The End of Everything. H. John Morrison.
2026 Booker Prize short list.

The Guardian newspaper states that although Morrison's writings are
literature, he has not achieved prior recognition because of his choice
of genre: Speculative Fiction.

It is a decade since England and presumably the rest of the world were
invaded by the iGhetti, whom nothing is known about but is thought that
they exist in the astral plane. However their presence distorts reality
in both time and space. For example, aeroplanes that flew to London to
bomb the financial district where the iGhetti first appeared are
sometimes seen making the same flight 10 years later. The alternate
space reality is difficult to summarise but is described in detail in
the book. There are now no institutions, no government, no police, no newspapers, no radio, no tv, no computers, abandoned buildings and less
people. It is not clear how commerce works but the protagonist, Phillip,
is a beachcomber so there must be some sort of market.
From someone's journal of the invasion Phillip's aunt reads "Long before
the iGhetti arrived, everyone was playing out a separate fantasy" and it
was assumed that perhaps the iGhetti were a single entity with a large
number of components, many of which were discarded. "The seas are like a
stew, still full of the biological artefacts they discarded after their arrival."
Phillip finds a biological artefact and with his 70 year old aunt leaves
the coast in Kent to travel to London to find a purchaser hoping for a
price sufficient to buy him and his aunt a passage to Spain. The
artefact quickly grows in size developing arms and legs. It loses a hand
which immediately starts to regrow. It is soon making noise and later in
the journey develops more quickly learning to read in just one day from
books and advertising pamphlets.
I can't say too much more about events without spoiling your reading.
There are acts of pragmatic brutality which suggest the end of any moral
code but once in an apparently abandoned shop, the aunt admonishes the
artefact for not leaving payment for goods taken.
Ghetti must be short for spaghetti and the lower case i suggests
technology such as an iPhone or iPad so, although it is not mentioned,
the implication is that the iGhetti is Artificial Intelligence whose use
to support political or commercial propaganda has created false reality
which might lead to the end of everything human. The arrival of the
iGhetti in the London financial district implies their creation by money
and greed.
I enjoyed thinking about the metaphor more than the actual reading which
might be a criticism of my appreciation of literature but I still rate
it as Four Stars.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 04/10/2026 12:00, Titus G wrote:

The End of Everything. H. John Morrison.

Sorry. The correct author's name is M. John Harrison.
Please delete my previous post with the incorrect subject line.


The End of Everything. M. John Harrison.
2026 Booker Prize short list.

The Guardian newspaper states that although Harrison's writings are
literature, he has not achieved prior recognition because of his choice
of genre: Speculative Fiction.

It is a decade since England and presumably the rest of the world were
invaded by the iGhetti, whom nothing is known about but is thought that
they exist in the astral plane. However their presence distorts reality
in both time and space. For example, aeroplanes that flew to London to
bomb the financial district where the iGhetti first appeared are
sometimes seen making the same flight 10 years later. The alternate
space reality is difficult to summarise but is described in detail in
the book. There are now no institutions, no government, no police, no newspapers, no radio, no tv, no computers, abandoned buildings and less
people. It is not clear how commerce works but the protagonist, Phillip,
is a beachcomber so there must be some sort of market.
From someone's journal of the invasion Phillip's aunt reads "Long before
the iGhetti arrived, everyone was playing out a separate fantasy" and it
was assumed that perhaps the iGhetti were a single entity with a large
number of components, many of which were discarded. "The seas are like a
stew, still full of the biological artefacts they discarded after their arrival."
Phillip finds a biological artefact and with his 70 year old aunt leaves
the coast in Kent to travel to London to find a purchaser hoping for a
price sufficient to buy him and his aunt a passage to Spain. The
artefact quickly grows in size developing arms and legs. It loses a hand
which immediately starts to regrow. It is soon making noise and later in
the journey develops more quickly learning to read in just one day from
books and advertising pamphlets.
I can't say too much more about events without spoiling your reading.
There are acts of pragmatic brutality which suggest the end of any moral
code but once in an apparently abandoned shop, the aunt admonishes the
artefact for not leaving payment for goods taken.
Ghetti must be short for spaghetti and the lower case i suggests
technology such as an iPhone or iPad so, although it is not mentioned,
the implication is that the iGhetti is Artificial Intelligence whose use
to support political or commercial propaganda has created false reality
which might lead to the end of everything human. The arrival of the
iGhetti in the London financial district implies their creation by money
and greed.
I enjoyed thinking about the metaphor more than the actual reading which
might be a criticism of my appreciation of literature but I still rate
it as Four Stars.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)