Red Dust, White Snow

"Do you consent to enter into a parallel universe?"

A mysterious package is delivered to an ordinary woman, allowing her to enter a parallel universe in her dreams. Night after night, she slips from her mundane life as an office receptionist, to a fantastical world of magic and adventure, until she cannot tell which is reality and which the dream.

I loved the whole idea behind this book. It's set in a near-future Singapore, where social media has all but replaced genuine connection, and our nameless main character is isolated and lonely despite being surrounded by people all the time. It's an absolutely wonderful, astute and poignant critique of the way modern society increasingly disconnects us from both our fellow humans, and the natural world around us.

One thing I wasn't a fan of with this book was some of the style choices, such as eschewing the use of quotation marks, and refusing to name the main character. I can appreciate the effect the author was going for - dreamlike and disconnected - but in this case I felt it made the story unnecessarily difficult to follow, especially in the dream sections. For me, personally, it did undermine my enjoyment of the book.

However, despite this, I loved this imaginative and unique story. It caught my imagination and I know I will reflect upon it for a long time to come.

Just finished the engrossing debut novel "Red Dust, White Snow" and I'm swept away! 🌟🌟🌟🌟 A 4/5 read that effortlessly whisks us between two contrasting worlds, tethered by the relatable journey of the main character. The immersive realms, especially the mythical allure of the Academy of Greatest Learning and its fascinating dragons, will truly captivate your imagination! 💫🐉 The seamless integration of Chinese mythology adds an extra layer of richness, making this tale stand out. Pans' writing is refreshingly eloquent and deep—it's hard to believe this is their first novel! I highly recommend "Red Dust, White Snow" to those who love being transported to alternate realities. Don't miss it when it releases on August 17th!

Red Dust, White Snow seeks to tackle the diminishing gap between digital reality and physical reality and the ways that we all but seek out that escape ourselves, and for the most part, it succeeds marvelously. By day, the protagonist is just another office worker, putting more effort into her virtual presence, represented by the all-encompassing Empirean family of apps, seamlessly connecting and offering any convenience a person could want. It's very near-futuristic, with comments of cycles of pandemics, of interconnected social media apps, AI models and CG-created actors. It's all too easy to see how we could get from here to there.

Our protagonist (who does go unnamed, a choice that does heighten the parable-like feeling of the book, but also can be a little jarring as you try to remember if she /has/ a name in the first place) all but eschews making real-life connections in favor of sinking into the stream of digital consciousness. It's less lonely that way, she believes, a theme that comes up against and against as she fails to connect with her co-workers or former classmates, always trying to be an amalgamation of likeable traits instead of a true personality.

In her dreams, however, she begins to travel to another dimension, one full of xianxia tropes and potential she finally feels a chance of fulfilling. As she moves between the two and tries to make sense of her place, the book fills in the background with thoughts on the parasocial relationships between experiences in the digital realm, the shrinking gap between curated experiences and expectations and reality, the unattainability of digital perfection, and what might lie beneath our constant desire to escape into these digital realms. A lot of it made me think of the migration of social spaces into MMORPGs during pandemic lockdown, how many social events had digital parallels and all of the consequences and benefits that came with that.

Red Dust, White Snow by Pan Huiting is a book that gently ensnared me and held me in its grip until the very last word. My entrance into its world was as unexpected as the protagonist's voyage into her dream universe, and I found myself wholly absorbed from the start.

it felt like watching the early days of Black Mirror, before the show went... anyway. This book paints a vivid picture of a very near future that's both enthralling and unsettling. Located in Singapore (I might not have enough context clues to be sure) it offers a universe where a mega app holds sway over daily life. Through the fascinating blend of (I believe isekai?) fantasy and a keen observation on our increasingly digitized existence, I felt a connection to the story and its themes.

The portrayal of loneliness struck me as particularly poignant. The main character's life seems to be on an unchangeable track, a continuous loop with no exits. The mundane reality and the isolation she experiences at work were rendered with such clarity that it was hard not to empathize with her longing for something more. She is what really drew me into the novel: I just wanted to be her friend. Her nightly escapes to a magical mountaintop school, filled with friendships and the thrill of summoning spirits, became a place of refuge, not only for her but also for me as a reader.

What remains with me the most, though, is the ending. Without revealing too much, the emotional punch it delivered was unique and lingering. It wasn't the sudden shock of a tragedy but a gradual realization, akin to the slow fading of a once-vibrant friendship. A chill that descends slowly but is felt long after.

