Best Novel 2020 Finalist—African Speculative Fiction Society NOMMO Awards "Soul Searching is a philosophical thriller that engages readers through a combination of complexity, action and imagination. The melange of ideas makes for a rich and intricate tale.” — Damien Lawardorn, Aurealis #138. "A quick-paced narrative written with precision and interlaced with registers of the criminal and banal, magical and real, spiritual and technological, futuristic and current. This debut exemplifies the work of a sensitive writer with a gift for imagining the inner lives and afterlives of humans.” — Joanna Woods, Africa in Words. "Soul Searching applies spirituality to mechanics and crime solving, to healing and recovering our humanity, in the timeless universal that cuts across cultures worldwide, but also in the immediate reality of the multicultural local, where time is running out, and people will die." — Mame Bougouma Diene, Strange Horizons. Science has learned to understand the soul, and can track souls through this life and beyond. A specialist unit of the South African police is using a Soul Tracker device in a harrowing search for a serial killer. As Tracker Ruth Hicks and her partner Franklin Banks race to find the killer before the next victim dies, the case becomes frighteningly personal. They begin to question the morality of their methods. When one's soul can incriminate them before birth, can there ever be justice? Who can be trusted with the power to look inside the soul? This science fiction novel by South African author Stephen Embleton has been likened to a mix of Minority Report and Silence of the Lambs, with unique ideas all its own. The thrilling story features a serial killer, new and disturbing technology, and an ancient secret society. And flying cars!
Author
Stephen was born in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa and is now a resident in Oxford, United Kingdom, since being the 2022 James Currey Fellow at the African Studies Centre, Oxford University. His background is Graphic Design, Creative Direction and Film. His first short story was published in 2015 in the "Imagine Africa 500" speculative fiction anthology, followed by more in the “Beneath This Skin” 2016 Edition of Aké Review, “The Short Story is Dead, Long Live the Short Story! Vol.2”, the debut edition of Enkare Review 2017, The Bloody Parchment, AfroSFv3, The Kalahari Review, Burning House Press, Omenana Magazine, and The Shallow Tales Review. He was featured in Part 11 of the 100 African Writers of SFF on Strange Horizons. His debut speculative fiction novel, Soul Searching, was published in the UK and US in August/September 2020. He is a charter member of the African Speculative Fiction Society and its Nommo Awards initiative. His then unpublished YA fantasy novel, Bones & Runes, was a top 5 finalist in the 2021 inaugural James Currey Prize for African Literature, and was published in the UK in February 2022. Awarded the James Currey Fellowship at African Studies Centre, Oxford University 2022. His essay "There is Magic in African Literature" (and cover feature) was published in the University of Oxford, African Studies Centre 2022 Newsletter. Stephen is the editor of The James Currey Anthology 2022, featuring short fiction and non-fiction with contributors hailing from Botswana to Nigeria, Ghana to South Africa – writing from the Continent or in the diaspora.
