Includes spoilers!
Set in a dystopia
future Howey has the knack of giving a sense of realism, characters
that you could relate with, reactions that had humanity about them.
The relationships are strong and believable.
I found this a
captivating narrative – people living in a world that had
limitations, physical but also in terms of knowledge – they know of
some relics of a former civilisation but had no real understanding of
the context of those artefacts. A sense that the glimpses of past
glories were a tease to them in such reduced circumstances.
It becomes clear
that the situation they are in is the effect of the actions of other
people living elsewhere, and worse still that those others are aware
of the negative effects of their actions. It is not a natural desert
they are struggling with, it is man-made.
The is a tension in
the ending – a strike back, understandable but violent – an event
off-stage, but probably a nuclear explosion – relief for the
suffering of this community but at what cost?
There are metaphors
for us in the “West” - we are those living in the other place,
our lifestyles have negative impacts on many elsewhere in the world,
be it climate change or the exploitation of workers for cheap goods,
and we know but mostly choose to ignore those consequences. But how
do you assign guilt to a whole civilisation – even the well
intentioned struggle to extract themselves from exploitative
structures?
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