Qoheleth

Post-Self #1

by Madison Scott-Clary

"All artists search. I search for stories, in this post-self age. What happens when you can no longer call yourself an individual, when you have split your sense of self among several instances? How do you react? Do you withdraw into yourself, become a hermit? Do you expand until you lose all sense of identity? Do you fragment? Do you go about it deliberately, or do you let nature and chance take their course?"

With immersive technology at its peak, it's all too easy to get lost. When RJ loses emself in that virtual world, not only must ey find eir way out, but find all the answers ey can along the way.

And, nearly a century on, society still struggles with the ramifications of those answers.

Genres: Science Fiction

453 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2020

About the author

Madison Rye Progress, also writing under the name Madison Scott-Clary, is an author of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry living in the Pacific Northwest. Her interests lie in the realms of furry fiction and non-fiction, collaborative fiction, and hypertextual writing. She is a member of the Furry Writers' Guild, and editor for several projects, fiction and non-fiction. She holds an MFA from Cornell College where she studied the lyric essay and teaching creative writing in fandom- and subculture-specific spaces.

Reviews

[Michael Miele · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have so many thoughts about this book, but to write all of them here would spoil major parts of it so I'm gonna keep that bit out of this review. Long story short, I loved this book! Madison finds a way to address not only the joys and terrors of integrated simulation technology, but also tackles questions of gender and identity while telling a pretty gripping mystery story in the process. Discussions of gender and identity aren't new to Madison, as she writes about them often, but this time the focus seemed to be on nonbinary or even genderless presentations. This was an interesting departure and I found it worked well with the themes of the book. The book is two parts: Qoheleth and the appended Gallery Exhibition. Qoheleth is the main book while Gallery Exhibition is an added bonus that works to flesh out some of the aspects of the main cast. Qoheleth is split into two distinct narratives, one set in the book's present of 2112 and another set in the future of 2305. In both narratives the characters have to figure out their own mystery while the reader looks for the answer to the mystery of how these stories and characters are connected. The book deals with aspects of technology and the implications of a virtual world that we might one day live in. The questions of what it is to be human and how we define ourselves in the age of not having a body are addressed and talked about heavily. Not to mention the commentary on the increasing role of technology in our lives as we become further integrated with machines. In addition, if you work in a tech related field or have experience using versioning software like Git, then a lot of the little details about how the virtual world and instances work will sound familiar to you. It's not at all necessary to know about these things to understand it in the context of the story, but coming from a tech background made those bits extra fun to read. All of the characters feel distinct from one another and RJ's character arc throughout eir story is handled well. The descriptions of the furry avatars and how they interact with the virtual world was also a nice touch. I'm always a sucker for when there's attention to details like making sure you don't sit on your own tail or how it would be to navigate around the challenges of having a muzzle. I would say to give it a shot if you enjoy sci-fi and a good mystery!

[Edwin Herrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I suppose you could technically consider Qoholeth a 'furry' book, but I feel it transcends that particular subgenre. This is good science fiction about transhumanism, and whether you're keen on furries or not, it is most definitely worth a read.
It is thoughtful and creative, and it is the sort of story you will come out of Thinking About Things.
If you liked Neal Stephenson's Snowcrash or Tad William's Otherland series, or enjoy stories about the future of humanity, self, and technology, then you should definitely give it a read!

[Payson Harris · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic book. Both stories are excellent.

Madison Scott-Clary remains one of the most interesting writers of the modern world. Her books are always an experience, with impeccable style, an excellent use of the medium, and a real curiosity and insight about how people live their lives and how people will change as technology does.

Highly recommended.

[moss · Rating 5 out of 5]

Instantly one of our favorite books all-time. This book touches on so many questions and curiosities and particularities surrounding the interweaving of technology, trans- and post-humanism, furry and indeed post-furry, all while seizing hold of the self at the center of this intersection that is being expanded into and beyond meaning/meaninglessness. Delightful. Haunting. Playful. Curious. Thank you.

[A. · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a book! didn't go in expecting I'd have an existential crisis of self to a furry novel,,,came out really thinking about what the self means and how hell is of our own making. The way this book both contains a bounty of philosophical thought while also laying out a full narrative that genuinely has some twists and turns is something very few can do. I'm awestruck.

Absolutely masterful writing, paired with a legitimate mystery that had me on the edge of my seat. Very excited for the second book, no idea what to expect

[Robin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Disclosure: I'm dating the author.

But it's really really good! It's like .hack//Sign with trans furries and Ecclesiastes references, and if that's not your shit I probably cannot help you.

[Juushika · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the near future, implants have made virtual reality more available, powerful, and immersive than ever--but a few users are becoming Lost, trapped in an "online" state. Two hundred year later, the descendants of this technology live in an online world. I'm surprised by how well I liked this! Which seems to damn with faint praise, but I think I'm allowed to be skeptical of a self-published book about transhumanism and furries. And this has some typos (at least in the web version), but it's edited, legible ... and pretty great, actually.

The dual timelines and numerous PoVs create a mystery around the Lost, but the reveals are secondary. This has drawbacks, building a lot of momentum without much payoff, but it also turns the focus to more interesting arenas: technology, bodies, identities, self-conception, and iterated consciousness, but surprisingly well-grounded in a fully realized central character and delicate physical (sometimes "physical") detail, and with a fundamentally gentle tone. Not all of the themes land--the titular motivation in particular feels talky and borderline disconnected from the rest of the book--but the general gist is thoughtful and compelling and hugely relevant to my interests; I feel seen in the protagonist in a way I rarely do in literature. As it turns out, transhumanist furries and terminally online subcultures are, actually, the exact right frameworks for exploring these speculative concepts.

[Lenalia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hey, turns out the queer furry transhumanist sci-fi novel really clicked with me, the transbian furry-adjacent robot girl, who would've thought

[Byron · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is the literary equivalent of a carrot on a stick, and let's just say whoever wrote it ain't too quick.