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The Futures Trilogy #3
Sanctuary
Sanctuary is the home of all who can no longer work to earn their place in Basic Living. That is, until the Program gives them a month to find alternate care. If no private person or charity steps forward to take responsibility, the Sanctuary resident is sent to Peace Out.
Sanctuary is the final book of the Futures Trilogy, which explores an America that is both eerily familiar and terrifyingly strange. Whether it is utopia or dystopia depends on which future is yours.
Sanctuary is the final book of the Futures Trilogy, which explores an America that is both eerily familiar and terrifyingly strange. Whether it is utopia or dystopia depends on which future is yours.
- GenresScience Fiction
230 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 2014
2 people are currently reading
119 people want to read
About the author
G.M. Whitley
9 books22 followersGuang Ming Whitley makes her home in Charleston, South Carolina. Her children’s middle names are, respectively, Aenea, Ender, Seldon, and Deckard.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
January 11, 2017
Sanctuary, the third book in the Futures Trilogy, was the most gut-wrenching of the three. Sanctuary takes care of those who can't work and who don't have family who can take them in. If only it provided true sanctuary....
The stories told in Sanctuary were of those who Christians would consider "the least of these." Sanctuary provides a place for the old, people with mental or physical disabilities, and those who are terminally ill. Children are Peaced Out when they are eighteen if they are not adopted or can't be trained to do some kind of work. Adults who are in what are called Enclaves or in Sanctuaries can be Peaced Out if the facility they are in needs more space.
Provisions to limit Peacing Out will "sunset" in approximately ten years. We also hear about how angry the public got when some individuals chose homelessness over the social safety net of Basic Living, Sanctuary, and Peacing Out. The negative parts of this society became quite clear in this third volume when we hear that homelessness was outlawed and people enacted vigilante justice in an effort to provide "incentive" for people to become part of that "safety net."
I could see how this situation came to pass. I just hope nothing like it actually does.
The stories told in Sanctuary were of those who Christians would consider "the least of these." Sanctuary provides a place for the old, people with mental or physical disabilities, and those who are terminally ill. Children are Peaced Out when they are eighteen if they are not adopted or can't be trained to do some kind of work. Adults who are in what are called Enclaves or in Sanctuaries can be Peaced Out if the facility they are in needs more space.
Provisions to limit Peacing Out will "sunset" in approximately ten years. We also hear about how angry the public got when some individuals chose homelessness over the social safety net of Basic Living, Sanctuary, and Peacing Out. The negative parts of this society became quite clear in this third volume when we hear that homelessness was outlawed and people enacted vigilante justice in an effort to provide "incentive" for people to become part of that "safety net."
I could see how this situation came to pass. I just hope nothing like it actually does.
May 9, 2014
Downloaded the Kindle version yesterday and settled in to read a few pages before going to sleep. Two and a half hours later, I reluctantly forced myself to stop (I was about 80% done with the book at that point).
Finished today on my lunch break. So that should speak to how engrossing the plot lines are.
This is the third book in the Futures Trilogy, but this is a trilogy in a different-than-usual sense. For the most part, this isn't a "first Book One happens, then Book Two happens, then Book Three happens" series narrating consecutive events in the lives of certain characters.
Far more interestingly, each book in the series focuses on a different aspect of social organization in Whitley's somewhat dystopic future. Book One, Peace Out, explored a national euthanasia program: senior citizens, mostly, but also terminally ill or suicidal individuals can choose to peacefully exit existence on their own terms. Book Two, Basic Living, limned a futuristic workfare system replete with algae-derived affordable sustenance and forced-but-temporary sterilization for BL recipients. The third and final book, Sanctuary, takes a look at those who are too handicapped/disabled/addicted/mentally ill/violent to hold down jobs on BL. In Whitley's imagining, they're given a few months or years (children are held til age 18) of three algae-meals a day and a warm bed (i.e., Sanctuary), but then, if no family comes to claim them and they can't hold a job, they're gently Peaced Out. One of the most chilling descriptions in the whole trilogy is of the room full of decomposing corpses -- the bodies of the Peaced Out -- circulating under fans and being dehydrated so that (1) the water from their bodies can be recycled, and (2) the cremation process won't require so much energy. Whitley's term for this process is "deliquescence," a chemical term meaning "to become liquid" or "to melt away," but the term itself is scarily perfect in its clinical detachment.
I loved Sanctuary, but Basic Living remains my favorite of the trilogy. Read all three books and tell me which one you enjoyed most!
Finished today on my lunch break. So that should speak to how engrossing the plot lines are.
This is the third book in the Futures Trilogy, but this is a trilogy in a different-than-usual sense. For the most part, this isn't a "first Book One happens, then Book Two happens, then Book Three happens" series narrating consecutive events in the lives of certain characters.
Far more interestingly, each book in the series focuses on a different aspect of social organization in Whitley's somewhat dystopic future. Book One, Peace Out, explored a national euthanasia program: senior citizens, mostly, but also terminally ill or suicidal individuals can choose to peacefully exit existence on their own terms. Book Two, Basic Living, limned a futuristic workfare system replete with algae-derived affordable sustenance and forced-but-temporary sterilization for BL recipients. The third and final book, Sanctuary, takes a look at those who are too handicapped/disabled/addicted/mentally ill/violent to hold down jobs on BL. In Whitley's imagining, they're given a few months or years (children are held til age 18) of three algae-meals a day and a warm bed (i.e., Sanctuary), but then, if no family comes to claim them and they can't hold a job, they're gently Peaced Out. One of the most chilling descriptions in the whole trilogy is of the room full of decomposing corpses -- the bodies of the Peaced Out -- circulating under fans and being dehydrated so that (1) the water from their bodies can be recycled, and (2) the cremation process won't require so much energy. Whitley's term for this process is "deliquescence," a chemical term meaning "to become liquid" or "to melt away," but the term itself is scarily perfect in its clinical detachment.
I loved Sanctuary, but Basic Living remains my favorite of the trilogy. Read all three books and tell me which one you enjoyed most!
March 7, 2016
The best of the Futures Trilogy! Once again, Whitley envisions a possible (probable) future in which society has created strict guidelines for dealing with used-up, seemingly useless, and terminally infirm individuals. How these guidelines are played out is revealed in several self-contained stories and multi-chapter archs. Each character faces difficult choices which, in turn, force the readers to debate the choices themselves. There are no black and white answers to the all-encompassing moral and ethical issues presented and wonderful, deep internal questioning can result if the reader takes the issues seriously. Highly recommended for book clubs and discussion groups!
June 19, 2014
This book is thought provoking. A reminder of how what at one time would be mind bending becomes the norm and within a very short amount of time. Sanctuary offers case studies of how government managed care allows people to peace out (voluntarily become deceased). In some cases the peace out is revealed to not be so voluntary and the public is not generally aware of this fact. As the people and circumstances become real to you their cases become compelling causing your mouth drops open in disbelief. This book is part of "The Futures Trilogy" but perhaps not so distant future - in which case the book is a must read as this new reality is scary.
July 7, 2014
I read all three of the books in this series, and while I liked them all, Sanctuary is my favorite. In all three books, you are pushed to think of really important social issues in new ways. Any person interested in social work or public policy should absolutely read this book, although I think the issues are relevant to everyone.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews