WHEN WE WERE REAL by Daryl Gregory

5 stars

Humanity has woken up seven years earlier to find out that we’re all just living in a computer simulation. In fact, the whole universe is a simulation.

The day of The Announcement, words in different scripts flash in front of everyone’s eyes to declare this fact, and to cite as proof hundreds of physic impossibilities that simultaneously appear around the globe. Everyone’s personal beliefs, relationships, ambitions and behavior gets thrown into turmoil. Some people in response commit suicide, others join militant conspiracy groups, while others work on figuring out how to find a glitch in the system that would enable them to escape to the “Real World.” The U.S. government embarks on a billion-dollar project to create true human-like artificial intelligence in order to game the system.

in this ironic futuristic take on The Canterbury Tales, an eclectic set of characters on a Pilgrimage boards a cross-country bus run by Canterbury Trails for a highlights tour of the North American Impossibilities. These range from a frozen upside-down tornado made of an unearthly substance, to hollow wandering sheep, to a Tunnel where you can spend as much time as you like before emerging across the country one second later. Each of the Impossibilities turns reality as we used to know it on its head, defying all the known laws of physics. People’s reactions range from reverence to deep skepticism as they try to piece together their own new understanding of the world.

We start off getting introduced to the tour participants by narrator who uses all caps titles to describe them, from THE ENGINEER, THE RABBI, THE NURSE, THE COMIC BOOK WRITER, and so on. Later we begin to question who this narrator may actually be, along with the potential incompetence of the program’s runners called The Simulators.

Each person on the bus has their own reasons for the journey, but you have to read as each gets surprisingly revealed across time in order to not spoil the surprises.

Suffice it to say that an epic adventure ensues, existential questions get debated, and the character development has you deeply vested in what happens to each tour participant.

Thanks to S&S and Saga Press, and NetGalley for an advanced reader’s copy.

Stacy DeBroff

Stacy DeBroff, founder and CEO of Mom Central.com and social and digital consultancy, Influence Central, is a social media strategist, attorney, and best-selling parenting author. A sought-after expert for national media, she trend-spots regularly with national brands and speaks frequently to national and international audiences on a wide range of subjects, including influencer marketing, social media, entrepreneurship, and consumer trends. A passionate cook, gardener, reader, and tennis player, she adores this new chapter of post-college-age parenting.