There Is No Antimemetics Division by Qntm (2025)
Thanks to social media, we all know what memes are: ideas that get stuck in our head and go viral because everyone, everywhere, is talking about them. But in There Is No Antimemetics Division, the world is also filled with antimemes, ideas and entities that defy reason and resist being remembered, even to the point of consuming our memories, our lives, and our reality. Using a blend of esoteric math and philosophy, labyrinthine security protocols, bizarre technologies, and memory-altering pharmaceuticals, the Antimemetics Division fights to protect humanity from these bizarre entities. But how can the men and women of the Antimemetics Division accomplish their mission when their mission often requires them to forget everything they know about their mission? Suffice to say, this novel — which originated as a series of entries on the SCP Foundation wiki — is pretty high concept stuff, and gets trippy as it jumps back and forth between time periods and even different states of memory and existence. It also gets creepy in places, weaving in traces of cosmic horror, and boasts a streak of bleak humor (like the antimeme that only consumes bicycle-related memories). There were times when I wasn’t sure Qntm — the pen name of programmer Sam Hughes — would be able to pull everything together, but in the end, I found this to be clever, enjoyable, and even a bit moving. There Is No Antimemetics Division will be published on November 11, 2025. Thanks to NetGalley for the advance copy.
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