HUNTING ARMED MEN

Outer space Confederates in the 22nd century are hot on the trail of a rebel in this installment of Erickson’s SF series.

They always said the South shall rise again—who’d have thought that might mean on Mars, too? The Martians in this interplanetary adventure yarn—a group of former slaves, plebes, surfs, original colonists, and former Patricians—certainly don’t want to see that happen. They like the place the way it’s shaping up: “Earth’s vestiges of class rank and social order were nearly all gone. Strict class lines, expectations, and racially bound behaviors all interfered with the number one rule for survival on Mars—the ability to rapidly adapt to a constantly changing environment.” It certainly is a drag to see that fascist slaveholders have made it all the way to Mars in this story, but it does give Erickson the room to comment on our present-day conditions here on Earth, where we’ve been, and where we might actually be headed if we’re not careful. (Genocide exists in the 22nd century as well.) Cassandra Kurtz (her last name is one of the author’s nods to Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness), aided by her AI pal Alethia, is determined to strike a blow for freedom. Cassandra was once a part of Earth’s ruling elite before she turned rogue and headed for the Martian underground—a man named Willard (get it?) Bennett is the officer deployed to hunt her down. Erickson’s kinetic SF tale evocatively contemplates a queasy slide into ruin and decay reminiscent of the fall of the old South in our real world. The author leans heavily on the dialogue at times, which does threaten to bog down an otherwise fairly brisk pace, but the character insights that such digressions provide more than make up for any loss of forward drive. Those characters are all searching for the Promised Land—be it at the Martian equator or somewhere else. The question remains: Can any of them get there, given their pasts?

An SF saga that’s equally rousing and poignant.