Rating: 4.5 stars (out of 5)
Genre: science fiction
Read 20 in 2020 Challenge Category: sci fi
Review: By the 2050s, climate change has caused ocean levels to rise to such a degree that Florida is underwater, as is most of the eastern seaboard. The Mississippi River has become an inland sea, wiping out New Orleans, and continues to grow. The Inland Migration has taken over the midwest, and the US capitol has been moved to Columbus, from which the use of fossil fuels is banned. Southerners are so outraged by this that Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia secede in 2074, kicking off the 2nd American Civil War. Somehow, the southwest becomes a Mexican Protectorate, but that's incidental to the story and the details are unclear.
Beyond the changed geography, climate change doesn't get much discussion. The focus is on Sarat Chestnut, born in Louisiana by the shores of the Mississippi Sea. Her father is killed in a homicide bombing when she is six, and she and her mother, brother, and twin sister are forced to move to Camp Patience near the border of the Free Southern State in Mississippi. It is there that she learns what it means to be a "Southerner" and her insurrectionist tendencies are honed.
The bulk of the book is the story of what Sarat does, and what happens to her. It's not a light read. It is very creatively written, though, in that the tone echoes very closely books about the actual American Civil War. Here, the South's desire for independence shows itself through their defiance of the ban on fossil fuels, but it feels just exactly like it might in a work of historical fiction. Kudos to the author for being able to pull that off, even as he weaves in modern and advanced technology.
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