Knyga minkštais viršeliais, 222 psl.
English kalba
Publikuota 2021 m. lapkričio 22 d., AK Press.
Dimos Horacki is a Borolian journalist and a cynical patriot, his muckraking days behind him. But when his newspaper ships him to the front, he’s embedded in the Imperial Army and the reality of colonial expansion is laid bare before him. His adventures take him from villages and homesteads to the great refugee city of Hronople, built of glass, steel, and stone, all while a war rages around him. The empire fights for coal and iron, but the anarchists of Hron fight for their way of life. A Country of Ghosts is a novel of utopia besieged that challenges every premise of contemporary society.
I always enjoy Margaret's writing. This was a quick and enjoyable read that, for all its brevity, still managed to expand my mind.
( em português → sol2070.in/2025/01/livro-a-country-of-ghosts/ )
"A Country of Ghosts" (2014), by Margaret Killjoy, is a delightful dystopian/utopian novel, especially appealing to anti-authoritarians readers.
It’s a political fantasy set in an alternate world approximately at the beginning of its industrial revolution. A colonial, expansionist military power invades a mountainous region to exploit its resources, knowing little about its inhabitants. They are deemed primitive, simplistic, and violently resistant to the incursion — people to be exterminated or enslaved.
We follow a journalist assigned to cover the conflict. Embedded with the troops, they soon discover that the local people are far more politically, culturally, and combatively sophisticated than presumed. The region is a free, autonomous confederation — a living anarchist utopia.
While it’s not so uncommon to find anarchist elements in dystopian or utopian fiction, when the author herself is an anarchist, the portrayal becomes much more vivid. Great examples include "The …
( em português → sol2070.in/2025/01/livro-a-country-of-ghosts/ )
"A Country of Ghosts" (2014), by Margaret Killjoy, is a delightful dystopian/utopian novel, especially appealing to anti-authoritarians readers.
It’s a political fantasy set in an alternate world approximately at the beginning of its industrial revolution. A colonial, expansionist military power invades a mountainous region to exploit its resources, knowing little about its inhabitants. They are deemed primitive, simplistic, and violently resistant to the incursion — people to be exterminated or enslaved.
We follow a journalist assigned to cover the conflict. Embedded with the troops, they soon discover that the local people are far more politically, culturally, and combatively sophisticated than presumed. The region is a free, autonomous confederation — a living anarchist utopia.
While it’s not so uncommon to find anarchist elements in dystopian or utopian fiction, when the author herself is an anarchist, the portrayal becomes much more vivid. Great examples include "The Dispossessed" by Ursula K. Le Guin and "The Fifth Sacred Thing" by Starhawk.
Described as a story in the tradition of Le Guin (and Sherri S. Tepper), the work is also an epic about war — the destructive oppression against freedom in its purest form.
Killjoy writes the best anarchist newsletter/blog ( margaretkilljoy.substack.com/ ) I know and is an exemplary storyteller, especially in queer libertarian fantasy. I’m eager to read her acclaimed latest novel: "The Sapling Cage" (2024).
Short novel of imagined collective non-hierarchical resistance to imperial war. Reminiscent of For Whom The Bell Tolls, but in this case I wish the central plot were not one of war and violence.
This short novel kept me reading – there are some bits that are obviously detailing political systems, but I never found them tedious. I recognized some of the processes from actual communities I have been involved with. Those descriptions are balanced by the vivid, poignant characterizations of people, places and culture and a story full of adventure and incredible bravery. There's a certain grit to the story, some violence – never gratuitious, though; and still it left me with a positive sentiment. Definitely a "would read again".
Born in an empire modelled after a 19th century European power, a journalist is embedded with colonizing troops. Instead of covering a campaign of subjugation of unorganized villages, he discovers an anarchist confederation of people and communities, and joins up their fight agains the invader.
Killjoy's utopia is of course not a blueprint, but a demonstration that it is possible to imagine how an anarchist society could work. Imagining utopias, showing anarchism in practice, is important. Kim Stanley Robinson (who provides a praise on the backcover) has written many times about how dystopias are all well and fine, but utopias are more relevant to our time of crises. How to act for a better world, if you've never encountered ideas of better worlds in media and litterature?
It's a short read, and you won't regret it.
A well-constructed world with real though put into how societies could construct themselves differently, and how they would interact if they did.
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https://www.akpress.org/countryofghosts-audiobook.html.https://www.akpress.org/countryofghosts.html.https://www.akpress.org/countryofghosts-ebook.html.https://www.akpress.org/countryofghosts-audiobook.html.https://www.akpress.org/countryofghosts.html.https://www.akpress.org/countryofghosts-ebook.html.https://www.akpress.org/countryofghosts-ebook.html.https://www.akpress.org/countryofghosts-ebook.html.