Seth Haddon’s Volatile Memory follows scavenger Wylla as she the call of an alluring piece of tech—one that will make her a lot of money. Things are not as they seem: the tech is attached to a dead body, and once removed, it speaks to her. What follows leads our mask, HAWK, and Wylla to race across the galaxy to avoid those hunting them down and to complete their own mission of revenge.
I’ve read Seth Haddon before, and I really appreciate the way he so naturally weaves queer and trans relationships into his work. Volatile Memory is a novella, but we cover so much ground in such little time. Wylla’s struggle with trying to change her gender markers when every citizen of space is tracked according to their identity. The way in which HAWK must live only through the mask, without a body, and figuring out how exactly she ended up dead on a distant planet. The relationship between the two of them as they realise what has happened here is much larger than either of them can originally fathom, and questions particularly surrounding identity and agency.
The novella is short, but it wraps up everything it needs to in its 160 or so pages. There is a sequel due to be released in 2026 to—although I believe Volatile Memory would work fine as a standalone, I’m definitely curious to see how Null Entity will pick up from where book one left off. If you’re looking for a short, sapphic sci fi novel with a little bit of action, this is one for you!
