Skimming time and space from early 1900s' Canada to moon colonies in the far-future, this is a brief book of vast scope yet intimate feeling; a swirl of past, present and future punctuated by reality-shifting pandemics. While a mystery-narrative emerges, led by time-travelling investigator Gaspery, the overall meaning is open to your interpretation. For me, this read was like gazing into the night sky - a space for contemplation, awe and wonder.
If we were living in a simulation, how would we know it was a simulation? I took the trolley home from the university at three in the morning. In the warm light of the moving car, I closed my eyes and marvelled at the detail. The gentle vibration of the trolley on its cushion of air. The sounds - the barely perceptible whisper of movement, the soft conversations here and there in the car, the tinny notes of a game escaping from a device somewhere. We are living in a simulation, I told myself, testing the idea, but it still seemed improbable to me, because I could smell the bouquet of yellow roses that the woman sitting beside me held carefully in both hands.
