Floating Worlds Book

There was a meme I enjoyed during the 2016 election in the US when so many people were haranguing others with lesser-of-two-evils arguments into going along with Democrats. It said 'If you don't like the mafia, why don't you join it and change it from the inside.' At the time, I felt like the election had forced people into a binary decision with no acceptable option, and this meme captured that feeling pithily. What is the rational response of someone who feels this way? How were defeated Spanish anarchists to feel about the second world war? What was a Mélenchon supporter supposed to do when LePen ran against Macron? And were Sanders supporters supposed to swallow their crushed faith in the system and support Hillary, throw a Trump grenade into the system or push for a doomed third way?

This book puts its main character, Paula Mendoza, in this situation, and her reactions are an eloquent exposition of the anarchist ethos. If you get stuck on the mercenary, politically-incorrect way Paula uses sex to get what she needs, like several reviewers of this book, then you miss the author's larger point. That point (I imagine) is that you lose your identity and relevance when you cede your individual agency - An important message now when people seem keen to identify with groups of every kind.

The book's political sophistication is deceptively subtle, and the story is so well crafted and executed that elements forming its moral subtext often seem like incidental window-dressing.

Another neglected gem the Gollanscz SF Masterworks series has resurrected.