Review: There Is No Antimemetics Division
Oct. 28th, 2026 10:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
indigoblind posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
booknookTitle There Is No Antimemetics Division
Author qntm
Genre Sci-Fi, maybe Horror?
I used to be a pretty devoted SCP reader, so it's not my first rodeo- I read this way back when it was being written, and loved it then. I've gone back and reread a few times, including during/after reading the tradpub version, so no surprise to say I really enjoyed this.
I tend to be hesitant and skeptical of the constantly-growing trend of adapting fanworks into mainstream novels; it often feels cheap because, fundamentally, it is cheap. The story's already done, probably somewhat edited, and comes with a built in audience. That's not to say it's never done well, but as a trend, I'm not a fan.
When I heard this story was getting a deal-- much as I loved it-- I was... skeptical. As (again) a long-time SCP reader who'd been halfway there as the site's purview grew more and more conceptual and complicated I genuinely wondered whether someone unfamiliar with the ideas would be into it, and frankly, how you could strip out the underpinnings and history of the Foundation without either making it incomprehensible or needing miles of extra exposition.
And I'll be honest I can't tell you how it reads to someone coming in blind, but it seems to be doing well overall, and I think it's well-deserved.
In short: Marie Quinn works for a secretive organization that studies and contains impossible phenomena. Her specialty is in antimemes, or self-keeping secrets: things impossible to perceive in normal circumstances. It's a small division. Wait, smaller. But... how can it be that small and manage a whole site?
Over time, she starts to realize she's fighting a war-- one where simply being aware of it will make you a casualty.
I find it hard to resist the strange logic of this story-- the reader remembers throughout the things characters have had to forget to survive, but rather than being irritating it highlights the tragedy of having to leave knowledge behind to stand a chance of holding back the darkness.
Basically, if you like a book that makes you have to tilt your brain in a new way, it's a solid pick.
Author qntm
Genre Sci-Fi, maybe Horror?
I used to be a pretty devoted SCP reader, so it's not my first rodeo- I read this way back when it was being written, and loved it then. I've gone back and reread a few times, including during/after reading the tradpub version, so no surprise to say I really enjoyed this.
I tend to be hesitant and skeptical of the constantly-growing trend of adapting fanworks into mainstream novels; it often feels cheap because, fundamentally, it is cheap. The story's already done, probably somewhat edited, and comes with a built in audience. That's not to say it's never done well, but as a trend, I'm not a fan.
When I heard this story was getting a deal-- much as I loved it-- I was... skeptical. As (again) a long-time SCP reader who'd been halfway there as the site's purview grew more and more conceptual and complicated I genuinely wondered whether someone unfamiliar with the ideas would be into it, and frankly, how you could strip out the underpinnings and history of the Foundation without either making it incomprehensible or needing miles of extra exposition.
And I'll be honest I can't tell you how it reads to someone coming in blind, but it seems to be doing well overall, and I think it's well-deserved.
In short: Marie Quinn works for a secretive organization that studies and contains impossible phenomena. Her specialty is in antimemes, or self-keeping secrets: things impossible to perceive in normal circumstances. It's a small division. Wait, smaller. But... how can it be that small and manage a whole site?
Over time, she starts to realize she's fighting a war-- one where simply being aware of it will make you a casualty.
I find it hard to resist the strange logic of this story-- the reader remembers throughout the things characters have had to forget to survive, but rather than being irritating it highlights the tragedy of having to leave knowledge behind to stand a chance of holding back the darkness.
Basically, if you like a book that makes you have to tilt your brain in a new way, it's a solid pick.
