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There Is No Antimemetics Division

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There Is No Antimemetics Division

By: qntm
Narrated by: Rebecca Calder
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

An antimeme is an entity with self-censoring properties. Some are benign; but others, less so…

These entities can feed on your most cherished memories, the things that make you you – and you’ll never even know anything changed.

And they aren’t just feeding on us. They’re invading.

But how do you contain something you can't record or remember? How do you fight against an enemy with effortless, perfect camouflage, when you can never even know that you're at war?

WELCOME TO THE ANTIMEMETICS DIVISION

NO, THIS IS NOT YOUR FIRST DAY

'Astonishing' M. R. Carey, author of Infinity Gate

‘Utterly unique, constantly surprising, genuinely unsettling... may very well take its place among the best sci-fi novels of the century so far.' Blake Crouch, New York Times bestselling author of Dark Matter

© qntm 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025

 Best of 2025 Editors Select Hard Science Fiction Horror Science Fiction

Editorial Review

This mind-bending story has taken up permanent residence in my brain
Blossoming out of a collaborative fictional landscape known as the SCP Foundation, whose mission is to "secure, contain, and protect" mankind from a variety of unexplainable entities, this fascinating novel from a British computer programmer contemplates the idea that the world is full of "antimemes." These are entities that by their very nature are impossible to retain or remember. While some are relatively harmless (like giant, gentle creatures who use antimemetic properties as camouflage), the more nefarious antimemes are devouring entire teams of scientists with no one the wiser. Because how do you fight an enemy you aren't even aware exists? The structure of the story—moving back and forth in time and peppered with redacted classified documents—makes room for rich audio elements, while also surfacing compelling and relevant questions around history, memory, and fascism in a world rife with deepfakes and misinformation. —Emily C., Audible Editor

Critic Reviews

Astonishing. Pitch-perfect cosmic horror – and the pitch will break all the glass in your brain.
A blisteringly good, genuinely unnerving novel.
The coolest, smartest, mind-blowingest novel to be published this year, and probably for many years to come. It is utterly unique, constantly surprising, genuinely unsettling, and a towering work of speculative fiction that may very well take its place among the best sci-fi novels of the century so far.
Compulsively readable and breathtakingly inventive...this jaw-dropping mind-bender is about as unmissable as sci-fi/fantasy novels get.
No exaggeration, this is the most imaginative novel I have ever read. It's compulsively readable and exquisitely mind-blowing from the first paragraph to the last. I enjoyed every word. Highest possible recommendation.
An addictive, dizzying experience that will make you feel like your brain has been pulled apart and reassembled by a mad scientist. What would be considered a mind-bending twist in another novel happens on every other page of There Is No Antimemetics Division. I've never read anything like it, unless I did and just forgot.
An instant classic of the genre, fusing the bureaucratic sci-fi of Philip K. Dick, the cosmic horror of Lovecraft, and the poetic prose of Emily St. John Mandel. There Is No Antimemetics Division is packed with ideas so potent it feels like one of the story’s own anomalies—I had vivid dreams, my brain unable to put it down even when I was ready to. Blisteringly intelligent, profoundly unsettling, and totally unforgettable. I finished it days ago, and I’m still not done with it.
Unforgettable, mind-bendingly brilliant
A hugely entertaining, super smart, witty novel that is also nerve-shreddingly terrifying… a timely book that is also one for the ages.
A stone cold cosmic horror classic about a department trying to combat anomalous beings whose very nature makes them impossible to see or remember encountering. An incredible read.
All stars
Most relevant
Good development of core concept - one that is quite challenging, and carried through, with main protagonists have deep morality.

Excellent hard sci-fi.

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A thought provoking read with interesting concepts and plot twists. Definitely worth reading, well put together with interesting backstories.

A thought provoking read

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hlHad to re-listen to chapters, paragraphs and at times sentences as the story twist and turns like a lovecraftian nightmare. well written and well read.

mind bendingly enjoyable

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This series of vignettes tied together with common themes gave me a deep existential dread that is going to stay with me for a long time. it's basically about the destructive and fundamental nature of information and ideas and their effects on reality and identity, the apocalyptic power of which is managed by a secret organization. The agents themselves are also prone to these things and mitigate them with a series of wild and varied conceptual defenses.

Well worth the listen for fans of thought provoking sci-fi that's a little different.

Mind bending and deeply profound

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Often leaving on unexpected vectors. Some Lynchian story craft spirals through the dimensions of the mind and emotion

Lynchian

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