An Unkindness of Ghosts

Science fiction storytellers have long been interested in two interdependent ideas. The first idea is that humans can render Earth unlivable through pollution and nuclear war, and the second idea is that there is unlikely to be another planet to which humanity can escape. After all, to render a nearby planet habitable, or to travel the unimaginable astronomical distance towards an already habitable planet, seems a difficult task for a society that cannot coordinate itself enough to take steps to save its own planet. The generation starship story is a compromise between the science fiction writer’s desire to see other planets and the hard facts of scientific reality.

As with any story that begins with the inhabitability of Earth, the genre is often characterized by its bleakness. The humans who would abandon Earth, after all, must be inherently flawed and self-destructive, unable to leave behind their societal flaws through a mere trick of engineering. The question of “what would a society that went through several generations in an enclosed environment look like?” is usually answered “much like us.” What is special about Solomon’s book is that it creates a world in which slavery—which has, in our reality, been abolished—continues into our future.