Tabula Rasa: We are all born equal in our insignificance.

by J. Ishiro Finney

After two years of living homeless, the Grid has lost all interest in me. To them, I’m just another castoff. A blank. Human waste. Another unwanted byproduct of this modern, civilized world. This city is famous for its population of forgotten and unwanted. These rags I wear, this filth on my skin, the cruel hunger that’s so evident in my sunken, boney face—these things grant me untold freedom to walk among the enemy. Poverty has made me a ghost. Invisible. Never once has National Surveillance Grid suspected that I am the culmination of more than half a century of black budget projects and forbidden research. Born of two mothers and twenty-seven fathers, my family tree is a string of recombinant DNA where the chromosomes of soldiers and saints share nucleotides with the genes of criminals and politicians. I am a Brother. A ten-year-old man who was perfected in a lab, born from a whore, and raised to be mankind’s redeemer.And today I will die.Tabula Rasa is a terrifyingly poetic dystopian tale about when bio-terrorism becomes the "final solution" to solving the so-called "intersectional problems" of race, class, and gender.

20 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 17, 2021

About the author

J. Ishiro “Ishii” Finney is a dark-eyed, pale-skinned creature who spends the majority of his time tapping away at a keyboard in a darkened room somewhere in the Arizona desert. There he writes tales of sci-fi, alt-history, horror, and occult noir. In a past life he worked as a music journalist, graphic designer, and had a very brief stint playing in an industrial band. He’s written for Industrial Nation, B-Side Magazine, and Alternative Press. In the realm of comics, he’s written and illustrated books with Archaia Entertainment(now Boom!), 01Publishing.

He’s best known for Casefile: Arkham, a graphic novel series which author Jonathan Maberry called “A wickedly entertaining noir mystery spin on Lovecraft’s cosmic horror… which is perfect for fans of The Dresden Files and Hellblazer.”

Finney also scripted the audiodrama adaptation of his book, Titanium Rain. In 2013 was nominated for two Audie Awards through the Audiobook Publishers Association in the categories of Best Audio Drama and Best Original Work. It also won the Earphones Award from AudioFile magazine and the Silver Mark Time Award.

Most recently, Finney published the sci-fi novella, SCARS. David J. West (author of the BRUTAL Saga) said of SCARS, “This was an amazing quick read, detailing the horrors of war and the beauty of brotherhood even that between the species. Simply amazing.”

His short stories have appeared in PseudoPod, Whispers from the Abyss, and NuMedia Journal. When not writing, Finney hosts a weekly podcast where he frequently claims to be a 600-year-old Zeta-Reticulan piloting a biomechanical flesh-suit. This is probably not true.

Reviews

[Richard Joya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eww ewwww oooh

Terrorist and a host. The writing style is different from what the team usually writes. I enjoyed it. The language was poetic and visceral. Liquid moonlight sounded pretty until I learned what it did.