36 | New Scientist | 15 January 2022
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The sci-fi column
SCI-FI dystopias of a ruined Earth
are thick on the ground these days,
filled with the wreckage of climate
change: drowned continents,
great extinctions and air that is no
longer safe to breathe. In the more
hopeful, people leave the planet
in search of another world where
they can start again, with lessons
learned and a determination not
to repeat the same mistakes.
In Tochi Onyebuchi’s Goliath,
human nature is eternal. So,
while the rich predictably leave
for pristine space colonies,
abandoning those who can’t
afford to escape, there is money
to be made from tourism to the
ruins left behind. Some tourists
find themselves captivated by the
communities that have emerged,
and decide to return to Earth.
Gentrification ensues.
The premise is wry and au
courant. In a lesser writer’s hands,
it could lead to lazy and cynical
caricatures, but Onyebuchi uses
it only as a jumping off point into
a deeper examination of the idea
of home, and what we will do to
get there.
Onyebuchi started out writingsci-fi for young adults before
reaching a wider audience with
the multi-award gobbling novella
Riot Baby in 2020. He has a
master’s degree in screenwriting,
which is on vivid display in
his hypnotic descriptions of
Goliath’s two new human worlds.
We explore these through
the eyes of several characters,
including colony-dwellerJonathan, who looks out into
star-spangled black space from a
window in a sterile space station
straight out of Stanley Kubrick’s
2001: A Space Odyssey. On Earth,
we meet Sydney, who watches a
dandelion’s seeds get nibbled away
by wind under a poisoned red sky.
The style is more than matched
by the substance of the story, in
which Onyebuchi takes his time
to explore the main themes. The
gentrification issue, for example,Gentrifying broken Earth When space colonies offer rich people a way off
a ruined planet, it seems like the perfect chance to start again. But the pull
of home is a powerful force, finds Sally Adee“ By detailing the two
worlds, Onyebuchi
makes it obvious why
people start yearning
for Earth”is treated not as an easy punchline
but as a way into deeper questions
about what we need.
When Jonathan travels from
the colonies to Earth, he tours
destroyed homes looking for
one to fix up. Onyebuchi shows
us what he starts with – a shell of a
house filled with geological layers
of detritus. Then, months later,
Jonathan is accepted into the
community, which allows him
to connect to the lone cable still
bringing electricity to the
neighbourhood. His wonder and
joy at something so ordinary as a
working light switch is infectious,
especially after the technological
marvels he has been taking for
granted in the colonies.
By detailing the contrasting
textures of the two worlds,
Onyebuchi makes it obvious why
colony-dwellers start yearning for
Earth. Home inspires such longing
that people living in the clean,
metallic colonies pay handsomely
for individual bricks to be salvaged
from demolished houses on Earth
and sent into space. They fight
on auction sites for tiny cacti.
Back on Earth, there are
different tensions. Returning
residents bring back things that
Earth’s citizens were only too
happy to see the back of, not least
social inequality. Even in space,
the richest live in the part of the
space station with a view of the
galaxies, while everyone else
faces the unrecyclable detritus –
including dead bodies – that
surrounds the colonies in a ring.
What will the prodigal
Jonathans bring back to Earth
apart from their longing for
home? And will the people they
left behind be interested in
anything they have to offer? ❚GREMLIN/GETT
Y^ IMAGESEven a post-apocalyptic
Earth retains a certain
charm for humankindBook
Goliath
Tochi Onyebuchi
TordotcomSally also
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it “cyberpunk with soul”.Sally Adee is a technology
and science writer based
in London. Follow her on
Twitter @sally_adee