THE TRIVIAL UNIVERSE
BOOK ONE: THE TRIVIAL MATTER OF THE UNIVERSE
Universal law dictates that nobody can time travel, because nothing can alter the past.
Unfortunately for universal law, Felix Culpa is both.
Through hard work, diligence and a lifetime of irrelevance, Felix has become a complete nobody: a man so devoid of consequence or achievement that his existence leaves no measurable mark on reality.
A normal person travelling into the past would create a paradox simply by being there.
Felix does not.
He is not important enough to change history.He is the loophole in universal law. The first and only Universal Placebo.
"Octavian was big, big in the same way a silverback gorilla is when you realise the glass between you and it, isn't just clean, it's absent."
Adrian Stride The Trivial Matter of The Universe
A deep philosophical dive into a bowl of trifle.
In the future, the authorities have a problem with artificial intelligence. Well, one particular legally sentient AI, Alfred, who helpfully organised organised crime into a more organised institution, with the unfortunate side effect of reducing worldwide crime and the authorities’ credibility.
Luckily for Alfred, the Sentient Rights Act prevented them from fitting him with a dimmer switch, so, once they had organised themselves sufficiently, they imprisoned him instead.
But Alfred escaped, in the broadest possible sense of the word, as an uninvited, irritating virtual companion for Felix Culpa, a stereotypical nobody whose very obvious nonexistence makes it difficult for the universe to place him in the correct spacetime whenever he dies. Consequently, Felix keeps finding himself reset in places and periods where he has no business being.
It is not that Felix cannot die. In fact, he is getting rather good at it. He simply has a better post-death recovery rate than most people.
During his travels, Felix discovers that Birth, Marriage and Death are not always abstractions. They are enormous galactic artificial intelligences.
Biologicals search for the meaning of life. These AIs search for the meaning of their purpose. Unfortunately, humanity has spent its entire history redefining all three.
Marriage, for example, begins with a fairly limited definition of marriage as a consensual sexual relationship and has the additional disadvantage of having chosen to embody herself as an apex predator with the beauty of Helen of Troy. To be clear, the disadvantage isn’t always hers.
Her education is progressing.
“I will come to your room and discuss the matter,” King Menelaus said to Helen in a strong, masculine voice, proving that, despite the fact he was being dragged there by his ear, he was going “voluntarily”.
The Trivial Matter of the Universe is an adult comic speculative fiction novel exploring consciousness, identity, morality and the unreliable nature of reality.
At its heart is a question: can an intelligence ever understand its purpose without understanding the civilisation that gave that purpose meaning?
The humour arrives first. The philosophy, science and history take the scenic route.
“Be good, and if you can’t be good, don’t get caught.”
Alfred, circa 50 BC
What sort of book is it?
It is a comedy that starts by asking: why nobody can time travel? Who is this nobody anyway? Then it makes the mistake of trying to answer the question, seriously.
The deeper Felix and Alfred travel into history, the deeper the questions become. What is reality? What makes an artificial intelligence a person? Can you know what you are without knowing your history? And if your purpose was programmed into you, is following it obedience or choice?
Fortunately, to keep it real, there are also shoes.
It is a story about an artificial intelligence in which the artificial intelligence already has a criminal record and carries the sort of emotional baggage in which your purse disappears somewhere near the bottom.
It is a story about enormous philosophical questions, cosmic bureaucracy, human history and the difficulty of having a shoe fetish when you don’t have feet.
Most importantly, it is the story of Felix and Alfred: two unlikely companions travelling through a Universe that may not exist, pursued by institutions that unfortunately do.
It is not life as we know it.
But it feels uncomfortably familiar.
This book may be for you if…
You enjoy clever wordplay, unlikely friendships and heroes who have not allowed heroism to become part of their identity.
You suspect that bureaucracy would survive the end of the Universe.
You like speculative fiction that can ask serious questions without keeping a straight face.
You have ever wondered what might happen if the government departments of Births, Marriages and Deaths developed avatars of their own... and got tourist visas.
Or you simply believe that artificial intelligence and people shouldn't come close enough to share a wardrobe.
I
RESEMBLE
THAT
REMARK
Marriage
What early readers are saying
★★★★★
“This was so good! While reading, I felt like I did the first time I picked up a Discworld book. There is clever wordplay and witty insight, great banter and really fun characters. Highly recommended if you’re into either Discworld or The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, or both.”
C. Bouwen, NetGalley reviewer
“I loved this book. I laughed out loud several times—to the annoyance of hubby, who also had to listen to me quoting bits of it.”
H. Taylor, NetGalley reviewer
Book details
Title: The Trivial Matter of the Universe
Series: Book One of The Trivial Universe
Author: Adrian Stride
Genre: Adult comic science fiction and speculative fiction
Format: Ebook
Length: 443 pages
ISBN: 9798187572229
Publication date: 15 November 2026
Price: £3.99