The book covers for British-Nigerian writer Temi Oh’s science fiction novel just came out and their futuristic designs are gorgeous. The novel is titled More Perfect and will be released on May 25 in the UK and on August 15 in the US.

The novel uses the powers of technology and social media to reimagine the Greek myth of Eurydice and Orpheus. The UK book cover (on the left) focuses on this play on the Greek myth by featuring two characters looking away from each other amidst a background of the London skyline and a haunting red sun. The US book cover (on the right) is equally stunning as it features an eye consisting of spectrum of different colors, meant to evoke a cyborgian figure perhaps.

See the publisher’s Twitter announcement below:

Oh’s novel is set in a futuristic London where people have begun to put a small implant in their heads to allow them to experience social media as an augmented reality. However, this world soon takes a dystopian turn when the British government plans to make the implant mandatory for all.

Read the full synopsis below:

“What does it feel like to wake up in the Panopticon? It’s like waking up for the first time ever. It’s like waking up with a third eye.”

When Moremi connects her brain to the Panopticon, a network which allows you to see inside the minds and dreams of others, she believes that it will save her from depression, loneliness and, eventually, death. That is until she meets Orpheus.

Orpheus was brought up in isolation by a Neo-luddite father. He was raised to question everything, including the government who plan to make the connection procedure compulsory.

They promise that connecting everyone to the Panopticon will end human suffering and usher in a more perfect world. But when Orpheus and Moremi uncover the dark side of the technology, they find themselves on opposite sides of a radical divide, between those who believe that the Panopticon will save humanity, and those who will stop at nothing to destroy it.

More Perfect is The Circle meets Inception in an immersive and futuristic story that explores love, loneliness and the limits of technology’s ability to save a humanity who might not want to be saved. 

Temi Oh is a British-Nigerian speculative fiction writer who graduated from King’s College London in 2015 with a degree in Neuroscience. Her previous novel Do You Dream of Terra-Two? won the American Library Association’s Alex Award in 2020 and was an NPR Best Book of the year in 2019.

Preorder More Perfect here: Simon & Schuster UK | Simon & Schuster US