I’m very pleased to have a story, “Cyrano de AI”, in the forthcoming anthology, Thyme Travellers, edited by Sonia Sulaiman and now available for pre-order. Per the publisher’s website, “Thyme Travellers brings together fourteen of the Palestinian diaspora’s best voices in speculative fiction, the first collection of its kind in Canada.”
Contents:
- Preface — Sonia Sulaiman
- Down Under — Jumaana Abdu
- The Third or Fourth Casualty — Ziyad Saadi
- The Generation Chip — Nadia Afifi
- Soul Searching — Rana Othman
- The Heart Knows the Truth — Layla Azmi Goushey
- Cyrano de AI — Karl El-Koura
- The Frontrunner — JD Harlock
- A Table Set for Two — Emad Al-Din Aysha
- In the Future, We Can Go Back Home — Sara Solara
- The Forty — Sonia Sulaiman
- Remembrance in Cerulean — Elise Stephens
- Gaza Luna — Samah Serour Fadil
- Orlando’s Wolf — Rasha Abdulhadi
- The Centre of the Universe — Nadia Shammas
Here’s a sneak peek at my story:
Cyrano de AI
by Karl El-Koura
Nait Sirch drummed his fingers on the glistening, polished oak surface of the large boardroom table, waiting for the interviewers to arrive. After a few minutes, he forced his hand flat on the table, but his right foot began twitching, his nervous energy finding a new outlet.
And why nervous? Because he knew he’d be asked to turn off his augmentation. His grad school colleagues had all been asked to turn off theirs. And nervous because Cymark Industries was the only competitor, in Canada at least, to Cyrano Intelligence, where his dad worked. If he didn’t ace this interview, he’d have to choose between three unpalatable options: groveling to his dad, abandoning his field of study . . . or leaving his home country.
The door sighed open and he sat up a little straighter, then jumped to his feet, then wiped his hands down the front of his pant legs.
Three straight-faced executives in dark suits introduced themselves one at a time, then sat across the table from him.
“Before we begin, Mr. Sirch,” the central figure said, “we need to ask you to turn off any augmentation you may be using.”
Absolutely, his cyrano suggested, the words floating in the upper right corner of his field of vision.
Keep reading by pre-ordering your copy of Thyme Travellers.
