Book #14: FINNA - Nino Cipri
Type Fiction
Genre Sci-Fi
Format Kindle
Pages 94
Completed 14 May 2023
My Rating ***
I’ve decided that my guilty pleasure in my 52-book challenge will be sci-fi short stories. These are a great way to get me back on track after falling behind a little, and satisfy my sci-fi cravings so I can free up the bigger books for other topics.
FINNA is a quirky story about a fictional scandinavian furniture store that has a habit of generating wormholes organicaly just due to the sheer repetitiveness and confusing nature of its layout. The story sees two protagonists battle through some amusing challenges to restore order after the latest wormhole disrupts their otherwise bland work day.
It feels like a slightly less chaotic version of a Rick & Morty episode, portals, aliens, parallel worlds (and Douglas Adam style jokes!) abound. I’ve rated it 3-stars because I enjoyed it but it doesn’t quite match up to the solid quality, learning and insight I get from most of the books I’ve read so far. I’d recommend this book to anyone who fancies a fun read they can finish in a weekend.
Takeaway #14: What would your ‘appropriate replacement’ be like?
One of the amusing concepts in the novel is the idea of an ‘appropriate replacement’ being found in the case of your untimely demise in your own world. This replacement is sourced from a parallel world and is basically just you, but living a different life.
It’s just a fun depiction of a scientific concept in the novel, but it made me think about what kind of ‘me’ I’d want to be replaced by. I think this could be a really nice model to help people align their actions with their values or long term objectives: What would your ‘appropriate replacement’ be like? What would their occupation be? What life would they have lived? Why not be like them now, before you need replacing…?
Lesson #14: They/Them
It was really interesting to read an entire book where one character was referred to as ‘they/them’ throughout. At first it was a little confusing but it very quickly faded into the background. It’s a great way of normalising the use of gender-neutral pronouns, by forcing the reader to just get on with it. I look forward to reading more books like this in the future, I’m sure it will become more and more common.