The Amateurs
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4.4 • 5 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
"Harmer takes cues from Margaret Atwood and Cormac McCarthy in this sharp debut, a cautionary tale of tech gone astray." —Toronto Life
In a time and place only slightly removed from now, PINA, the world’s largest tech company, has introduced society to a new product called “Port.” This irresistible space-time travel device is mysteriously powered by nostalgia and longing: Step inside a Port and find yourself transported any place your heart desires, real or imagined. Earth’s population plummets when many who pass through its portal don’t come back—either unwilling or unable to return.
In The Amateurs, Liz Harmer has crafted a subtle, many-faceted debut novel about rapture and romance—and the strange, dark, powerful alchemy that happens when technology meets desire.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Liz Harmer mixes a bit of Oryx and Crake with a dash of Station Eleven, adds a shot of Isaac Asimov, and pours out a propulsive debut novel that’s all her own. In The Amateurs, a tech company releases a seductive invention: Port, a machine that lets you teleport to wherever—and whenever—you like. Suddenly, no one seems inclined to teleport back home, leaving a handful of survivors to tough it out in a former steel town. But in Harmer’s skilled hands, hope springs eternal, even at the end of the world.
Customer Reviews
Survival prose
Author writes like her life depends on it. Reimagined, reshaped and reframed environmental analysis that’s observational poetry. Technology discovers us, not we discovering it - serving plural proposes.
One word: beautiful.