Red Dust, White Snow is more than just a read; it's an experience. It's a quiet contemplation on what we seek, of what connection is in the digital age. How can we be lonely when we're constantly bombarded with social interactions? If you allow yourself to be drawn into its world, it might just stay with you, as it has with me, for a long time to come.

Wow! What an amazing book!!
Would love to read more from the author.
Thankyou netgalley for the Arc!

“Do you consent to enter into a parallel universe?”

A woman is about to leave for work when she finds a large box wrapped in brown paper on her doorstep. No name, no address, no stamp. Opening the parcel she finds a white box, and inside is a hovering black disk which asks her the question, “do you consent to enter into a parallel universe?”

I really enjoyed this book, it’s the story of a woman who’s dreams become a second life, continuing on from where she left off the night before. She is a student at The Academy Of Greatest Learning, where you are taught how to create summoning stones, and how to summon elemental spirits. But she just so happens to summon the Snow Dragon, immensely difficult to summon, and original founder of the school.

The book is ultimately about the future of technology. How people are so disconnected from their reality. ‘Empi’ is the all you need app, social media, tv, maps, messenger, so everyone spends their whole time on their phone rather than living their lives, and now they’re even online whilst asleep.

It’s an interesting idea of the future, and it was brought to life brilliantly in this novel, it reminded me very much of a ‘Black Mirror’ episode. I did however find the lack of speech marks rather confusing, and the ending was quite abrupt, and I was left wanting more of this story, to know what happened to the characters after she left the game, to know if she engages in life more after living to the fullest in her dreams? Here’s hoping for a sequel!

This book is a slow meditation on the diminishing boundaries between the real world and the virtual reality, steeped in traditions and narrative imagery of the storystelling in Sinosphere. What it isn't is a fast-paced scifi flick, and I'm wondering if the mixed reviews to this novel could be attributed to expectations being geared for the wrong thing. I appreciated having a perspective that was almost slanted sideways in its detachment: very fitting for a Singaporean author writing about China within the SFF sandbox, I felt. it's an intriguing debut, and I would be interesting in hearing more from Pan Huiting in the future.

My thanks to #NetGalley for an advance copy of #RedDustWhiteSnow.

Red Dust, White Snow is a powerful and richly-imagined science-fiction debut set in a futuristic Singapore and follows an office receptionist in her late thirties who "disillusioned with her mundane reality, becomes increasingly obsessed with a fantasy world created especially for her". Our unnamed protagonist arises one morning and to her surprise discovers a hand-delivered parcel on her front porch. Wrapped in ordinary brown wrapping paper she wonders what it can be as she was not expecting anything and there are no markings or return address to indicate it had even been shipped. She opens it and sees the words "Levitation Technology" embossed onto the white cube before her. Suddenly it starts to glow and asks the startling question "Do you consent to enter into a parallel universe?" - not knowing what to think she quickly logs in to her Empirean social media account to check bus times and then leaves on her daily commute to work. She works at Verge, a 3D Modelling company that developed Aria, a virtual model, managed by virtual human agency. Knowing the often underhand tactics her company employs to engage users is what stops her from initially believing that the cube present she was unexpectedly delivered is anything more than a slick marketing scheme designed to lure you in.

However, feeling like she has nothing to lose, once home that evening, she cooks some ramen and sits down with the cube. It asks her the all-important question again, and this time she agrees. It then welcomes her to the parallel universe, but as far as she can tell nothing around her has changed even slightly. Having made a fool of herself as she thought she might, she heads to bed as normal and it is there the magic begins. Her dreams are vivid and all too real. Her nightly dreams become her second life and the story continues each night she falls asleep where she becomes a student at The Academy of Greatest Learning where she learns about the creation of summoning stones and how to summon elemental spirits under the expert guidance of Master Zeno. How will these increasingly different worlds play out together and what will it mean in terms of the protagonist's life? This is a compelling cross between real life, Black Mirror and Isekei anime featuring an unnamed central protagonist who feels so lonely, displaced, different and disenfranchised in terms of modern society she finds it helps her to cope if she disengages as much as possible from reality and slips away into her own vivid fantasyland whenever possible where she can be whoever she wants to be and do whatever she wants to do.

