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LO
Willoughby, known back on Earth as "the East Hamptons of the Kuiper Belt System," is the first sustainable colony on Mars.
Built by the mysterious geneticist Carlo Yakamura this settlement encourages the rich to live as they please. They can enjoy decadent homes, physically modifiable partners, meals based on their best memories and even boutique children known on Willoughby as Builds.
Designed to impress even at the dullest cocktail parties, the Builds' proprietary motive genes have been sourced from the DNA of some of the greatest artistic disruptors of the last several centuries. But even among a host of uniquely gifted Builds, Lo is unique. And uniquely unbalanced. So what would be the grisliest of murders back on Earth, is just an inconvenience on Willoughby. That is why Lo is sent to be "seasoned" by a man we come to know only as Cook.
Can Cook's fatherly hand guide Lo to a deeper understanding of his potential and purpose or is Lo's innate power destined to destroy all of Willoughby? Is Lo the key to Cook's creative redemption or is he the cause of Cook's worst nightmares? And once Cook learns the true purpose of Yakamura's Willoughby will Lo or Cook find the colony worth saving at all?
LO is a sci-fi noir thriller, painted in more deeper shades of blue than black. It is also a story of fathers and sons, lost to one another through terrible compromises and found again through the limits of love. It is a parable of our possible future, a future that is doomed if we rely only on the digital representation of our present while forgetting the lessons and lore of our analogue past.
Built by the mysterious geneticist Carlo Yakamura this settlement encourages the rich to live as they please. They can enjoy decadent homes, physically modifiable partners, meals based on their best memories and even boutique children known on Willoughby as Builds.
Designed to impress even at the dullest cocktail parties, the Builds' proprietary motive genes have been sourced from the DNA of some of the greatest artistic disruptors of the last several centuries. But even among a host of uniquely gifted Builds, Lo is unique. And uniquely unbalanced. So what would be the grisliest of murders back on Earth, is just an inconvenience on Willoughby. That is why Lo is sent to be "seasoned" by a man we come to know only as Cook.
Can Cook's fatherly hand guide Lo to a deeper understanding of his potential and purpose or is Lo's innate power destined to destroy all of Willoughby? Is Lo the key to Cook's creative redemption or is he the cause of Cook's worst nightmares? And once Cook learns the true purpose of Yakamura's Willoughby will Lo or Cook find the colony worth saving at all?
LO is a sci-fi noir thriller, painted in more deeper shades of blue than black. It is also a story of fathers and sons, lost to one another through terrible compromises and found again through the limits of love. It is a parable of our possible future, a future that is doomed if we rely only on the digital representation of our present while forgetting the lessons and lore of our analogue past.
- GenresScience FictionFiction
308 pages, Paperback
Published June 7, 2022
29 people are currently reading
1803 people want to read
About the author
Bradford Tatum
8 books59 followersBradford Tatum’s award winning debut novel I Can Only Give You Everything was published in 2010. His second novel, Only the Dead Know Burbank was published by HarperCollins in 2016 and received a starred review from Publisher’s Weekly. His book Gray Matters has been used as a text book in various college business communication courses.
Bradford began his career as an actor appearing in numerous television shows and movies such as 20th Century Fox’s submarine comedy DOWN PERISCOPE, Disney’s POWDER and HBO’s WESTWORLD.
He was a staff writer for Dick Wolf on the NBC series DEADLINE and has written and directed two award winning independent features. He has won an Alfred P. Sloan grant for his written work as well as sold pitches to various production companies.
Bradford began his career as an actor appearing in numerous television shows and movies such as 20th Century Fox’s submarine comedy DOWN PERISCOPE, Disney’s POWDER and HBO’s WESTWORLD.
He was a staff writer for Dick Wolf on the NBC series DEADLINE and has written and directed two award winning independent features. He has won an Alfred P. Sloan grant for his written work as well as sold pitches to various production companies.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
August 10, 2022
Oh wow. I'm still shaking. This book is unique.
