EDGE OF THE KNOWN WORLD

In Joseph’s near-future dystopian thriller, an economist, a soldier, and a diplomat circle each other as political tensions rise.

About 25 years after a cataclysmic war, Alex Tashen, an economist with a tragic backstory and many secrets, embarks on a dangerous mission. The Allied Nations, governed and protected by the TaskForce Institute, aims to protect its citizens from the disease and violence apparently wrought by the guizi, or refusé—people who inhabit their rival nation, the Federation, and spread disease and commit crimes, according to Allied propaganda. Alex, who’s secretly a refusé, remains hidden in the Allied Nations, due to her adoptive father’s genetic research, which allows her to remain undetected during regular genetic screenings. Alex impresses TaskForce Kommandant Suzanne Burton and infiltrates the Allied Nations political framework. The economist, who’s sure that her father is behind recent anti-Allied cyberattacks, ingratiates herself with the Kommandant and Suzanne’s adopted sons, Eric Burton and Strav Beki. Eric is a disgraced former TaskForce director and Suzanne’s younger cousin, who wants to bring Strav on his new mission as a consultant, but Suzanne places him with Alex instead, forcing the three into an uneasy alliance—one that’s tinged with romantic and sexual tension. Using alternating third-person perspectives, Joseph shows how Alex, Eric, and Strav each work toward their disparate goals. The novel’s worldbuilding is complex; the political system in which the characters work, and are complicit in, is a fascist dystopia with troubling views on nationality, abortion, and sexual assault that the novel doesn’t satisfyingly confront. Still, the skillful writing makes the book a worthy read; Joseph’s writing can get technical when the characters talk politics or economics, but it also has beautiful passages: “They belonged to a universe out of rhythm, a vindictive place without music.” Strav’s dialogue is laced with references to English literature, especially the works of William Shakespeare, characterizing him as something of a tragic hero.

A complicated dystopian political thriller enhanced by lively prose.