Foundling Fathers

What would a teenage Benjamin Franklin do with an iPhone after he discovers porn? From Philip K. Dick Award winning author Meg Elison comes this ingenious satire of U.S. history and modern technocracy gone terribly, terribly wrong.


“Relentlessly, brutally, scathingly, funny. I’d expect nothing less from the one and only Meg Elison.”

—Sarah Gailey, author of Spread Me


The trouble starts when a curious young man finds a smartphone in his privy. The problem is, it’s supposed to be the year 1750.


The Antediluvian Society—a shadowy cabal of right-wing billionaires—is fed up with a country they cannot fully control or understand. So they have done what any reasonable American patriots would do: Clone the Founding Fathers and raise them in secrecy. The plan, unbeknownst to the boys, is for them to restore America to its "original glory."


Ben takes his technological discovery to his brothers, Thomas, John, and George. The boys have been raised on an isolated island plantation by Mary Libertas, a firm but kind woman, and Jeff Hancock, their de facto father. But the idyllic life is far too dull for young men. The boys have been chafing at the restrictions upon them (especially Tom, who has impregnated yet another of the servants). Hancock is complaining to the Society that it's well past the time to tell the boys where they come from and what they must do.


Unfortunately for their keepers, the young men now have a phone...and many other notions.


Seamlessly combining science fiction and history with sharp, witty commentary, Meg Elison has once again shown why she is one of speculative fiction's most exciting voices.