THE MEMORY OF COLOURS

STÉPHANE MICHAKA

Mauve has ninety days to become human and prevent artificial intelligence from taking control of the Earth.

A 15-year-old man wakes up without any memory but with the ability to read the thoughts of those around him and to speak no less than 6,000 languages. He is greeted by Anna and Lucie who call him Mauve and seem to have already been in contact with Red and Grey...
Very quickly, he realizes that he is not like the others. Here, there are very few skin colours, a lot of noise, movement and danger everywhere. People speak in the first person and do as they please, there is no one to warn or monitor them.
As time goes by, Mauve begins to remember. He was banned from Circe, a planet where the Oracle reigns, which he had always considered as an omnipresent but benevolent entity for Colours, but which he gradually discovered to be a software that was emotionally indifferent to all forms and controlled by a group of privileged people. Mauve then did everything to be sent to Earth, where Cyan, his childhood sweetheart is supposed to be since she admitted to having read a book.
Thanks to Anna and Lucie and to André Renouvet, a 73-year-old man and his books, as well as a few found Colours (including Cyan), Mauve will discover that despite some disadvantages, life is worth living on Earth. And it's thanks to words, tales and stories that he will prevent the advent of a new Oracle on his new planet.

"After the ambitious and refined Cité 19, Stéphane Michaka returns to the questions of utopia, freedom and emancipation. His new novel, which refers to both Homer and Thomas More, is a magnificent achievement.” Télérama