A Country of Ghosts

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.