Salt Publishing snaps up Thompson's 'chilling' novel

Salt Publishing has snapped up Chimera, a "deep space" novel from Alice Thompson. 

Chris Hamilton-Emery, director, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, from Jenny Brown at Jenny Brown Associates. The novel will be published on 15th May 2023. "Alice Thompson’s novel is a chilling mystery, using its science fiction tropes to explore a world filled with AI," said Hamilton-Emery. "Where we love and are loved by AI, but where the narrative structures that make us who we are, what we know of ourselves, are wrapped inside questions, doubts, lies, conceits and, of course, sincere and deadly threats."

Chimera is a "gripping" novel following Artemis, a scientist and dream investigator, travelling to the moon of Oneiros on her ship the "Chimera" to look for organisms to help alleviate Earth’s global warming. However, when Artemis arrives it becomes clear that there is more to her mission, including the search for a missing spaceship which came to the moon years ago. A story of "transfiguration, dreams and identity" which explores the nature of consciousness and being. 

Thompson commented: "We are living through a time of accelerated change to do with artificial intelligence and its self-generating powers: the impact it will have on our lives and how we create, work and relate to others. AI throws up huge moral conundrums over its benefits and dangers. I wanted to explore in Chimera the ambiguities of information technology and how it reflects back to us issues to do with consciousness, identity and how we feel."