kareila: a lady in glasses holding a stack of books (books)
kareila ([personal profile] kareila) wrote in [community profile] kareila_books2024-01-05 07:56 pm

#1: Naomi Kritzer, Liberty's Daughter

This is very much in the same vein as the author's previous CatNet books, in that the hero of the story is a teenage girl with untrustworthy parent(s) who is determined to figure out how to save the day, with or without adult help. However, Beck left near-future America behind when she was four to live with her billionaire father on the "seastead", a libertarian conglomeration of offshore platforms with varying degrees of oligarchy and anarchy. Their society has norms that baffle visiting mainlanders, but Beck seems quite happy there until she stumbles across a conspiracy of greed and exploitation. Her unique combination of privilege and conscience makes her the only person on the seastead who is capable of setting things right.

Trigger warning: about 2/3 of the way through the story, there is a sudden outbreak of an unknown virus that may cause uncomfortable flashbacks to 2020.