel Huddleston. While I’m sure translating is never easy, Sisyphean, with its neologisms and dense prose must have been a unique challenge.
January 19, 2024
I read it a few months ago, but I keep coming back to that book. It is just so fucking imaginative and good. This stuff literally inspired what I dream about at night. It is unlike anything I have read before. Deffo in my top 5 favourite books of all time.
May 8, 2019
La primera historia, "Sisyphean", no está mal, es una especie de actualización de la idea que animaba "Tetsuo, el hombre de hierro", representando las ansiedades de la tecnología, la carrera de ratas y el infernal ciclo sin fin del trabajar para vivir en clave de sátira esperpéntica biopunk existencial, que gana enteros cuando aprieta el acelerador al delirio y se convierte aquello en una locura de mostros gigantes persiguiendo a nuestro desgraciado protagonista por un desierto de bienes de consumo sin fin. A pesar de la extraña sintaxis (supongo que traducir este libro debió ser un infierno) y de los tres neologismos por frase, es un cuento curioso y despendolado que mola. No puedo decir lo mismo de los dos siguientes cuentos, que se han convertido para mí en un muro de dificultad insalvable, extremadamente descriptivos, lentos y aburridos en los que el defecto ya mencionado, un estilo ortopédico que parece una ametralladora de palabras inventadas, me han quitado las ganas de seguir con el último. Estoy ya muy mayor para estas cosas.
February 5, 2023
It was nearly painful slogging through this one, but I’m really glad I did. I’ve never read something that includes so much detail yet leaves so much up to the imagination.
Sisyphean is split into four distinct stories, each with its own hyper-unique environments and characters. What qualifies as “human” in each of these stories is entirely relative, and doesn’t even seem like an important question to most of the characters we follow. The reader, I think, is meant to take in these awesome, alien environments and appreciate the limitless variations in life, sensation, and consciousness. In these worlds where the floorboards breathe and the walls bleed, everything is in a constant state of change. Making sense of such absurdity is a sisyphean task, so Torishima encourages us to instead relish the mystery, or even the beauty of the whole ordeal. I think there’s a lot of value in this perspective, and transcribes well to everyday life.
Sisyphean is split into four distinct stories, each with its own hyper-unique environments and characters. What qualifies as “human” in each of these stories is entirely relative, and doesn’t even seem like an important question to most of the characters we follow. The reader, I think, is meant to take in these awesome, alien environments and appreciate the limitless variations in life, sensation, and consciousness. In these worlds where the floorboards breathe and the walls bleed, everything is in a constant state of change. Making sense of such absurdity is a sisyphean task, so Torishima encourages us to instead relish the mystery, or even the beauty of the whole ordeal. I think there’s a lot of value in this perspective, and transcribes well to everyday life.
February 2, 2019
4 long short stories in what you may think of as "kafkaesque biopunk", as another reviewer put it.
5/5 for originality and _weirdness_ In a distant future humanity is no longer what it once was as bio-engineering has created a various amount of transhumans and transanimals seeking to make the most out of possible biological functions. The locals of the stories are also highly original and fascinating.
Unfortunately the stories in themselves don't hold the same level of interest, and there's a fair bit of muddling through for the reader. But there's enough of interest to keep going. The last story was the slightly more interesting one, if you ask me.
5/5 for originality and _weirdness_ In a distant future humanity is no longer what it once was as bio-engineering has created a various amount of transhumans and transanimals seeking to make the most out of possible biological functions. The locals of the stories are also highly original and fascinating.
Unfortunately the stories in themselves don't hold the same level of interest, and there's a fair bit of muddling through for the reader. But there's enough of interest to keep going. The last story was the slightly more interesting one, if you ask me.
November 18, 2019
3.5/5
Not sure what to think about this one. 4 eerie, futuristic science fiction stories connected loosely through like-terms, monsters, and environment.
In the first story, a worker completes repetitive tasks watched by their formerly-human manager.
The 2nd story is about a boy and his grandfather and their tough lives.
The third story is a murder mystery with insectoid individuals and some political intrigue - i quite liked this one.
The 4th story is about some caravaners trying to cross a frightening desert/ocean after the collapse of the world.
I need someone to explain this to me. Similar feeling as Blame/Biomega.
