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Prime Meridian
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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, en ...more
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, en ...more
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Paperback, 122 pages
Published
by Innsmouth Free Press
(first published December 1st 2017)
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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
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

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
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

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

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

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
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

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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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!)
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!)

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

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 ...more
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 ...more

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 ...more
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 ...more

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

(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
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

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

Oct 11, 2018
Anissa
rated it
really liked it
Recommends it for:
speculative fiction fans or as a started into that sub-genre
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 ...more
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 ...more

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
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

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
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

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

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

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

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
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

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

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
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

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
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

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

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
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

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 ...more
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 ...more

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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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.
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