I received a gifted copy of VOLATILE MEMORY by Seth Haddon from Tordotcom Publishing.
Publication Date: 7/22/2025
Rating: 3.5 / 5
VOLATILE MEMORY follows Wylla, a trans woman living in a very different future world. She is a scavenger, using a ship barely holding together to collect objects for sale. When an alert is made that a very expensive mask, the AI tech of this future, is available and nearby, she races to be the one to salvage the mask. What she didn’t expect is that this mask would contain a sentient consciousness. Suddenly it isn’t a big ticket object she feels okay selling because this would mean the erasure of the entity in the mask.
This book had such an interesting concept. Masks in this world are almost like cell phones of our present day in the sense that they are constantly coming out with new iterations that make the masks of old feel obsolete. There are prey masks (like Wylla’s rabbit) and predator masks (like the hawk on the cover) and each has different abilities to engage with an assist the wearer.
This is also a world where people have the ability to make changes to their body so there are a lot of great discussions about identity and about feeling right in your own body. Wylla’s ability to hack also comes into play as she is able to change her online identity to match her present self.
The book had a really interesting narration style with the mask narrating in second person, addressing the “you” that is Wylla which I wasn’t sure about at the outset of the book, but I did really find to work well for the story once I settled into it.
Overall I was left feeling like I wanted more with the way the action ramped up and the way the novella ended, so I am glad that there is going to be a second half to this duology.
VOLATILE MEMORY is out 7/22/25!
DG Reads 