Our Dried Voices
In 2153, cancer was cured. In 2189, AIDS. And in 2235, the last members of the human race traveled to a far distant planet called Pearl to begin the next chapter of humanity.
Several hundred years after their arrival, the remainder of humanity lives in a utopian colony in which every want is satisfied automatically, and there is no need for human labor, struggle or thought. But when the machines that regulate the colony begin to malfunction, the colonists are faced with a test for the first time in their existence.
With the lives of the colonists at stake, it is left to a young man named Samuel to repair these breakdowns and save the colony. Aided by his friend Penny, Samuel rises to meet each challenge. But he soon discovers a mysterious group of people behind each of these problems, and he must somehow find and defeat these saboteurs in order to rescue his colony.
Author: Greg Hickey
Rating: 4/5
Thank you to the author for providing me with a copy of this book!
This was a fast read, but it was really engaging. When he sent it to me, Greg compared it to The Giver. I was skeptical of that statement, but it was actually a pretty good comparison, at least in style and subject matter.
Our Dried Voices is the story of Samuel, who is a colonist on a distant planet. In this future, people are almost brain dead; they literally spend their days lounging around in fields and eating when food is given to them. It rains on Mondays, and only on Mondays. They speak mechanically and don't understand (or sometimes even notice) discrepancies in their environment.
One day, Samuel notices that things are starting to go wrong, one by one. The sleeping halls are locked, the meal halls stop giving out food, the bridges become broken, etc. And one by one, he starts to wake up and use his mind to solve the problems. But they keep coming. As the book goes on, he has to figure out who's doing these things and how to stop them, for the good of his fellow colonists (who cannot help themselves).
I was pleasantly surprised by this one. The writing is very matter-of-fact, with very little dialogue, but that makes it really engaging. What's going on here? Who's doing these things? When will Samuel understand these things that people have long forgotten? It's like reading about a child learning how to navigate the world, but with higher stakes.
I didn't read this in a single day, but I could have. And it made me think. Give this one a chance.