THE LIGHTNING STENOGRAPHY DEVICE, by M. F. Sullivan, is a book that bleeds into a rather “meta” realm of literature. One of the main protagonists is an author who dabbles with the invention of the same name as the title. For those familiar with science fiction, fantasy, or speculative fiction, this may not be your go-to based on how literary this work feels at times and that the beginning feels much slower and dialogue-driven than most novels contain.

The prose is readable and flows nicely even if it feels that Sullivan forces his characters to navel gaze more than actually act with agency. “The Device” as named in the title deals with how to translate thoughts to text, which is what creates this meta element to the narrative. The main character, Cassius Wagner, is an author and continually questions his work in the face of this new tech that is produced for mass consumption.

Using the trope of “writing about writing” the novel presents its readers with a new take on a reality of writing exactly what we think, but does this include the thoughts that come unbidden to our conscious?

This novel is expected to be released: March 19th, 2018 by Painted Blind Publishing

I received this ARC via NetGalley.*

The Lightning Stenography Device

*Note
I don’t know how many of you out there know about NetGalley, but I have an account and I sometimes read/review books from there to get a taste of them prior to their release. I’ll always make a note after my review if I received the book via NetGalley.