Anaximander would like to join the Academy. She must undergo a four-hour oral examination on the subject of her specialization: Adam Forde, a legendary hero of the recent past whose choices, conscious or otherwise, undermined the Republic and created the world of today.
The examiners will use every trick in their power to test Anaximander. Anaximander must use all her wit and the experience of her tutor, Pericles, to outwit them. What Anax doesn’t expect is that the Academy, and her society, is not as it seems.
Genesis by Bernard Beckett utterly floored me. Deceptively slim at 150 pages, the book is much more deceptive than slim: even the alluring cover art suggests without explaining. The sea wall is pictured reassuringly in place to keep out the Outsiders who might be carrying the plague warfare. And the red hair seems to allude to Art, an artificial intelligence program that Adam encounters.
If you sit down and read through to the end, you’ll want to turn it back over and start again immediately. This little book will challenge all your assumptions about the foundations of society and the functions of a government.
9.5 / 10.0.
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