Title:

The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain

Author:

Sofia Samatar

Category:

Science Fiction / Fantasy

Rating:

Date Reviewed:

December 19, 2024
hat a disappointment The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain turned out to be. Samatar apparently wanted to make some commentary about inequality and exploitation of the lower classes by the elites, but what Samatar failed to do was tell a believable story with a plot. This book is nothing but a bunch of preaching thinly wrapped in a science fiction setting that is a dismal attempt at world building.

The protagonist of this novella (The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain is 123 pages long) is "the boy". Since he is a slave in the lowest class of the starship, "the boy" is not even dignified with a name. "The boy" is literally a member of a chain gang (on a starship!), ever since his youth, he has wielded his pick-ax against the asteroid at the core of the ship (called the Hold), breaking the rock into smaller pieces. It is not clear if this mindless task of rock breaking actually yields useful ore, or if the mining is simply to give the slaves something to do. Obviously, any society capable of creating starships is also capable of building robot-miners that could pulverize rocks far more efficiently.

We learn that the starships have these hordes of slaves because "Too many people, not enough stuff: the result is extra people. What are you going to do with all these extra people? If you’re smart, you’ll turn them into a business. That’s the Hold. So there will always be a Hold. Because the Ship is a problem. And the Hold is the answer." Too many people?? On a starship? Do these scientifically-advanced people know nothing of contraceptives?

"The boy" draws on the walls of the slave pens in his spare time. This gets him noticed. He is taken from chain gang up to the elite levels, where he will be educated and live a much better life. Apparently the starship elites rescue a few slaves from their wretched fate just to show how benevolent they are. "The boy" is placed in the care of "the professor". Although "the professor" has a far superior lifestyle than the slaves who toil breaking asteroid-rock, she is still a second class citizen and thus she too does not merit a name. "The professor" wears a blue anklet that can force her to respond to commands spoken by an elite. If any blue anklet person gets out of line, they will be sent down into the Hold to break rocks.

"The boy" is fitted with a blue anklet also. He does not understand his situation, but discovers he can magically sense things by mentally overpowering the blue anklet (yeah, it didn't make any sense to me either). "The boy" decides he is going to rescue the granddaughter of "the prophet". Although this granddaughter has been shipped off as a slave to another starship, "the boy" is going to use his new found magic powers to bring her back to the dreaming prophet.

Samatar apparently put little thought into her world-building, the starship society she depicts is entirely unbelievable. The plot is unbelievable. But hey, as long as she gets preach her agenda about inequality, I guess it is all good. Readers looking for an actual story are advised to look elsewhere.