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Title details for The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain by Sofia Samatar - Available

The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain

by Sofia Samatar
ebook
4 of 4 copies available
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4 of 4 copies available

Nebula Award Finalist for Best Novella
Named a Best Sci-Fi Book of 2024 by Esquire, The New York Times, SLATE, The Washington Post, and ELLE
"I am in love with Sofia Samatar's lyricism and the haunting beauty of her imagination. Her stories linger, like the memory of a sumptuous feast."—N. K. Jemisin
A Most Anticipated in 2024 Pick for Goodreads | LitHub | Book Riot | She Reads | The Nerd Daily | New Scientist
Celebrated author Sofia Samatar presents a mystical, revolutionary space adventure for the exhausted dreamer in this brilliant science fiction novella tackling the carceral state and violence embedded in the ivory tower while embodying the legacy of Ursula K. Le Guin.
The boy was raised as one of the Chained, condemned to toil in the bowels of a mining ship out among the stars. His whole world changes—literally—when he is yanked "upstairs" and informed he has been given an opportunity to be educated at the ship's university alongside the elite.
Overwhelmed and alone, the boy forms a bond with the woman he comes to know as "the professor," a weary idealist and descendent of the Chained who has spent her career striving for validation from her more senior colleagues, only to fall short at every turn.
Together, the boy and the woman will embark on a transformative journey to grasp the design of the chains that fetter them both—and are the key to breaking free.
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    April 16, 2024

  • Formats

    • Kindle Book

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9781250881816

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9781250881816
      • File size: 862 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from February 19, 2024
      From PEN Award winner Samatar (The White Mosque) comes a brutal, haunting, yet ultimately uplifting novella examining capitalism and labor exploitation through the lens of science fiction. “The boy,” 17 and one half of a duo of nameless protagonists, was born and raised in the hold of a mining ship, a place of chain gangs and forced labor. Through a scholarship program, he’s rescued to the world above by “the woman,” who implemented the program, and whose father, too, was raised in the hold. What at first appears to be a relatively familiar academic setting—the woman is a professor, the boy a tentative new student under her tutelage —slowly unravels, revealing the deep horrors underlying the reality these characters inhabit. Samatar unfurls worldbuilding details with masterful subtlety, making each shocking reveal all the more potent. Through what amounts to a meditative far-future allegory, Samatar highlights the power of collective action in the face of oppression. This packs a punch.

    • Booklist

      March 8, 2024
      The boy only knows the Hold as a dark, cold place where everyone is chained at the ankle and made to work. A Hold is filled with people, and it can be dispensed with, depending on the economics of a ship's situation. He has been spending time with the Prophet, who lost his daughter to another ship of the fleet. The professor sees something in the boy and brings him out of the Hold on a kind of scholarship to study at the university. The boy gradually adapts to the ways of the university and the living world of the ship, so different from the Hold. He sees visions of how the anklets connect everyone, and he has found the Prophet's daughter. This leads the professor into what is considered rebellious behavior that threatens the scholarship program. Hugo- and Nebula-award winner Samatar (Monster Portraits, 2018) beautifully weaves an allegory about caste systems and academia in a fleet of colony ships.

      COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Formats

  • Kindle Book
  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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