Wilmington author’s dystopian YA fantasy novel is a fascinating exercise in world-building – StarNewsOnline.com

The future used to be as bright as the Millennium Falcon or George Jetson’s flying car, but not any more. So many novels, especially ones aimed at young adults, see only bad times ahead, from “The Hunger Games” to “Divergent” to “The Maze Runner.”

By now, they’re a recognized genre — the YA Dystopia — with rules as hard, fast and predictable as a Western or a hard-boiled detective yarn.

Wilmington author Emily Colin, however, manages a few original spins in “Siege of the Seven Sins.” It’s the sequel to her “Sword of the Seven Sins,” the second volume in a projected trilogy. Colin has also turned out a novella and short stories in the “Seven Sins” world, available on Kindle.

More:Wilmington writer’s dystopic YA novel is predictable but entertaining

We return to the story of Eva and Ari, two young escapees from the Commonwealth, a theocracy that’s part Gilead out of “The Handmaid’s Tale,” part “Brave New World.” In the Commonwealth, love, family and even friendship are banned. Reproduction is by artificial insemination, but Eva and Ari are very much in love.

In book one, Eva had been the first girl assigned to the Bellators, the Commonwealth’s combination army and Gestapo. That’s peculiar, since otherwise, the society has very strict and regressive gender roles.

Now, we find out why. The Commonwealth managed to preserve the gene-splicing technology of the long-ago 21st century after an apparent climate collapse.

And poor Eva finds out that she’s an experiment. Commonwealth scientists have worked the DNA from a panther, a leopard seal and a peregrine falcon into her makeup. Basically, she’s a shape-shifter, generally when she’s angry and stressed. Her hand can morph into a paw with claws. Giant wings can sprout from her back, at least temporarily. The Commonwealth planned to use her as a super-weapon against the Brotherhood, roughly the equivalent of the Rebellion from “Star Wars.”

She and Ari make contact with Brotherhood agents, and learn that there are other shapeshifters, called skuma, out there beyond the Commonwealth’s walls. The Commonwealth hunted them almost to extinction, but some remain.

Eventually, they arrive at the Brotherhood stronghold of Vik, where Eva learns more about her powers. To control their shifting and ground them, each skuma needs a familiar, a non-skuma with whom he or she forms a psychic bond, sort of like the  old Vulcan mind-meld from “Star Trek.” It’s a lifetime pairing, and being a familiar takes years of training.

Poor Ari doesn’t qualify. The Powers That Be pair Eva off with Jaxon, a familiar who cordially hates Ari for various reasons. (Romance is out of the question; Jaxon is gay, a state that Eva and Ari, raised in the Commonwealth, can barely comprehend.)

But there’s worse: Among the Brotherhood, skuma are like royalty — which means that Eva has to marry a shapeshifter from a rival city to unite all the disparate houses and clans so that the Commonwealth can finally be defeated. 

Poor Eva and Ari: Their love can never be.

By this point, “Siege of the Seven Sins” reads as if Colin has been studying George R.R. Martin (and yes, there’s a Red Wedding in the offing.)

Colin, however, turns in a story that’s closer to the “Twilight” saga than “Game of Thrones.”

The real interest in a story like this, of course, is the world-building behind it, and here Colin (“The Memory Thief,” “The Dream Keeper’s Daughter”) really shines. She comes up with wonderful scenes, such as the trek through the ruins of ancient Chicago, and she has fun imagining how language evolved since the Digital Age. (Coffee, for instance, is now “Kaffi,” while a sword, harking back to the Vikings, is now a sverd.)

Given the complexity of the set-up, readers will likely need to read “Sword of the Seven Sins” first to catch up. “Siege,” however, should find an audience with science fiction and fantasy fans.

Ben Steelman can be reached at 910-616-1788 or peacebsteelman@gmail.com.

BOOK REVIEW

‘SIEGE OF THE SEVEN SINS’

By Emily Colin

Chapel Hill: Blue Crow Press, $15.99 paperback