A review by cameliarose
The Highest Frontier by Joan Slonczewski
4.0
A GR friend says nowadays dystopian science fictions read like non-fictions. I agree, and The Highest Frontier is one of them.
The story is set 90 years in the future. At a glance, the future world looks good, technologically and biologically advanced. Humans have built sustainable habitats in the earth's lower orbit; cyborgs are every day existence; HIV has been tamed to fight diseases; genetic engineering everywhere, even in humans; human brains can be connected to virtual network through "brainstream", etc, etc... However, the advance of technology has not solved the environmental problems of our time. Carbon immersion is banned globally but it is already too late. The buried methane is unleashed. The sea rising becomes unstoppable. Cities lose to the sea. The death belt replaces Amazon rain forest. Countries fight over the ice free Antarctica. The ozone depletion makes un-treated humans blind by age of 30 and allows an alien microb-like life form descends onto the earth.
Ok, these are all the usual science fiction stuff. Nothing surprising. What give my goosebumps are the politics and the presidential election that so eerily similar to what we have been going through since 2016. The rise of Christian far-right groups, extreme religious believes hindering social and scientific development, the follies of American democracy, voting fraud and voter repression, voting against one's own interests, lies and misinformations, the blurred line between entertainment and politics, all too gut-wrenching to read.
Joan Slonczewski is a biologist. I always love the life science in her books. The Highest Frontier is no exception.
The story is set 90 years in the future. At a glance, the future world looks good, technologically and biologically advanced. Humans have built sustainable habitats in the earth's lower orbit; cyborgs are every day existence; HIV has been tamed to fight diseases; genetic engineering everywhere, even in humans; human brains can be connected to virtual network through "brainstream", etc, etc... However, the advance of technology has not solved the environmental problems of our time. Carbon immersion is banned globally but it is already too late. The buried methane is unleashed. The sea rising becomes unstoppable. Cities lose to the sea. The death belt replaces Amazon rain forest. Countries fight over the ice free Antarctica. The ozone depletion makes un-treated humans blind by age of 30 and allows an alien microb-like life form descends onto the earth.
Ok, these are all the usual science fiction stuff. Nothing surprising. What give my goosebumps are the politics and the presidential election that so eerily similar to what we have been going through since 2016. The rise of Christian far-right groups, extreme religious believes hindering social and scientific development, the follies of American democracy, voting fraud and voter repression, voting against one's own interests, lies and misinformations, the blurred line between entertainment and politics, all too gut-wrenching to read.
Joan Slonczewski is a biologist. I always love the life science in her books. The Highest Frontier is no exception.