Overview

From the author of the acclaimed The World Wasn't Ready for You comes a thrilling first novel, set in a near future where artificial intelligence runs the world, involving a young medical student who must unravel family secrets to uncover the truth of his father's mysterious death. In a time not so far from our own, society is run by a global AI system controlled by an all powerful corporation. The Shepherd Organization oversees every medical school in the country save one in New Orleans, the renegade Hippocrates which still insists on human-led medicine. It is the last choice school for an ambitious young New Yorker named Pok. But after his father--himself a physician--dies under mysterious circumstance that seems connected to ""the shepherds"" and their megalomaniacal young CEO, Pok finds himself on a quest for answers that leads right to Hippocrates. Once enrolled, he stumbles upon a further mystery: a strange illness is plaguing newcomers to New Orleans who grew up under shepherd rule. What is causing this fatal anomaly? And how does it relate to the mystery of Pok's father's death and his own mysterious past?

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9780063290488

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Reviews

""Key's stories exemplify [a] tight focus on interior experiences, zooming in on the intimate horrors wrought by fantastical technologies and events. The standout 'Spider King' features an unwitting participant in a twisted carceral experiment involving telekinetic arachnids . . . .`Afiya's Song, ' about an enslaved Black woman who inspires an uprising, cleverly complicates the magical Negro trope . . . . The intrusive public health system of `Wellness Check, ' the nightmarish interactive art of `Now You See Me' and the alien apartheid of the title story showcase an active imagination and a commitment to socially-minded speculative fiction."" -- New York Times Book Review ""From the first sentence of the first story, I knew I was in the hands of a gifted storyteller. Each tale in this tightly woven collection has its own voice, which pairs with the narrative. The stories are by turns heartbreaking and terrifying."" -- Mary Robinette Kowal ""One of many distinctive new Black American voices in the fantasy genre, Key shows throughout these eight stories the range and ingenuity of such grandmasters as Ray Bradbury, Robert Sheckley, and Theodore Sturgeon, with whom he also shares acute empathy for human vulnerability . . . . Key resolutely carries on the tradition of the modern SF writers who always found new and rueful ways of reminding readers that no matter how much technology changes, humanity, in its loneliness, folly, and constricted vision, somehow never does."" -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

""The more you read Key the more layers he reveals. From sci-fi to horror to fantasy, he now turns his deft eye to techno-thriller. Key takes his first-hand expertise and takes careful aim at the medical industrial complex, technology, and examines what it means to be human. Thought-provoking as it is gripping, its complex worldbuilding and layered commentary speaks to a near future with words meant for today. Visionary, chilling, and pulse-pounding--like John Grisham meets Cory Doctorow--The Hospital at the End of the World is the medical thriller for the age of AI."" -- Maurice Broaddus, author of Sweep of Stars, Breath of Oblivion, and A City Dreaming ""Key's stories exemplify [a] tight focus on interior experiences, zooming in on the intimate horrors wrought by fantastical technologies and events. The standout 'Spider King' features an unwitting participant in a twisted carceral experiment involving telekinetic arachnids. . . .`Afiya's Song, ' about an enslaved Black woman who inspires an uprising, cleverly complicates the magical Negro trope. . . . The intrusive public health system of `Wellness Check, ' the nightmarish interactive art of `Now You See Me' and the alien apartheid of the title story showcase an active imagination and a commitment to socially-minded speculative fiction."" -- New York Times Book Review on The World Wasn't Ready for You ""From the first sentence of the first story, I knew I was in the hands of a gifted storyteller. Each tale in this tightly woven collection has its own voice, which pairs with the narrative. The stories are by turns heartbreaking and terrifying."" -- Mary Robinette Kowal on The World Wasn't Ready for You ""One of many distinctive new Black American voices in the fantasy genre, Key shows throughout these eight stories the range and ingenuity of such grandmasters as Ray Bradbury, Robert Sheckley, and Theodore Sturgeon, with whom he also shares acute empathy for human vulnerability. . . . Key resolutely carries on the tradition of the modern SF writers who always found new and rueful ways of reminding readers that no matter how much technology changes, humanity, in its loneliness, folly, and constricted vision, somehow never does."" -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review) on The World Wasn't Ready for You ""The Hospital at the End of the World is the rare speculative novel that brings to life the world in which we already live. Justin C. Key has my full attention. His stunning debut deserves yours."" -- LeVar Burton

"""Key's stories exemplify [a] tight focus on interior experiences, zooming in on the intimate horrors wrought by fantastical technologies and events. The standout 'Spider King' features an unwitting participant in a twisted carceral experiment involving telekinetic arachnids . . . .`Afiya's Song, ' about an enslaved Black woman who inspires an uprising, cleverly complicates the magical Negro trope . . . . The intrusive public health system of `Wellness Check, ' the nightmarish interactive art of `Now You See Me' and the alien apartheid of the title story showcase an active imagination and a commitment to socially-minded speculative fiction."" -- New York Times Book Review ""From the first sentence of the first story, I knew I was in the hands of a gifted storyteller. Each tale in this tightly woven collection has its own voice, which pairs with the narrative. The stories are by turns heartbreaking and terrifying."" -- Mary Robinette Kowal ""One of many distinctive new Black American voices in the fantasy genre, Key shows throughout these eight stories the range and ingenuity of such grandmasters as Ray Bradbury, Robert Sheckley, and Theodore Sturgeon, with whom he also shares acute empathy for human vulnerability . . . . Key resolutely carries on the tradition of the modern SF writers who always found new and rueful ways of reminding readers that no matter how much technology changes, humanity, in its loneliness, folly, and constricted vision, somehow never does."" -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review)"

Author Information

Justin C. Key is a practicing psychiatrist and a speculative fiction writer. He is the author of the debut novel The Hospital at the End of the World and the story collection The World Wasn't Ready for You. His stories have appeared in the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Strange Horizons, Escape Pod, Lightspeed, and on Tor.com. He received a BA in biology from Stanford University and completed his residency in psychiatry at UCLA. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and three children.

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