Thoughts about Babel

 

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From Amanda Jones

From the very beginning Babel grasped my attention as the Peace Child is needed so much in today’s world. Then as I read further echoes of Coronavirus greeted me as we delved into a futuristic realm not far from reach of our own imagination.

The scene is set with Switch Off brought about from a population so healthy and disease-free that death needs to be a controlled administrative function. But Babel is not all about bleakness, we learn about Kaleem as he comes to understand his life’s purpose and origins wrapped into a personal story of love and desire.

Rozia adds interesting foresights as chapters open her diary and we read her thoughts. Then the dark nature of humanity is brought to us with Kevik. We are led to hope for change, but will it be for the better? Disability and discrimination is brought upon an innocent race but soothed with a true kindness.

As we near the halfway mark we learn about the creation of the Babel book and a break into our familiar, present world and author-editor relationships are explored; much to my delight as an author with a printing/graphic design background.

Gill cleverly and imaginatively weaves realistic possibilities into the book as she draws from our own past. Does history repeat itself? There are certainly echoes of wrongs and rights but this future world with a highly technical civilisation brings intrigue as with all hierarchy. Will they listen? What will going backwards create?

Babel leaves me with a truly possible reality we are almost on the cusp of and reading the book in 2020 Lockdown brought shivers of foresight. Enjoy entering this world and follow the hope of peace.

 

Someone else has just written a review of Babel, the second of my Peace Child trilogy.  This was first published in 2011 and I have some distance from it now.  The review made me remember some astonishing things:

·          There was concern a about an aging population because medicine had become so good. People weren’t dying so in order to stop overpopulation compulsory euthanasia was introduced

·           A pandemic had spread over Terrestra

·          Terrestra had cut itself off from other planets

·          Terrestra now had to reach out to other planets  

·          The protagonist’s enemy had become involved in a fascist movement

And Book 1 is called The Prophecy.

 

Oh well. Stories repeat themselves don’t they?