The Practice, the Horizon and the Chain

The title of this novella from Sophia Samatar gives you no clue as to what it is about. The cover does not help. In starting to read through you understand that the book is set on a space ark of some sort. That is not what the book is about at all.

Our two main characters are the boy and the professor. The boy is an inhabitant of The Hold, spending his life in the dark attached to a Chain. He has significant artistic talent. The professor lives in the main part of the ship. She is not chained, but her father was. She wears an anklet. She is on probation. Which makes it all the more brave of her to advocate for the rights of the inhabitants of The Hold, and to believe that they can be educated.

Naturally she is hopelessly naïve. Having not grown up in The Hold, she has no idea what it is like, nor how to relate to someone who has never lived anywhere else. Equally, she has no idea how much contempt the free inhabitants of the ship have for people like her, or how ruthlessly they will protect their privilege.

The Practice is a way of thinking and being put forward by an old man from The Hold known as The Prophet. The boy is a disciple of sorts, but will eventually surpass his master.

The Horizon is something that the Ship does not have. It embodies a way of thinking that those who have grown up on the Ship are unable to contemplate: that there are directions other than up or down.

The Practice, the Horizon and the Chain is a book about living on Earth. It is about how those with power and wealth view those without as infinitely disposable, and whose reaction to any sort of crisis is not “what should we do for the best”, but “what’s in it for me.” It is very much a book about the here and now.

Title: The Practice, the Horizon and the Chain
By: Sophia Samatar
Publisher: Tor.com
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