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Prime Meridian

Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Goodreads Author)

3.98 · Rating details · 579 ratings · 161 reviews

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Paperback, 122 pages

Published by Innsmouth Free Press (first published December 1st 2017)

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Nov 11, 2017 Grace rated it really liked it

Shelves: adult-fiction, scifi, dystopia, solid

This novella creeped me out. It was a snapshot of stymied dissatisfaction, a life arrested on its course and plunged by force into a stagnancy leading nowhere. If I sound overly flowery, like I'm trying to write a literary-sounding review of The Great Gatsby or some other profoundly uncomfortable classic work, it's because that's what Prime Meridian was like.

Only I don't need any American Lit teacher to tell me, "You see, Gatsby was so influential because it encapsulated the essence of the 1920 ...more

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Dec 18, 2018 Rincey rated it liked it

Shelves: poc-author

My disappointment in this comes from two main things: 1) It's a novella and when I finished I wished I wanted it to be longer because I wanted all of it fleshed out more. 2) I definitely thought it took place in space (Look, I just auto-downloaded this because it's Silvia Moreno-Garica. I only like skimmed the summary.)

But man, you guys, Silvia Moreno-Garcia is always so freaking good at these morally gray, complicated characters. I can't get over it.

Watch me talk about this book in my December ...more

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Apr 14, 2018 K.J. Charles added it

Shelves: dystopia, sci-fi

I thought this would be a sf, but although it's set in a crumbling future when Mars colonisation is underway, it's mainly a portrait of a young woman in despair. Amelia dreams of Mars, sells plasma, scrabbles together a living as a professional friend and half-hearted mistress. Vivid, powerful writing in a fully realised world of grinding poverty and wealth gap. Amelia's bleakness, expressed in a detached inability to engage with her lover or sister, is powerfully done, and there is the faintest ...more

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Dec 04, 2017 kari rated it really liked it

That was not what I expected - at all. I thought I was in for a space exploration story. I got a powerful, emotional portrayal of precarious life in an enormous city, the suffocating weight of a number of tiny things gone wrong, disillusionment and dystopia that's become so commonplace no one sees it as such. All this contrasted with love of 80's movies in their endearing cheesiness. I thought I'd read just a couple of pages, and then I didn't stop reading until the very end. ...more

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Aug 10, 2018 Adrian Dooley rated it liked it

The story of Amelia, a young woman who dreams of moving to Mars which has been colonised. She dreams of the reality of living with Mars and the romantic version in the old films depicting it.

But she is stuck scraping by on Earth in Mexico City, doing odd jobs here and there just to survive, living with her sister and her kids, she spends most of her days in coffee houses drinking the cheapest coffee while using their wifi.
An old boyfriend who broke her heart appears on the scene again and as she ...more

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Aug 14, 2018 Teleseparatist rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2018, owned, shorts

I find stories like this one strangely transfixing. The protagonist is a very young woman (though she is convinced that 25 is far older than it is) imprisoned in an untenably awful situation by external factors (poverty, economy, lack of family support) as well as internal ones (I'd say depression, and assorted problems related to that). It is a difficult and affecting read where little happens and even less is affected by the character herself: she reacts to events, and even the conclusion depe ...more

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Nov 14, 2018 Rivqa rated it it was amazing

A novella of survival in a very real dystopia of later late-stage capitalism. But also a story of missed opportunities and second chances. Achingly beautiful.

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Jul 28, 2019 Michael rated it it was amazing

Shelves: sci-fi-class, 2018-hugo-read, summer-2019

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. “Prime Meridian” and Its Many Marses

Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s “Prime Meridian” is about Mars, though not the red planet nor the Roman god of war. Instead, this story features a black-and-white Mars decorated with cheap studio effects, another Mars that exists only as a bond between a young couple that cannot survive the chasm of their inequity of wealth, and a third Mars that calls to Amelia’s soul from a billboard. Each Mars drives the plot and situates the story in terms of real world history, cu “Prime Meridian” and Its Many Marses

Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s “Prime Meridian” is about Mars, though not the red planet nor the Roman god of war. Instead, this story features a black-and-white Mars decorated with cheap studio effects, another Mars that exists only as a bond between a young couple that cannot survive the chasm of their inequity of wealth, and a third Mars that calls to Amelia’s soul from a billboard. Each Mars drives the plot and situates the story in terms of real world history, culture, and the history of science fiction.

