If you are like me, part of the appeal of a colonization story is seeing how the settlers deal with a new world. Obstacles can range from aliens to plumbing, from bad neighbors to a stamp tax, and from factions to the fact that other people came along, too. I find myself fascinated by the survivalist strain of such stories, and Alma Boykin’s Fountains of Mercy fits the bill nicely.
Although listed as Book 8 of the Colplatschki Chronicles, it’s actually a prequel to the rest of the saga. Readers of the other books will know that the colony gets cut off from the rest of the human race when a Carrington event burns out the technical equipment. This knowledge provides the initial tension early on, but we get to see how resourceful everyone is as they deal with this “temporary” set back and wait for help from the colony corporation. There are a lot of amusing observations on the nature of bureaucracy and how very entrenched in its wrong-headedness an institution can become.
We follow two main characters, the bureaucrat in charge of the water system, and a young new wife in a polygamous household. They are both decent, likeable people who have to contend with the swiftly decaying infrastructure. Unfortunately, there’s an element of the population that would rather take from its fellows than bother with resourcefulness, so the book reaches quite the crisis. I won’t give anything away, but it’s worth checking out.
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