I’ve been deeply obsessed with Severance since the show came out, and while I’m absolutely frothing at the mouth for season 2, I was hoping I’d be able to find a fiction novel that has some similar elements.
Creepy memory-altering surgeries, the question of “who is your true self?”, all-powerful and secretive technology companies or workplaces that are just “off”, and scathing critiques of capitalism are all the themes that attract me so much to Severance, and themes I’d like to find in a book.
Thank you! 🙂
by panini_bellini
2 Comments
I don’t have a book rec for you per se but I also a absolutely love that show. Currently reading Children of Men, it’s good. So take that.
I have not seen this show, so hopefully these are close enough!
* the [Southern Reach/Area X series](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17934530-annihilation) includes unreliable memories. The first book is primarily about a natural environment that is “off,” but I’m currently reading the second one, which is about a workplace that is “off.”
* [Autonomous](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28209634-autonomous), all-powerful companies doing bad things. Critique of capitalism.
* [The Girl Who Was Plugged In](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23574147-the-girl-who-was-plugged-in), a classic novella that has aged really well.
* [A Country of Ghosts](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58564202-a-country-of-ghosts), scathing critique of capitalism, but set in a lower tech fantasy world so there’s no advanced technology or powerful corporations.
* The author Ursula K. Le Guin was a renowned sci fi author and socialist. You’d probably like pretty much anything she has written. I’ve slowly been working my way through [the Hainish Cycle](https://www.goodreads.com/series/49359-hainish-cycle), a series of far future sci fi novels that mostly stand alone. You could read them in any order except for books 2 and 3, which have to be read one after the other. My personal favourite is The Left Hand of Darkness, but The Dispossessed is a better critique of capitalism, while City of Illusions is the only one I’ve read that includes questions of self and fallible memory.
Not novels, but there’s [some short stories from a post I made a while ago](https://www.reddit.com/r/cyberpunkred/comments/16vmf8v/cyberpunk_stories_to_get_in_the_mood/) that cover what you describe:
* [Mother Tongues](https://escapepod.org/2018/07/12/escape-pod-636-mother-tongues/)
* [The Perfect Match](https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/the-perfect-match/)
* [Seb Dreams of Reincarnation](https://escapepod.org/2017/08/17/ep589-seb-dreams-of-reincarnation/)
* [Talk To Your Children about Two Tongued Jeremy](https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/talk-to-your-children-about-two-tongued-jeremy-2/).
* [The Mercy of Theseus](https://escapepod.org/2021/02/11/escape-pod-771-the-mercy-of-theseus-flashback-friday/)
* [We Are the Cloud](https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/cloud/)
* [The Revolution, Brought to you by Nike](https://escapepod.org/2018/09/06/escape-pod-644-the-revolution-brought-to-you-by-nike-part-1/)