Quantcast
Channel: Boxes of Paper » 3 Stars
Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 10

Plus One by Elizabeth Fama

0
0

PlusOnePlus One by Elizabeth Fama

Published in 2014 by Farrar Strauss Giroux
ISBN: 978-0-374-36007-8

Rating: 3 Stars

The world’s population is divided into day and night, rigidly separated by the rise and fall of the sun. The practice, when it began, is credited with saving humanity from the ravages of the Spanish Flu, and it continues in the name of efficiency.

Sol Le Coeur’s grandfather is dying, and Sol is desperate that he will hold his newborn grandchild before he goes.  Unfortunately, due to Ciel’s reassignment to day means that Sol’s newborn niece is a Ray, forever separated from her aunt and grandfather’s Smudges.

When Sol devises a plan to kidnap her niece (temporarily of course) she doesn’t know that she’s about to set off a chain of events that would uncover secrets both personal and political.  There’s a conspiracy to manipulate the Smudge population.  It turns out that time may not be something you can divide.

It’s interesting to see a dystopic novel that is not post-apocalyptic.  Alternate histories are a wonderful stepping stone into other worlds, without the label of “fantasy” which makes some readers squirm.  Through Fama’s world is imaginative and the characters in it are well drawn, there are places where the logic falls apart, beginning with the logic that day and night take up equal time.  In parts of Canada, that would mean Rays and Smudges living under lockdown for months at a time — Land of the Midnight Sun, remember.  Heck, even in Calgary the longest day of the year is 16+ hours long.  The concept of compulsory shift work is one thing, but in most of the world, it simply would not work based on the sun.

Plus One is an enjoyable, imaginative read, so long as one’s willing to let one’s logic relax and go along for the ride.

Cate

Notes:

The cover: I hate this cover.  I hate it with the fire of a thousand suns.

What to read next: The Parasol Protectorate Series by Gail Carriger — another great alternate history

Other bookselling notes: I’m just going to have to sit back and hope to heaven the paperback has a better cover.  I can’t sell a book with that cover and respect myself in the morning.



Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 10

Latest Images

Trending Articles





Latest Images