Generations into the future, humanity has discovered teleporting, and it has had a profound effect. A total rearranging of society, in fact, that has left the world revolving largely around a single luxury entity, known as THE CITY. There’s no need for streets as all human movement is taken care of via teleportation. Instead, Halim Abbas’s city is divided into private zones, where its residents live in luxury, teleporting out to perfect breakfast spots, psychologists, seemingly endless fruit farms or very occasional work at their own whim. Adonis, the young protagonist, is suspicious. Where, for example, do the things people can order at a single click appear from? And why does no one have any empathy for the farmers– people living outside of the city’s world whose food production roles clearly have them disadvantaged?  As the story’s plot develops, Adonis is determined to work out what’s going on, manipulating his technical knowledge and his sparse opportunities to engage with the past and the outside to learn more. The result is science fiction that starts off almost utopian, but quickly delves into a far darker space. As Adonis’ knowledge of the past grows through smuggled ancient books, and he slowly becomes more and more determined to understand and ultimately to depart his luxurious world, he finds himself head-to-head with those who hold a vested interest in the status quo, and it’s opulent but controlling environs.

Adonis’ slow but determined route to discovery gives the novel a slightly detective-like air to it, but it’s the subtle detail and beautifully curated world that he lives in that glazes this novel with it’s main color. The details and slowly unravelling elements of coercive control are stark, from the use of phone-like entities to simply ‘click’ things into existence, to daily changes of clothing that never need repeat. All in, THE CITY is a cleverly written book based on a disturbing vision of our future and an allegory for societal imbalance and the way that different life experiences can separate us from the true nature of our impact on the globe, and it takes that concept to a real extreme. It’s not perfect: occasionally Abbas’s writing can feel a little clunky in the way the text is presented, and while the plot draws together well, it’s not without its odd little side angles. That said, what Abbas has created is a multi-leveled book that can be read from different perspectives and is riddled with intrigue and clever undertones. For that, and the sheer imagination below the surface, it’s definitely worth a look.

A socially conscious futuristic science fiction tale, Halim Abbas’ THE CITY asks questions of the direction of technological development that are loaded with meaning, and evoke plenty of scary and colorful angles. An intelligent, playful and imaginative novel.

~James Hendicott for IndieReader