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Early Riser (novel)

Early RiserAuthorJasper FfordeCover artistRobert Frank HunterCountryUnited KingdomLanguageEnglishGenrealternate history, fantasy, science fiction, satirePublisherHodder & Stoughton (UK)Viking Press (US)Published2 August 2018 (UK)12 February 2019 (US)Media typePrint (hardcover)
Early Riser (2018) is a standalone alternate history satire novel of novelist Jasper Fforde.

Plot
The story takes place in an alternate version of the United Kingdom, where the Ice Age still continues and the human population mainly hibernates in winter. Returning early from hibernation may cause Dead in Sleep from neural collapse, but death during hibernation may also arise from a shortage of fats, low temperature, vermin predation, carbon dioxide build-up, calcitic migration and many other complications. Some people awake with only enough vestigial memory to walk and eat, and became known as "nightwalkers".

As the novel opens, people�s survivability during hibernation has dramatically increased after the introduction of Morphenox, a drug produced by HiberTech, a large and powerful "vertically integrated" corporation. HiberTech also "takes care" of nightwalkers, "redeploying" those who are suitable for performing simple tasks and supervising "transplant potential" of others.

There is a Winter Consul Service responsible for the safety of dreaming people. The main protagonist, Charlie Worthing, is a novice and this is their first season as Winter Consul. One of the current issues for the Consul Service is an outbreak of viral dreams that is not treated seriously at first, but unexpectedly leads to serious trouble in which Charlie is personally embroiled.

The novel is notable because Fforde never uses a gender descriptive pronoun for the protagonist Charlie Worthing, referring to Charlie variously as they/them, I/me, and as simply 'Charlie'.

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