CORROSION

In Gurgu’s dystopian SF novel, a man fights to save his people from corrupt leaders and toxic weather.

In a future North America, the land has been rendered a desert courtesy of the devastating Black Rain that has turned water into a gel-like substance around the globe. Fresh, clean drinking water is now the planet’s “most coveted resource.” Some have chanced upon underground liquid reserves, while those with no choice but to drink gelled water become “Corrosives,” disfigured by a verdigrislike substance covering their bodies. The Golden Tower of Prince Boris shines above the otherwise derelict city of Torono. Geo Woodman, acting as an ambassador for his clan, cozies up to the prince, promising that he can help Boris with another Black Rain that his group has forecast and warning the prince to prepare Torono’s citizens for the cataclysmic showers. When Boris and Torono’s mayor discover that the Woodman clan has access to fresh water, they tell Geo that if he hopes to protect his clan as well as the city of Torono, he must serve as Boris’ science adviser and undergo the Water Passage, a grueling ritual that involves an ax. Gurgu drops readers into a densely constructed world in which the motley characters are already plotting against one another. The streamlined plot, in which Geo struggles to keep innocent civilians safe, energizes the narrative. While many characters are suspicious, including Boris and the mayor, Geo makes an appealing hero; he suffers for others and judges people by their actions, not by their corroded flesh. Weird creatures occasionally rear their ugly heads, like the Night Hunter, with its “huge, dead eyes” and a mouthful of sharp teeth. Sequences with these monsters demonstrate Gurgu’s dynamic prose (“Darkness fell over them, turning the green daylight into night. In the center of the dark veil, the monster's nervous system gleamed bright blue”), as do scenes featuring a creepy reanimated corpse and Geo tiptoeing into enemy territory. Gurgu wraps up his story with impressive efficiency, though this novel kicks off a prospective series.

A colorful cast traverses this bleak but remarkably depicted world.