The book was weird at first, it took me a while to get used to the sci-fi universe of life on Mars and all the futuristic bizarre tech things that the population have in Willoughby. And there are those violent deaths, that you have to disregard, to jump into the real story. The story of two boys, who each lived through trauma, but learned to get stronger, to survive. One in a f--ing weird way, but he was learning anyways, and the other learned through the process of the first one that, maybe, nothing is like what it seems.
Through a lot of weird details and events, I learned to care for Lo. And I admit it, I cried. The ending of the book made me rethink all I just read. Like I said.... I'm still shaking.
TW for violent deaths, physical violence (brutal sex not on page) and emotional violence.
The book was weird at first, it took me a while to get used to the sci-fi universe of life on Mars and all the futuristic bizarre tech things that the population have in Willoughby. And there are those violent deaths, that you have to disregard, to jump into the real story. The story of two boys, who each lived through trauma, but learned to get stronger, to survive. One in a f--ing weird way, but he was learning anyways, and the other learned through the process of the first one that, maybe, nothing is like what it seems.
Through a lot of weird details and events, I learned to care for Lo. And I admit it, I cried. The ending of the book made me rethink all I just read. Like I said.... I'm still shaking.
TW for violent deaths, physical violence (brutal sex not on page) and emotional violence.
August 18, 2022
LO is a book full of the unexpected. I don’t think I really knew what I was getting into until I started reading and I am still thinking about it. It’s such a unique blend of genres.
It’s not super fast paced, but the pacing is steady and I had trouble setting it down. We are kind of thrown into the story and the background information is slowly given to us. All the questions I had were eventually answered, but I had to (im)patiently wait for them. I really liked this. It gave this story a different structure than I expected and with the genre bending, it doesn’t go the way I anticipated it to. Which is a good thing.
We are told the story through Cook’s point of view. I liked reading his thoughts. The author’s writing style gave me a sense of who Cook was from the beginning and I liked that. LO is mysterious. I grew to understand him over time. I enjoyed the fact that I grew to understand LO with Cook. It truly felt like I was part of the story.
I can’t say too much. I think this is something you should go into without knowing all the details. I do think this will be awesome to some and not so awesome to others because it is so unique. I say give it a chance because the more you read, the more memorized you’ll be.
Thank you to R&R Book Tours for the review copy and tour invite. All opinions are my own and unbiased.
It’s not super fast paced, but the pacing is steady and I had trouble setting it down. We are kind of thrown into the story and the background information is slowly given to us. All the questions I had were eventually answered, but I had to (im)patiently wait for them. I really liked this. It gave this story a different structure than I expected and with the genre bending, it doesn’t go the way I anticipated it to. Which is a good thing.
We are told the story through Cook’s point of view. I liked reading his thoughts. The author’s writing style gave me a sense of who Cook was from the beginning and I liked that. LO is mysterious. I grew to understand him over time. I enjoyed the fact that I grew to understand LO with Cook. It truly felt like I was part of the story.
I can’t say too much. I think this is something you should go into without knowing all the details. I do think this will be awesome to some and not so awesome to others because it is so unique. I say give it a chance because the more you read, the more memorized you’ll be.
Thank you to R&R Book Tours for the review copy and tour invite. All opinions are my own and unbiased.
December 5, 2022
If you're dog tired of the featureless, interchangeable mediocrity of (most) modern fiction, Bradford Tatum's Lo is the antidote. Really, any of Tatum's books will cure that itch for prose with personality and perspective to burn.
Lo is a work of science fiction, but to categorize this sublime literary achievement is to greatly limit the reach it deserves. Lo is not merely a book for fans of Huxley's Brave New World or the superlative cosmic quackery of R.A. Lafferty. It is, at turns, a send-up of elitist society, a psychological thriller, and an oddly cozy mystery. But first and foremost, it is an unexpected love story of the kind one rarely gets anymore.
If this turns you off like you're Fred Savage in The Princess Bride, then all I can do is put on my best Peter Falk and assure you that there is also blood, peril, and plenty of wicked humor. Tatum writes with a white hot clarity, whether he's breaking down the recipe of a fine dish (in terms that would give Anthony Bourdain a rapturous orgasm) or rhapsodizing about the unapproachable actions of the book's titular charge, a "build" with a checkered past.
