Gigs

by Mark Mosedale

Six lives on the margins of a gig-work future

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AlbakiReads Editorial

Six lives on the margins of a gig-work future

Set in a near future where AI has displaced jobs and an app assigns gig work alongside Basic Income, Gigs gathers six separate stories about people trying to make lives in a society that offers them little room. Its cast ranges from an elderly punk and a young worker seeking escape through music to a street artist, a washed-up detective, a drug runner, a writer stranded on a decaying space station, and a refugee seeking help. The book’s dystopian frame connects these varied circumstances through questions of work, survival, art, and human solidarity. Its premise also brings satire and social warning into contact with stories of ordinary people finding ways to persist.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • For readers interested in dystopian graphic novels about work and economic insecurity.
  • For readers who enjoy collections of interconnected or distinct stories about people at society’s margins.
  • For readers drawn to science fiction that combines social critique with themes of art, music, and solidarity.

Themes

AI and the changing nature of workEconomic insecurity and survivalArt, music, and self-expressionDisplacement and refugeHuman solidarity

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

A.I. took the work. Gigs replaced jobs. Ordinary people are left to scrape together lives in a world that's no longer built for them. These are their stories.

In a frighteningly near future where Basic Income is supplemented by gig work assigned by "the app"...an octogenarian punk and a lonely young worker seek escape through music. A street artist makes art by night and paints over it by day. A has-been detective chases a case into a forgotten world. A drug runner makes a long, strange delivery. A writer marks her days on a decaying space station she can't leave. And a refugee asks for help in the last free place.

With a hard-won blend of biting satire and humanistic passion, two creators from the North of England weave together six divergent chapters into an extraordinary graphic novel. Gigs is both a powerful warning about the oppressive world to come and a defiant celebration of the humanity that will sprout up in the cracks.
"A sharp, funny look at where the future's heading and what we can do about it. Emotive, thought-provoking, beautifully drawn and written with wit, this is the sort of science-fiction we need more of."
-- Adrian Tchaikovsky
Author of the Hugo Award-winning Children of Time series.
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