UNBORN

In a new SF novel, a married couple rebels against powerful corporate masters in a dystopian future.

Earth is in the midst of a generationslong drought (“the big dry”), and humans have been suffering through pandemics and experiencing a plunging birth rate. In a series of enclosed compounds with underground farms, an authoritarian corporation called Forge provides society with a steady water supply, a labor force made up largely of prisoners, and chambers in which babies grow in artificial wombs. Summer Hurst is among the privileged in a world of haves and have-nots, and she and her spouse work for Forge; he’s part of the directorate of Commune 17, and she’s a technician in their “womb chamber.” But all is not well, as fetuses are mysteriously dying of unknown causes in the mechanical wombs, and there are indications that the kids who survive may become homicidal. Jake neglects his marriage as he rises in the corporate ranks, and when he demands that Summer abort an unplanned pregnancy, she abandons the compound for uncertain exile in the surrounding desert—a wasteland populated by elusive, rebellious “Outliers” with whom Forge is at war. Jake, meanwhile, soon realizes that the whole system is starting to fray at the edges. The novel’s climate change–apocalypse setting will be a very familiar one to genre fans, and Tameem’s prose is only serviceable throughout. However, as the story progresses, readers will find that the characters and their dilemmas grow ever more compelling, and its cliffhanger finale will aptly leave readers thirsty for more. Although the book’s title and opening strongly reference Brave New World’s notion of vast test-tube–baby repositories, this element ends up being only a small part of a larger, more complicated narrative—one that’s full of treachery, radicalization, and revolution.

A matter-of-fact but often engaging opener to a speculative dystopian series.