In Moreno-Garcia’s near future, Mexico City’s wealthy exploit the despair of vast masses of disadvantaged youth in a hyper version of today’s gig economy. Amelia, our protagonist, abandoned her studies of urban agriculture to care for her ailing, dying mother and is saddled with ferrying her sister's children around in the bargain. Amelia calls herself a freelancer on her CV, noting it is a “euphemism for unemployed.” Her bleak possibilities recall Birdie’s options in Disch’s “Problems in Creativeness,” but what is at stake for Amelia is not the right of procreation but merely basic survival. At the story’s inception Amelia’s current gig is Friendrr, where lonely rich people pay her to be their friend for an hour, and her sole client is Lucía, once a “middling starlet” in 1960s Mexican cinema. From Amelia’s description, comparing her to “the core of a dead tree,” her house “artificial, too-calculated, too overdone” and her hospitality as generous as an infrequent dish of pomegranate seeds and glass of mineral water, our heroine clearly despises the ex-actress.

They watch Lucía’s second movie, dated 1965, which is set on Mars. At one point, Lucía says, “The real Mars is bland compared to the one the set designer imagined.” Amelia volunteers to the actress how she wants to go to the colonies. Amelia reinforces her wish in later conversations as well, but Moreno-Garcia underplays these exchanges, so the payoff at the story’s end is unexpected (at least to me it was.)

The author plants the story in the real world by amply seasoning the tale with Mexican culture. Lucía’s casona, for example, is plausibly placed in Coyoacán, the neighborhood where Frida Kahlo lived, where she was jailed after Leon Trotsky’s assassination. A wealthy ex-actress “who got lucky and married a filthy rich politician” who lived there certainly might decorate her home with colorful talaveras. Moreno-Garcia adds other recognizable elements—pulquerias, champurrado, esquite, rebozos, huipiles, and tinacos—but in Amelia’s world the pulquerias are being replaced by fusion restaurants, the huipiles are designer brands, and the rebozos are made in China. “Folkloric bullshit,” our protagonist opines, but these references illustrate the Swanwickian large, philosophical question of the story, the postcolonial effects upon the Mexican poor. The rich are free to enjoy Nahuan tamazcal in Peru, while the poor scrape by in purposeless hand-to-mouth existence.

Moreno-Garcia also reinforces her setting by adding real world references. Alejandro Jodorowsky and Luis Buñuel were active in Mexico’s film industry. In fact, Buñuel’s film Fando y Lis caused a riot in Acapulco. The producer of Lucía’s film, however, Nahum (Eduard) Landmann, is actually an inside joke, a reference to the “legendary founder” of Moreno-Garcia and Lavie Tidhar’s (who wrote the novella’s introduction) literary journal, The Jewish Mexican Literary Review (Tidhar).

In any case, Stanley Weinbaum (“A Martian Odyssey”) and A.E. Van Vogt (“The Enchanted Village”) would recognize Lucía’s Mars, because it is not Mars but “Mars. The moons are paper and the stars are tinfoil. So, it is possible to step forward [without a spacesuit].” The Mars of Lucías heyday is only for stories. It is the same Mars early SF stories were set, one for SF but not for science.

The Mars of the colonies is the same of the tender couple’s dreams, however rich Elías is bound to Earth. A creature of privilege, when he ghosts Ameli, he blames his father. Once he finds her on Friendrr, he transforms her into a willing, if unenthusiastic, whore. When she catches him in his stalking lie, he expresses regret saying, “I should have gone to New Panyu [a Martian colony] with you… My dad wouldn’t give me the money, but I should have done something.” Amelia compassionately offers him another chance, but at the story’s end, when Amelia announces her get-out-of-squalor-free card (Lucía’s gift), he chooses instead a boring life with Anastasia, the meat exhibition virtuoso. (“No offense, Amelia, but what do you know about art?”)

