ReadThe Portobello Bookshop Gift Guide 2025

Quantum Nightmares

Jose M Rodriguez author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Catalyst Books

Published:20th Nov '25

£15.99

Supplier delay - available to order, but may take longer than usual.

Quantum Nightmares cover

Quantum Nightmares, a collection of dystopian sci-fi stories, contains the nuggets of bizarre psychological truth that help explain today’s divisive United States, where myth collides with belief and fact is hard to find.

Betty Gray, the infamous first woman to report an alien abduction, offers her eggs to save a future infertile human race. In doing so, she connects her consciousness to the entire stream of human history—past, present, and future. Her dreams frame each of the fifteen tales in the collection, forming the spine of Quantum Nightmares.

From genderless societies to digital tribalism, each story explores the strange mechanics of power, identity, and survival in a world veering away from nature.

This debut collection channels the speculative precision of Clifford Simak, Phillip K Dick, and Ted Chiang, while dragging their serenity into darker, more chaotic realms.

"Debut novelist Rodriguez unloads a truckload of nightmares in a baker's dozen worth of stories, enveloped in a weird, circular narrative....Most of the stories lean pretty dystopian, but the heightened absurdity provides a welcome break in the tension....A chaotic first effort laced with surreal shades of Philip K. Dick and other unusual suspects." — Kirkus

“I really liked how destabilizing these stories were to read. Just when I thought I understood what was happening I didn’t. It’s what I imagine an alien would feel trying to dissect a conversation around politics at a heated family dinner.” — David Prestidge, early reader

ISBN: 9781963511215

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: unknown

384 pages