Brain Fruit by Stephen Oram (book review)

‘Brain Fruit’ by Stephen Oram is standalone zoefuturist Science Fiction novella. Zoefuturism focuses on connectedness, constant change and life-becomings rather than fixed static states.

This is a story of survival in the local environment. The main danger comes from the repeated storms of rocks. They are damaging and ultimately destroying anything they drop down on. The communities need to find a way to protect themselves, which means making progress in understanding what can be done in the world around them.

One community comprises a set of mechanical bees that have a common store of knowledge they have gained over time. This is obtained by forming trioids with a bug, a bran fruit from the tree and a bee, who then wander around of missions of discovery.

The story is from the viewpoint of one bee. Its formed trioid allows, ‘…my brain fruit will think and reason as well as react to their senses. Then, the bug will have intelligence. Then, I can smell and taste once again.’

Another community of droids is assessed as another danger to the bees and trioids. Yet the viewpoint trioid believes the droids may have the answer to their survival. So off it travels, between rock storms, to the droid community to find out if this is the case.

‘Brain Fruit’ is printed by what I would call the Swedish Folio Society of new Science Fiction novellas, L’il Factory. It is only available in a luxury hardback edition with the print run limited to 500 copies. Once these copies are sold, this novella will only be available as a second-hand book, if at all.

Trioids of any sort are rare in Science Fiction. The only one I can think of is Isaac Asimov’s ‘The Gods Themselves’ published in 1972, for which he won the Hugo and Nebula. This rarity alone piqued my interest.

Oram lets us understand the bee, the struggles of decision-making within the trioid and the push for survival in the world. This is a kind of three stories in one, a good literary technique to echo the trioid protagonist.

Throughout the story, we get glimpses of the world, but they are limited to what the protagonists can comprehend. There are by the end of the story a lot of answered questions, like where do the rocks come from and how, if at all, are the bees replaced? This just makes ‘Brain Fruit’ all the more thought-provoking.

The survival story ticks along nicely, allowing the reader to enjoy this strange world while developing the storyline in an interesting way.

‘Brain Fruit’ is one of those thought-provoking idea-laden stories you will remember long after you finished reading it.

Rosie Oliver

July 2026

(pub: L’il Factory AB, 2025. 48 page hardback. Price: £18.00 (UK). ISBN: 978-91-989955-1-0)

check out website: https://lilfac.com/shop/ws-/products/brain-fruit-by-stephen-oram