#2: Alaya Dawn Johnson, The Summer Prince

[kareila]

The past stands in the path of the future, knowing it will be crushed.

The literary theme so far this year has been revolution and future shock: first Ancillary Justice's vision of powerful immortals inhabiting multiple bodies, and now this story of an isolated Brazilian city-state trying to balance the wisdom and power of the older generation with the passion and ideology of agitated youth. The author shows us a society several hundred years in the future that has risen from the ashes of war and plague, where lifespans can last over three centuries, terminal disease seems virtually unknown, and the only people who don't die of extreme old age are those who tire of living and request euthanasia - or the privileged few elected to be a Summer King, given power and authority for a year in exchange for a sacrificial death.

As barbaric as this custom seems, the rationale for it is slowly made clear over the course of the story, even as we see how two young friends, June and Gil, both fall deeply in love with Enki, their Summer King, despite knowing the fate that will soon befall him. As events progress, we see how their city of Palmares Três tries to embody the best of both the past and the future, in contrast to Tokyo 10, where the real world has been all but abandoned for digital illusion and extreme body modification, or Salvador, where gang warfare rules the bombed-out streets. No compromise is perfect, though, and our heroes gradually discover that the Queen's court is rife with corruption. As the technophiles clamor for more modern imported technologies and the isolationists demand continued trade restrictions, June must figure out a way to reconcile the two sides, while also navigating her powerful emotions and struggling to realize her own ambitions. All she ever wanted to do was find fame as an artist, but as Enki helps her to discover the power of art to change society, she realizes that even life itself can be a kind of art.