Part of the beauty of SpecFic is that cultures and whole civilizations can take whatever shape the author can dream up. From moon colonies to microscopic universes, writers can build up their worlds into an infinite number of stages on which their stories can unfold. Alaya Dawn Johnson took the idea of a postapocalyptic world and centered it in a vertical, futuristic city heavily influenced by Brazilian culture in her novel The Summer Prince.
June lives in Palmares Tres, the ten-tiered city that sparkles on the ocean like a gem. In a world where post-nuclear Earth struggles to survive, the city has grown to thrive by rejecting new technologies in favor of a complicate - and bloody - system of governance. Once every five years, a Summer King is elected and then after a year-long reign, he is killed in front of the entire population. As he dies, he declares his choice of who will be the new queen. The fact of his death is what gives his choice weight.
When June and her best friend Gil find themselves close to the new Summer King, Enki, their lives take an unexpected turn together. The whole city is in love with Enki, despite or maybe because he's going to die. But June and Gil may be the only ones who know Enki as a person, as more than just the figure of a Summer King. Together they'll find beauty in art, in each other, and even in the city that is determined to take Enki's life.
The Bohemian ideal that June, Gil and Enki represent is tempered by questions about social class, technological advancement and age gap between younger and older generations. Art served as a great way to unify the entire city, through the projects that June and her friends contrive together. Sometimes it was a little bit confusing, not knowing what the central conflict of the plot was, but the issues blended together to give the reader a clear, beautiful image of the potential of the city, and of Enki as a person.
With so much of not just the story but the world based around the system of elections and sacrifices and transference of power, I was disappointed that the whole process wasn't explained more clearly. The system of what power changes hands between the king and the queen and when is implied but not laid out explicitly. I felt like this made it harder for me to appreciate Enki's situation and the significance of his act at the end of the story.
I greatly enjoyed the way that the author treated sexuality in this book as well, especially given the age of his main protagonists. June was attracted to men, but other characters pursue relationships with people of the same gender for everything from casual encounters to long-term committed relationships and marriage. But to me the best part wasn't just in the broad representation; it was in the approach. There was no sense of a scandal or anything forbidden about it, just people with feelings for each other. The openness was a great breath of fresh air.
If you want a touching story of love and the struggle to be yourself in a world that won't take you seriously, consider picking up a copy of The Summer Prince by Alaya Dawn Johnson. It addresses unanswerable questions about the confluence of technology and humanity by contrasting mechanical advancements and arts, and presents a lovely story in a future world. It's available right now at your favorite locally-owned bookstore.
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