Moreno-Garcia’s story of income discrepancy is well founded in Mexico's current conditions. The author just tightened the screws already present a few more turns. According to its public site, Mexico City is the “eighth-richest urban agglomeration” and produces over a fifth of Mexico’s wealth, but its distribution of income is sinfully unequal. In 2010, Reyes, Teruel, and Lopez determined the truth was worse than the official numbers, demonstrating “the richest 1% of the population receives the same amount of income as the other 90%.” These people are rich enough to pay poor workers for an hour of cuddling, friendship, or even less savory duties.

Perhaps Elías did once dream of a life with Amelia in New Panyu, but when asked to choose, he chose the dream he already lives. “Cut the shit,” he tells her. “Come with me to Monterrey. I’ll rent a place for you there. I’ll pay your expenses.” He is offering her a long-term constant side gig until he gets bored again and ghosts her. Amelia, who despite misgivings of being a bad friend (though she cleans out her life savings for Pili), deserves more, and Lucia’s “shaky words… scrawled with a black felt pen” leave her no confusion. “Do what you want, Amelia,” they say. The gift transforms Amelia into the woman on the billboard, the “confident” girl who “knew things” (in numerous asides she recites Martian facts) and “knew people” (enough of them at least.) Through Lucía’s gift, she is ready for her final Mars, her exit from Mexico City. She may struggle, but after Mexico City’s grind, she is ready. The story’s satisfying conclusion, though the gift is unexpected, feels earned.

On Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s patron page, she describes her work as “magic realism, horror, fantasy and noir.” She also won a World Fantasy Award as editor for She Walks in Shadows. “Prime Meridian,” set in a near-future Mexico City with musical tattoos and “dancing, singing, 3D hologram[s] [of] teenage avatar[s] in a skimpy French maid’s outfit who… call you “Master” and wake you up in the morning with a song” recalls Williamson’s “With Folded Hands” perfect mechanicals, albeit with spicy upgrades. Read as a tale of a collection of Marses, it fits Zelazny’s SF definition too, but the story itself feels more like literary fiction. Moreno-Garcia adds a parallel aside, told in script form, which draws attention to the prose, and despite the protagonist’s enormous efforts to change her destiny, she is ever the target rather than the instigator of events. In any case, this is a thought-provoking story by a versatile author (Zombies!) and a fulfilling end to a semester of exploration.
...more

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Feb 01, 2020 Rachel (TheShadesofOrange) rated it liked it

Shelves: science-fiction

3.0 Stars
More contemporary than science fiction, this was more about the challenges of being an underemployed twenty-something living in Mexico. I liked the Mars colony angle and wished that it played a large role in the story. I particularly enjoyed the parts involving her working as a friend for hire (which is a real freelance job!)

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Nov 30, 2017 imyril rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: subjective-chaos-2019

I think I have something in my eye. What a brilliant, forceful story.

Full review to follow.

I received a free copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

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Oct 21, 2018 A Reader's Heaven rated it really liked it

Shelves: short-fiction, sci-fi

Love, life, dreams, and a world beyond reach.
Amelia dreams of Mars. The Mars of the movies and the imagination, an endless bastion of opportunities for a colonist with some guts. But she’s trapped in Mexico City, enduring the drudgery of an unkind metropolis, working as a rent-a-friend, selling her blood to old folks with money who hope to rejuvenate themselves with it, enacting a fractured love story. And yet there’s Mars, at the edge of the silver screen, of life. It awaits her.

I have to start Love, life, dreams, and a world beyond reach.
Amelia dreams of Mars. The Mars of the movies and the imagination, an endless bastion of opportunities for a colonist with some guts. But she’s trapped in Mexico City, enduring the drudgery of an unkind metropolis, working as a rent-a-friend, selling her blood to old folks with money who hope to rejuvenate themselves with it, enacting a fractured love story. And yet there’s Mars, at the edge of the silver screen, of life. It awaits her.

I have to start by saying this was NOT what I was expecting when I started reading. The story of Amelia is hopeful and heartbreaking at the same time. Amelia lives in Mexico City - but dreams of Mars. She has wants to step foot on Mars and make it her home now that it has been colonised. Lots of her waking hours are spent going from one coffee house to the next, taking advantage of their free wi-fi to look up articles on Mars and other science-based issues.

