Foundry: An Experimental Book Review
A Book Born In A Dream, A Slow Dance With The Unknown
Welcome to a piece “From The Future”. Each week, I alternate between essays or fiction.
This week, we have a review of Eliot Peper’s latest near-future novel, “Foundry”.
Future + Fiction is the formula for everything, whether it’s an essay, story or chapter.
Most pieces are best read online, via the Substack App, when you have fifteen minutes.
This review of Eliot Peper’s latest near-future novel, “Foundry” was inspired by how it began. Much like how this entertaining sci-fi spy adventure was written, this is a riff.
“It wasn’t that she was holding a gun to my head. It was that I could see the safety was still on. She thought I was completely at her mercy, which was what put her at mine.” —Eliot Peper
The novel began as a dream in the mind of the author, Eliot Peper, and delivered its first lines to him, who roused himself to scrawl them on a note in the middle of the night before falling back to sleep. A waking dream became a story of the near future.
Peper was on a mission. His assignment was to find the answers for “and then what happened?” and wrote one line after another, and made his way forward in an extended brilliant improvisation.
This novel, born in a dream, transports readers from Miami, the stomping grounds for the main character Adrian, to halfway around the world, in both directions, east and west, to the 21st Century’s new centers of power. Here, ASML, Samsung, TSMC, to paraphrase lines from the novel, have become the new centers of the world, the liminal intersections through which the power of the world, in every sense of the word, flows.
Inside the world of Foundry, which gives a hidden nod to an earlier work, Reaper, there are deadly spies, a submarine, job-related injuries, and a “meet cute” where spy boy meets spy girl, and memories of the American Dream are served with the perfect cup of coffee, turned bitter by the geopolitical trade-craft of ruthless spy masters.
I’ll make it quick, I have three comments (plus two bonuses of evergreen lessons).
First, it was a captivating adventure, which I devoured in a couple of hours, written by a master of near-future adventures, for today’s time-squeezed readers who want fun.
Second, it was a reminder of the importance of semiconductors, ala “computer chips”, in our global economy and geopolitical reality. Some of the names and places might be familiar because the tech and political landscape is real, delivered with creative license of course, in terms of spy trade-craft (but super secret training HQs would be cool!).
Third, it was an instructive and inspiring example of story-telling, told in the first person of the main character, Adrian, an intelligence operative motivated to bend his personal American dream, family values, and memories to protect it for others. Of course, there is the tantalizing mystery woman who drives Adrian to find answers for his own “and then what?” questions.
Fourth, there are hints of the lead character’s voice as stand-in for the author, with occasional references to the need for adaptability in the face of disrupted expectations of grand designs, when “every plan shatters on contact with reality, so if you stick to the plan instead of adapting to reality, you end up with a broken system.” Both Adrian and his creator, Peper, were in “ a slow dance with the unknown”, advising us to do likewise.
Fifth, Our stories can answer each “What Ifs” as long as we have the humility to admit “I don’t knows” with each new line.
(I have included links. They are NOT affiliate links. I hope that you’ll read this novel.)
Over two-and-a-half years ago, I began an unplanned journey of my own. I had a vision of an astronaut falling inside a hollowed out asteroid, and a tune. Two hundred thousand plus words and 2 novels later, a friend is editing my words so that you will have some of the best of me, born during one of my life’s worst moments. I embraced what became an eternal riff and found you at the other end. Hello.
Then, Peper was one of several larger than life to me ‘names’ in the background doing things which inspired me, future telling and making for a living, into reacting with a thought, “That sounds like so much fun, I would like to do it too.”
Two years later after I started writing, Peper announced that “Foundry” was almost ready for release, and I was one of the fortunate folks to receive a proof copy. I have been waiting until the official release to write a review as a thank you for the kindness.
Others sparked my writing, but his work is part of the reason I kept going. If you're into fiction and the future, you may be inspired too.
Read along as I finish three books, including a draft for “Book #3, RETRIEVE”.
Future + Fiction is the formula for everything, whether it’s an essay, story or chapter.
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