Thursday, December 9, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf by Ambelin Kwaymullina

 




The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf is a young adult science fiction novel by indigenous Australian author Ambelin Kwaymullina.  The novel is fairly short, and features a future a few centuries into the future in which the world suffered a major disaster (the Reckoning) only for humans to bounce back with a focus on maintaining a Balance with nature.  But of course certain people, those with abilities, aren't thought of by the majority as being part of the Balance, and the story features a protagonist who leads a "Tribe" of such illegal individuals in an attempt at freedom.  

As you can imagine from the title, the novel features its protagonist Ashala starting the story imprisoned in a detention camp and being pressured to give up those she cares about, and the result is a very strong story with some fairly obvious but well done themes.  The protagonist Tribe aren't specifically indigenous in and of themselves (race as such isn't really a thing in this future), but they are essentially indigenous-coded, and seeing how protagonist Ashala tries to fight for them, for their future in harmony with elements of nature, and the family she has formed works really well.  Ashala and the side characters form a really strong set of characters despite the short time we have with each of them, and I definitely will be trying out the sequel after this book.


----------------------------------------------------Plot Summary----------------------------------------------------------
Ashala Wolf leads the Tribe, a group of Illegals hiding from the government who thinks people like them - people with powers (like Ashala's ability to do anything she can imagine like dreaming) - are a threat to the Balance between humanity and nature.  Guilt-ridden by what happened in her past, Ashala is desperate to protect the Tribe of people she has come to think of as her new family....a desperation that will tested more than ever when she finds herself betrayed by someone she cared for and locked up in Detention Center 3.  

For Detention Center 3 isn't just any camp for Illegals - it's a camp run by a sadistic and ambitious illegal-hating administrator, one who will do anything to remove all Illegals from society.  That administrator has broken his own government's rules to build a machine for tearing through the memories of inmates, to break them down and find out all their secrets. 

Can Ashala keep the Tribe's secrets long enough for her to have a chance to break out?  Or will she be the one who betrays them all in the end?   
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The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf works really well because it plays with a lot of ideas and character traits, such that it hits some notes you'd expect but in different ways that really subvert expectations.  So the oppressive government does truly believe in the Balance between humans and nature....they just don't believe necessarily that every human actually fits in that Balance.  The main antagonist here isn't so much a true believer in his racist cause - he just likes causing pain, the type of evil that is very real but is often ignored in books like this.  

And then you have Ashala and her friends themselves.  In Ashala you expect to have the strident leader, who is caring for her people and determined - and she is, even of those people who betray her...but a lot of that caring comes from her guilt at how uncaring she used to be, to the sister she failed (and to be fair, Ashala was a child, so some of that guilt is misplaced).  She's smart and intelligent, but filled with guilt and rage that she needs others to help contain, something that she's rightfully afraid of.  Then there's Georgie, who can see the future but as a result of her vision finds herself often unsure of whether she's seeing the present or some kind of future at times.  And there's Ember, the girl who can alter and affect memories, who is determined to change the world for the better without violence...and yet who also at times suggests violent acts all the same.  And there are others, whose identities I can't really talk about without stealing, but all feature multiple dimensions in how they ract to a world in which their abilities make them outcasts, for better or for worse.  

And while these individuals may not necessarily be of any particular race or people (the book notes that after the Reckoning, issues of race disappeared), the Tribe is as you imagine very indigenous coded in how they connect with nature even more than the government who claims to, and the book features its protagonist having major moments communing with seemingly a spirit from nature, as well as the trees and the intelligent Saur creatures that roam the lands.  The setting works really well and frames a world that will feel very familiar even if different from our own, with the detention camp for people who are different and the political groups that are almost comical in their ineffectiveness at doing what's right - and need to be led to it by Ashala and her friends.  

I am, as is not uncommon for me, describing everything poorly, but what we have here is a really strong if short novel dealing with a group trying to be free, who really want to live the life that the majority claims they do, and who come together to adjust for each other's strengths and weaknesses to form a stronger whole....as they fight for each other both physically and mentally.  And with its strong setting and characters, I'll be back to see this cast again in the sequel, and recommend you give this a shot.  It's both familiar and different enough to be worth it.
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