Hort believes the vice might hold the key to salvation. Just before a planet-wide plague arrives, a strange Horticulturist (Hort) turns up, asking for her help to stop the plague sweeping across the entire universe. Moving to a remote location, she pursues the building of a vast seed bank, thanks to a strange device left by her late father known as a ‘vice’.

It’s a stark parallel to the increasing acceptance of fake news and the rise of ‘alternative facts’, along with the acceptance that information online is some trusted source of truth.Īgainst this backdrop, we are introduced to Penelope Greensmith (Pea), who wants to escape, following a much-welcomed ceasefire of data destruction. Those who enlist protect data centres to prevent such destruction. This war isn’t about the invasion of land or the control of oil: instead it’s a fight over information, being fought online, where history is being deleted and rewritten. Greensmith is set sometime in the near future, during a war with a difference. There are many other themes too: questions of morality and mortality mix with concepts of space-time, how disasters can happen even with the greatest of intentions - along with how people can refuse to see how their actions can be the real problem.Ī fast but thoughtful journey that throws ideas at you quicker than you can blink. But it’s a great deal more, exploring the vast, inconceivable nature of the universe and how insignificant and small we are. On the surface Greensmith seems to be about just such pandemics, featuring as it does a planet-sweeping plague. At this point though I think most of us have grown accustomed to the many changes our real pandemic has brought about and thankfully it falls short of most apocalyptic scenarios you read about (although secretly I feel ever so slightly disappointed in the lack of zombies). I don’t know about anyone else but since Covid hit back in March 2020, I’ve been avoiding a lot of fiction that involves pandemic apocalypse stories. Her stories are always distinctive, personal and often full of wild ideas. Campbell Award, British Fantasy Award and Brave New Words Award for the strange story ‘The Loosening Skin’.

She has been nominated and shortlisted for a number of awards – most recently shortlisted for the Arthur C.

From the Parallel Worlds Magazine archives.Īliya Whiteley has been writing some interesting fiction over the last few years, from the horror of ‘The Beauty’ to the peculiar charm of ‘The Arrival of Missives’.

Greensmith by Aliya Whiteley