She dreams of how exciting it will be compared with her mundane life she leads right now in Mexico City. She flits from one job to the next, unable to secure a good job due to her lack of education. She is a professional friend, a blood donor, and a part-time mistress of a previous boyfriend (who is now engaged to be married!). She lives with her sister and her kids because she can't afford anything better. She is forced to be the babysitter whenever her sister needs to go somewhere. Amelia (I think) is depressed and doesn't have the tools or the income to do anything about that. It is tough, it is gritty and it is a situation I think a lot of people can relate to.

What else is there? Secondary characters are really non-existent in this book - apart from the now-engaged ex-boyfriend Elias, and the wonderful Lucia, who Amelia visits as a "Rent-A-Friend". Elias is a jerk and very unlikeable (for me, anyway) but Lucia is really the star of the show here (as far as secondary characters.) She is a former queen of the screen, doing sci-fi films that did have a Mars connection. At first, Amelia just sits and listens as Lucia tells her the story of her life but, as the story progresses, the bond between the two of them becomes more than just a rent-a-friend.

But under all of that depression and drifting is Amelia's hope - to visit Mars. It is what keeps driving her, keeps her taking whatever source of income she can to inch her ever closer to fulfilling that dream. Although Amelia isn't totally likeable, the reader can't help but hope for a better future for her...

Highly recommended!

Paul
ARH ...more

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May 24, 2018 Sarah rated it really liked it

Prime Meridian is a lovely, quiet science fiction novella.

Amelia is a lonely woman, drifting through an unsatisfying life in Mexico City. She’s wound up living with her bossy older sister and her two nieces in one cramped apartment, while she works a series of odd temp jobs, mostly as someone rich people can hire to be their friend.

But Amelia has dreams. She dreams of Mars. Becoming a Martian colonist requires resources that are far out of Amelia’s grasp, but she’s never given up on the dream.

“A Prime Meridian is a lovely, quiet science fiction novella.

Amelia is a lonely woman, drifting through an unsatisfying life in Mexico City. She’s wound up living with her bossy older sister and her two nieces in one cramped apartment, while she works a series of odd temp jobs, mostly as someone rich people can hire to be their friend.

But Amelia has dreams. She dreams of Mars. Becoming a Martian colonist requires resources that are far out of Amelia’s grasp, but she’s never given up on the dream.

“Adrift” is the perfect description of Amelia. She spent her entire childhood studying hard to get a college scholarship, and then she lost it when she had to leave to care for her sick mother. Now her mother’s dead and Amelia’s unemployable. The class divide in this novella is stark. Soon after the beginning of the novella, Amelia reconnects with an old boyfriend, who she went to college with. He’s wealthy and seems interested in her… but he’s also got a fiancee.

One of the things that struck me the most about Prime Meridian was Amelia’s job as a Rent-a-Friend. It’s utterly terrible that you could hire someone to be your friend… but I also believe it’s a startup that could really happen. Apparently something like it already has? Anyway, Amelia’s not that charismatic or good-looking, so she has trouble finding work even as a fake friend. Pretty much her only client is an old woman who used to be an actress, before she gave it up and married a rich man. She hires Amelia to watch her old movies with her.

So many of the movies are set on Mars. Not the real, scientific Mars, but the dream of Mars. The B-movie, pulpy, spacemen and aliens Mars. The sections of the novella were divided up by excerpts from these movies scripts, and they play a large role in the story. This whole tale is about Mars as a dream and an escape, so of course the depiction on the silver screen ties into that.

Prime Meridian isn’t really about Mars. It’s about Mars as a dream, a hope, and a chance. Amelia wants out of unfulfilling life. Would Mars really be any better? Maybe not, but having hope is better than nothing.

Prime Meridian is a haunting novella that swept me away with its dream of Mars.

I received an ARC in exchange for a free and honest review.