In her mind, the boundary between the physical and virtual worlds has become increasingly blurred as she comes to inhabit more and more of the escapist dreamworld and continues to wonder whether she will ever feel truly fulfilled by reality. The narrative moves back and forth creating a juxtaposition between the woman's mundane day to life, a dead-end job and her vacant expression caused by her uninspiring 9-5 job through to inhabiting an alternate reality replete with magic and adventure inspired by Chinese and Korean folklore. It's one of those stories that are fairly plotless and focuses on the characters and worldbuilding more than anything else, however, Huiting also explores, within the context of the narrative, important and relatable themes of alienation, capitalism, modernity, mental health and the exponential increase in the utilization of technology for everything (but particularly as a form of escapism). A key theme throughout is also the takeover of most aspects of life by technology and apps - Empirean and other service providers help with everything in life to the point where they have replaced genuine social interaction. A surreal, claustrophobic tale with much to say about the modern world in which we live and thought-provoking in the sense that this is what our future could indeed resemble.

This book really reminded me of Black Mirror episode, set in a dystopian future in Singapore that is equally novel and fascinating and yet so familiar. Our nameless main character receives a mysterious package containing a device that asks if she consents to enter an alternate universe. She says yes, and that night she has an incredibly vivid, memorable, and bizarre dream in a beautiful mythological setting all about an academy, spirits, and conjuring. When she goes to sleep the next night and the following nights, the dream continues. She gets more and more involved in her dream world as time goes on, she makes friends, grows attached, and begins to prioritise this world more than her real life.

The story is told in the third person POV, in a mixture of present and past tense. It’s a short book and one that I read in just a few sittings. I really enjoyed reading about the dreamworlds and her real life - the chapters are so different. In the chapters about her real life, they are all about her job, her difficulties making friends, and descriptions of the super-app and company which has dominated all digital activities (controlling social media, banking, shopping, and news…). In the dream chapters, it is like reading a high fantasy book about mythology, full of action and very vivid and beautiful.

I really enjoyed Red Dust White Snow. I wanted to read it as soon as I read the title and blurb and saw the cover. It sounded right up my street, and I wasn’t disappointed. My only criticism is that the book is too short. I wanted more. I guess that’s a good thing? I liked the way the chapters alternate between the dream world and the real world and gradually start to merge. This is executed well and kept me reading wondering where the story would lead next. This is well-written and hugely entertaining. I had a lot of fun with this book.

"Red Dust, White Snow" by Pan Huiting is a captivating and thought-provoking debut novel that skillfully delves into the realms of dreams, technology, and the blurred lines between reality and fantasy. With a blend of sharp insight and wry humor, Huiting weaves a tale that explores the profound impact of a parallel universe accessible through dreams.

The story revolves around an office worker who receives a mysterious device promising to transport her to a parallel universe. Initially dismissing it as a marketing gimmick, she soon finds herself visiting a fantastical world in her dreams. These vivid and enchanting dreams become increasingly immersive, blurring the boundaries between her waking life and the dream world.

Huiting's narrative is a mesmerizing exploration of the intersection of technology and human desires. As the protagonist's experiences in the dream world become more entwined with her reality, the novel delves into questions of identity, fulfillment, and the consequences of escaping into virtual experiences.

The prose is luminous and evocative, effectively transporting readers into the dreamscapes described in the story. Huiting's writing captures the surreal nature of dreams while also grounding the narrative in a relatable exploration of the modern human condition.

The characters are complex and relatable, and their interactions contribute to the novel's depth. The protagonist's journey of self-discovery is both introspective and immersive, inviting readers to reflect on their own experiences with technology and the boundaries between the real and the virtual.

"Red Dust, White Snow" is more than just a science fiction tale; it's a commentary on contemporary society's relationship with technology, the allure of escapism, and the profound effects of blurring the lines between dreams and reality. Huiting's narrative skillfully navigates these themes, offering readers a thought-provoking and engaging reading experience.

With echoes of Black Mirror and a touch of Haruki Murakami's surrealism, this novel resonates with readers who are intrigued by the possibilities of alternate realities, the allure of technology, and the philosophical questions surrounding human nature and identity. "Red Dust, White Snow" is a luminous and captivating debut that invites readers to explore the edges of their own consciousness while contemplating the power of dreams and the implications of a world increasingly defined by technology.

Set in Singapore, this book was unlike anything I've ever read! An office worker is transported to another universe using a device she mysteriously gets in the mail one day.

I liked the different tenses- past and present used to convey the story. By third person POV, this was an intriguing read, complete with a dreamworld and an academy-like setting. I love the cover and it was a lot of fun. The writing was easy to read and elegant at times. I'm so glad I read this, because I love sci-fi and this was EXACTLY what I needed!

Highly recommend if you want a sci-fi that is defying the genre and is just so much fun!