Dee's Reviews > Deadlands

This was a 3.5 star read for me but I'm bumping it up because I have a feeling I will think about this book a lot in the future. For me, this was a mash up of Camus' No Exit (Huis Clos) and the old syndicated TV show Lost in Space.

This is squarely in the cli-fi, climate science fiction category. Set in the future (100 years?), we start with a family of a dad and two kids (16 and 19) living in the Deadlands - the desert outside of Phoenix. Much of the U.S. now appears to be deadlands. Cities are smog-filled oases. The government is building dome communities in the deadlands.

Enter Nick and Vanessa. Vanessa is a journalist of sorts and they appear to have stumbled across our little family. Or have they. They, especially Nick, become somewhat like Dr. Smith from Lost in Space after the father - Isaac - slashes their tires so they cannot leave and tell the outside world about them.

The story is told in the first person by Georgia, the 19-year old. She seems much younger, but then again, she's had virtually no socialization since she was 3. Her brother Wulf follows whatever their father says, but Georgia, not surprisingly, dreams of more than dehydrating mealworms for flour and washing dishes with sand. Isaac is a control freak who believes he has all the answers. He's a scientist and talks like a textbook with very little emotion towards his children.

This is a tragic play of sorts. Part of me wants to know more about their origins and where they end up...but it also concludes more or less satisfyingly. This won't be a book for everyone, but it kept me going and made me think, with no easy conclusions.