What are you reading, Ms Krüger?
Patricia Krüger.
When you're part of the bookstagram community on Instagram, it's hard not to buy new books or read several books at the same time. And although I had firmly decided to take on one book at a time this year, the temptation to travel a second fictional world was far too great.
That's why, in addition to "In the Sign of the Storm", the second volume of the Star Wars High Republic trilogy by Claudia Grey, I read a second science fiction novel - rather unknown, published by a rather small publisher: "The Canon of Mechanical Souls" by Michael Arrak.
Admittedly, it was only a cover purchase at first, but the first chapters quickly captivated me. A world in which the few remaining humans stay young for centuries and some of them can breathe life into matter with a single touch. A young woman with this gift roams the land, bringing relics from the old days to life and listening to their stories. However, her home is surrounded by a high wall that is supposed to protect people and machines. The only question is: from what?
As a librarian, I love old books and stories, but I am equally concerned with highly topical issues. And that is precisely why the world in the "canon" fascinates me. Man and machine, side by side, but the curiosity about the past is nevertheless omnipresent. But how do you preserve this knowledge? How do you keep the past alive? These are also issues we deal with in our society today, because the past and the events associated with it must never be forgotten. So that we can learn from mistakes and prevent making them again.
My heart beats for independent publishers and self-publishers because you can discover so many undiscovered treasures outside the mainstream.
By the way, by far the best place to go for such literary delights in Berlin is the Otherland bookstore in Kreuzberg, which specializes in science fiction and fantasy. That's also where I discovered Michael Arrak's book by chance.
