The Ragpicker

June 3, 2024
Dane (Cry Pilot) delivers a fascinating but often frustrating tale of an unlikely friendship in a postapocalyptic wilderness, where the remaining humans have formed tight-knit communities to protect themselves from outsiders, especially “twitches,” robot-human hybrids with superhuman physical and mental capabilities. Ysmany, a teen girl raised in one of these communities, witnesses her people kill a family who wandered into their territory. Only one infant boy survives. Desperate to protect the baby, Ysmany runs away with a mysterious figure known as the Ragpicker, a twitch looking for his husband. The relationship between Ysmany, the Ragpicker, and the baby, and the ways it is perceived by those they encounter, forms the heart of the story and keeps the pages turning. Many readers, however, will struggle to orient themselves in this elaborate world as key concepts are kept obscure for much of the novel. Even understanding what exactly a twitch is, which is essential to grasping anything else that’s happening, proves arduous. For those willing to put in the work, however, there are plenty of enticing speculative ideas here. Agent: Caitlin Balsdell, Liza Dawson Assoc.

September 13, 2024

Dane's (Marigold Breach) latest post-apocalyptic novel traces a hero's journey long after the fall of civilization. In Dane's lyrically described world, most human minds are trapped in VR dreams, while nature has reclaimed the land in their absence. The Ragpicker is a Twitch, an entity bonded to a cybernetic "secondskin" who has wandered for over a century, accompanied only by the voices in his head. A young girl named Ysmeny flees her home, a village ruled by the fanatical military-grade Twitch named Server, to save a baby whom Server has orphaned. As Ysmeny and the Ragpicker look for somewhere she and the baby can be safe, they must avoid dangers, including the harsh wilderness and other murderous Twitches. As they travel, they learn more about themselves and the bizarre landscape that surrounds them. Narrator Catherine Ho embodies young and sometimes angry Ysmeny, while Rupert Degas's monotone delivery creates a tragic figure in the Ragpicker, an augmented creature who is trying to remember being human. VERDICT Dane's expressive latest should strike an emotional chord for fans of stories about survival and humanity after the end.--James Gardner

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