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Craig Hallam
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Oshibana Complex Kindle Edition

by Craig Hallam (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.5 out of 5 stars 7 ratings
Welcome to Shika-One City, humanity’s final home.

Nations have come together. Gender and race are petty concerns of the past. But not everything is well in Shika-One.

Humanity can no longer procreate and has to synthesize future generations. But there aren’t many genetic templates to go around and meeting yourself on the street is a daily occurrence. With so many people wearing the same face, the synths of Shika-One strive for individuality in a world where stepping out of line can lead to the shredder.

In this pulsing neon world lives Xev and eir friends, all hard-working synths who maintain their designations to earn the XP to live and hope to afford the holographic shams that cover up their similarities. That is, until a new synth makes Xev start to ask big questions that might upset the status quo.

In Shika-One, life is cheap.
Xev is about to discover what e’s worth.
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  1. Print length
    108 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Accessibility
    Learn more
  4. Publication date
    September 26, 2020
  5. File size
    2.9 MB
  6. Page Flip
    Enabled
  7. Word Wise
    Not Enabled
  8. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
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Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B08HWYMJ5L
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Inspired Quill
  • Accessibility ‏ : ‎ Learn more
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 26, 2020
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 2.9 MB
  • Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 108 pages
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1908600981
  • Page Flip ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 out of 5 stars 7 ratings

About the author

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Craig Hallam

Craig Hallam

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Craig Hallam is an international best-selling author from Doncaster, UK. His work spans all aspects of Speculative Fiction and Mental Health non-fiction, and poetry.

Since his debut in the British Fantasy Society journal, his tales have nestled between the pages of magazines and anthologies the world over. His novels and short stories have filled the imaginations of geeks, niche and alternative readers with their character-driven style and unusual plots.

Craig has recently chronicled his experiences of living with depression and anxiety in the international best-seller, Down Days. Topping the Amazon charts in the UK and US at the start of COVID, the book has since been a finalist for the Independent Author Network’s Book of the Year Awards and read the world over.

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
7 global ratings

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Top reviews from the United States

  • Over it
    5.0 out of 5 stars Critical Win for L G B T Q I A +
    Reviewed in the United States on August 4, 2021
    Format: KindleVerified Purchase
    A landslide Ace in the hole for Craig Hallam. A mind bending adventure drawing from commentary on society and dispensing with gender norms altogether. In a world where everyone is the same, individuality is hard to find.
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  • Dorothy Winsor
    4.0 out of 5 stars This book led me to examine me reactions to it
    Reviewed in the United States on October 11, 2020
    Format: KindleVerified Purchase
    This book led me to examine me reactions to it and hopefully grow a little. None of the characters is given a gender. At first, the gender neutral pronouns (e, eir, etc) stopped me every time I encountered one, though I did get used to them. But I found myself assigning a gender to the central character anyway. I saw Xev as male, even though I knew that was clearly a result of my living in a patriarchal culture, where male is the default. I also realized I must take more satisfaction that I realized from conventional sexual tension between male and female characters. As I said, that led to me to do some thinking about impulses I thought I was pretty much in control of. An interesting rather than easy read
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  • Olivia Wylie
    5.0 out of 5 stars A book that will really make you ask yourself what it’s all about.
    Reviewed in the United States on November 6, 2021
    Format: Kindle
    In the tradition of Blade Runner and Neuromancer, this is a book that will really make you ask yourself what it’s all about. And this one pulls exactly no punches. In this work, Hallam has distilled down all the things that are worst about today’s inner city life: the constant grind just to get by. The exhaustion. The feeling that none of it really matters, but you don’t get the choice to quit. And the creeping sensation that this entire rat race is rigged, and that while you’re working your butt off down here, somebody somewhere is living large off your hard work. And then the author made it worse, because there is no outside. Nowhere to get away to. The environment outside the dome humanity’s reduced to living in can and will kill a human in a few minutes. And Hallam wasn’t kidding about doing away with gender. Every character in the story is referred to by e/eir pronouns. Sure, there’s no more gender discrimination. And that sounds good…until you, the reader, realize that it means people are literally only worth the amount of work they can do for the company, and how they play the game. This existence is a cruel parody of living. It’s been covered with plenty of capitalist glitz and glam and encouragements to buy one more thing that will make you HAPPY! (tm). But everyone feels the falsehood. Written in a vernacular that pulls you right into the characters’ world, the style is immersive and irresistible. It’s also surprisingly poignant, which makes its events hit home all the more.
    At this point, all there is to life is staying alive one more day. Doing one more thing.
    Or is there?

    That’s the question this book asks. And if you wanted to look at our culture and its excesses through a mirror darkly? This is about the blackest mirror you’re going to find.

    Our protagonist in this work is Xev, a world-weary worker bee who, in spite of it all, still has a little room in eir heart for kindness. For hope. For the belief in dignity. Given the circumstances e has endured, that in itself is remarkable.
    Well plotted and well-done, this book left me in a place that I feel ambivalent towards. No spoilers, but the ending created a lot of complicated feelings for me. I sat for a few minutes thinking ‘was that the only way? Is that really the only way to make a good life for people? Or is that just the only avenue the beings involved could see?’
    And yet, isn’t that what great works are supposed to do? Make us question? Make us ask what it’s all about?
    If so, this book definitely succeeded.
    Grab your copy. See you on the other side.
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  • Kelsee
    4.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful Cyberpunk Novel
    Reviewed in the United States on September 26, 2020
    Format: Paperback
    Oshibana Complex follows Xev through eir life in Shika-One, which is a dome designed to protect what remains of humanity from the harsh environmental conditions on Earth. Everyone in Shika-One is a clone based off of a few original templates, but there are only so many templates, so everyone strives for individuality to keep from running into someone with the same face. Work is mind-numbingly repetitive and the cost of messing up are high. Xev starts training a new "synth" at eir job at the Burger Stop. What Xev doesn't realize is that eir world is about to be turned upside down, and e will have to question what makes life... life?

    This book was one of those that I finished and had to sit with for a minute because the ending was, WOW. Since then, I just keep thinking about this one, it was so well done! It took my brain a minute to settle around reading a story where everyone in the book is non-binary, but once it did, it was really amazing. There were a lot of really sad, and soul-crushing moments for Xev, but I really really loved this vision of the future where gender just doesn't exist. This book tackles some really heavy meaning of life stuff as well, and I feel in the space of this book the answers were really satisfying. I also loved the hints that the soundtrack to this story was 80s synthpop. Because being able to cue up just that playlist and listen to it while reading was perfection. I could FEEL the neon in this one! I highly recommend!
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