The One World – George Phillies

An engaging novel embedded within some delightful world-building.

The civilization in which the novel takes place is old and stable, and more than a bit hidebound. About a century ago, it was attacked by sea-borne raiders from a theologically-problematic direction (there wasn’t supposed be anyone there), so calling the familiar world “The One World” is somewhat self-delusive.

Now a new set of raiders has come from overseas. The reader will recognize the invaders as being equivalent to early-modern Europeans, culturally and militarily. The invaded don’t recognize the invaders, can’t make sense of them, and have no idea what the unfamiliar weapons are.

This does not put the defenders at a hopeless disadvantage. Bows versus muskets is a fair fight, if the bows are good and the archers are well-trained. And the One World is not primitive. It has trains, for example, and good communications. And a standing army that’s been training (not very hard) for the last war.

The One World is not a simple monoculture. Different parts have different forms of government - that don’t much care for each other, and don’t have neatly-contiguous borders. Part of its stability comes from laws - strong copyright law, secrecy in place of patent law, no limited liability - that make it difficult for modernity to gain traction. (Some organizations have radio, for instance, but it is is proprietary and not shared.)

The most eye-catching difference between the One World and the invaders is biological. The One World is dominated by women because there aren’t many men; perhaps one birth in ten is male. The author manages the tricky balancing act of letting that difference inform his world without distracting the reader from the story.

Stories, rather, as there are two interacting plots. Evaine lives in a Domain (one of the aristocratic polities) and is trying to organize a military response to the invasion. She knows what she is doing (having come from another society, that takes military education seriously), but she is trying to make bricks with very little straw. Roxanne is a senior official in the republic to the south, who has been trying to track down odd discrepancies in financial reports. The two plot lines intersect in a satisfying manner.

Four stars for a very good novel - and a fifth because it was worth rereading.