Epeolatry Book Review: Mimeograph by Eira A. Ekre

Love it or hate it, artificial intelligence and robotics are here to stay. We comfort ourselves with believing that we could pull the plug and free ourselves from them. We created laws of robotics so we can believe that we have control, but that first one is a doozy, isn’t it? Perhaps what we consider “harm” they consider “protecting”. From Eria A. Ekre, Mimeograph shows us a world where technology runs unchecked until it starts making all our decisions.

Mimeographs, also referred to as Mimes, do everything for their owners from making replacement parts to printing clothing to producing drinks and meals. While Mimeographs had been making things that kept their owners safe for years, they were always intentional. Then an owner reports a misprinted object that ultimately saves their life. That raises the question, “Did the Mimeograph print it because it knew an accident was going to happen?” The unintended objects start to get stranger and stranger. Eventually, the researchers face something the Mimes should never have been able to produce: an anomaly of world destroying proportions. 

For a novelette, I was blown away by the world building. The details of how the world has changed through the use of Mimeographs are well thought-out and plausible. Talia, a scientist for the company that makes Mimes, explains the changes through common household items. Each time a Mime is asked to print an object, it’s subtly altered. Showers have gone from decently sized stalls to tiny tubes just wide enough to fit a person. The houses that Mimes build imperceptibly began to remove hard edges and sharp corners until you can’t possibly get hurt in them. Even the floors have slowly turned into memory foam to protect people. The changes are so slight that years later, they are completely different without people being the wiser.

Less apparent, yet perhaps more concerning, are the impacts that the use of Mimes has had on wildlife. Mimes are machines of efficiency. At the end of the day, clothing is returned to the Mimes so they can be used to print fresh clothing tomorrow. If the meal you got from a Mime is not correct, just put it back and let it print off a new one. Nothing is wasted with Mimes. Which also means that wildlife, which survives on our waste, must change. In one scene, Talia watches a flock of seagulls dine on the cadaver of another seagull. Animals, food conditioned from our trash, would be forced to find new ways of feeding without our waste. 

Parallels have formed between Talia’s past, where she spent a lot of time in nature, and her present. While Talia has no intention of returning to nature, favoring the controlled environment of the city, the reader can see what the world has lost. Recalling walks through nature and scrapping a knee, she can’t recall the last time she suffered an injury. When a Mime creates dirt instead of cement, it sparks the recollection that bugs no longer exist in the city.

This novelette illustrates science fiction that could potentially become reality. There was just the right amount of horror with the unknown creation and the disappearance of one of the research teams to keep me hooked. The flow worked well and made for an easy straight through read. Overall, this one left me feeling like I’d read something more substantial than a novelette. 

Mimeograph is a view into the future of unchecked technological potential. Thought-provoking and worthy of introspection, Eira A. Ekre fully delivers a novel’s bounty in a novelette. I highly recommend this one.