'Extraordinary stuff . . . There are ideas larger and more mind-bending, I think, than those I have come across in any other sci-fi novel.' - Mark Haddon, author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

At Jodrell Bank a mysterious signal of extraterrestrial origin has been detected. Artificial intelligence expert Jack Fenwick thinks he can decode it. But when he and his associates at Hoxton tech startup Intelligencia find a way to step into the alien realm the signal encodes, they discover that it's already occupied - by ghostly entities that may come from our own past.

Have these 'DMEn' (Digital Memetic Entities) been created by persons unknown for just such an eventuality? Are they our first line of defence in a coming war, not for territory, but for our minds?

XX presents a compelling vision of humanity's unique place in the universe, and of what might happen in the wake of the biggest scientific discovery in human history.

As compelling as it is visually striking, Rian Hughes' first novel incorporates NASA transcripts, newspaper and magazine articles, fictitious Wikipedia pages, undeciphered alphabets, and 'Ascension', a forgotten novelette by 1960s counterculture guru Herschel Teague that mysteriously foreshadows events.

Wrapping stories within stories, Rian Hughes' XX unleashes the full narrative potential of graphic design. Drawing on Dada, punk and the modernist movements of the twentieth century, it asks us who we think we are - and where we may be headed next.

The battle for your mind has already begun.

A unique and extraordinary novel of alien first contact, and how humanity copes in the aftermath.

About the Author

Rian Hughes is a graphic designer, illustrator, comic artist, writer and type designer who has worked extensively for the British and American advertising, music and comic book industries.

He has written and drawn comics for 2000AD and Batman: Black and White, and designed logos for The Avengers, The X-Men, Superman, record label Hedkandi, MTV and James Bond. He has edited books on mid-century lifestyle illustration and custom typography, and written on semiotics, culture, and collecting vintage science-fiction pulps and paperbacks.

He lives in London.

Reviews
Genuinely unlike anything else I have ever read . . . The confidence and style with which Hughes juggles all his material is only matched by his extraordinary imagination and vision, and as the book races towards a mindboggling climax it leads the reader to some remarkable ideas about the nature of life, the universe and everything. Simply stunning. * Big Issue *
Vastly ambitious, XX is the most astonishing blend of narrative, meta-narratives and visuals. Real 'wow' moments and big ideas combine with brilliant typographical flourishes to create the Moby Dick of sci-fi. * Daily Mail *
XX keeps you turning the pages, engages with big ideas and delivers an authentic jolt of awe as it takes its galaxy-spanning conceit to the limit, and then some. * Financial Times *
The look is every bit as vital as its plot and its prose. Compulsively readable. Its ideas are grand, and it moves like a thriller. Come for the lush design, stay for the Clarkeian ideas and sly sense of humour. * SFX *
Rian Hughes' stunning visual spectacle of a novel . . . this staggering book! * SciFi Now *
Brilliant, exciting, absorbing, and mind-blowing . . . It's one of those towering achievements we keep hearing about. XX is truly modernist in every way. Whatever Goethe's Faust was, whatever Melville's Moby Dick was, whatever Joyce's Ulysses or Kubrick's 2001 was, XX is its latest expression - a perfect work of art about what it means to be human in a world of gigantic ideas. -- Grant Morrison
This is a book which only Rian Hughes could have created, which should make us all eternally grateful that he did. -- Kieron Gillen
A novel that is novel is so many ways. A brilliant co-mix of text and graphic design in which sign, symbol and word are linguistically intertwined and reinvented. -- Steven Heller
Rian Hughes is a luminescent pop culture demon. -- David Quantick



Book Information
ISBN 9781529020588
Author Rian Hughes
Format Paperback
Page Count 1008
Imprint Picador
Publisher Pan Macmillan
Weight(grams) 1116g
Dimensions(mm) 234mm * 154mm * 58mm