A NOTHING NAMED SILAS

This dystopia starts out strong but falls to a weak plot.

At age 16, Silas is ready for his assignment to the job he will do for the rest of his life in a society divided into Shields, controlled communities situated under domes, all dedicated to different jobs. He has trained for Command but fails in the final test and is chosen by the lowly Labor Shield. Once he’s there, the Regent, Taelori, hangs him in a cage then assigns him an impossible task in which he’s helped by Gideon. Shortly thereafter, Silas sees the beautiful Kezziah, who also aids him. Gideon wants Silas to kill Taelori, claiming that Taelori intends to murder Kezziah, her own daughter. Silas learns that he is a titular “nothing” because he and the other shield inhabitants are survivors of abortion; aborted children have no right to exist and so becomes slaves. Westover sets up a reasonably though not startlingly imaginative dystopia. If he is using it to make a political statement, he does not belabor it but focuses on the plot—which, alas, makes little sense. Taelori has no obvious reason to murder her daughter, and no benefit would seem to accrue from doing so. Gideon has no reason to murder Taelori. These senseless schemes appear to exist merely to advance some action and are consistent with the one dimensionality of the characters.

Thin, thin, thin.