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By 2041, the world’s oligarchs have reinstated white supremacy and chattel slavery in a caste-based society. The dystopian system rolls smoothly along for the vile oligarchs until the rebellious Citizen Cassandra IX, a patrician with an AI implant, questions the social order a century later. After her conviction and sentencing for insurrection in 2126 due to her sharing old black market books and revolutionary ideas such as those found in Joseph Conrad’s novel, Heart of Darkness, she is convicted and sent to prison. But after serving eighteen months, she is diverted to Mars on the spaceship Jefferson Davis. Earth is nearly unlivable, and the formerly stable colonies on Mars are going dark.
Cassie is assigned to endure an arranged marriage to an unsavory patrician upon completion of her assistance to root out dissent on Mars and discover what has happened to the New Georgia colony. She must negotiate the divide between her patrician captors and the ordinary people she champions while trying to escape her unwanted future confinement as a wife and breeder. In a twist of fate, Cassie looks for and hooks up with two young members of the rebel society who have literally escaped underground on Mars despite dangerous predators, primitive conditions, and the colonial masters who hunt for them.
Erickson’s compelling, timely tale draws many parallels with the current era’s threat of losing hard-won democratic principles and social equality for all to a reactionary system in which only elite lives take priority. This gritty, fast-paced novella, with its youthful characters and dystopian dilemmas, will appeal to both adult and mature young adult audiences who are concerned about where society may be heading. Digital technology, social awareness, and dystopian elements combine in this appealing, fast-paced thriller that can easily be read in one long sitting.
RECOMMENDED by the US Review