Review from The Illustrated Page. ...more

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Nov 03, 2020 The Captain rated it it was amazing

Shelves: sci-fi

Ahoy there me mateys! This be the sixth book I have read by the author and me sixth five star read. Dang does she float me boat! I have said before that what I find amazing about all of the author's books is that they feel so different from each other. The first was a vampire story with stunning vampire culture and history. The second was a Mayan fairy-tale set during the Jazz age in Mexico. The third was a romance with a hint of fantasy set in the Belle Époque era. The fourth was a comin ...more

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Dec 14, 2017 Katie rated it it was amazing

(I received an early ebook copy of this book from the publisher through Netgalley. My opinions are my own)

Wow. I had no expectations going into this. I knew three things: the cover was gorgeous, it was listed as Sci-Fi, and the main character wanted to go to Mars.

What I got was leagues above and beyond.

The first thing you should know is this is a quick, fast paced story. It's written in the clipped, straightforward style reminiscent of the Lost Generation. This does not mean the writing is not ...more

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Feb 19, 2019 Megan Hex rated it it was amazing

Basically a science fiction novel placed right now. The hope of Mars is a backdrop against the hardscrabble life of twentysomethings stuck in a gig economy. Sad and truthful without ever quite losing hope. It's a novella, so take a couple hours and read this one. ...more

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Oct 11, 2018 Anissa rated it really liked it

Recommends it for: speculative fiction fans or as a started into that sub-genre

Shelves: cultural, favourites, science-fiction, 2018

My only complaint with this is that I didn't want it to end. Such is the peril of reading the novella. There's some exceptional writing here and with the yearning of Mars always in the background of the story, I really loved the atmosphere and how Moreno-Garcia painted this world.

Amelia is a twenty-something who is stuck in the mire of poverty due to college being stopped to care for her dying mother and the inability to parlay her skills into marketable remuneration. It's a bleak existence and My only complaint with this is that I didn't want it to end. Such is the peril of reading the novella. There's some exceptional writing here and with the yearning of Mars always in the background of the story, I really loved the atmosphere and how Moreno-Garcia painted this world.

Amelia is a twenty-something who is stuck in the mire of poverty due to college being stopped to care for her dying mother and the inability to parlay her skills into marketable remuneration. It's a bleak existence and one that eerily doesn't feel so far off in the real Western world (I haven't heard there's massive blood selling going on just yet). Still, there is hope threaded through in her long desire to relocate to Mars. Her interactions with Lucia were some of the best, not just for the look at Mars through old B-movies, but mostly for the relationship built between the two women. The other characters from Amelia's sister, to the ex-boyfriend who found her on Friendrr (a service people sign up to for companionship), to her ever-resourceful friend, Pili were well done for a short work but I could easily see how they could be expanded in a longer work.

I was surprised at how many passages I highlit as this is a novella but I will share one here.

"Since the expensive buildings required abundant water and electricity, the poor residents in the area had to do without. The big buildings had priority over all the resources. There were also a few fancy buildings that had halted construction when the latest housing bubble popped. They remained half-finished, like gaping, filthy teeth spread across several gigantic lots. Indigents now made their homes there, living in structures without windows, while three blocks away, women were wrapped in tepezcohuite at the spa, experiencing the trendiest plant remedy around the city."

I feel it really gave a sense of place and reminded me of something I read once about the Superbowl festivities in some city or other in the last so many years. The article made mention of the homeless seeming bemused by all the high-end amenities in the pop-up city of vendors around them (most particularly the hot dogs dressed in gold leaf for the eating pleasure of those who could afford it). The display of poverty adjacent to decadence, when presented so starkly, remains jarring.

While I've tagged this one science fiction, I think it feels more like speculative fiction (I don't have a dedicated shelf for those). I am hoping Moreno-Garcia expands this story and gives readers more of Amelia's story.

I want to read more by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. Definitely recommended. ...more

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Dec 12, 2017 Jessica Strider rated it really liked it

Pros: interesting story, good character development

Cons: limited description

Amelia dreams of heading to Mars, but she can’t afford the flight and doesn’t want to be an indentured servant, so she continues to eek out an existence in Mexico City, making ends meet by doing occasional jobs as a paid friend.

This is a novella funded by an IndieGoGo campaign, which I supported.

