I can’t seem to stay off the water in my book choices. But this time instead of sailing ocean to ocean with Captain Cook, we are sailing around Lake Superior in a dystopian/near future story: a small group of very wealthy families controls the world’s resources, past pandemics have thinned the population, there’s not much work to be had, the seas are warming and the winds/storms increasing, the president is illiterate, publicly funded spaces like libraries and universities are obsolete, infrastructure is crumbling, compliance drugs are distributed to keep workers from rebelling or thinking, and people are swallowing Willow, a pill to comfortably peace out on this world. 

Within this sort of accepted chaos, we meet Rainy and Lark living in a small Minnesota town on the shore of Lake Superior. He’s a bass player, and she owns a used bookstore shared with a bakery. They’re making a life of this mess with few expectations, whittled down needs (giving up many food items to keep a stock of coffee), close friendships, and sunny dispositions. 

Until Rainy is suddenly on his own, an ill prepared sailor on a hastily prepared boat with no food or water, trying to outmaneuver whoever is after him. These are my favorite scenes: fighting through storms, hand pumping the rising bilge, creating a sea anchor from boat parts, tying down the helm for a few hours of sleep, reading a sailing manual to figure how to heave to, and scouring old charts for harbors or anchorages–most of which are wrecked or lead to abandoned towns. 

So this dystopian novel becomes a sailing adventure, a mystery/thriller, a kind-of fairy tale, a travelogue through Lake Superior’s islands and peninsulas, and a horror show. It’s dark, and it’s twisty, but it’s also redemptive. I really liked the writing and the characters, and the fact that books remain important in this whacked out near future world. And this book cover is gorgeous. 

I also love the fact that on the copyright page the author and publisher make it clear that no part of this book may be used to train Gen AI or an LLM. It’s sad that we now have to make those statements clear otherwise huge swaths of copyrighted work will be uploaded into the AI sphere for the machines to use as they please. 😫