Not sure what to think about this one. 4 eerie, futuristic science fiction stories connected loosely through like-terms, monsters, and environment.
In the first story, a worker completes repetitive tasks watched by their formerly-human manager.
The 2nd story is about a boy and his grandfather and their tough lives.
The third story is a murder mystery with insectoid individuals and some political intrigue - i quite liked this one.
The 4th story is about some caravaners trying to cross a frightening desert/ocean after the collapse of the world.
I need someone to explain this to me. Similar feeling as Blame/Biomega.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 24, 2025
Was a pretty freaky, kafkaesque book. Every page was dense with arcane words, i felt like i was walking through one of those haunted mazes blindfolded- feeling streamers, chicken wire, wood, masks, wires, etc.
I enjoyed reading it, lots of random shit going on and i enjoyed the imagery it evoked. I feel like i picked up ona lot of fun things, but am sure there were plenty that i missed.
I enjoyed reading it, lots of random shit going on and i enjoyed the imagery it evoked. I feel like i picked up ona lot of fun things, but am sure there were plenty that i missed.
April 8, 2019
Did you ever wonder what might have come after the end of Greg Bear's Blood Music? Dempow Torishima might have an answer for you.
Runaway nanotechnology is often touched upon in SF, but seldom deeply explored - I mean, how can absolute chaos be described, let alone provide the basis for a story? Torishima has the balls to make the attempt, though... and very nearly pulls it off. Four connected novellas, possibly arranged backwards, possibly nested within one-another, brimming with exploding organics, titanic organics, sickening organics, alien organics (possibly), incomprehensible organics (lots of these), and all thrown at the reader without quarter or readily-understandable explanation. There's Kafka here (especially in the first novella); there's Gormenghast in flesh; there's David Lynch and Cronenberg (both acknowledged influences). There's absolute wonder... or the reader is certain that it's there, even if she can't quite see it for everything else that's going on (which includes Torishima's own illustrations which only deepen the complexity and are of a strangeness and skill equal to his prose).
The translation by Daniel Huddleston is excellent and obviously a real labour of love. He is to be both applauded and thanked for his efforts.
I have never read anything like Sisyphean before, and doubt to do so again (until the inevitable -and, truthfully, necessary- reread). I strongly recommend it to any seeking New in their SF, Fantasy, and Weird.
Runaway nanotechnology is often touched upon in SF, but seldom deeply explored - I mean, how can absolute chaos be described, let alone provide the basis for a story? Torishima has the balls to make the attempt, though... and very nearly pulls it off. Four connected novellas, possibly arranged backwards, possibly nested within one-another, brimming with exploding organics, titanic organics, sickening organics, alien organics (possibly), incomprehensible organics (lots of these), and all thrown at the reader without quarter or readily-understandable explanation. There's Kafka here (especially in the first novella); there's Gormenghast in flesh; there's David Lynch and Cronenberg (both acknowledged influences). There's absolute wonder... or the reader is certain that it's there, even if she can't quite see it for everything else that's going on (which includes Torishima's own illustrations which only deepen the complexity and are of a strangeness and skill equal to his prose).
The translation by Daniel Huddleston is excellent and obviously a real labour of love. He is to be both applauded and thanked for his efforts.
I have never read anything like Sisyphean before, and doubt to do so again (until the inevitable -and, truthfully, necessary- reread). I strongly recommend it to any seeking New in their SF, Fantasy, and Weird.
May 20, 2018
Sisyphean is the strangest, weirdest book I've read for many years, if ever. It's four seemingly separate stories set in the same far future universe, but vaguely linked by some of the beings and ideas, and definitely by the style of writing.
It's very dense, packed with biological terminology and many invented words, making it a slow read to be able to digest everything on each page. That said, it brimming with fantastic imagery, beings that were once human and now completely modified to be unrecognizable. One of the stories featured characters with the body parts of beetles - carapace, mandibles, specialized pheromones, etc. - that reminded me of Perdidio Street Station.
It has numerous illustrations throughout by the author (he's a a graduate of the Osaka College of Art) which help visualize some of the unusual scenes and creatures.
Sisyphean gets top points for originality and pushing the boundaries in SFF writing, it is a truly disturbing and bizarre - but with the baroque, dense writing it won't be for everyone; I found myself struggling with what was going on, especially at the start (the sub-stories seem to get less weird as the book progresses).
