MADreads

It could happen here

July 31st, 2009 Jane J. - Central Library

The recent swine flu hysteria makes Jacqueline Carey’s newest story very timely.  In Santa Olivia a pandemic has panicked the US government into creating a buffer zone between Mexico and Texas.  This buffer zone is miles wide (similar to the demilitarized zone in Korea), bordered by massive walls and has engulfed whole towns like Santa Olivia.

When the walls were built, Santa Olivia was just another sleepy Texas town.  Given the abrupt choice between staying in their home town and leaving, many of the residents chose to stay (not realizing how bad it could get).  Now Santa Olivia is known as Outpost 12 - isolated between concrete walls and policed by American military personnel.  The only way out is to win in the sport that the military commander loves.  Anyone who can beat the General’s choice in the boxing ring can win the chance for two people to leave Santa Olivia.  To date no one has won that opportunity.

Half-siblings Tom and Loup Garon follow different paths in their quest to escape.  Tom is determined to train for the boxing ring so that he can eventually win freedom for the two of them.  Loup, who was born with a little something extra genetically speaking, takes a different route.  What begins as a series of pranks, supposedly perpetrated by the patron saint of their town, soon begins to look like a revolution to the military powers-that-be.

Jacqueline Carey is best known for her minutely detailed, richly drawn, epic fantasy novels.  In Santa Olivia the detail and richness are there but the story is more compact.  The tightness of the writing made for great pacing; with a a quiet buildup leading to powerful finish.  And while the book did wrap things up there is scope for more story.  When I asked my Comic Con source, she said she asked Carey that very question and the answer is, yes, a return to the Santa Olivia universe is in the works.  Woohoo!

Entry Filed under: Recreational Fiction, Science Fiction