Synopsis:
In this blistering science fiction epic, international bestselling author Richard Swan presents a thrilling tale of survival and an eviscerating examination of totalitarianism.
THE INFINITE STATE begins at a flashpoint in the lives of a widowed party member, a disgraced investigator, and a hypersled pilot—entangled in a plot to escape the suffocating authority of a fascist state.
WHO GIVES YOU LIFE?
PATER AETERNUS.
Katherine Fuller’s husband is dead. As an esteemed member of Pater Aeternus—governing party of the fascist, galaxy-spanning Decurion Empire—he has left behind an estate of immeasurable wealth. And Katherine is going to inherit it.
WHO GIVES YOU PURPOSE?
PATER AETERNUS.
Life under the Eternal Father is rigidly stratified, surveilled, and controlled—each new day to be endured, not lived. But with Katherine’s newfound fortune, she is presented with a rare and dangerous opportunity: purchase a virgin world, and create a better, fairer society.
WHO GIVES YOU JOY?
PATER AETERNUS.
But the Empire cannot allow its wayward daughter to succeed. And as Katherine works in secret, recruiting allies she’s not even sure she can trust, she will discover exactly how far Pater Aeternus is willing to go to stop her. Because Katherine is going to create something nobody has seen for many years.
A democracy.
Review:
Sometimes you find a “Galactic Empire” story and it should work, but for some reason it just fizzles out. Oftentimes, the scope is too large, the story too big, the distances too vast. Good novels usually work because of the characters — people that we can connect with on a personal level. Where yes…there is this massive empire that stretches across the stars, but at the heart there are people living their lives, working jobs, raising their children, and keeping their heads down. That’s where Richard Swan succeeds with his latest, The Infinite State. While his characters are living in a totalitarian empire, ruled by fear, we get a chance to connect with them and follow their stories as they learn they have their own voice.
Swan takes on some huge things — galactic empires, political ideologies, population shifts…and boils them down to the basics with easy to understand people and their motivations. Even at one point, a character was trying to figure out the perfect solution to something and they were told that democracy is messy and there may not be a perfect solution, a fact that is often overlooked in today’s society.
Now…this is nowhere near the same book, but if I was going to criticize The Infinite State, it would be that it comes off a little similar to Animal Farm by George Orwell. What I mean by that isn’t that there are talking animals plotting to take over a farm, but that at times the political conversations are so in your face and almost over the top it feels a little “teachy”. I don’t want to say preachy…Swan does let you come up with your own conclusions, but the narrative brings us time and again across the harsh reality that facism and authoritarianism are brutal and care about only the top rather than the bottom. In Animal Farm, Orwell clearly lines out these different political ideas with animals as his historical stand-ins. Here, Swan uses far-future humanity to show that he strayed from democracy but it can be re-achieved.
One thing that struck me as I read is something I’ve noticed many times in real life as well — the strict, totalitarian government that rules with an iron fist, also is often times the stupidest people in the room. We see it a few times in the book where things are done to achieve one purpose, but that sometimes gets side-stepped for vanity or other reasons and our protagonists are able to gain a foothold or even survive because of it.
In the end, this would actually be a great companion to Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series. While Asimov’s is a look at the glacial pace that things move while taking one figure and blowing the whole thing up in the middle of it, here, that change comes from a place of wanting more for the people. A huge galactic empire that is seemingly too big for massive change, yet one woman is able to bring about a small change, but that change may have something to say for everyone in the end.
I’m fascinated to see where Swan takes the series next and I’ll happily line up for more in the Decurian Saga.
Thank you to Tor Books for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
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