The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain
by Sofia Samatar

Reviewed by Galen Strickland
Posted April 16, 2024

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Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

There are exceptions of course, but most good science fiction is about more than the other-worldly speculations. The best are also about the here and now, connecting us to the characters even if they are light years away in space. The title might sound like it is about three separate things, but they are all connected, as we are all connected, if only we could open ourselves to the connection.

The three main characters are never named, we only know them as the boy, the prophet, and the professor (or alternately, the woman). Other characters are named, but only those in the upper echelon of the society traveling through space in a fleet of Wheel Ships. The boy, who barely remembers his mother, lives in the Hold, chained to the wall of his room, or chained to others during work details. The prophet is an older man, although maybe not as old as the boy thinks. He knows he doesn't have long to live, but before he dies he wants to see his daughter again, whom he says was taken to one of the other ships. The woman, the professor, is in the middle group of the ship's passengers, known as the "ankleted" ones. They have to wear a blue ankle bracelet, which restricts where they can go on the ship. The guards in the hold also wear them. In the middle chapter we learn some of the top tier group can control ankleted people through an app on their phone.

I have no idea how many years it had been since the ships had left a ravaged Earth, or how many stops they had made on their journey, nor if they have a planned destination. They are currently within an asteroid field, with miners bringing rocks and minerals to the ships. Those in the Hold break up the rocks, which may be destined to replenish the soil in the gardens, other minerals used for manufacture. Others of the chained do routine cleaning chores. The prophet tells stories, legends of Old Earth. The boy draws and scrapes pictures on the walls and floors, based on those stories. Within the ankleted group, the professor has been advocating for the most intelligent to be brought up from the Hold in order to be educated. Her mentor, who is named, has helped her with that project for over a year, but becomes irritated when the woman goes further with the project than he had authorized. She brings the boy up out of the Hold, he gets an ankle bracelet, but is initially disoriented, which was probably due to the different gravity field in that portion of the ship, as well as the much brighter lights.

The Practice is what the prophet called his technique, a cross between breathing exercises and meditation. He tells the boy about the Horizon on Earth, of the importance of looking out and away, rather than up or down. The Chain is both self-evident, the metal that connected the workers together, but later means something more. It is not clear how the boy was able to do what he did, or if the prophet anticipated it, or would have been able to master the connectedness of the ankle bracelets. The boy is eventually able to sense other people near him as the professor had said was possible, but even she was surprised when the boy was able to actively send a signal to others through the bracelet. The Practice helped him to open his mind to the connection. He used the concept of the Horizon to see all the possibilities of his actions within the ship, as well as how they were connected to the other ships. The Chain brought him full circle to how everyone was connected, not just the chained within the Hold, not just the other ankleted. What is not clear is if he can make everyone else aware of the connection.

How this story connects to us today is the stratification of the society within the ships. The top tier who made the decisions and controlled everything; the middle group who thought of themselves as free, until they learned they were not; those in the Hold who did most of the work, but were easily discarded and replaced. The middle group risked being sent to the Hold if they stepped out of line, and the top tier made money off of everyone else. Same as it ever was. A short, quick read, but one I'll be thinking of for quite a while. Highly recommended.

 

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