May 27, 2024
In this smart, multi-layered debut, Joseph constructs a thoughtful dystopian near-future adventure complete with genetic screening, international thrills, playful wit, and a welcome touch of romance. A global war 25 years ago between the Allied Nations and the Federation Regime resulted in a dirty bomb that forced Allied forces into Central Asia where a devastating virus killed a billion people. Those inoculated with a gene therapy carry a trace in their DNA that shows up on g-screens. People detected with the marker in their DNA, called refusés, are deported or shot. Indian-Swedish Nations TaskForce academic Alex Tashen carries the DNA marker, which despite her adoptive father and doctor, Patrick, manipulating her DNA, will still trigger a positive in one in ten g-screens. Confined to San Francisco, Alex is hindered in her ability to travel because every checkpoint requires a g-screen.
But the personal and political compel her to action when Patrick, a Nations prisoner, is threatened after exposing the torture refugee refusés endure when deported. Joseph touchingly dramatizes Alex’s courageous choice to risk detection and save him by accepting her Kommandant’s offer to be an analyst on a security assessment Commission to the Nepal Protectorate. Throughout, Joseph’s vivid worldbuilding and her scarifying descriptions of an oppressive state never detract from the psychological drama of these convincing, complex characters. Alex surprises herself in being attracted to her Commission teammates—Viking-sized Eric Burton, the TaskForce Security Operations Director and math and science genius, and Eric’s adoptive brother Strav Beki, a Mongolian linguist.
The tension mounts as the trio navigates the peculiar specifics of diplomacy and Alex fights the clock in her endeavor to save her father. Survival amid draconian societal laws, questions of privacy, advances in science, and issues of refugee status and treatment provide careful readers with rich material for contemplation as they follow Alex, Eric, and Strav’s adventures through political intrigue, suspense, twists, and affairs of the heart.
Takeaway: Dystopian SF thriller of complex science, relatable characters, and romance.
Comparable Titles: Malka Older; Annalee Newitz’s Autonomous.
Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A
In Joseph's near-future dystopian thriller, an economist, a soldier, and a diplomat circle each other as political tensions rise. About 25 years after a cataclysmic war, Alex Tashen, an economist with a tragic backstory and many secrets, embarks on a dangerous mission. The Allied Nations, governed and protected by the TaskForce Institute, aims to protect its citizens from the disease and violence apparently wrought by the guizi, or refus�--people who inhabit their rival nation, the Federation, and spread disease and commit crimes, according to Allied propaganda. Alex, who's secretly a refus�, remains hidden in the Allied Nations, due to her adoptive father's genetic research, which allows her to remain undetected during regular genetic screenings. Alex impresses TaskForce Kommandant Suzanne Burton and infiltrates the Allied Nations political framework. The economist, who's sure that her father is behind recent anti-Allied cyberattacks, ingratiates herself with the Kommandant and Suzanne's adopted sons, Eric Burton and Strav Beki. Eric is a disgraced former TaskForce director and Suzanne's younger cousin, who wants to bring Strav on his new mission as a consultant, but Suzanne places him with Alex instead, forcing the three into an uneasy alliance--one that's tinged with romantic and sexual tension. Using alternating third-person perspectives, Joseph shows how Alex, Eric, and Strav each work toward their disparate goals. The novel's worldbuilding is complex; the political system in which the characters work, and are complicit in, is a fascist dystopia with troubling views on nationality, abortion, and sexual assault that the novel doesn't satisfyingly confront. Still, the skillful writing makes the book a worthy read; Joseph's writing can get technical when the characters talk politics or economics, but it also has beautiful passages: "They belonged to a universe out of rhythm, a vindictive place without music." Strav's dialogue is laced with references to English literature, especially the works of William Shakespeare, characterizing him as something of a tragic hero. A complicated dystopian political thriller enhanced by lively prose.
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