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Totem
Once the capital of a global empire, Aer is now only a global protectorate. One of the eight wonders of the ancient world, Aer is a cradle of civilization, preserved by international aid and foreign interest, primarily Worldview, an international media network. Worldview has wired Aer so thoroughly that subscribers around the world can interact with every facet of daily life in the ancient city. Pinhole lenses and mobile cameras and embedded microphones export the challenges, dramas, and simple joys of Aeri life to those whose donations keep it alive. Because, without them, the Aeri will die.
Aer has been quarried for millennia from the world's rarest stone deposit, and this prize, the Aeri birthright, is the centerpiece of Aer's ancient the belief in God in the stone itself. In ages past, the inspired dialogs of the saints were the empire's greatest export, carrying the truth that God's presence morphs the faithful into their true form. But the stone, we now know, is radioactive. It always has been, and it has been twisting the Aeri across the generations, reforming their bodies into their final states.
The international community now keeps the Aeri alive with radiation abatement, food aid, health care, and the sundries of daily life. Aer is a shared cultural gem, a mitigating presence in an unstable region. It is a link to a past when God walked the Earth, and empires rose on the power of belief. But there is trouble in paradise. Belan and Vesse are in their twenties, as bored and idle as the others their age, struggling to find meaning in a world where they want for nothing. With their lives writ large for Worldview's never-sleeping eyes, the couple find themselves at the epicenter of a cultural awakening, and their efforts to navigate the truths of the new Aer have consequences for everyone.
Totem is the final installment in Darin Bradley's thematically linked "Dystopian Cluster." This is voyeuristic terrorism in a world where religion has gone viral and Big Brother works hand in hand with UNESCO.
Aer has been quarried for millennia from the world's rarest stone deposit, and this prize, the Aeri birthright, is the centerpiece of Aer's ancient the belief in God in the stone itself. In ages past, the inspired dialogs of the saints were the empire's greatest export, carrying the truth that God's presence morphs the faithful into their true form. But the stone, we now know, is radioactive. It always has been, and it has been twisting the Aeri across the generations, reforming their bodies into their final states.
The international community now keeps the Aeri alive with radiation abatement, food aid, health care, and the sundries of daily life. Aer is a shared cultural gem, a mitigating presence in an unstable region. It is a link to a past when God walked the Earth, and empires rose on the power of belief. But there is trouble in paradise. Belan and Vesse are in their twenties, as bored and idle as the others their age, struggling to find meaning in a world where they want for nothing. With their lives writ large for Worldview's never-sleeping eyes, the couple find themselves at the epicenter of a cultural awakening, and their efforts to navigate the truths of the new Aer have consequences for everyone.
Totem is the final installment in Darin Bradley's thematically linked "Dystopian Cluster." This is voyeuristic terrorism in a world where religion has gone viral and Big Brother works hand in hand with UNESCO.
234 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 1, 2016
1 person is currently reading
155 people want to read
About the author
Darin Bradley
18 books76 followersDarin is the bestselling author of Noise, Chimpanzee, and Totem — and Light Both Foreign and Domestic, a collection of short fiction. He lives in Texas with his wife.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
September 10, 2016
I have been done reading this book for a while, but don't interpret the gap in time between finishing and reviewing as a bad thing; the book wasn't quite done with me. I've had several dreams in Aer (the ancient city in the novel) and then randomly read a book of poems that felt like they were from this world. It was like my brain couldn't shake it.
Aer used to be the seat of an empire but is now a protected area on display 24/7 through a media platform called Worldview. People external to the city are watching them from everywhere, even through body cams, and the devices the Aeri carry serve simultaneously to help them connect with one another but also as tracking devices. Donations from the outside provide for basic needs, but not much more.
The people living in Aer are still practicing their ancient religion, circling a stone that is divine (in their view) but also now known to be radioactive, killing the very people who remain to preserve the old ways. There is a layer of complexity in it by how the people are managed - people rotate places of residence in an attempt to minimize radiation exposure, and the city is constantly under construction, buildings are rebuilt and streets are redirected. People and buildings are covered with abatement materials, even their clothing, to try to reduce radiation damage.
All along, I'm hearing the book in my head in the author's voice, after listening to a previous novel in audio, Chimpanzee. And you can hear the first chapter of Totem on the author's website. Nobody but the author could pull off words like "amalgate susurrus."
Compared to the other two novels in the "dystopian cluster" (see also Noise and Chimpanzee), it was harder to identify the most dangerous threat in this world. That's a very 21st century conundrum. Is it the willingness to live inside a poisonous environment? Is it the constant uprooting of home and community in the rotation around the stone? Is it the way the wired city turns everyone else into a consumer of the situation instead of stepping in? And what are they hoping for, complete destruction or are they just at the culture zoo?
And then in the time since I finished, I started to wonder if how I watch the news is any different from the non Aeris in this story. Am I a cultural spectator of a dying world? Do I view other places as going in circles to their own destruction (or is this the story I'm being sold?)
I'm still thinking about it, and that's the highest praise I can pay a novel.
Thanks to the publisher for providing access to this through Edelweiss, and to the author for sending me a pdf of the final copy. You can listen to a conversation I had with the author two years ago on the Reading Envy Podcast.
Aer used to be the seat of an empire but is now a protected area on display 24/7 through a media platform called Worldview. People external to the city are watching them from everywhere, even through body cams, and the devices the Aeri carry serve simultaneously to help them connect with one another but also as tracking devices. Donations from the outside provide for basic needs, but not much more.
The people living in Aer are still practicing their ancient religion, circling a stone that is divine (in their view) but also now known to be radioactive, killing the very people who remain to preserve the old ways. There is a layer of complexity in it by how the people are managed - people rotate places of residence in an attempt to minimize radiation exposure, and the city is constantly under construction, buildings are rebuilt and streets are redirected. People and buildings are covered with abatement materials, even their clothing, to try to reduce radiation damage.
All along, I'm hearing the book in my head in the author's voice, after listening to a previous novel in audio, Chimpanzee. And you can hear the first chapter of Totem on the author's website. Nobody but the author could pull off words like "amalgate susurrus."
Compared to the other two novels in the "dystopian cluster" (see also Noise and Chimpanzee), it was harder to identify the most dangerous threat in this world. That's a very 21st century conundrum. Is it the willingness to live inside a poisonous environment? Is it the constant uprooting of home and community in the rotation around the stone? Is it the way the wired city turns everyone else into a consumer of the situation instead of stepping in? And what are they hoping for, complete destruction or are they just at the culture zoo?
And then in the time since I finished, I started to wonder if how I watch the news is any different from the non Aeris in this story. Am I a cultural spectator of a dying world? Do I view other places as going in circles to their own destruction (or is this the story I'm being sold?)
I'm still thinking about it, and that's the highest praise I can pay a novel.
Thanks to the publisher for providing access to this through Edelweiss, and to the author for sending me a pdf of the final copy. You can listen to a conversation I had with the author two years ago on the Reading Envy Podcast.
February 12, 2017
Review to come
April 23, 2016
Nosy neighbours, concerned family members, bored administrators all rolled into pure dystopian pleasure. The story is of struggling people but threads together love and rebellion with hope and security.
November 1, 2016
This book is a new take on terrorism and digital colonialism. A must-read for smart people who care about the world. The prose is beautiful to the point of heartbreaking at times. Buy this book now!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews