Fluence
Stephen Oram
Paperback
Set in a speculative near-future London, 'Fluence' is a satirical story of aspiration and desperation.
- ISBN 9781781323632
- Published Jun 2015
- Paperback
203 x 133mm (330 pages)
Imagine a world where your influence on social media determines your job, your home and your friends. A world without politicians, where the corporations run the country.
Set in a dystopian London, Fluence is a story of aspiration and desperation and of power seen and unseen. Amber is young and ambitious. Martin is burnt out by years of struggling. She cheats to get what she wants while he barely clings on to what he has.
It's the week before the annual Pay Day when strata positions are decided by the algorithms. The social media feed is frenetic with people trying to boost their influence rating, while those above the strata and those who've opted out pursue their own manipulative goals.
To what extremes, and at what cost to their families, will Amber and Martin go to achieve the Fluence they desire?
Take a look inside Fluence

Stephen Oram writes science fiction and is lead curator for near-future fiction at Virtual Futures. He’s been a hippie-punk, religious-squatter and an anarchist-bureaucrat; he thrives on contradictions. He is published in several anthologies and has two published novels, Quantum Confessions and Fluence. His collection of sci-fi shorts, Eating Robots and Other Stories, was described by the Morning Star as one of the top radical works of fiction in 2017.
Find out more about Stephen and his work
here.

"A frightening insight into a not-so-impossible future. This suspenseful, emotionally rich page-turner shows the dark side of the advanced technology and social networks; the twisted morals of a society driven by superficial social status and manipulated by the elite. The imperfect, realistic characters’ lives brilliantly show the possible consequences of one’s choices."
– The International Review of Books "Oram offers a glimpse into a Dystopian London where social media use moves from mild addiction to a visceral quest for survival, where commodification of experience and shallow responses sound warning bells for our species' continuance. Current debate about benefits and who's entitled to support reach bitter depths .
Fluence's mix of characters tumble today's class system and focus on appearance into a rat race where empathy is rare and no-one knows who is friend or foe, even within their own family. A fast-paced and eerily visual read."
– Celia Wade-Brown, Mayor of Wellington, New Zealand
"Almost every review I have read of this book compares it to 1984 and/or Black Mirror, presumably because they are the most well known and loved of dystopian future fiction. But for me this needs no comparison: the story is original and great of its own right.” – Orchid's Lantern
"Extraordinarily gifted, detailed and believable. The author has created a vivid and frightening vision and the believable world just around the corner is an outstanding feature of this novel. The world of
Fluence may soon be upon us and we must act to stop a pulsating piece of fiction becoming our terrible reality." –
Paul Simon, Morning Star
Download the Advance Information (AI) sheet
here.
See the Press Release
here.
See Paul Simon's review of
Fluence in
The Morning Star here.
Read about the launch of
Fluence at Primrose Hill Library
here.
Read Daniel Wittenberg's article about Stephen and
Fluence in the
Hampstead Highgate Express here.
Check out Stephen's
Fitzrovia News article on technology and 'the future of writing'
here.
Click
here to read the full Orchid's Lantern review.
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