Visualize a world of thirsty people, a world where wars and climate have caused billions of deaths, yet there are still viable countries, technology, civilization. In this world Canada, augmented by the Great Lakes area of the US and parts of northern Europe, is a world super power called the Pan Polar Confederacy ruled by a queen. The United States is now several smaller countries, including the newest, Cumberland, which is roughly the Ohio River watershed, parts of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky, also with its leaders.
The countries that have water, including the Pan Polar Confederacy, are strong but constantly under threat by those who do not, like Cumberland.
Setting and Back Story
400 Years before the story begins the United Nations turned to its first and best Artificial Intelligence, Talis, created by uploading a human mind, to solve the problem of bringing peace to countries warring over water. Talis solved the problem in a unique manner: He used the orbital platforms to destroy several cities, then gave each country an ultimatum. Behave or else. To reinforce the “or else” he required that the leaders of each country sent their heir or heiress to be hostages. If the parents’ countries went to war the children died. If the countries tried to attack him or the hostages or refused then he’d lop off another city.
This is “making it personal” and it worked. There were still ongoing small wars but poor countries tended to demand less and the rich (i.e., had water) countries tended to agree to reasonable requests. The title comes from Talis’ view that the only way to keep peace was to ensure that no one could go to war without loss, just like two scorpions in a bottle.
The story opens 400 years after this with Greta, Crown Princess of the Pan Polar Confederacy, living as Child of Peace in the 4th Precepture somewhere in the Canadian Great Plains. Greta with the other Children of Peace in the 4th Precepture is responsible to grow and harvest the food they eat, clean their own rooms. A former human AI runs the Precepture and there are AI spies and teachers and controllers all throughout the facility. There is no privacy or luxury.
Greta’s country is on the brink of war over access to Lake Ontario for drinking water. Lake Erie is already dry, leaving a slightly mucky damp spot, and Greta’s mother cannot agree to give that much water from Lake Ontario since the requested amount was above the lake’s carrying capacity.
(Some facts to put the thirst in context. Lake Ontario today discharges 262,000 cubic feet per second into the St. Lawrence River, which works out to 189,800,000 acre feet per year. The Cumberland requested 7800 acre feet per year was over the carrying capacity of the lake. That is a big drop in water volume.)
The plot then involves Greta, Talis, Elian the hostage from the newly formed Cumberland, and the other hostage children of Greta’s age. The plot is interesting with a few small twists, but the novel isn’t about the plot, it about the people and about the challenge that Talis faces. Just what do you do, or what should you do, when there are more people than water? When people with their normal human scheming and thirst for power want more and more? How do you keep the peace and keep individuals and countries operating decently and sustainably?
Characters
Greta is a bit of a non entity in the beginning. She expects to die as she is nearly certain her country eill be forced into war, and she is most concerned with doing it well, acting as a Crown Princess should when it came time to walk to her death, and in the meantime studies the classics. Elian’s arrival changes things and she begins to seek an alternative to death.
Elian is a born rebel, raised far from power but the favored grandson of the new Cumberland’s leader. He resists the entire notion of being a hostage and is most definitely not interested in dying well. He doesn’t want to die at all. The other hostage children play lesser roles and are more background than primary actors.
The most interesting character is Talis, the former human turned into AI. What will Talis do with the Cumberland’s revolt? How will he handle the death of his oldest friend the AI called the Abbot who runs Precepture #4? How will he deal with Greta and with Elian?
Summary
The book is riveting but when I analyze each piece, plot, characters, back story, setting, the only parts that are remarkable are the back story with Talis and the eternal question of how to maintain peace in a world full of conflict. Somehow Erin Bow manages to make these small elements into a big story, one that will stay with me for a very long time.
I hadn’t realized until writing this review that Erin Bow also wrote Plain Kate. The stories are completely different but both dig into your heart and stay there.
I was given an advanced copy by Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.
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