A review by dianacantread
The Office of Mercy by Ariel Djanikian
3.0
Surprised and pleased that I liked this more than I anticipated!
With The Office of Mercy, we have a pretty standard future world story with an ethically dubious conflict. It wears its influences on its sleeve (particularly Brave New World and 1984), but it is also clearly in conversation with those works as opposed to ripping them off. It's an aggressively competent novel, with Djanikian hitting all the right story beats and philosophical points and whatnot. There's nothing glaringly "wrong," but it's also doing nothing new.
I did like the writing as a means of characterizing Natasha. She's a naive and impressionable character, and the narration allows for her impetuous judgements and meek responses without beating us over the head with how wrong she can be. There's also this lovely moment when Natasha leaves the settlement for the first time and the forest is described in this lush detail missing from the cold interior dome.
While I enjoyed this for what it was, it is a bit difficult for me to recommend. Again, the central conflict has been done to death in other works, and while Djanikian does well with the material, there's nothing that stands out to distinguish it from other novels that say the same things competently. But, if future worlds that discuss the ethical quandary of "is doing a kill good????" are your cup of tea, you might want to check this out.
3.5/5 stars
With The Office of Mercy, we have a pretty standard future world story with an ethically dubious conflict. It wears its influences on its sleeve (particularly Brave New World and 1984), but it is also clearly in conversation with those works as opposed to ripping them off. It's an aggressively competent novel, with Djanikian hitting all the right story beats and philosophical points and whatnot. There's nothing glaringly "wrong," but it's also doing nothing new.
I did like the writing as a means of characterizing Natasha. She's a naive and impressionable character, and the narration allows for her impetuous judgements and meek responses without beating us over the head with how wrong she can be. There's also this lovely moment when Natasha leaves the settlement for the first time and the forest is described in this lush detail missing from the cold interior dome.
While I enjoyed this for what it was, it is a bit difficult for me to recommend. Again, the central conflict has been done to death in other works, and while Djanikian does well with the material, there's nothing that stands out to distinguish it from other novels that say the same things competently. But, if future worlds that discuss the ethical quandary of "is doing a kill good????" are your cup of tea, you might want to check this out.
3.5/5 stars