How sci-fi illuminates our inner world and inspires change
Kevin Hearne's masterfully woven sci-fi novella, "The Hermit Next Door" is officially out in audio, and so many readers have expressed the same feeling I had after digesting this story : "I feel hopeful and sad." I won't share too much about what happens or it will spoil the magic, but this story has stuck to my bones long after reading it and serves as an important reminder of the role speculative fiction can play in grounding us during turbulent times.
As a genre, science-fiction is a vast landscape of limitless possibilities for creativity and, like all speculative fiction, it conjures the question that acts as a universal key to unlocking our imagination: "What if?" Our imagination is what helps us make sense of the world around us and to access parts of ourselves that need to be expressed or healed. Exploring new concepts through speculative fiction can offer more than just an escape from reality; it can also open the door for heavy reflection and creative problem solving.
"The Hermit Next Door" does just that. Filled with mystery and wonder, you can't help but feel like you are walking beside the protagonist as she opens door after door to discover the truth of what's right under her nose. But she's not just uncovering the secrets of the world around her, she's also peeling back the layers of her inner world and healing in the process. The hesitation she feels grappling with new things in the wake of losing her husband is something many readers connect with on a very personal level, myself included. Grief can look different for everyone but stepping outside of your comfort zone and taking risks (especially to the level they appear in this book) is certainly not easy when you're adjusting to life after significant loss.
But even if you haven't experienced the loss of a loved one on a personal level, this story dives deeper into a collective loss we all feel: what comes next for humanity? For the planet? And this is where speculative fiction can bridge the gap between hopelessness and hope because I believe in order to face what comes next on both a personal and planetary scale we have to harness more empathy and creative thinking. And where better do draw inspiration from than books that stimulate our imagination to ponder the universally activating question: "What if?"
Read the sci-fi audiobook "The Hermit Next Door": audible
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