167 pages
Published 2024
Read from September 12 to September 13
Rating: 4 out of 5
An astonishing story of planetary colonization in a hostile universe.
This World uses the backdrop of social frailty in a precarious settlement to build an allegory of how uncertain times lead to social and sexual authoritarianism, the total disregard for individual autonomy. It also serves as a cutting indictment of capitalism, examining how poorly suited the profit motive is to make decisions affecting human lives. In short, it's about how women always become livestock in any social structure oriented toward profit and control, and how rapidly social liberties can erode when not everyone is invested in maintaining the liberal social contract.
For all its allegorical heft, This World is, first and foremost, a brilliantly written human-scale story of relationships, codependency, jealousy, insecurity, heartbreak, and rage. Rage at the social structures that switch to authoritarian control the second it becomes convenient, the second it becomes profitable. Rage at those who go along with it because it seems the safer or easier option.
The planet is beautiful in a classic sci-fi way. I would've liked more pages to encounter its flora and fauna, but that's not how books this size get constructed.
A major plot point on the jacket summary, how the world exudes a substance to clean itself of ecological threats, plays a central role in This World's marketing, so I think it's safe to say it isn't a spoiler. Ashing-Giwa pulls an adept horror novel pacing trick by getting you so invested in the characters, and the horrors they face in the colony, that you almost forget about the Gray until it abruptly insinuates itself into the meat of the story.
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