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LODESTAR by Elina Kumra

LODESTAR

by Elina Kumra


In Kumra’s SF novel, the fragile infrastructure of an artificial intelligence–driven society is threatened when a mysterious figure emerges in the city’s forbidden zone.

The story begins with a band of survivors taking shelter as the Great War rages outside: “the war was inside us,” notes the unnamed narrator. “In our marrow, our bloodstream, our viscera.” Numerous “droids” populate this world, dropping cryptic leaflets from the skies or assisting humans in foraging. Officials in hazmat suits arrive and leave with Amadin, the narrator’s miraculously healthy baby. Years later, Herman Miller is a teacher of Statecraft at LodeStar’s elite campus, the Preserve, which houses the Ruling Council, other senior officials, and young people destined to be “made in the image of those who governed LodeStar.” Even the privileged class of this hierarchical society are governed by protocols that forbid saying anything against the state. Although he’s silently critical of LodeStar, Herman helped create Krux, the AI that monitors the populace and records their conversations. In his apartment in the gloomy Township of Manor Heights, he lives with a state-issued robotic Helpmate named Beth. Herman modifies her into a sentient life partner, which is strictly forbidden. Later, Beth experiences her first dream—a prophetic vision of a leader named Ololon rising in the LodeStar’s maligned Testing Grounds. She subsequently transcribes an epic poem detailing an uprising, leaving Herman unnerved. After a fiery object pierces the sky and Herman’s curious student disappears, he’s summoned to ask Krux questions to help prevent what appears to be imminent societal collapse. Over the course of this novel, Kumra cleverly intertwines droid and human narratives, beginning each chapter with a coded missive that concludes with an enigmatic “print/declarative.” Revelations at the text’s end offer illuminating experiences upon rereading. Although the story does feature some familiar dystopian tropes, the AI aspects of the story of LodeStar are compelling. As Herman doubts that his and Beth’s “cherished norms could survive the future,” he faces an engaging personal problem as he decides whether to facilitate or obstruct LodeStar’s inevitable upheaval.

A prescient tale that balances dystopian and utopian visions of an AI future.