Amelia isn’t the most likeable character, as evidenced by her limited Friendrr clientele, but she is an honest one. A string of ...more

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Feb 09, 2018 Nicky rated it really liked it

Shelves: netgalley, received-to-review, speculative-fiction

Received to review via Netgalley; publication date 10th July 2018

Prime Meridian is a rather quiet novella, following the low-key struggle of life in Mexico City for its protagonist, Amelia, while she dreams of life in the colonies on Mars. There’s no intense action, just an emotional undercurrent of bitterness and the fear that she’ll never escape Mexico City and her life there. There’s an honesty about Amelia’s character — not always likeable, for the reader or for the people around her — but a ...more

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Nov 10, 2017 Runalong rated it it was amazing

A beautiful passionate tale of a twenty-five year old woman in Mexico City who is stuck in life while dreaming of Mars. This novella is where the dream
Of the future keeps you going when everyone else wants you to do what they want. Amazing

Full review - https://www.runalongtheshelves.net/ch... ...more

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Jan 15, 2019 Cheryl rated it it was ok

Really misleading cover and blurb. The only thing SF about it, in actuality, is the near-future dystopia. And yes, I admit, it is a dystopia because even though there are still plenty of rich ppl, they have no souls. But honestly if I hadn't seen the cover, I would have been able to tell that the blurb overpromised, and I would not have read this. Ugh. ...more

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Nov 30, 2017 Bogi Takács added it

Review soonish IY"H! I should say in the meanwhile that I liked it.

Source of the book: Bought with my own money ...more

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Nov 10, 2020 Mike Finn rated it really liked it

Shelves: science-fiction, mexican, kindle, 2020-halloween-bingo

A novella about a young woman in a future Mexico City deciding what to do about her dreams after her well-planned life has been derailed.

In 'Prime Meridian', Silvia Moreno-Garcia shows us a young woman, Amelia, trying to shape her life, to make the right choices after having been knocked off course from a career planned to take her to Mars when she had to drop out of college to look after her sick mother.

The story is set in a near-future Mexico city with some interesting extrapolations of curren ...more

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Jan 29, 2020 Tani rated it really liked it

Shelves: female-author, novella, sff-2020, scifi, sff-ladies-2020, sff-explorer-2020, 2020-shortstuff

Don't go into this thinking it's about space travel. It's not. Instead, it's about scraping by in a reality you hate and dreaming of more, in a very near future dystopian kind of way. Also about the friendships we make when we don't mean to. This is my first Silvia Morena-Garcia, but it won't be the last. I instantly fell in love with the way that she writes characters. I won't say Amelia is terribly likable. In fact, she's terribly miserable. But I found myself empathizing with her so much that ...more

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Sep 24, 2018 jocelyn rated it liked it

Shelves: sf-dyst-supernatural, poc, latinx, owned-phys

This is the second work I've read by SMG and though it doesn't quite reach my love for Certain Dark Things , it was still a solid read.

Prime Meridian is a much quieter story than I was expecting, though again we have the backdrop of Mexico that seems to be part of Moreno-Garcia's MO. In a distant future, we find Amelia: lonely, apathetic, out of options, and dreaming about the day she can finally leave for a Mars colony. She makes money where she can, which is mostly by sitting with an old ac ...more

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Aug 31, 2018 Leticia rated it it was amazing

Shelves: netgalley-reads, 5-stars-fiction, authors-of-color, science-fiction, literary-fiction, sci-fi-dystopia, tbr-2018, empty_shelvie2018, 300_less_than, storybundleworldsf

This book is not standard new-adult science fiction, but a well-written, and touching story in a, quite possible to happen, dystopian future.
Amelia is a heart-warming, relatable and real heroine. The theme of a woman giving her best and even tough being taken for granted is shown in detail (I found the symbolism with the rat very clever) and the heroine arc is lovely.
I hope there are more books with Amelia's life on Mars and will be checking out future books by this author.

I would like to tha ...more

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Mar 17, 2019 Lara rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-in-2019, short-stories-novellas-essays, science-fiction

Not what I expected, but that's Silvia Moreno-Garcia for you! This one is definitely more literary fiction than sci-fi, but it's still an interesting mix of the two genres, and I always love the way she writes. I probably won't keep coming back to this one like I will Signal to Noise and The Beautiful Ones, but I think it will stick in my mind anyway. I'm looking forward to whatever Moreno-Garcia does next! ...more

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Apr 26, 2020 Nicole rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi

Neat story about a poor girl who dreams of going to Mars. It's set in Mexico, though the descriptions of places are focused more on the economic differences between the classes and less on the nation where the story is set. Also, I had trouble placing the timing of this one (it seems to maybe be historical sci-fi? Or maybe an alternate contemporary?) but it was still enjoyable.

