Mat Johnson

In the film business, Mat Johnson’s Invisible Things would be called a story with a “high concept.” The first expedition to Jupiter discovers a city on Europa protected by a force field. The city, called New Roanoke, is inhabited by the victims of alien abduction and their descendants. They worship their unseen alien abductors and have developed strong cultural taboos around them. When a rescue ship finally arrives, it finds that not all of the original crew want to go home and that even the word home is taboo in New Roanoke. New Roanoke is not Tralfamadore, but Invisible Things is a satire that owes a lot to the satire of Kurt Vonnegut, Samuel Delany, and Philip K. Dick. Societies on Europa and Earth are deeply divided and exhibit a pathological unwillingness to face facts. Sound familiar? Johnson writes well and creates characters who think about the world and their place in it.… (more)