Plasmas [Paperback]

A speculative masterpiece of technology and mythmaking that contemplates humanity.

The stories inPlasmasdive into a post-human, more-than-human world where life as we know it has been replaced by life as it goes on. Acrobats glide through the air attached to biotech devices, an archivist presents scenes from Earth after interstellar colonization to her students, and scientists in Siberia play god with a manmade beast.

Written as a series of vignettes into futures near and far,Plasmasdives into questions of legacy, memory, the body, and technology through striking prose from one of France’s leading sci-fi writers. Equally comfortable in the worlds of Donna Haraway and Vladimir Nabokov,Plasmasis stunning in both philosophical and literary depth.

After receiving her degree in philosophy,Céline Minardwas a bookseller in Paris for seven years. In each of her books, she tries to explore new fictional territory, conducting vital experiences with times, places, voices and bodies, in order to transcend literary forms. She is the author of several novels includingLe Dernier Monde(2007),Bastard Battle(2008), andSo long, Luise(2011). Her books have been translated into multiple languages.

Annabel L. Kimis Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures at Harvard University and the author of two books:Unbecoming Language: Anti-Identitarian French Feminist Fictions(2018) andCacaphonies: The Excremental Canon of French Literature(2022).

Winner of the French Prix de l'imaginaire 2022

"Plasmas is a cubist painting: representing reality, while simultaneously shattering our perception of it." —The Harvard Gazette

"Plasmas is six stories that, as an archipelago—vaguely disquieting, wonderfully styled—constitutesl£Ç