It's very dense, packed with biological terminology and many invented words, making it a slow read to be able to digest everything on each page. That said, it brimming with fantastic imagery, beings that were once human and now completely modified to be unrecognizable. One of the stories featured characters with the body parts of beetles - carapace, mandibles, specialized pheromones, etc. - that reminded me of Perdidio Street Station.
It has numerous illustrations throughout by the author (he's a a graduate of the Osaka College of Art) which help visualize some of the unusual scenes and creatures.
Sisyphean gets top points for originality and pushing the boundaries in SFF writing, it is a truly disturbing and bizarre - but with the baroque, dense writing it won't be for everyone; I found myself struggling with what was going on, especially at the start (the sub-stories seem to get less weird as the book progresses).
October 4, 2018
I'm taking credit as read, but 319 pgs in, I just stopped from disinterest.
this is a series of interlinked short stories/novellas. some are definitely stronger than others.
I stink at grammar and I don't know if it was the translator or the author, but ...grammar.... right out the window. over use of pronouns made it difficult to follow; missing/misplaced/dangling or whatever it's called all over the place: "Explaining that it was required by regulation, he snapped a set of handcuffs that were attached to the rope on my wrists." (the handcuffs were on his wrists with the rope attached to the handcuffs)
that's an example where all the words are known. try that with lots of made up words and you spend too much time parsing sentences.
this is a series of interlinked short stories/novellas. some are definitely stronger than others.
I stink at grammar and I don't know if it was the translator or the author, but ...grammar.... right out the window. over use of pronouns made it difficult to follow; missing/misplaced/dangling or whatever it's called all over the place: "Explaining that it was required by regulation, he snapped a set of handcuffs that were attached to the rope on my wrists." (the handcuffs were on his wrists with the rope attached to the handcuffs)
that's an example where all the words are known. try that with lots of made up words and you spend too much time parsing sentences.
July 17, 2022
Very strange but in the end it all came together (in a way), which I feel like is uncommon with Weird fiction. The author took a risk by starting with the strangest section, but as you read on you get more of an idea of a cohesive narrative and overarching themes. Luckily I was completely hooked by the first section and it didn't put me off at all; I was really worried that the book was going to drop off in the end and not come to a satisfying conclusion but it actually did and I have to admit that I loved it. It won't be for everyone, but it might end up being one of my favorite reads of the year. Definitely deserves a reread!
April 22, 2018
Uno de mis libros favoritos de este año, es extraño y tiene elementos contrastantes que se combinan en una experiencia sorprendente e inesperada.
December 20, 2019
A dense, trippy, mind-warpingly worthwhile read. Torishima's illustrations, stories, and word salad amalgamations combine to form a truly surreal experience.
April 11, 2025
Simply put, this is an exasperating, difficult, gorgeous, horrifying, and to put no finer point upon it--a UNIQUE work of fiction.
I'm not even slyly suggesting that it's in any way bad.
Indeed, I think it's a work of genius.
It is NOT for the squeamish or the casual. It is, simply, one of the densest far-future bio-punk body-horror Hard SF stories I've ever read. Or rather, the novel is comprised of four entirely different novellas set in this far future post-human towering imagination.
Frank Herbert once wrote, "The best art imitates life in a compelling way. If it imitates a dream, it must be a dream of life. Otherwise, there is no place where we can connect. Our plugs don't fit."
In this work, it's possible to dig down deep within our own psyches, with horror intact, to jury-rig a plug--but it's awful, shocking, and very often... sublime.
In other words, pick this up, friends, if you want a mind-blowingly brilliant imagination to rummage around in your brain. This is the equivalent to bench-pressing 600 with your grey matter. SO WORTH IT. But it ain't gonna be easy. At all.
This being said, and if you're still reading this wondering if I might bring up theories about what I had just read in the novel--and oh my god I have many--my favorite interpretation is that we are NOT reading four different vignettes regarding a space-faring bio-nanotech-teeming spaceship full of shattered shards of preserved consciousness endlessly shuffled through new incarnations of "people". I think we're reading everything backwards. I suppose the biggest hint was in the "parent" and "child" order of things--made pretty easy to follow with the consciousness seeds, the fragmentary nature within the first novella--and the progressively larger encapsulations of consciousness and how things got closer and closer to baseline humanity as we progressed through each novella. So the last one is the genesis. A far future genesis, perhaps, but still recognizable as the wild, wild broken universe of the last of humanity. Of course, "last" is subjective, and the wild explosion of all different kinds of forms of biomass and "humanity" is just as subjective. But I like this theory a lot.
