Amelia Counterrevolution
Tales from the Lemurverse Anthology Two
Clayton Barnett (Editor)
3-AR Studios
ISBN 9780997991321
eISBN 9780997991338
ASIN B0GTYQ21PX
I do not recall how I stumbled upon this anthology, I believe it was on social media somewhere. But the title and cover grabbed my attention. I picked it up without reading the description, and to be honest had missed the whole meme thing. But it was so worth the read. I was aware of 2 of the authors before reading this, 1 of whom I have picked up a couple just not got to them yet. One of the things I love about anthologies is being introduced to new authors, and that definitely happened. Another thing I love is short form fiction is a very different art form than writing novels. And this work has a few different styles of short fiction. For a story that is just a few paragraphs to one that is a number of pages long. And to be honest I enjoyed each and every one of them! But I am getting ahead of myself, back to the volume at hand.
The description of the anthology states:
“The UK gambled.
The UK lost.
The right people won.
That didn't backfire at all.
In a critical moment for British society, the UK government created, not a video game, but a propaganda tool intended to prevent youth from being "radicalized." In the most stunning of unintended consequences, that game introduced to the world Amelia, now a digital icon for the conservative ideas the creators feared as having too much influence.
Amelia appeared in the UK, but her appeal is worldwide, and she has appeared in Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Sweden, and the US. She provides an international symbol for anyone who wishes to stand for individual liberty and the rights of the nation-state against the surveillance society which threatens to overrun us.
Amelia: Counterrevolution is an anthology of Tales from the Lemurverse, celebrating irony, farce, and the embrace of Western civilization, culture and history that the Amelia meme has now triggered world-wide. In Amelia: Counterrevolution, readers will find a varied, entertaining approach to the latest internet phenomenon.”
The contributors are:
Cato Minor
Clayton Barnett
Murray Eiland
Melinda Gorman
Grathew
Joseph Isenberg
L. Jagi Lamplighter
Page Zaplendam
The stories are:
That Didn’t Backfire at All – Cato Minor
Catch the Light – Murray Eiland
The Lion Awakens – L. Jagi Lamplighter
“Revolution Calling” – Clayton Barnett
Backfire – Page Zaplendam
Stop Staring – Murray Eiland
Twilight’s Last Gleaming – Page Zaplendam
The Girl in the Holograph – Joseph Isenberg
Amelia’s Travelogue, Part 1 – Melinda Gorman
The Rose’s Thorns – Grathew
At the beginning of the volume is QR codes to take you to the contributors. And the end are brief biographies. I would have preferred if the QR codes on the digital edition were just links. But for those using mobile or physical copy it will work well. Before the text begins is a quote:
“Still more majestic shalt thou rise,
More dreadful, from each foreign stroke;
As the loud blast that tears the skies,
Serves but to root thy native oak.
"Rule, Britannia! rule the waves:
"Britons never will be slaves."
- “Rule, Britannia” ~ James Thomson, 1740”
And then the editor’s forward states:
“Once upon a time, there was the Science Fiction and Fantasy Group on a social media site called Gab. There, various oddballs could gather and exchange outlandish ideas. Over time, it was agreed that face-to-face was needed, and the Imaginarium Convention in Louisville, Kentucky, was chosen.
Two the first year, three the next, five the third, and now a swarm, unofficially, the name Lemurs, from Mister Isenberg, was chosen for our writing circle.
At the end of that third year, I suggested we make an anthology of our very disparate works, highlighting our own styles. To not have things off in five different directions, I proposed a common theme, which is the title of that first collection.
We had started a second anthology, but in January 2026, a meme of videos and music exploded into a niche of popular culture: Amelia. A supposed antagonist in a visual novel of UK government propaganda, the character “broke containment” and is changing culture and minds. It behooved us to nail ourselves to that comet’s tail while it is still in the sky.
Edited first by me and copyedited by Stephen Zimmer, I finally stuck a fork in this project.
Still wildly divergent, the theme knits these works together. I hope you, the reader, will enjoy getting to know this amazing young woman.”
The first piece sets the stage. Cato writes:
“Imagine if you worked at Shout Out UK, an organization supposed to educate youth. Your assignment is to create a game to propagandize them instead. It is essential that youth accept all decisions from the government. Even though it is clear the government of the United Kingdom is a monarchy, questioning immigration policies, going to protests, or even waving the Union Jack undermines democracy.
The game should have been a success. It casts a villain, a character called Amelia. She was supposed to be racist, xenophobic, Islamophobic, and a hateful character. Only, she wasn’t. She said only reasonable things that most Britons agree with. Her initial complaint was immigrants aren’t assimilating into English culture, but instead take jobs and opportunities from British citizens.
It was a mistake to make Amelia a sympathetic character to those on the English right since she shares their beliefs. She is not hateful. She doesn’t try to get the game player to commit any terrorist acts against the immigrant community. She merely speaks her mind and complains about immigrants not assimilating.”
Thus we have our protagonist, Amelia reminds me a lot of Chloe in Cedar Sanderson’s Groundskeeper Series. And her description reminds me of a co-worker with the same name and the descriptions are not far off either. In this volume we encounter a number of iterations and interpretations of Amelia, from natural home grown patriotic youth, to a synthetic whose programming is manipulated to rather unexpected results.
Many of the pieces are stand out stories. One of my favourites if L. Jagi Lamplighter’s The Lion Awakes. It ties so well to other favourite books I have read over the years. The Girl in the Holograph by Joseph Isenberg was particularly moving. Catch the Light is a splendid story in verse. Barnett’s offering is an intriguing piece. But I can easily state each story was worth the read.
I also really appreciated the +JMJ+ dedication by the editor. Prior to reading this collection I had only read 1 story in another anthology by L. Jagi Lamplighter. But I did have 2 of the authors in my ‘to be read’ pile, after reading this collection a few of the others are now on that list. I picked up the first Lemurverse collection even before I had finished this one! This is an excellent anthology, that I can easily recommend.
Book in the Tales from the Lemurverse Series:
In the Midst of a River
…