Tatum's novel takes place somewhere in the Kuiper Belt System where the filthy rich have put down roots in the sustainable colony known as Willoughby (yes, the Twilight Zone nod is intentional). Willoughby is a place created by a crafty geneticist who's found a way to offer the elites a seemingly perfect life, one populated by grandiloquent architecture, phony airs, emotional kabuki, and physically impossible meals.
If all of this sounds a bit surreal, I haven't even gotten to the raw balls of the thing. The chief focus of this unpredictable and astonishing work is the relationship between Cook, a weary creator of ersatz luxuries, and Lo, a boutique child brought into existence for the enigmatic whims of an easily bored colony couple. Lo finds himself in the care of Cook after an unfortunate incident involving one of his fellow builds. Let's just say the young trophy creature took the concept of cubism too literally.
Without giving away any spoilers, Lo is imbued with surprises and revelations of the kind that leave one's mouth agape. I can say with certainty that Lo is the best novel I've read in 2022 and it will surely be the best novel I read in 2023. So sumptuous is its author's language that a reader can't help but return to savor it like a post-holiday lasagna tray. As with a warm plate of leftovers, the build at the center of Lo doesn't look quite right, cobbled together as he is from various genes and particles. But that doesn't mean his story isn't absolutely heartwarming.
It is rare to discover a book that dares to lampoon the fat cats, while indulging in descriptions far more luxurious than any Old Money curio. There is a decadence to the way Tatum deploys descriptions. His deftness with language seems commensurate to the culinary arts that feature in Lo's plot; his use of words is commensurate to the way a chef introduces exotic ingredients to a dish.
If you're jaded by the experience of reading empty genre fiction devoid of point or perspective, you'll be pleasantly reinvigorated by the robust prose and breakneck turns that Lo rolls out. This is a poetic work of science fiction deserving of merit and attention. Like Atwood's Orix & Crake or Houellebecq's The Possibility of an Island, Lo will stay with you long after you've read it. Like the latter, Lo may leave you in tears...but for an entirely original reason.
Whether you're in the market for an innovative take on eugenics or simply looking to engage in first-class speculative fiction, Lo will fill you up without the empty calories of so much latter day genre offal. Bradford Tatum has already become a mainstay on my bookshelf. Between Lo and his last novel, Only the Dead Know Burbank, the man's got a flawless record.
This is an author who will surely outpace his contemporaries in the realm of fantastical literature, and Lo will undoubtedly be remembered as a seminal futurist tale whose lore eerily prefigures the Internet of Things to come.
Lo is a work of science fiction, but to categorize this sublime literary achievement is to greatly limit the reach it deserves. Lo is not merely a book for fans of Huxley's Brave New World or the superlative cosmic quackery of R.A. Lafferty. It is, at turns, a send-up of elitist society, a psychological thriller, and an oddly cozy mystery. But first and foremost, it is an unexpected love story of the kind one rarely gets anymore.
If this turns you off like you're Fred Savage in The Princess Bride, then all I can do is put on my best Peter Falk and assure you that there is also blood, peril, and plenty of wicked humor. Tatum writes with a white hot clarity, whether he's breaking down the recipe of a fine dish (in terms that would give Anthony Bourdain a rapturous orgasm) or rhapsodizing about the unapproachable actions of the book's titular charge, a "build" with a checkered past.
Tatum's novel takes place somewhere in the Kuiper Belt System where the filthy rich have put down roots in the sustainable colony known as Willoughby (yes, the Twilight Zone nod is intentional). Willoughby is a place created by a crafty geneticist who's found a way to offer the elites a seemingly perfect life, one populated by grandiloquent architecture, phony airs, emotional kabuki, and physically impossible meals.
If all of this sounds a bit surreal, I haven't even gotten to the raw balls of the thing. The chief focus of this unpredictable and astonishing work is the relationship between Cook, a weary creator of ersatz luxuries, and Lo, a boutique child brought into existence for the enigmatic whims of an easily bored colony couple. Lo finds himself in the care of Cook after an unfortunate incident involving one of his fellow builds. Let's just say the young trophy creature took the concept of cubism too literally.
