Our Dried Voices by Greg Hickey

I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Our Dried Voices by Greg HickeyOur Dried Voices by Greg Hickey
Published by Scribe Publishing Company on November 4th 2014
Genres: Science Fiction
Pages: 234
Format: eARC
Source: Netgalley
Goodreads
three-stars
In 2153, cancer was cured. In 2189, AIDS. And in 2235, the last members of the human race traveled to a far distant planet called Pearl to begin the next chapter of humanity. Several hundred years after their arrival, the remainder of humanity lives in a utopian colony in which every want is satisfied automatically, and there is no need for human labor, struggle or thought. But when the machines that regulate the colony begin to malfunction, the colonists are faced with a test for the first time in their existence. With the lives of the colonists at stake, it is left to a young man named Samuel to repair these breakdowns and save the colony. Aided by his friend Penny, Samuel rises to meet each challenge. But he soon discovers a mysterious group of people behind each of these problems, and he must somehow find and defeat these saboteurs in order to rescue his colony.

With the recent buzz about “Earth’s cousin,” you’d think I’d found inspiration in science facts for my next choice of science fiction. I wish I was that cool, to be honest. But I’m not. I chose this book because of one word: Pearl.

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So, yea, I was excited because the colonized planet in the book shares a name with one of my sweet pups. #crazydoglady? But I digress… Our Dried Voices was an OK read. It was hard to describe my thoughts without spoilers, so here goes.

This book fits in my current sci-fi/space travel mood, and I was intrigued by what all could possibly go wrong in this utopian, new world colony. The storyline was interesting, keeping my attention until the last page. The book opens with a chronology of the next 200 years, outlining fantastic medical and technological achievements. Then, BLAM, the story picks up on Pearl, with an established colony of humans that have evolved into bald, brown, simple creatures. I was really interested in finding out how that happened, and was pleased with how the author explained it, weaving some thought-provoking social commentary; each colonist follows the person in front, and when the system breaks down, they just shut down. I worry sometimes about people today falling into this same routine of “follow the leader” and then can’t figure out what to do on their own. Definitely some good stuff going on in this book…

…but then there were a few things that really left me wanting.

The author presented the colonists, even Samuel, as simplistic thinkers with limited vocabulary. As such, when describing new experiences from a colonist’s point of view, I expect the author to utilize similar thinking patterns and terminology available to them. Yet the author chose to use words that felt beyond their scope. For example,

“The paper–the first sample he had ever encountered of such a material–was tough and fibrous, similar to papyrus, but not as crisp.”

Based on Samuel’s presentation, even if he demonstrated higher levels of thinking than the others, I wouldn’t expect him to examine this new material and think, hey, it’s like papyrus. Where did that come from?! It’s like the author didn’t have faith that his readers could figure it out without being so explicit. I also felt like there were several plot holes that left me with questions. While the author ultimately explained how humans devolved into the state of the colonists, I still feel like there was something missing to achieve such bovine lifestyles. It’s hard for me to further elaborate on this point without spoilers, though…

Overall, I give this book three stars. It was fun, but not without some flaws. If you’ve read it, I would love to hear what you think!