The writing never lets me down. I absolutely adore everything about this novel.
BUT--I admit to screaming in frustration, putting the book down almost every other page, mulling and seething, before staggering back to the pages in sheer horror and curiosity.
It's a challenging book. It's also extremely rewarding.
You will NOT want to know what my synesthesia experienced as I read this. Think living in a Cthulhu's belly. Now add a fever dream of regular reality. And then have a deadline to meet.
Personal note:
If anyone reading my reviews might be interested in reading my own SF, I'm going to be open to requests. Just direct message me in goodreads or email me on my site. I'd love to get some eyes on my novels.
Arctunn.com
I'm not even slyly suggesting that it's in any way bad.
Indeed, I think it's a work of genius.
It is NOT for the squeamish or the casual. It is, simply, one of the densest far-future bio-punk body-horror Hard SF stories I've ever read. Or rather, the novel is comprised of four entirely different novellas set in this far future post-human towering imagination.
Frank Herbert once wrote, "The best art imitates life in a compelling way. If it imitates a dream, it must be a dream of life. Otherwise, there is no place where we can connect. Our plugs don't fit."
In this work, it's possible to dig down deep within our own psyches, with horror intact, to jury-rig a plug--but it's awful, shocking, and very often... sublime.
In other words, pick this up, friends, if you want a mind-blowingly brilliant imagination to rummage around in your brain. This is the equivalent to bench-pressing 600 with your grey matter. SO WORTH IT. But it ain't gonna be easy. At all.
This being said, and if you're still reading this wondering if I might bring up theories about what I had just read in the novel--and oh my god I have many--my favorite interpretation is that we are NOT reading four different vignettes regarding a space-faring bio-nanotech-teeming spaceship full of shattered shards of preserved consciousness endlessly shuffled through new incarnations of "people". I think we're reading everything backwards. I suppose the biggest hint was in the "parent" and "child" order of things--made pretty easy to follow with the consciousness seeds, the fragmentary nature within the first novella--and the progressively larger encapsulations of consciousness and how things got closer and closer to baseline humanity as we progressed through each novella. So the last one is the genesis. A far future genesis, perhaps, but still recognizable as the wild, wild broken universe of the last of humanity. Of course, "last" is subjective, and the wild explosion of all different kinds of forms of biomass and "humanity" is just as subjective. But I like this theory a lot.
The writing never lets me down. I absolutely adore everything about this novel.
BUT--I admit to screaming in frustration, putting the book down almost every other page, mulling and seething, before staggering back to the pages in sheer horror and curiosity.
It's a challenging book. It's also extremely rewarding.
You will NOT want to know what my synesthesia experienced as I read this. Think living in a Cthulhu's belly. Now add a fever dream of regular reality. And then have a deadline to meet.
Personal note:
If anyone reading my reviews might be interested in reading my own SF, I'm going to be open to requests. Just direct message me in goodreads or email me on my site. I'd love to get some eyes on my novels.
Arctunn.com
October 27, 2020
Wondering to himself whether this client would be willing to listen to complaints about horrible working conditions, the worker pulled a bumpy length of intestine down from the shelf. He handed it to the president, who began packing the intestine into the client, and that was when the president’s usual roughness of hand started to return. As soon as he finished putting the beating heart in between the lungs, he grabbed a skinbag from the shelf and went out into the hallway.
наверное, впервые такое. я вынужден признать, что:
1) вещь офигенная, но:
2) бросаю на середине, дочитать не могу.
эта книга меня победила. сломала мой мозг, теперь в черепной коробке болтаются какие-то детали, не уверен, что смогу обратно собрать. я в последнее время много всякой дичи читаю, конечно, но это самая дикая дичь. кафкианский биопанк, иррационально-трансцендентная история про офисный планктон (не худшая метафора в контексте происходящего в книге). четыре н��веллы про странных существ, живущих в странном мире, занимающихся странными делами. на каждой странице тебя бомбардируют выдуманной терминологией, при этом экспозиции никакой нет: тебе предлагается самому догадаться, что все это значит. очень круто, крайне не ридер-френдли. читать невозможно, всем советую попробовать.
