Solitaire

Kelley Eskridge

Completed 11/17/2018, Reviewed 11/17/2018

4 stars

This was an extremely well written novel about a dystopian future with a world government and an experimental mind-altering technique.  It poses the question of how isolation from human contact for a number of years affects an otherwise normal, productive person.  It was nominated for several awards, including the Nebula and the Gaylactic Spectrum Awards.  It features a Latina main character, which is pretty rare in science fiction, who is also a lesbian.  Reading it was quite enjoyable, even though parts were quite grim.  While not a thriller, it kept me on the edge of my seat for most of the book.

Ren “Jackal” Sequra is a Hope, a sort of goodwill ambassador to the Earthgov.  She works for Ko, a major world corporation, as a project manager.  Two months before her induction ceremony, a terrible accident occurs, killing over four hundred people, including most of her closest friends.  Jackal is accidentally responsible for their deaths, but is accused of being a mass murderer and terrorist.  She takes a deal to plead guilty and is given a long prison term.  However, she is offered the opportunity to undergo an experimental process which would induce the sense that she spent eight years of solitary confinement in a matter of days, and then be set free.  If she takes the deal, what kind of person will she emerge as?

The book is really divided into three parts:  her time as a Hope, her indictment and confinement, and her attempt to rebuild her life afterwards.  Her time as a Hope is a long introduction that gets us to know Jackal and where she came from.  It’s very interesting, but the book really kicked into gear when she was put into solitary confinement.  It’s not exciting, as the term “kicked into gear” might imply, but it’s very intense, and I felt like I was in stuck in that small cell in her head with her.  The third part, rebuilding her life, is just as intense.  She’s hounded by her probation officer under threat of being arrested again for any one of many small transgressions.  Somehow, she carves out a new life, discovering a bar called “Solitaire” which is intended for “solos”, survivors of the mental incarceration she experienced.

Jackal is a terrific character.  Her experience growing up as a Hope and as a high-powered project manager gives her amazing skills that initially help her cope with the solitary confinement.  But eight years of being isolated can take its toll on anyone.  Still, she’s smart, brave, and clever.  She’s a lesbian, but it is treated matter-of-fact, well integrated into her character as a whole.  I liked her a lot and found myself empathizing with her quickly.  The other characters in the book are very vibrant as well, particularly Jackal’s mother, her probation officer, her girlfriend, and a few of the other solos.  No one was a cardboard or throwaway character. 

There’s an interesting social structure used in the book, known as a web.  It’s an eclectic group of friends who take aliases and are a support system for each other.  That’s where the name “Jackal” comes from.  Jackal’s girlfriend’s taken name is Snow and she comes from a different web.  The author doesn’t go into detail as to how one is formed or what its origins are, but it seems like an awfully good concept.  Jackal’s web is featured in the beginning of the book, but the concept doesn’t really appear again until the very end.

I give this book four stars out of five.  It was very nearly a five, though I didn’t have that as much of an emotional response as a five-star book should.  Still, it’s beautifully written, and I was greatly caught up in it.  The ending was very satisfying.  I would recommend this book to anyone who wants something a little more cerebral and emotional in their science fiction.