Much of literary fiction seems to overlook popular culture, passing it off as being low brow and unworthy of attention. Whether it is references to action stars such as Schwarzenegger and Jean Claude van Damme or our love for our cell phones, every reader is bound to recognize something in Rousselot's poems which will capture his attention. Although this lends itself to the danger that Dawn of the Algorithm will be very dated in only a couple of years, for now it is stunning and a lot of fun. Rousselot writes poetry which is suffused by our popular culture, our technology and our world. This is what poetry for the twenty-first century is supposed to read like. Our resident aliens, octosharks, algorithms, mecha-robots, pathogens, and kaiju (to name a few) will be very happy to make your acquaintance. Rousselot paints a darkly comical portrait of humankind, a species plagued by heartbreak and alienation, yet driven by hope and, at the very core, a burning desire to connect. They are forces of human nature, genetically engineered with a single purpose: to herald the apocalypse. Some have beating hearts, others interlocking mechanical parts. These monsters were born and bred on Planet Pop Culture, raised on a diet of TV tropes, movie clichés, book snippets, and video game storylines. Yann Rousselot’s poems are characters, twisted mirror-images of their creator, at once atavistically stupid and artificially intelligent. Thanks to Netgalley and Inkshares for providing me with a copy of this collection in exchange for a fair and honest review.ĭawn of the Algorithm is a bestiary. Rousselot shows that modern poetry can feel classic. It was, then, with hesitation that I requested Dawn of the Algorithm, but I'm very glad I did. And when I do it tends to be old school poetry, with its strict rules and rhyme meters which I have to analyse for University.

Dawn of the Algorithm by Yann Rousselot