Dear Cyborgs, Eugene Lim
Dear Cyborgs, Eugene Lim
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Dear Cyborgs

Author: Eugene Lim

Narrator: Feodor Chin

Unabridged: 4 hr 6 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 06/06/2017

Synopsis

A fractal fable about the possibility and power of protest as told by three superheroes on their lunch breakIn a small Midwestern town, two Asian American boys bond over their outcast status and a mutual love of comic books. Meanwhile, in an alternative or perhaps future universe, a team of superheroes ponders modern society during their time off. Between black-ops missions and rescuing hostages, they swap stories of artistic malaise and muse on the seemingly inescapable grip of market economics.Gleefully toying with the conventions of the novel, Dear Cyborgs weaves together the story of a friendship’s dissolution with a provocative and lively meditation on protest. Through a series of linked monologues, a surprising cast of characters explores narratives of resistance―protest art, eco-terrorists, Occupy squatters, pyromaniacal militants―and the extent to which any of these can truly withstand the pragmatic demands of contemporary capitalism. All the while, a mysterious cybernetic book of clairvoyance beckons, and trusted allies start to disappear.Playfully blending comic-book villains with cultural critiques, Eugene Lim’s Dear Cyborgs is a fleet-footed literary exploration of power, friendship, and creativity that recalls authors like Tom McCarthy and Valeria Luiselli. Ambitious and knowing, it braids together hard-boiled detective pulps, subversive philosophy, and Hollywood chase scenes, unfolding like the composites and revelations of a dream.

About Eugene Lim

Eugene Lim is the author of several novels, including Fog & Car and The Strangers. His writing has appeared in Fence, the Denver Quarterly, Little Star, Dazed, the Brooklyn Rail, and elsewhere. He is the founder and managing editor of Ellipsis Press and works as a librarian in a high school. He lives in Queens, New York.

About Feodor Chin

Feodor Chin, an AudioFile Earphones Award–winning narrator, is an actor classically trained at the American Conservatory Theater and UCLA. His acting career includes numerous credits in film, television, theater, and voice-over.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Caro on December 31, 2017

Even though I love sci-fi and fantasy, I am not the intended audience for this book. The book starts with an Asian boy in a small Midwestern town and his friendship with another boy with similar interests and background. Then it becomes something of an exploration on many subjects such as protests,......more

Goodreads review by Blair on June 18, 2017

A completely mind-warping novel in which people patiently take turns to speak in improbably fully-formed stories about their bizarre pasts; seemingly ordinary characters suddenly turn out to be crime-fighting superheroes, some of them aliens; people melt and disperse into the air. Dear Cyborgs inter......more

Goodreads review by David on October 06, 2017

I honestly have no idea what I just read. It’s such a showy text with unlikely conversations emanating from characters mouths, on one hand mimicking the often stilted dialog of comic book characters but uncanny in the mouths of others. Characters are simply mouthpieces to forward ideas about capital......more

Goodreads review by John on June 13, 2017

The novel, unfortunately, waits until we have gotten the point before it decides to explain itself:(When I say cyborgs, of course I mean us.) […] (Some seem unaccepting of this transformation, and it indeed has been gradual. In a sense it began when the first simple machines were invented. But now,......more

Quotes

“Wondrous…He has a knack for making everyday life seem strange—or, in the case of Dear Cyborgs, for making revolution seem like the most natural thing possible. His writing is transfixing from page to page.” New Yorker

“Surreal, unpredictable, and filled with protest. Lim packs an impressive range of topics into one slim and absorbing novel; everything from comic books to the avant garde to revolution gets its due.” Vogue

“Sings the tune of language itself, music that Gertrude Stein and Gordon Lish could get behind.” Virginia Quarterly Review

“Brilliant in its blending of academic investigation and pop-culture tropes and structurally invigorating from start to finish.” Midwest Independent Booksellers Association

“Smart, inventive, highly unconventional.” BuzzFeed

“Two radically different story lines…are cleverly tied together in this short, sly, unorthodox novel.” Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Eerily reflective of our fractured times, darting from subject to subject with the speed of a mouse click. A colorful meditation on friendship and creation nested within a fictional universe.” Kirkus Reviews

“A colorful meditation on friendship and creation nested within a fictional universe.” Kirkus Reviews

“Eugene Lim tells his sly superhero tales in a kind of hard-boiled deadpan…an echo of every comic-book reader’s yearning for the camaraderie of the super team, the intimate enmity of the nemesis.” Peter Ho Davies, author of The Fortunes

“Dear Cyborgs is a…fan letter to comicdom and a chastening reminder of how America’s greatest fantasy doesn’t involve superheroes with superpowers but the prospect of a fair and honest political life. Go read it in the streets.” Joshua Cohen, author of Book of Numbers

Awards

  • Millions.com Pick
  • Chicago Review of Books Pick
  • Literary Hub Pick
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