32 | New Scientist | 20 February 2021
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LAST month, with the world
still reeling from the siege of
the US Capitol by supporters
of Donald Trump, President Joe
Biden used his inaugural address
to call for national unity. “The
American story depends not
on any one of us, not on some
of us, but on all of us,” he said.
“On ‘We the People’ who seek
a more perfect union.”
In the days since, debate has
raged as to whether such a union
is achievable or even desirable.
These are issues sci-fi writer Elly
Bangs also wrestles with in her
debut novel, Unity. Set in a
post-apocalyptic future, we follow
Danae as she flees Bloom City,
an underwater colony ruled with
an iron fist by the Medusa Clan.
Danae is physically and
spiritually wounded: she had
been one constituent of a hive
mind, but is now fractured from
the other souls that once made up
her consciousness. Accompanied
by her lover Naoto and ex-
mercenary Alexei, she heads to
the ruins of the US to reconcile
with her other selves. Yet the trio
are pursued by enemies old andnew, whose motives range from
personal vendettas to potentially
world-ending greed.
How and why Danae became
separated from the other parts
of her hive mind is one mystery
among many. Who are the
Keepers? What does the man
with the blue tattoo want with
Danae? And why does Alexei seea giant floating eyeball from time
to time? Part of the joy of Unity’s
first act is how Bangs drops hints
about these plot threads without
favouring any particular one, all
while establishing the cyberpunk
world of Bloom City.
Once the trio reach dry land,
however, that broad focus can be
frustrating. In this future, Earth
has suffered an abundance of
apocalypses – nuclear war, climate
change, pestilence and poisoned
oceans – but the story’s paceComing together In Unity, Elly Bangs conjures a post-apocalyptic Earth where her
protagonist, once part of a hive mind, faces a dangerous, fractured future. The novel
is a powerful exploration of union, trauma and consent, says Bethan Ackerley“ The personal stories
about Danae’s past and
the ethics of melding
minds make Unity
so interesting”Book
Unity
Elly Bangs
Tachyon Publications
(out April)Bethan also
recommends...Book
Midnight Robber
Nalo Hopkinson
In this coming-of-age tale
about recovering from
trauma, a young girl
is forced to leave the
Caribbean-inspired planet of
Toussaint for a prison colony
in an alternate universe.Film
Pacific Rim
Guillermo del Toro
When aliens emerge from
a rift in the Pacific Ocean,
humanity fights back the
only way it knows how: by
punching them in the face
with giant mechs controlled
by mind-melding pilots.doesn’t allow much time to
process their horror.
While that helps convey
humanity’s numb acceptance of
the latest threat, a weapon of mass
destruction called Gray, Earth’s
degradation might have had more
impact if Bangs had focused on
just one disaster. Similarly, Gray’s
ability to turn everything into
“nanobot pudding” doesn’t feel as
terrifying as the smaller dangers
posed by Danae’s enemies.
It is the personal stories about
Danae’s past and the ethics of
melding minds that make Unity
so interesting. We eventually learn
that Danae’s hive mind has unified
with a variety of luminaries
in order to solve humanity’s
problems, but that this has skewed
her view of the world. “I stopped
noticing that nearly all the lives
I added to my gestalt were
privileged ones,” she realises.
Danae can still unify with others,
yet chooses not to out of self-
hatred. “I’m a shell of what I used
to be,” she says after telling Naoto
that he can join her hive mind,
but not meld minds with her.
She may retreat from unity for
the wrong reasons, but it becomes
clear that the technology that
created her hive mind is also ripe
for exploitation in the wrong
hands. Even Danae uses it
immorally at times, reluctantly
invading a would-be assassin’s
mind to search for information
about her enemies.
To reveal more would be to
spoil the story, but be assured that
Bangs leaves no mystery unsolved
by the end. Unity is packed full of
ideas, sometimes overwhelmingly
so, but they ultimately cohere
into a powerful exploration of
trauma and consent. ❚AL
EK
SA
NDR^ KHAKIMUL
LIN/ALAMYEarth has experienced
multiple apocalypses in
the future Unity is set inThe sci-fi column
Bethan Ackerley is a subeditor
at New Scientist. Follow her
on Twitter @inkerley