The Memory Hunters is science fiction/fantasy and centers around a society in which scientists extract memories via a complex process involving mushrooms and blood. The main character, Kiana Strade, comes from a family who lead the local religion’s temples, but she wants to escape that fate and work at the museum where memories are housed. Because of her family history, she can “dive” deeper into memories than anyone else, an ability which has both benefits and dangers.
As a diver and a member of high society, Kiana warrants a bodyguard, a feisty petite woman named Valerian IV, Vale for short, who is from a distant place, but was brought to the city to be trained as a guardian. There is a slow-burn sapphic romance between the two women.
I like the idea of this fungi-associated religion and feel that it is fairly well elucidated and interesting. Kiana on a “dive” discovers the origins of this religion, and that origin is somewhat less well elucidated and which brings to mind (at least to this physician) prion-associated brain illnesses like Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and mad cow disease.
The climax is a tour-de-force with rapidly changing allegiances.
I was mostly interested in the museum aspects of the diving. Rather than return the memories to the descendants of those who had the memories, the recollections are housed in a museum. I felt this was somewhat like not returning the Benin bronzes to Nigeria or the Elgin marbles to Greece. So there are some ethical considerations here as well.
I hate reading an entire novel and then having an abrupt ending signaling the work has been set up for a sequel.
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The Memory Hunters (Erewhon Books, July 29, 2025) is available through:
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