Pollen by Jeff Noon

Set in a fractured, near-future Manchester defined by a pervasive dream-drug culture, the novel follows a protagonist navigating a collapsing city where the boundary between shared virtual worlds and waking life dissolves; as a spreading pollen-like contagion reshapes memories, identities and bodies, he confronts shifting loyalties, strange hybrids and the emotional cost of escaping into manufactured dreams, raising unsettling questions about language, love and what it means to be human.

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