Techno-Fascism-Vividly Described
“Fable for the End of the World” reflects our own uncertain condition — there are possibilities unknown, alternatives that even would-be godlings like Elon Musk and his ilk have not accounted for.
Fable for the End of the World by Ava Reid. Del Rey, HarperCollins, 384 pages, $15.99.
Dystopia, when effectively envisioned, can be one of the most disturbing and fascinating of literary genres. Done poorly, imagining disaster can be frustrating, boring, and pointless. The trick to creating a compelling dystopia is to make the rules of the world it takes place in convincing. It’s why we remember 1984, Fahrenheit 451, The Handmaid’s Tale, The Hunger Games, and Parable of the Sower. Our lives could easily slip into one of those horrors. And, considering the last few weeks, we’re closer to Gilead and Panem than ever before.
Ava Reid’s Fable for the End of the World introduces us to a dystopian existence that is not far off from our own, in a developed country. People either live in marginalized counties that have been flooded (thanks to climate change) or are lucky enough to live in the glittering comfort of the city. Society has been taken over by Caerus, a not-so-thinly-veiled version of Amazon, where people can buy whatever they need — usually by racking up debt. But if what you owe reaches five hundred thousand credits and you can’t pay, you have an opportunity to offer up a family member for the gauntlet, a live streamed death match between said family member and what is called an angel: a woman who has been outfitted with prosthetics to hunt the designated victim down. Needless to say, very few people survive a whirl through a gauntlet.
Inesa, who lives in Esopous Creek, one of the flooded towns, is sent into the contest by her mother, who’d rather keep her younger brother Luka around because he knows how to hunt. Inesa is slated to face off against Melinoe, an angel who hasn’t quite been herself since having to kill a twelve-year-old girl. No matter how many times Melinoe’s memory is erased by Caerus, she can’t accept being the merciless killing machine she was created to be. This gauntlet is Melinoe’s last chance to prove she’s not worthless, to ensure she isn’t turned into a “wife” for one of Caerus’s creepy CEOs.
Once the hunt for Inesa begins, Luka determinedly protects his sister against the strategies of Melinoe. After he and Inesa are separated, Inesa and and her demon angel are forced to collaborate in order to survive the wild swamps, which are home to mutations such as deer with webbed feet and wends, former humans who have turned into gray, decaying monsters. During the struggle, the two girls form an inseparable bond that turns into something Caerus could have never expected: love.
Reid has said in interviews that Fable for the End of the World is a love letter to the YA dystopian fiction she grew up with. While there are obvious similarities to The Hunger Games, Fable questions economic realities/seductions that The Hunger Games ignored. In Panem, for example, there is no way for the districts to have access to the advanced technology and luxuries available in the Capitol. Whereas Caerus has made sure (for the sake of profit) that everyone owns a tablet and can pretty much buy whatever they want or need, as long as they don’t accrue too much debt. Considering how reliant so many customers have become on Amazon, it’s believable that we could one day enter a world where the mega-company controls just about everything. (Bezos would have to fight Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg first. As of now, Musk is in the lead). A live-streamed fight-to-the-finish — commented on by streamers and influencers — isn’t too far off, especially considering MrBeast’s recent scandals regarding his own game show, Beast Games. The collective need for spectacle (“circuses”) has overtaken every sphere, including the political. And, despite people saying they’ll quit, we still love and rely on social media. We live in a world where people are forced to create a GoFundMe to afford cancer treatments. So how far off are we from using fighting robots (self-driving Tesla cars in a demolition derby) to save us from our debt?
Reid has crafted a bleak world, but there is beauty in her writing. Her prose on occasion reaches for the lyrical, drawing on striking metaphors and imagery. Melinoe describes Inesa with poetic force — once she stops seeing her as a sacrificial lamb. In the darkness there is light, in the brief moments when sunlight bleeds into the forest and when Melinoe and Inesa gaze at the forest swathed in a fresh coat of snow. In that sense, Fable for the End of the World reflects our own uncertain condition — there are possibilities unknown, alternatives that even would-be godlings like Musk and his ilk have not accounted for. In Reid’s darkness there are flickers of light, brief moments when sunlight bleeds into the forest or when Melinoe and Inesa gaze at woodland swathed in a fresh coat of snow. This ‘fable’ suggests that the coming battle against techno-fascism is worth waging — we may die reaching for that light, but that’s better than succumbing to the darkness of inhumanity.
Sarah Mina Osman is based in Los Angeles. In addition to the Arts Fuse, her writing can be found in Huffington Post, Success Magazine, Matador Network, HelloGiggles, Business Insider, and WatchMojo. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of North Carolina Wilmington and is working on her first novel. She has a deep appreciation for sloths and tacos. You can keep up with her on Instagram @SarahMinaOsman and at Bluesky @sarahminaosman.bsky.social.
