My bookshelf, both real and virtual, is filled with apocalyptic, dystopian stories. Whether zombies, Electro-Magnetic Pulses, aliens, disease, or a society with handmaids, I find dystopian settings pretty entertaining. This book is just a downer. Our Fair Eden - is in its own level of depressive escapism and it stays there from beginning to end; one of the more bleakest, saddest stories I have read in quite awhile. I would compare it to 1984 - the movie, not the book - in its stark, slower paced treatment where you observe the story unfold and wonder if any warmth will surface. 2087 and climate change has devastated the planet. The lush is now the dry; governments, infrastructure, and society-at-large is scattered thinly in squalor, less a United Nation initiative: The Eden Project. This plan takes the best and brightest and houses them in secure, isolated locations where the society is the last hope for the future of humanity. Yeah - good luck with that. Straight away, Desh and his mother (Ma) find themselves in Eden Prime; situated in the Gobi Desert, which is still hot, but an oasis nonetheless. He's bright and figures out quickly that things are jacked-up. In fact, this oasis is anything but, as a charismatic Texan (Mother Eden) has transformed the society into the haves and have-nots. Over the years, she has created a cult and deviated from the UN plan in the furthest way possible. I mentioned 1984 briefly, and yes - Mother Eden has already censored the entire library as well as commissioned a new bible placing herself as the savior. Desh isn't buying what's for sale and strikes out to uncover the unjust conditions and rally the peasants. Our Fair Eden is his journey. Eco-fiction, Cli-Fi; blah. I'm not a fan of either of those new-founded, trendish labels of sub-genres of Sci-Fi, but that doesn't impact what I read. Don't get me going on 'SyFy', either.
4.5 of 5 Stars - ARC provided.
From the Publisher:
Welcome to Eden, citizen.
2087. Earth’s climate shifted faster than anyone predicted. The Amazon Basin is a sun-baked graveyard, the Gobi Desert is blossoming into tropical beauty, and Manhattan is turning into a swamp as the Atlantic rises. Nowhere is safe. Millions flee the cities. But they have nowhere to run.
The UN has an answer: the Eden Projects, colonies that can start over and research new technologies in seclusion.
Young genius Desh Golding can’t believe his luck when he wins the lottery to Eden Prime, hidden in the heart of Mongolia. But when he arrives in Eden, he finds himself caught in a struggle against a cruel autocracy, under the watchful eye of a mysterious matriarch, Mother Eden.