The Commonwealth of Beimeni is an underground community – literally. Trapped beneath Earth’s surface by the deadly disease Reassortment, which is inevitably fatal and adapts to all attempts to counter, kill, or block it, the last few remaining humans have been genetically and technologically altered into transhumans, with telepathy, telekinesis, and effective immortality. The government, led by Chancellor Masimovian, ensures citizens peace and prosperity – but not everyone is contented. As the book opens, the Chancellor’s forces have captured the President of the rebel Liberation Front, Jeremiah Selendia, leaving his son Hans to take over the leadership, protect his younger brother Connor, and risk an attempt to rescue his father. When his life intersects with that of Captain Broden Barão, a strike team leader desperately seeking a cure for Reassortment, the fate of transhumanity may never be the same.
This is the beginning of a complicated and intricate science fiction epic. The anthropological themes, with its detailed world-building and thoughtful attention to cultural structure, add to this fascinating look at a possible future culture that has believable roots in our world, but has become very different indeed. Its appendices provide everything from the Chancellor’s files on citizens and rebels to lectures on the law and history of the Beimeni Commonwealth. The plot is obviously just getting started, and does not waste a great deal of time on explication – confused readers may want to consult the appendices first for background information – but does a terrific job of getting right into the thick of the action nonetheless. The characters’ personalities and backgrounds are revealed bit by bit in the course of the story, naturally and believably, so that they appear as three-dimensional people with real backgrounds and understandable motivations – no cardboard heroes or villains here.
THE SONG OF THE JUBILEE is a vigorous yet thorough introduction to a very promising new science fiction world.
~IndieReader.