I saw a book on sale that fit well with my previous book haul’s theme (contemporary sci-fi), and I couldn’t resist buying it right away. They say not to judge a book by its cover, and if the adage has any truth to it, that probably means judging a book by its title alone is even worse right? Well I was willing to give this one a shot from the second I tried to wrap my brain around the word ‘Morphotrophic’ on the cover page, and I’m so glad I did.

This is a hard sci-fi novel by Greg Egan, an Australian author who I somehow hadn’t heard of before. He’s published a ton of novels and won a bunch of awards too, plus he’s right up my alley with his high concept plots. Yet more evidence that there’s always a hole in my reading list no matter how hard I look. I can’t believe I’ve been missing out. ‘Morphotrophic’ has such a unique vibe, with elements of psychological and biological horror, but also a haunting beauty inheriting from the powerful concept at the core of the novel.

It’s hard to even approach the concept at hand. The novel does it better than I ever could, but the gist is, in the world of ‘Morphotrophic,’ all biological organisms have cells that evolved to migrate around rather than stay in one place. Cells share a shape memory with each other to form different organisms from humans all the way down to a nematode. Egan takes this alternate evolutionary path to creative places by imagining what kinds of adaptations would be useful to cells such as these, and what kinds of adaptations could cause problems. The opening scene of a young girl waking in her bed to find that her flesh is abandoning her sets the uncanny, and somewhat disturbing tone of the book. Egan immediately doubles down too by introducing a second character who engages in ‘swapper culture,’ illegal underground cell swapping. There’s a whole culture built around exchanging cells to find the best combination for one’s own body. The other plot line develops into more of a research focused thriller, another plot archetype that’s right up my alley after having read ‘Blood Over Bright Haven.’

It keeps getting weirder too, that’s literally just the beginning of the story. I haven’t wrapped my head around what happens next well enough to express any coherent thoughts, other than that its not your everyday adventure. It’s some really trippy sci-fi, but unlike a lot of the harder stuff, it isn’t too dry either. Egan does wax poetic a little long at times, but its easy to let him get away with it when what’s on the page is just so unusual and fresh. I hope the rest of the book keeps innovating on the concept as creatively as it begins.

Thank you for reading,

Benjamin Hawley