S.K. Ali writes a powerful story with her science fiction fantasy Fledgling. Told in eleven parts, this first book in a promised duology is about colonization, oppression, rebellions, and politics. However, it isn’t didactic, as Ali entices readers by sharing just enough to lure them in as they form their own opinions about pervasive attempts to manipulate minds with propaganda and as they form attachments to intriguing characters. Thematically, Ali develops ideas similar to George Orwell’s Thought Police and Aldous Huxley’s class system and lab-controlled intelligence while weaving in tropes from M.T. Anderson’s Feed to reveal how thinking threatens those in power and how technology can be used to manipulate human responses.
Set in a dystopian future where scalplinks and mind control allow the “enlightened” of Upper Earth to live a vastly different life than those on Lower Earth where resources have been plundered, a plan is set in motion to stop an impending war and to unite the two disparate worlds. In an attempt at achieving peace, the powers of ALIGN have arranged a marriage between Raisa Freelund, the nineteen-year-old dutiful and privileged daughter of an Upper Earth dignitary, and Lein Verg, the crown prince of the volatile Lower Earth. Raisa will be presented as the Fledgling, a symbol of hope, freedom, and rebirth in what Upper Earth is calling the Enlightenment. In this plan, the Fledgling will rise, “[bringing] peace into the universe, uniting all the realms of this splintered world” (71). However, revolutionary forces are determined to thwart this plan since they know ALIGN’s more sinister purpose: That under the guise of peace, ALIGN technology will be used to oppress and enslave people, to shape their thinking. Although taking away disputes so that peace can reign, ALIGN will also rob people of free will.
While ALIGN orchestrates a kidnapping and weaves a web of misinformation, the insurgents implement a counter attack of their own. But there are two factions working with the “brutes.” Soon, the reader is trying to determine which side to support while also wondering who the “good guys” really are. Ultimately, the truth emerges: That in the desire to control all that is valuable—goods, resources, and supply chains—perhaps the greatest value comes in free will and in looking after the world through records.
Nayf and Nada Verg, the twin grandchildren of Nene Nushba, a former ruler of Lower Earth, learned the value of information at a young age. Because those in power often rewrite history so as to control memory, Salwe, one insurgent leader, tells Nada in prison: “The records we write or dictate, store our actual truths. We are the only ones permitted to represent us, not them. For they only twist things to suit their aims. . . . They want control over all that is valuable on earth. Including our independent thoughts and values” (41-42).
Imprisoned at age twelve for speaking a forbidden name, Nada wonders how she can best help the revolutionaries wrest back Aerd from its exploiters. Willful and impulsive, Nada comes from royal blood, yet she never wanted anything more than to be of the people. Brave, just, and kind, she lives in search of truth. Her cousin Lein is determined to stop her.
ALIGN might publicize that they operate under the motto “A people aligned in the highest of human values—compassion, equality, freedom, innovation—will never be defeated by any force” (107), those in power are more interested in “[getting] the people to surrender their will, to be scalplinked. For their brains to be rewritten, completed coded by ALIGN” (167). However, Nada knows that being knitted to their technology means being robbed of autonomy.
Meanwhile, Nada’s brother Nayf is working for another faction of insurgents, those who are more practical and less spiritual, those who believe in action and using force if necessary. The reader will discover whether the twins are working at cross purposes to achieve the same goal: to stop colonization of the mind, heart, and soul.
Complicating perspectives, Murrabi Hasuf (aka the Tangled Servant) offers an alternate way of seeing the world: “Reject that which pulls the world down, that which frays the fibers that hold us, and you’ll be free to see the way forward. Only through rejection of all that is ugly and hateful can we find the beauty in life” (391).
Through Hasuf, Ali shares Plato’s allegory of the cave, how “we are confined by the limits of our existences, by what we experience” (391). These limitations explain why opening our eyes to new truths, to new ways of knowing, believing, and understanding takes time. Although we are all programmed from the second we are born, whether by our parents, schooling, or other social forces that exist around us, “at some point, when we fledge, when we seek freedom, we should [individually] decide on our programming. We should choose who writes our code” (394).
Ali shares another important lesson when she reveals through Nada the power of hope and optimism: “If you can count five blessings before you even open your eyes to the morning, your day has already been made. Everything can be lit by the sun in your heart” (416).
Expertly weaving Emily Dickinson’s poem “Hope is the thing with feathers” into her novel, Ali imparts how we need to keep our eyes on the future and empower the youth “who choose their own course in life to usher in better days for humanity” (396). Politics, greed, loyalties, and love, all add to the mix of a rebellion and the hope that comes from the Fledgling.
- Donna