Without giving away any spoilers, Lo is imbued with surprises and revelations of the kind that leave one's mouth agape. I can say with certainty that Lo is the best novel I've read in 2022 and it will surely be the best novel I read in 2023. So sumptuous is its author's language that a reader can't help but return to savor it like a post-holiday lasagna tray. As with a warm plate of leftovers, the build at the center of Lo doesn't look quite right, cobbled together as he is from various genes and particles. But that doesn't mean his story isn't absolutely heartwarming.
It is rare to discover a book that dares to lampoon the fat cats, while indulging in descriptions far more luxurious than any Old Money curio. There is a decadence to the way Tatum deploys descriptions. His deftness with language seems commensurate to the culinary arts that feature in Lo's plot; his use of words is commensurate to the way a chef introduces exotic ingredients to a dish.
If you're jaded by the experience of reading empty genre fiction devoid of point or perspective, you'll be pleasantly reinvigorated by the robust prose and breakneck turns that Lo rolls out. This is a poetic work of science fiction deserving of merit and attention. Like Atwood's Orix & Crake or Houellebecq's The Possibility of an Island, Lo will stay with you long after you've read it. Like the latter, Lo may leave you in tears...but for an entirely original reason.
Whether you're in the market for an innovative take on eugenics or simply looking to engage in first-class speculative fiction, Lo will fill you up without the empty calories of so much latter day genre offal. Bradford Tatum has already become a mainstay on my bookshelf. Between Lo and his last novel, Only the Dead Know Burbank, the man's got a flawless record.
This is an author who will surely outpace his contemporaries in the realm of fantastical literature, and Lo will undoubtedly be remembered as a seminal futurist tale whose lore eerily prefigures the Internet of Things to come.
August 16, 2022
I like my sci-fi with a side of Weird™️ and Lo was no disappointment on that frontier!
This was such an interesting book and one of those that required me to really read and digest — the writing was incredible, layered with meaning and mystery in a way that felt a little bit magical.
Lo’s character development was hands down my favorite aspect of the book and I am not ashamed to admit I got a little emotional at the end 🥲
This was such an interesting book and one of those that required me to really read and digest — the writing was incredible, layered with meaning and mystery in a way that felt a little bit magical.
Lo’s character development was hands down my favorite aspect of the book and I am not ashamed to admit I got a little emotional at the end 🥲
November 15, 2022
This book is weird. And I mean that in a good way. Everytime I thought I knew what was coming, something completely different and unexpected happened. This is a book where you really have to suspend your disbelief and be open to the possibility that anything can and will happen. It is a fascinating look at a future that, while not all together plausible, holds the same humanity that we all live with in the present, and all its flaws.
.
The relationship between Lo and Cook is really what carried this book. Even though Cook was technically the one helping Lo, it was quickly clear that they both needed each other equally. If you enjoy wild rides and unexpected events, pick this one up, but it is difficult to get into and if you don't enjoy bizarre books, pass it up.
2.5
.
The relationship between Lo and Cook is really what carried this book. Even though Cook was technically the one helping Lo, it was quickly clear that they both needed each other equally. If you enjoy wild rides and unexpected events, pick this one up, but it is difficult to get into and if you don't enjoy bizarre books, pass it up.
2.5
January 4, 2023
Equally gruesome and ecstasiating. It's balance is not an effect of sinusoidal prose; instead, the author has grafted the depictions simultaneously with dismay and beauty. You might call it awe. I would not have expected how much I needed this book myself. Maybe, you need it too.
November 1, 2025
Not your typical sci-fi novel
Tatum has built an entire world that is both alien and familiar. A bit difficult to understand what is going on at first but worth the effort. Amazing work.
Tatum has built an entire world that is both alien and familiar. A bit difficult to understand what is going on at first but worth the effort. Amazing work.
April 1, 2023
Definitely a character piece! The dynamic between the two main characters is fantastic! Very heartfelt, went into the book blind and came out pleasantly surprised.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews