Jaime Noguera turns his new novel into a 'Black Mirror' episode set in a dystopian Malaga

Year 2075. Málaga has become a global power; it has become independent from Spain—and from the world; it has a lunar base named after ... star, Antonio Banderas; processions are still held but are in holograms, and the city is governed by an artificial intelligence named 'Virguer-IA'. Despite this power, people live in cubicles—the housing problem can always get worse—and remain obsessed with posturing on social networks, while the corruption of the system persists. This world, which is so far and yet so close to our reality, is the protagonist of 'Malaca Imperialis', the new novel by Jaime Noguera, who, a decade after his debut and without abandoning the parodic humor of 'España: Guerra Zombi', returns to literature with a dystopia that has already begun to climb the ranks on Amazon lists.

"Every time I go down to Málaga—I live on the Coast—I find that something has changed, that a long-standing business is lost and a franchise is put in its place, or that a building is now for tourist apartments, so my novel is not very different from what is happening," the writer says with irony. He is a filmmaker, occasional actor ('Torrente 2'), and director of the International Short Film and Alternative Cinema Festival of Benalmádena (FICCAB), who ensures that his first goal is that "people laugh" with this science fiction comedy. "I like to think that this novel is as if Eduardo Mendoza had started to write a science fiction story in Málaga," adds the author, who does not hide that his story is also marked by a "sharp" and critical spirit about the contemporary world and this city that, on many occasions, already seems like a dystopia without needing to travel to the future.

The Novel

• Title: 'Malaca Imperialis'

• Author: Jaime Noguera

• Publisher: Madafaka Books, novel, Spain, 2025, 106 pages

• Presentation: September 26, on the Third Floor of Proteo bookstore

Reclaiming our Roman past, 'Malaca Imperialis' is set in a province that no longer looks to the sea but levitates over it after a new mineral, malacitium aeternum, a kind of vibranium like Wakanda's, is discovered in the mountains, turning this land into an independent republic governed by an AI from Málaga, which promotes the local language and keeps people entertained so they do not discover the reality it hides. The plot does not disguise the criticism of extreme and parodied independence and secessionism, where an ordinary man, Antonio García, former drone pilot, becomes an unwitting prophet of resistance to power.

Related News

The Blockbuster and Unknown History of Cinema in Benalmádena

The upcoming Benalmádena Festival will showcase auteur cinema that does not reach Europe

"My characters are never heroes but antiheroes, and the protagonist, who bears the most common name and surname in Málaga, is an overweight, balding man, living in two square meters and turned into a Quixote with the look of Sancho Panza," Noguera states, who as an acclaimed cinephile, also sprinkles his novel 'Malaca Imperialis' with continuous film references, like the classic science fiction movies 'Soylent Green' (1973) and 'Logan's Run' (1976), or the 'Star Wars'-like letters on the book cover. "I haven't invented anything, but I've made a very tasty mix and a very summery novel," the writer summarizes, whose story could perfectly become an episode of the next season of 'Black Mirror'.

End of a Drought

This new volume brings Jaime Noriega out of a literary drought that has kept him silent for just over a decade. A crisis caused by a dispute with his previous publisher, Dolmen, which published the hilarious 'España: Guerra Zombi', a cañí parody of zombie movies. "We ended up in court and I won and they had to compensate me, but I never got paid. I haven't seen a dime," laments the cinephile novelist, whose episode caused a "brutal block" that has kept him from writing all this time.

He breaks his silence by resorting to one of his best weapons, humor and irony, with another entertaining story, 'Malaga Imperialis', which aims to repeat on the bestseller lists as his previous book did. For now, it has already made a place among readers of futuristic stories and ranks at number 2 in the Cyberpunk Science Fiction section on Amazon. An initial launch in electronic format that will be completed at the end of the month with the paper edition in bookstores. "My only wish is that if someone reads the book in the year 2075, they continue to laugh and even think that I have fallen short," he concludes.