Reviewed by: BigAl
Genre: Science Fiction/Dystopian
Approximate word count: 85-90,000 words
Availability
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Author:
A native of
the Midwest, RJ Crayton now lives in the suburbs of Washington, DC. Before
starting her family Crayton worked as a journalist, but now spends her time
writing fiction and as what she calls a “Ninja Mom.”
For more,
visit Crayton’s website.
Description:
“Strong-willed
Kelsey Reed must escape tonight or tomorrow her government will take her kidney
and give it to someone else.
In this
future forged by survivors of pandemics that wiped out 80 percent of the
world's population, life is valued above all else. The government of ‘Life
First’ requires the mentally ill to be sterilized, outlaws abortions and
sentences to death those who refuse to donate an organ when told.
Determined
not to give up her kidney, Kelsey enlists the help of her boyfriend Luke and a
dodgy doctor to escape. The trio must disable the tracking chip in her arm for
her to flee undetected. If they fail, Kelsey will be stripped of everything.”
Appraisal:
I’ve had a
good run of dystopian novels lately. Life
First continues that trend. A dystopia is the opposite of a utopia and
typically a dystopian novel will extrapolate a current social or political movement
taken to an extreme. Crayton’s extrapolated future struck me as different from
most which, at the risk of getting too political, I’ll explain.
Although
the future extrapolated in a dystopian novel is typically thought to be a
warning against continuing in a particular direction, many are nothing more
than slippery slope arguments. The slippery slope argument often seems rational,
but is usually a logical fallacy when used as a justification against taking
the first step. (If you want to understand why, Google will uncover several
good explanations.)
Life First was different for reasons I couldn’t
quite pinpoint until I finished the book and took time to reflect. The biggest
reason is the slippery slope argument isn’t there. Those who are arguing in
real life to take the first steps (at least in the US) of limiting abortion
with an eye to eradicating it completely are the same people who would object
the loudest to the next steps, forcing someone to donate an “unneeded kidney”
for example. Even if other events happened in between (a pandemic that wiped
out 80% of the world’s population, in this story) I’m not sure that those who
are for the first steps would ever support the next steps. Yet, the logic to
justify the first steps (the sanctity of life) seems to apply at least as much to
the additional steps. For me, the “warning” wasn’t needed, but did prompt some
reflection and gave me new insights on the issue being explored, which is
another kind of success.
But none of
the subtext matters unless the story is good. This one was. I was drawn into
Kelsey’s plight and cared how it ended. It also prompted questions about how I
would react if put in the same position and how far I’d be willing to go in
defense of my position.
Format/Typo Issues:
No
significant issues.
Rating: ***** Five stars
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