James Nicoll Reviews

We’re a Landslide

Interstellar MegaChef (Flavour Hackers, volume 1)

By Lavanya Lakshminarayan

29 Nov, 2024

**Doing the WFC's Homework**

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Interstellar MegaChef is the first volume in Lavanya Lakshminarayan’s Flavour Hacker series.

Primus is the heart and soul of the star-spanning United Human Cooperative. Among the planet’s popular exports is the entertainment show Interstellar MegaChef. Winning the Interstellar MegaChef competition guarantees fame and fortune.

The woman now known as Saraswati “Saras” Kaveri hopes that winning the contest will free her from her odious family.

Waiting for the Revolution

Analog/Virtual: and Other Simulations of Your Future

By Lavanya Lakshminarayan

24 Apr, 2020

**Doing What the WFC Cannot Do**

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Lavanya Lakshminarayan’s 2020 Analog/Virtual: and Other Simulations of Your Future is a collection of short pieces that all share the same setting, if not the same characters.

Nation states died in the Population Catastrophe. Happily, for humanity, or at least that fraction of it that matters, the Bell Corporation seized the opportunity presented by global chaos to enforce a new world order, a pure meritocracy with no room for the inefficient, the weak, or the unfashionable. In other words, utopia!