It’s been rather timely to be reading Lin Darrow’s Dead New World leading up to Election Day in the U.S., because an election hinging on the rights of a specific group of people is a major plot element in the book. Whatever the results are in the real world, however, Dead New World will continue to resonate in a relevant way. The worldbuilding is creative, the characters are increasingly engaging, the mystery is intriguing, and the stakes are high; moreover, the resolution concludes satisfyingly and hopefully but with open endings for the characters to continue evolving.
From the description on NetGalley: Spending her afterlife in a boarding house in Faraday City, Hildy is the least-requested flicker-ghost at Carlotta Sun’s Purgatory House for Spectral Services. … Hildy competes daily for ghost gigs against her more marketable housemates: the flighty musician Eyvind, desperate to compose the masterpiece he never got to in life, and Anjali, an imperious silent-film extra whose single surviving motion picture shot her to post-mortem stardom despite it being based on a lie. Meanwhile, a shadowy, headless ghost called the Graverobber has been spotted emerging from holographic billboards, snatching the resurrected from their so-called lives and sowing chaos throughout the city. ,,. With only two months to go before a crucial election that’ll decide the future of all specters, they must determine who the Graverobber is―and, more importantly, where they belong in this dead new world.
Despite “ghosts” being the protagonists of Dead New World, this book is not fantasy but rather a far-future, post-diaspora science fiction novel. Earth is no more, but Earth culture is still huge, at least in Flicker City on the moon of Hypatia, as people love watching technologically enhanced old movies, going to themed parties, and eating in restaurants that replicate certain eras, etc.
The Flicker/Helix Hologram Company has invented a Resurrection Engine that can bring the dead back to life, as holograms based on their memories and records. But this was not due to popular demand, and things have gone poorly since then. Resurrections have been outlawed after 10,000 specters had been brought back, and their employment is strictly regulated, with many professions banned to them; those who do get work (at call centers, for example), have to be accompanied by a human chaperone. (Work lets them earn a little money to pay for things such as virtual wardrobe changes or housing in town instead of in the camps.) In the current mayoral election, one candidate wants to permanently exile all the specters to a “Ghost Town” while the other has criminal ties; the dead aren’t allowed to vote.
Hildy’s major worry at the start of the book is her perilous financial situation. As second-class citizens, or less, all specters work gig jobs, more or less short-term, but Hildy is far down on the list of desirable employees, as a non-glamorous former librarian. Worse, she’s as lonely now as she was in her breathing life, still finding it hard to make friends. When her temp chaperone responds to her quips, she eagerly tries to extend the relationship in ways such as jumping at the chance to investigate the Graverobber with him. Eventually, she turns out to be a lot more clever and capable than she or anyone else had thought, even the temp who’d acted out of pity before he learned to appreciate her.
Eyvind is less sympathetic initially, as a musician almost entirely interested in his music rather than people. He carefully curates his existence to be as free from friction (including other people’s problems) as possible. Only after circumstances force him into close contact with refugees and revolutionaries does he start learning how he can bring people together with music instead of just using it to glorify himself.
Anjali is a minor celebrity who hates being defined by a film clip from centuries ago. When she meets her resurrector, the head of Flicker/Helix, who had abandoned her creations without helping them integrate into society, she’s unimpressed. Anjali demands a degree of autonomy, and they find ways to work together, using each other for their own ends; she imagines new possibilities into being, and earns respect.
One question that seems like a niggle over the worldbuilding at first, but becomes increasingly important throughout, is why did Flicker/Helix create the Resurrection Engine in the first place, and make so many specters before that got shut down? It doesn’t seem as though there was any pressing demand, other than the dominant culture of nostalgia; certainly no labor shortage. I had handwaved this away as unimportant to the plot and seen it as possible commentary on all the companies shoving AI down our throats unasked, nowadays. But it turns out that there is a deeply personal reason driving this invention and its refinements all along (and there are deeply personal motivations for the political candidates, too), and I found that very satisfying. (I guess even today’s techbros may have deeply personal motivations/failures driving their actions, too, but they garner no sympathy from me.)
Different forms of love have important roles in shaping the plot. First, there’s a seemingly doomed romance between a man and a hologram; second, there’s a frozen man who apparently longs for warmth while rejecting it as weakness; third, there’s a developing bond analogous to a mother/daughter relationship; finally, there’s the love of community, starting with individual sympathies and building to a great social network of helping each other to survive and hopefully thrive.
The title of Dead New World, of course, is probably a reference to Aldous Huxley’s dystopic novel Brave New World, which itself took its title from a quote in William Shakespeare’s play The Tempest: “O brave new world, that has such people in’t!” Dead New World starts off as a dystopia, and plenty of noirish elements persist throughout, but by the end, it has established itself as hopepunk; the specters are starting to see really interesting possibilities for themselves beyond their original frameworks, so the Shakespeare reference also works.
I did think the ending was slightly unrealistic when big revelations changed the course of the election, since I’ve seen how little the truth matters to many people who vote based on vibes. But I was heartened by the specters who decided to forge their own destinies regardless of the power structures; ultimately, what mattered most was their finding connections with each other, supporting each other, and making their own choices. I can only hope that real-world humanity will continue to find and strengthen their own connections and communities. Maybe this book can help encourage that.
I see on Lin Darrow’s author page that this is the first book in a planned series, Flicker City Phantoms, with the sequel set for November 2027. (More details are on her website.) Good! Whether this will consist of further adventures in the lives of these protagonists or new characters with new problems, I look forward to more explorations of this world and Darrow’s writing.
Dead New World, by Lin Darrow, will be published on Nov. 10.
Content warnings: Disappearances, violence, economic servitude, discrimination.
Disclaimer: I received a free eARC for review via NetGalley.
