CRYO

The future is bleak in a supposed future paradise in Fisher’s SF novel.

In the early 2020s, Louis King lives a comfortable life as a professor of religious history at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with a doting wife, Violet, whom he comes home to every day. But everything changes when he starts experiencing mysterious symptoms—including blackouts, one of which causes him to crash his car. Soon, he’s diagnosed with advanced terminal brain cancer, and Violet convinces him to be cryogenically preserved until a cure can be found. The next thing Louis knows, a faction leader named Augustus awakens him in the year 2231. He finds himself in a walled kingdom called Arcadia, which replaced the United States after World War IV and whose government promises its inhabitants happiness—if they obey the rules. Each resident is placed in one of six factions: Medics, Scouts, Administrators, Enforc­ers, the Assembly, and Donors. Louis is quickly recruited into Augustus’ faction, the Scouts, and charged with venturing outside the city’s walls to find other “Cryo Kids” like himself and bring them back to Arcadia. The dystopian plot has elements that are strongly reminiscent of The Hunger Games and Divergent; these are especially noticeable during a climactic battle that takes place in an arena where contestants are forced to fight to the death. It all ends in a twist that wraps everything up—perhaps a little too neatly. The story shines, though, when it pauses to linger on society’s small details, such as meal replacement pills that can taste like anything a person wants or tech that can change the color of one’s apartment with the flick of a dial: “I slid my finger around the circle, and the wall rapidly changed colors like a futuristic funhouse.” As Louis learns about how Arcadia functions, readers will share in his mingled confusion and horror.

An often entertaining, if somewhat familiar, dystopian tale.