наверное, впервые такое. я вынужден признать, что:
1) вещь офигенная, но:
2) бросаю на середине, дочитать не могу.
эта книга меня победила. сломала мой мозг, теперь в черепной коробке болтаются какие-то детали, не уверен, что смогу обратно собрать. я в последнее время много всякой дичи читаю, конечно, но это самая дикая дичь. кафкианский биопанк, иррационально-трансцендентная история про офисный планктон (не худшая метафора в контексте происходящего в книге). четыре н��веллы про странных существ, живущих в странном мире, занимающихся странными делами. на каждой странице тебя бомбардируют выдуманной терминологией, при этом экспозиции никакой нет: тебе предлагается самому догадаться, что все это значит. очень круто, крайне не ридер-френдли. читать невозможно, всем советую попробовать.
June 8, 2022
I struggled with this to be honest. The first part was difficult to read, but truly worthwhile as something different. The rest though just seemed like wading through the sludge being written about. I appreciate what the aim of this was, but it seemed like boredom itself was being used as one of the means of conveying the message regarding life and work. I am glad I read this, as it has stuck with me in terms of imagery and atmosphere. Frankly though, this is tough going and I'm not sure I used my time fruitfully in reading it which, I guess, is kind of the point. I have worked for several decades in order to sustain my humble existence, often being too tired to do anything with my spare time other than to eat chilli from a can, sleep and start again the next day. I don't need a really long, pretentious piece of art to recognize what this life I am living is or how to find meaning in it. This would have been better if it was only 100 pages long.
That being said, the illustrations that support this are excellent and worth the price of the book alone.
All in all, 3/5 for the uniqueness, the concept and the illustrations.
That being said, the illustrations that support this are excellent and worth the price of the book alone.
All in all, 3/5 for the uniqueness, the concept and the illustrations.
August 26, 2022
Sisyphean is the weirdest of the New Weird. It is a collection of four interconnected stories which tell us the story of humanity's bleak future. Dempow Torishima is a brilliant storyteller - he describes a future so different from ours that there is minimal overlap with the current world. The author uses many new, made-up words, so it can be tough to really know what the hell is going on right now. But the world that which author built is something else. Weird flash walls all around us, undersea living castles or ruthless nanodust deserts slowly devouring the last few surviving humans, Dempow is just throwing ideas at readers. Similarly to some of the best Lovecraft work - the atmosphere is a major drive here, the story is interesting, but in the end, it is just a canvas to paint the bleak atmosphere of a crazy future.
I especially loved Castellum Natatorius (or, The castle in the Mudsea) story. It is a hard-boiled detective story with insect humanoids. Just let that sentence sink in - hard-boiled detective story with insect humanoids.
This is definitely not a book for beginners, but if you dabbled in the new weird and liked it - give it a chance.
I especially loved Castellum Natatorius (or, The castle in the Mudsea) story. It is a hard-boiled detective story with insect humanoids. Just let that sentence sink in - hard-boiled detective story with insect humanoids.
This is definitely not a book for beginners, but if you dabbled in the new weird and liked it - give it a chance.
June 9, 2025
One of the weirdest books I've ever read. I picked it up based on a recommendation I saw from the author Jeff Van De Meer, did not read a synopsis just ordered it and when I received it started reading.
The book takes the form of five somewhat related short stories linked by some connective tissue in the form of short passages between the stories that places them in the same world/universe.
The first story especially plays with what words are used and what they are actually referring to in a way more aggressively than most. The best way I can describe it is imagine the story is using familiar words like flesh uncomfortably stretched over an unfamiliar skeleton. Which is funny enough almost exactly what is happening.
I won't describe the rest of the stories in detail as this isn't a plot summary. This book is intentionally almost offputtingly weird, and it takes some work to read and even more to grasp what is actually going on. I ended up enjoying it but I'm not sure who I'd actually recommend this to other than people who already enjoy the New Weird genre. Additionally if you read 'Dead Astronauts' and said I want more of that this might be for you as well.
