Science fiction
Pulses
By Paul Haedo
For Aldebaran, missing a factory shift can mean death. When a chance to escape appears, the life he knows begins to unravel. Beyond the factory lies an unfamiliar world, and surviving it will demand more than leaving his old routine behind.
- Type
- Fiction
- Form
- Novel
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Beyond the book
Why choose this book?
Choose this standalone if you are interested in a working routine with unusually immediate stakes. Its premise turns the possibility of leaving into a question of survival.
What to expect
Aldebaran’s factory life is the starting point. An unfamiliar world lies beyond the routine he knows.
Before you begin
The introductory guide discusses the starting conditions; later developments remain in clearly marked spoiler sections.
Before you begin
No series prerequisite is recorded. Choose by the premise and themes.
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Questions for your reading
How does the consequence of missing a shift shape your understanding of routine?
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Where to read next
- Future's Guardian
A shared reading question connects these books.
- Journey Home
A shared reading question connects these books.
- Scandinavian Tequila
A shared reading question connects these books.
Plan your reading
Supplied manuscript: 44,418 extracted words. This describes the supplied text, not a verified count for every retail edition.
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Standalone novel.
Planning estimate: about 3–5 hours at 150–300 words per minute. Poetry, rereading and note-taking can take longer; this is not a retail-edition length claim.
Is this part of a collection?
No series prerequisite is recorded for this work.
Also included in Sci-Fi Novel Mega Pack: 5 Standalone Stories. Check your existing books before choosing a collected edition.
Chapter One — selected excerpt
Author-supplied manuscript; opening selection beginning at paragraph 1. Paragraph numbering follows non-empty body paragraphs in the supplied file. © Paul Haedo. This is a short excerpt, not the complete chapter.
Chapter One
I heard the sound: a long beep, followed by a short pause, then another beep. It was the sound of my alarm clock, alerting me that another day had passed. In an instant, I was up. I had fallen asleep in yesterday’s clothes, so I only needed to grab my bag to be ready for my day.
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Explore its reading themes
Continue exploring
- Work, routine and institutions in fiction
- Home, displacement and belonging
- Leaving the familiar in Pulses
- Aldebaran
- Pulses: life, labour, and the cost of time
- What survival requires: work, movement, and dependence
- Reading the working day: routine as a starting point
- Home as a question before a destination
- A job and an assigned purpose are different starting points
- Leaving a place and carrying a home
- Reported rules and lived rules
- Pulse in Pulses
Continue exploring
Other paths through the books.
Future's Guardian
A related reading question: Work, security, and freedom.
Journey Home
A related reading question: Displacement and the search for a future.
Scandinavian Tequila
A related reading question: Work, security, and freedom.