Fang Xiang

This is both a work of science fiction and an exploration of the meaning of life, love, literature and art. Brainpower is no longer the main ingredient for being human in this far distant future world.  Spirituality, physical balance, and diligence all come together as integrity for Chen Mu, the Card Apprentice.  The cards which Chen Mu masters in his own scrappy way, distill all the powers of the cosmos –  human and nonhuman –  into something that is not a book, not technology, and neither art nor magic, but is these and more.  Learn about these strange cards, which can embody everything you might imagine for the future of technology, but also a future beyond technology which promotes the best, and sometimes the worst, from mankind’s past.

The Card Apprentice

His perception was slowly spinning inside him, as though there were a tailless shuttle made of perception taking shape. But when he compared it to that crystalline clear tailless shuttle which was formed by the tailless shuttle card, it seemed more primitive, and coarser. Its surface was pockmarked and uneven, with differing thicknesses.

His perception had gathered itself autonomously into a shuttle form and didn't need any push from him to keep slowly twirling. Chen Mu worried about whether that was good or bad, but he was very curious.

He tried triggering the tailless shuttle card by activating the apparatus on his wrist, and a crystalline clear tailless shuttle card very quickly appeared on his index finger, thrumming merrily away.

He carefully perceived every detail of the process.

During a Read