Genre:
Science Fiction/Dystopian
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.”
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.
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.
FYI:
Added for Reprise Review:
Life First
was a nominee in the Speculative Fiction (excluding fantasy) category
for B&P 2014 Readers' Choice Awards. Original review ran November
4, 2013
Format/Typo
Issues:
No
significant issues.
Rating:
***** Five Stars
Reviewed
by: BigAl
Approximate
word count: 85-90,000 words
No comments:
Post a Comment