Prime Meridian
Amelia dreams of Mars. The Mars of the movies and the imagination, an endless bastion of opportunities for a colonist with some guts. But she’s trapped in Mexico City, enduring the drudgery of an unkind metropolis, working as a rent-a-friend, selling her blood to old folks with money who hope to rejuvenate themselves with it, enacting a fractured love story. And yet there’s Mars, at the edge of the silver screen, of life.
Accolades and Reviews
- 2018 Locus Recommended Reading List
- Included in Dozois’ The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Thirty-Fifth Annual Collection
- Reprinted in The Best of World SF Vol 1 (2021)
- Dreamlands (audio, collects the novellas Prime Meridian and The Return of the Sorceress, 2021)
Publisher: Innsmouth Free Press
Publication Year: December 1, 2017 (Wide release July 2018)
ASIN: B077338PFK
ISBN: 9781927990216
Praise
Really, this is one of the best novellas I’ve seen in 2017
—Locus
A moving story about a women dreaming of life on Mars, it was one of the highlight novellas of the year.
—Jonathan Strahan, The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, Volume Twelve
But one thing I have come to learn … is to expect the unexpected from Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s offerings. Every single one of them different from one another but they share that lingering sense of accomplishment, of giving voices to women who would not otherwise be heard or seen.
—Ana Grilo, Kirkus
Amelia is an engaging character. The specifics of her economic trap are shaped by Mexican society of the 21st century, but it’s a trap to which many readers should be able to relate.
—James Nicoll Reviews
Prime Meridian‘s fictional universe reminded me of the world of Blade Runner. Not the replicants, action set pieces, and squalid neon environment, but a world that is adjacent to ours, a near future where space exploration and planetary settlement are a reality but are lurking at the peripheries of the narrative.
—Achilles, Powder and Lead
To say too much about this book wouldn’t spoil it, but I don’t think I can go too deeply into it. It’s wrenching in a way that has nothing to do with big worldwide events or apocalyptic calamities. It’s just about people, and the hope of getting out.
—Breathesbooks.com