The book takes the form of five somewhat related short stories linked by some connective tissue in the form of short passages between the stories that places them in the same world/universe.
The first story especially plays with what words are used and what they are actually referring to in a way more aggressively than most. The best way I can describe it is imagine the story is using familiar words like flesh uncomfortably stretched over an unfamiliar skeleton. Which is funny enough almost exactly what is happening.
I won't describe the rest of the stories in detail as this isn't a plot summary. This book is intentionally almost offputtingly weird, and it takes some work to read and even more to grasp what is actually going on. I ended up enjoying it but I'm not sure who I'd actually recommend this to other than people who already enjoy the New Weird genre. Additionally if you read 'Dead Astronauts' and said I want more of that this might be for you as well.
July 10, 2019
Fleshed With Excess!
to put into one word each novella,
1 - futility
2 - apocalypse
3 - gumshoe
4 - rawhide
thank you, goodnight!
if only this unique and strange book could be captured thus, i'd have cracked it, not let it crack me! fearful, as i am, and you will be, for a future this fleshy, the compulsion was to wade into the ordure and let the folds of flesh envelope me! believe me, you will be rewarded! as many have said, the reading of this book is an unseen experience, the whys and wherefores of the histories and mutations that take us to these tales are unspoken, so, how we got there is entirely up to the reader to construct (saving us several volumes of pure explanation).
to unravel these bizarre, unpleasant and magnetic stories, separately, would also take up significant space, so i'm just going to stick to my four words above, that's all you're getting! go on, bite the head off a namas machina and dive in, the viscera's lovely!
to put into one word each novella,
1 - futility
2 - apocalypse
3 - gumshoe
4 - rawhide
thank you, goodnight!
if only this unique and strange book could be captured thus, i'd have cracked it, not let it crack me! fearful, as i am, and you will be, for a future this fleshy, the compulsion was to wade into the ordure and let the folds of flesh envelope me! believe me, you will be rewarded! as many have said, the reading of this book is an unseen experience, the whys and wherefores of the histories and mutations that take us to these tales are unspoken, so, how we got there is entirely up to the reader to construct (saving us several volumes of pure explanation).
to unravel these bizarre, unpleasant and magnetic stories, separately, would also take up significant space, so i'm just going to stick to my four words above, that's all you're getting! go on, bite the head off a namas machina and dive in, the viscera's lovely!
May 4, 2023
This is a very difficult book to read, but it is extremely rewarding if you persevere through the -severely- bizarre world you’re thrown into immediately.
This book presents a world where most things are completely unrecognizable for the reader. There are strange lifeforms, ways of life, and biomes with stories regarding otherworldly politics, philosophy, and labour that all come full circle. Most ideas involve a certain amount of grotesque biological context, presented with an abject harsh coldness that really makes you sympathize with the denizens of these stories, whether or not they’re truly human.
This is a novel that can never be translated visually, in my opinion. The illustrations inside barely cover the striking ideas presented without any irony, but they are also masterfully done.
Easily one of the funnest books I’ve read. If you’re a fan of bizarre, absurd and outlandish worlds in science fiction, I can’t recommend this enough. Wonderful story.
This book presents a world where most things are completely unrecognizable for the reader. There are strange lifeforms, ways of life, and biomes with stories regarding otherworldly politics, philosophy, and labour that all come full circle. Most ideas involve a certain amount of grotesque biological context, presented with an abject harsh coldness that really makes you sympathize with the denizens of these stories, whether or not they’re truly human.
This is a novel that can never be translated visually, in my opinion. The illustrations inside barely cover the striking ideas presented without any irony, but they are also masterfully done.
Easily one of the funnest books I’ve read. If you’re a fan of bizarre, absurd and outlandish worlds in science fiction, I can’t recommend this enough. Wonderful story.
May 26, 2024
This is a very difficult book to read, but it is extremely rewarding if you persevere through the -severely- bizarre world you’re thrown into immediately.
This book presents a world where most things are completely unrecognizable for the reader. There are strange lifeforms, ways of life, and biomes with stories regarding otherworldly politics, philosophy, and labour that all come full circle. Most ideas involve a certain amount of grotesque biological context, presented with an abject harsh coldness that really makes you sympathize with the denizens of these stories, whether or not they’re truly human.
