Volatile Memory

Hardcover, 176 pages

English language

Published July 22, 2025 by Tordotcom.

ISBN:: 978-1-250-36468-5
Goodreads:: 217387755

(1 review)

Seth Haddon's science fiction debut, Volatile Memory, is a heart-filled, vengeful sapphic sci-fi action adventure novella.

With nothing but a limping ship and an outdated mask to her name, Wylla needs a big pay day. When the call goes out that a lucrative piece of tech is waiting on a nearby planet, she relies on all the swiftness of her prey animal instincts to beat other hunters to it.

What you found wasn’t your ticket out—it was my corpse wearing an AI mask. When you touched the mask, you heard my voice. A consciousness spinning through metal and circuits, a bodiless mind, spun to life in the HAWK’s temporary storage. I crystallized, and I was alive.

Masks aren't supposed to retain memory, much less identity, but the woman inside the MARK I HAWK is real, and she sees Wylla in a way no one ever has. Sees her, and doesn’t …

Seth Haddon's science fiction debut, Volatile Memory, is a heart-filled, vengeful sapphic sci-fi action adventure novella.

With nothing but a limping ship and an outdated mask to her name, Wylla needs a big pay day. When the call goes out that a lucrative piece of tech is waiting on a nearby planet, she relies on all the swiftness of her prey animal instincts to beat other hunters to it.

What you found wasn’t your ticket out—it was my corpse wearing an AI mask. When you touched the mask, you heard my voice. A consciousness spinning through metal and circuits, a bodiless mind, spun to life in the HAWK’s temporary storage. I crystallized, and I was alive.

Masks aren't supposed to retain memory, much less identity, but the woman inside the MARK I HAWK is real, and she sees Wylla in a way no one ever has. Sees her, and doesn’t find her wanting or unwhole.

Armed with military-grade tech and a lifetime of staying one step ahead of the hunters, Wylla and HAWK set off to get answers from the man who discarded HAWK once before: her ex-husband.

2 editions

enne📚 reviewed Volatile Memory by Seth Haddon

3 stars

This is a short, pulpy sci-fi action novella about a trans scavenger who picks up a mask that contains the mind of a dead woman seeking revenge. It's the first in a duology.

The worldbuilding of this story is that everyone wears masks that can modify their physiology, communicate mentally with the wearer, and also run low level tasks. It's got sort of a YA over-explained vibe where these masks have names like "Mark I Rabbit" or "Mark V Chameleon", and yes they're all animal themed and yes they give stereotypical animal powers. Everybody, even scavengers, seem to use this one corporation's masks (who are obviously the bad guys). Honestly I just wanted to know more about the world. Where's the DIY culture? Why are the masks all animals? Do folks switch them out frequently? Do mental effects (such as prey animal masks) persist after using them? Where in this …

This is a short, pulpy sci-fi action novella about a trans scavenger who picks up a mask that contains the mind of a dead woman seeking revenge. It's the first in a duology.

The worldbuilding of this story is that everyone wears masks that can modify their physiology, communicate mentally with the wearer, and also run low level tasks. It's got sort of a YA over-explained vibe where these masks have names like "Mark I Rabbit" or "Mark V Chameleon", and yes they're all animal themed and yes they give stereotypical animal powers. Everybody, even scavengers, seem to use this one corporation's masks (who are obviously the bad guys). Honestly I just wanted to know more about the world. Where's the DIY culture? Why are the masks all animals? Do folks switch them out frequently? Do mental effects (such as prey animal masks) persist after using them? Where in this universe are the furries who are self-actualizing with masks? How did this culture start? Are there holdouts?

The ideas were fun and fluffy, but the writing and execution let me down. It's a plot driven story and I felt a lot of the chemistry between Wylla and Sable was told and not shown. Why are you so impressed by or attracted to each other, other than the fact that you're the main two characters in a story? Ace trans woman space scavenger with telepathic friend should be my cuppa.

It is weird for me to have a romance with a touch averse and desire averse trans woman culminate in desire for kissing and some virtually imagined bodies. Given that Sable only exists in the mind of Wylla, it felt like a missed opportunity for something more interesting here. Where is the chance for plural selves-love and Wylla learning to share in Sable's appreciation for their own body? Or an emotional moment that's not physical? The romance moments in the book just felt so out of character for who I had been told Wylla was. There's so much unexplored disappointing potential in the space between a trans woman who has worked hard to have a body she wants but who doesn't have desires, and a woman without a body who does have those desires.

(I would also love to hear any opinions from plural systems about how this book felt; it feels like it almost could be a story about choosing to adopt a headmate, but I'm not quite sure it is either.)