WINNER OF THE PHILIP K. DICK AWARD Carrie Vaughn’s Bannerless is a novel in which an investigator must discover the truth behind a mysterious death in a world where small communities struggle to maintain a ravaged civilization decades after environmental and economic collapse.
Bannerless
By carrievaughn
Zombies. Natural disasters. Pandemics. Planet of the Apes. The Walking Dead. Fallout. I am Legend. 2012. As a nation, we are obsessed with end of the world scenarios. I am always annoyed when a new movie or TV series premiers, because what more can be done? And then I’m completely sucked into it. What would it look like if we rolled multiple scenarios into one story? We would be smack dab in the middle of Carrie Vaughn’s Bannerless.
Hola! And welcome to Haven! Founded by doctors and biologists who saved vaccines and reconstructed antibiotics; essentially making Haven feel like the center of this dystopian novel, as well as our main character’s home. Enid has only known Haven. She grew up in the Plenty household, appropriately named for the 30 members living there. Although this common, expected even, it is apparent Enid is interested in a less traveled road. This ear after “The Fall” essentially has the foundation of your life already mapped out. The only change available is if you were to break the rules.
Even with most of your life planned out, there are bound to be troublemakers- that’s where the investigators come in. Collectively disliked and well avoided by all towns, their brown uniforms a dismal foreshadowing of only bad things to come. That doesn’t stop Enid from making friends with an investigator named Tomas. Growing up, any time Tomas would go on an investigation Enid would always volunteer to help- volunteering turned into her career choice and Tomas went from investigator to Enid’s enforcer.
Enid is approached with investigating a murder in a nearby town. Usually, it was just your ordinary:
*Thefts and fraud
*A household trying to barter twice the amount of grain or cider they are allowed to
*Reneged trades
*Breaking up fights
*Tracking down assaults
*Bannerless pregnancies
What makes this one suspicious, no one is admitting to seeing the murder, just admitting they need help cleaning up the mess. Enid is determined to prove this was indeed a murder, and not an accident. Her most convincing evidence is a bloody hand print at the scene of the crime. Will Enid convince the town of the murder they already knew about? Or will Enid discover something else the town is trying to hide?
Could this be a future…sure makes you think!
A refreshing story of a world that could happen after the collapse of world infrastructure. Not a trite postapocalyptic novel. It will make you think.
Not at all what I was expecting, and so very slow in what it had to say. It was OK, but not exciting.
I’ll be looking for the second book due to come out in 2018. I’ll look at plastic wrap differently now.