Abbott in Darkness

The detailed worldbuilding and critique of corporate imperialism in this spacefaring frontier drama from Butler (the Witchy War series) are undermined by dated, exoticizing tropes. Accountant John Abbott brings his wife and two precocious daughters on an interstellar move to the Sarovar star system as he takes a coveted position with the trade-focused Sarovar Company. Abbott hopes to profit from access to the restricted trade in Sarovari Weave, a self-healing fabric produced by the trilaterally symmetrical natives, but his supervisor secretly charges him with investigating fraud at Arrowhawk Post. As this position lands Abbott in danger, his dawning understanding of the relationships between the traders, the Weavers, and the humans who predate the company’s arrival makes him increasingly interested in changing the status quo. The initial exposition is heavy-handed, but it pays off once the elaborate setting pulls together, and Butler’s development of an extensive pidgin language adds depth to the world. Readers may be disappointed by how tightly Butler models the culture of his 22nd-century spacecorp colony on oppressive 20th-century American power structures; despite the main character’s drive toward more respect for everyone, women, Sarovar’s natives, and lower-class humans take a subservient back seat to the masculine go-getters who drive the largely unsurprising plot. The result is competent but feels dated. (May)