A Kiss for Damocles by J. Kenton PierceMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is a 5-star review. This book was great.
A Kiss for Damocles received this year's Prometheus Award for the work of fiction that best illustrates libertarian principles. And boy does it. I bought the book when nominations were announced.
Our protagonist is a young girl who lives in a small underground village. They live a slightly better than subsistence life because they lack any technological growth.
Both of those are odd conditions until you learn that there is an orbital system of gravity weapons controlled by a mid-level AI that takes a very dim view of any electronic signals that might indicate a technological capacity on the planet. At any whisper of a coherent electronic signal, Damocles drops a little gift from above that obliterates everything in the area.
Our young hero, Shai, is also a scavenger. She looks for wreckage from past millennia that can be used by her village either locally or as a matter of trade. She finds the jackpot - a largely intact warship that landed in the war that Damocles had finished many years ago. She ends up leading the trade mission to the local town to obtain supplies and negotiate access to her find.
Because it is her find! She found it. She owns it.
What follows are a predictable series of events orchestrated by politically powerful people who want to expand their control over the region. Shai and her village prefer the traditional form of government that existed before their planet was invaded millennia ago. That system of government traditionally was more respectful of individual liberty and local control. The larger town has fallen under the sway of a sort of proto-fascist ideologue who uses propaganda, currency manipulation, and outright violence in turn to concentrate power under his control.
We meet a variety of characters and groups through Shai's travels. One group appears to be quasi-mystical but in reality they have been collecting technology and resources with the objective of eventually going back into space so they can dismantle Damocles. A leader of the town's guard ends up being sympathetic to Shai even though the proto-fascist is running a successful campaign to bring the guard under his control.
There are many political themes underlying the book. Respect for diverse population groups. The plight of the individual against the collective. The use of fiat currency to control a population. The use of "education" to influence the next generation. Private property rights. Limited vs. unlimited government. Etc.
But while these themes are present, the author wisely never permits that subtext to upstage the text of the book which is an entertaining tale of a young woman discovering the potential key to liberating her culture from the legacy of foreign invaders.
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