World’s Edge: A Mosaic Novel

Sallis (Bridge Segments) delivers a fragmented take on social mayhem in this near-future dystopian tale. Following a devastating civil war, the United States has fractured into independent provinces ruled by warring factions, “each one working chiefly to aggrandize itself, then push through some recondite agenda for social order.” Told by a motley crew of survivors, these five loosely connected stories form a collage of political and personal turmoil. A soldier recounts commandeering armaments in Free Alaska while longing to be reunited with a woman rebel fighter he met early during the war; an orphaned boy tells of witnessing his sister’s death at the hands of a soldier returning from battle; and a surgeon relates his tribulations as a “frontier doctor treating cancer with hacksaws and dressmaker’s thread,” and learns more about the state of the world after one of his patients is abducted by soldiers. The stories have a slice of life feel as they eulogize the lost nation and the ruined hopes of its citizens. While the big ideas are resonant and timely, Sallis offers few surprises and favors telling over showing, making it difficult to connect emotionally with the characters. Readers will find more nourishing food for thought elsewhere. (Feb.)