This is a novel that can never be translated visually, in my opinion. The illustrations inside barely cover the striking ideas presented without any irony, but they are also masterfully done.
Easily one of the funnest books I’ve read. If you’re a fan of bizarre, absurd and outlandish worlds in science fiction, I can’t recommend this enough. Wonderful story.
This book presents a world where most things are completely unrecognizable for the reader. There are strange lifeforms, ways of life, and biomes with stories regarding otherworldly politics, philosophy, and labour that all come full circle. Most ideas involve a certain amount of grotesque biological context, presented with an abject harsh coldness that really makes you sympathize with the denizens of these stories, whether or not they’re truly human.
This is a novel that can never be translated visually, in my opinion. The illustrations inside barely cover the striking ideas presented without any irony, but they are also masterfully done.
Easily one of the funnest books I’ve read. If you’re a fan of bizarre, absurd and outlandish worlds in science fiction, I can’t recommend this enough. Wonderful story.
May 12, 2024
På en side en av de mest ugjennomtrengelige og vanskeligste bøkene jeg har lest, men på den andre siden en av de mest kreative og altoppslukende bøkene jeg har lest. Her blir man slengt ut i en verden uten noen hjelpemidler, og man begynner å nøste opp i ting sakte men sikkert kun ved bruk av egen intuisjon. Dette er en bok som forventer mye av leseren, men desto mer gøy er det når ting begynner å løsne.
En novellesamling bestående av 4 historier satt i samme "univers". Alle historiene kan stå på egne ben, men halveparten av moroa er å finne trådene som knyter ting mer og mer sammen. Under det åpenbart rare og fantastiske er det temaer rundt hva det utgjør å være et menneske og det jeg plukker opp er en krass kritikk av den japanske arbeidsetikken og kapitalismen.
Snedige greier, definitvt en av de rareste bøkene jeg har lest.
En novellesamling bestående av 4 historier satt i samme "univers". Alle historiene kan stå på egne ben, men halveparten av moroa er å finne trådene som knyter ting mer og mer sammen. Under det åpenbart rare og fantastiske er det temaer rundt hva det utgjør å være et menneske og det jeg plukker opp er en krass kritikk av den japanske arbeidsetikken og kapitalismen.
Snedige greier, definitvt en av de rareste bøkene jeg har lest.
September 14, 2022
omg..what can i say about this book.
its one of the weirdest sci fi books i ever read in my entire life. and i read mostly sci fi.
as a non native english speaker i really hit my limit of understanding many things/words in this book. i mean i have read it, but i cant say that i fully understood it all. the way the author mixed/created new words made it really challenging for me, as a non native speaker/reader :D
but i would recommend this book for every sci fi fan out there. if you want something really new, with a touch of japanese in it...read this book.
its like the worlds of blame!, biomega, knights of sidonia (all manga by tsutomu nihei) had a baby in bookform.
i really hope dempow torishima is writing another book that gets translated into english.
its one of the weirdest sci fi books i ever read in my entire life. and i read mostly sci fi.
as a non native english speaker i really hit my limit of understanding many things/words in this book. i mean i have read it, but i cant say that i fully understood it all. the way the author mixed/created new words made it really challenging for me, as a non native speaker/reader :D
but i would recommend this book for every sci fi fan out there. if you want something really new, with a touch of japanese in it...read this book.
its like the worlds of blame!, biomega, knights of sidonia (all manga by tsutomu nihei) had a baby in bookform.
i really hope dempow torishima is writing another book that gets translated into english.
June 2, 2019
Amazing book! Read twice and get the horror. I enjoyed it only after the second reading. Although I have lots of questions but I think I am getting myself a third read! Great work! The story is about bio horror and you will see how ugly human nature is and how surreal the author is able to create a universe of organisms.
Read more of my comments here:
https://spiritofstag.blogspot.com/201...
Read more of my comments here:
https://spiritofstag.blogspot.com/201...
June 22, 2024
A special commendation needs to be given to translator Daniel Huddelston. I read an interview with Torishima who praised the translation while relating that upon release this novel was well regarded as 'untranlatable'. For as exemplary a translation as this has I'm still left wondering just how much is lost. It does add another layer of confusion to a novel that relishes in disorientation, but it might be a step too far?
A remarkable and heady book.
A remarkable and heady book.
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