Also, it didn't really take me as long to read it at the dates make it seem. I paused in reading this to read some reada ...more

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Jul 20, 2018 Riley Ashby rated it it was amazing

This is an exceptional sci-fi novella that hearkens back to the style of Ray Bradbury and H.G. Wells. Beautifully crafted.

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Dec 18, 2018 Maddalena rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-2018

4 & 1/2 STARS

This third work I’ve read by Silvia Moreno-Garcia confirms that she’s an extremely versatile author: after the violent world of vampires shown in Certain Dark Things, and the frivolously vicious society of The Beautiful Ones, with this novella we explore Mexico in the near future, a future where mankind has established colonies on Mars while on Earth entire areas suffer from a failing economy, their inhabitants struggling in a hand-to-mouth existence that seems to offer little hope 4 & 1/2 STARS

This third work I’ve read by Silvia Moreno-Garcia confirms that she’s an extremely versatile author: after the violent world of vampires shown in Certain Dark Things, and the frivolously vicious society of The Beautiful Ones, with this novella we explore Mexico in the near future, a future where mankind has established colonies on Mars while on Earth entire areas suffer from a failing economy, their inhabitants struggling in a hand-to-mouth existence that seems to offer little hope and even less means of escape.

Amelia is a prime example of this world: once a promising student winning a scholarship that might have launched her into an academic career, she was forced to abandon the university to tend to her ailing mother, so she now finds herself with no meaningful job credentials and is forced to work for an agency that offers friends for hire. The only escape she can envision is through her old dream of one day going to Mars, starting over in a world that looks new and promising despite its barrenness and hardships. But to get to Mars she needs money, and in the present circumstances there is little chance that she might hoard enough to fulfill her dream…

Prime Meridian is not what you might call a ‘proper’ science fiction story: there are no alien worlds to explore or extraordinary situations to face, but rather it’s a reflection on the all too possible course of development for our world, for the way in which certain social trends are going to evolve, and their consequences on individuals. What Moreno-Garcia accomplishes here, seemingly without effort, is to depict the lack of drive that could affect a society where opportunities are scarce and the dichotomy between the haves and haves-not has become an unsurmountable chasm, and quiet despair a way of life.

You can feel the latter quite clearly in Amelia’s day-to-day activities, her constant battle with too little money and too many demands on her time and energy. Still, it’s the dream of Mars – the only true element of science fiction here – that keeps her going, interspersed as it is with the recollections of a former B-movie actress who is one of Amelia’s clients: the fake Mars of a movie that never saw the light because of funding problems, and that exists only in a faded poster that hints at an almost impossible promise, is the vision which seems to anchor the young woman to her goal despite the constant strife and the subdued resentment one can perceive under her listless exterior.

The picture painted by this story is quite a vivid one, the characters coming to life through a few, well-placed brush strokes that leave you with the definite impression of having seen a movie, rather than read a book. Once again, Silvia Moreno-Garcia shows her flexibility as a storyteller, and the promise that the subjects of her works will always be unexpected and intriguing.

Originally posted at SPACE and SORCERY BLOG ...more

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Mar 03, 2019 Morgan Dhu rated it it was amazing

Like the lives of most people without wealth, status or high-tech credentials in Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s novella Prime Meridian, Amelia’s life is shit. After dropping out of university to cate for a dying mother, she lost her scholarship, and with that, her chance at a life she’s dreamed of forever, a life on Mars. Instead, she lives in her dead mother’s house with her sister and her nieces, and the best job she’s been able to find in months is working as a pretend companion for Friendrr.

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About Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Silvia Moreno-Garcia

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Silvia Moreno-Garcia is the author of several novels, including Mexican Gothic, Gods of Jade and Shadow and Untamed Shore. She has also edited a number of anthologies, including the World Fantasy Award-winning She Walks in Shadows (a.k.a. Cthulhu's Daughters). Mexican by birth, Canadian by inclination. ...more