“It’s easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism,” said philosopher Frederic Jameson. In Jordan A. Rothacker’s The Death of the Cyborg Oracle the former has led to the latter.
It’s 2220 and climate catastrophe has made most of the earth uninhabitable. In this future, domed Atlanta, solar energy has ended want, but socialism would be more fun if the guilt of capitalism’s role in the destruction of earth wasn’t inherited by its descendants. Out of this void all goddesses and gods are reborn for worship, monotheism is verboten, and crime is divided into Sacred and Profane. Meet Assistant Sacred Detective Edwina Casaubon, she’s just transferred from Profane and working with the legendary Sacred Detective Rabbi Jakob “Thinkowitz” Rabbinowitz. And not a moment too soon, someone has murdered the Oracle of Delphi.
“Rothacker’s The Death of The Cyborg Oracle is wildly creative, transgressive, and hilarious. With its dystopian futurism, dual critiques of capitalism and Christianity, the book feels beamed in from the future.” — John Vanderslice, musician, producer, Pixel Revolt
“When I read through The Death of the Cyborg Oracle, I wept. Not from sadness, but from its comforting familiarity and universalism during our times of chaos, anxiety, destruction, and uncertainty. Jordan A. Rothacker's treatment of themes ranging from science fiction to religion, and mythology to ontology provides hope in a time of despair, and a call for rebirth and regeneration while we stare at the possibility of our own dystopian future. Most of all, The Death of the Cyborg Oracle—through its stunning prose and flow—calls on us to examine, understand, and utilize the past to work for a better present.” — Adam Shprintzen, historian, The Vegetarian Crusade
“When the Profane prophet Alfred North Whitehead made that comment about footnotes and Plato, he could not have foreseen that The Death of the Cyborg Oracle would be the ideal embodiment of Platonic mythmaking. Set after the destruction of one Amazon and the dismantling of another, Rothacker’s prescient fiction laments and celebrates our all too human blindnesses and insights. Like the eagle-like eyes of Detective Rabbi Jakob “Thinkowitz” Rabbinowitz, it felt like this book was reading and writing me all at once. Its particular mix of knowing tragedy and anarchic hope will continue to resonate long after closing its pages, like the thud of realization made by a brick of marble thrown into the hole of Tartarus.” — Minus Plato, author of No Philosopher King: An Everyday Guide to Art and Life under Trump
“Jordan A. Rothacker has written a holy lamb in wolf’s clothing with this short novel—on the surface we have a futuristic detective yarn centred on a gruesomely violent murder, but at its heart it’s a treatise on the destructive power of unfettered capitalism and the redemptive magic of faith on both a personal and community level.” — Matt Neil Hill, writer, Invert/Extant press
“In a time when we are all pickled in these moments and days, Jordan Rothacker’s engrossing work allows us to imagine a world beyond this one.“ — Kelly Girtz, Mayor, Athens, Ga
“A solar noir intrigue, complete with climate apocalypse, capitalism abandoned, and the murder of the Oracle at Delphi. Rothacker's bold intelligence and fleet styling will elevate and mesmerize you. Simultaneously a thrilling page turner, and a brilliant critical inquiry as to our time and our future. Smart, creative, prescient.” — John Reed, author of Snowball’s Chance and All the World’s a Grave.
“A deeply satisfying, intensely flavored stew of ancient myths and Hebrew iconoclasm, served warm in a glass postmodern bowl. I found it very comforting, especially in its humane account of genders and gods. If this is the future, we don't do as badly as we deserve.” — Peter Gardella, religion scholar, author of Innocent Ecstasy and American Civil Religion
