BOOKS: WE LIVED ON THE HORIZON,by Erika Swyler
WE LIVED ON THE HORIZON, by Erika Swyler, 336 pages, hardcover, Atria Books, January 14, 2025
[*CAVEAT - This is my first foray into Buttondown publishing since switching from Substack because of their refusal to disavow hate-speech. I am learning the system but I am not quick when it comes to new tech platforms, so, I apologize in advance for glitches and errors.]
In a city called Bulwark, barricaded from whatever ruin is outside its walls, live those who survived the disasters and decisions which led to the destruction beyond Bulwark’s boundaries. They are divided by class, and AI runs the city and rewards sacrifice and achievement, even generations old achievement, creating an elite class of The Sainted. Too, are the Body Martyrs, those who donate body parts, human donors. Saint Enita Malovis is a bioprosthetist, growing body parts for replacements, the use of which parts is mostly disapproved of, not “the thing to do”, and as she feels her life coming to a close, she is creating a physical receptacle in which her personal AI system, Nix — passed on to her from her father who was also a bioprosthetist — can reside. Meantime, another Sainted is murdered, records of which crime disappear, and shortages begin to happen of necessary goods, and clearly the systems in place are altering, collapsing?
There are authors whose -- and I hate this word but it works -- "vibe" resonates with you. Sometimes it's because the genre (another word with which I take issue) is of interest to you. Sometimes it's because you first became aware of their work at a particular time in your life when it struck a chord of "aha! Me,too!" Sometimes it's a personal connection: the book was recommended to you by someone you trust. Sometimes it's because you liked the cover and picked it up and dumb luck, you loved it. And sometimes it's because the things you've said or bought or read which have been tracked online or by technology, coalesced to put the author or book in front of you on one or another techno-platform/social media/retail site.
I start with all of this to give some context to my reading of Erika Swyler's latest and quite scarily brilliant novel, WE LIVED ON THE HORIZON.
Once upon a time, before the horrible man destroyed the bird site, there was a large and kind and supportive and informative and democratic literary community in which regular readers -- like me -- could interact with authors and editors and publicists and booksellers. It was during a very dark time in my life, my first Christmas after a large life change, absent family, the first holiday I was spending alone, myself and two lovely dogs in a home not my own. At the time I was reading a book which had been edited by the late, lamented Hope Dellon, then of St. Martin's Press, and I posted about the book and my experience of being alone at Christmas and how I was feeling rather sad. Hope -- who I'd never before met or chatted with -- reached out to me and we went to direct messaging and she became a friend, more or less got me through Christmas, began telling me about writers she thought I'd like and sending me books. One of the first writers she told me about was Erika Swyler, and she sent me a copy of THE BOOK OF SPECULATION, which I loved.
Thus began my attachment to the work of Erika Swyler. It wasn't long after that when I started following her on that now ruined site, a follow which transferred to BlueSky. And following her has made me aware -- here I go -- that her vibe resonates with mine. Erika radiates an empathetic intelligence, a sophisticated but grounded humor, a willingness to see and hear and face her own fears and foibles, which makes her open and sympathetic to the fears and foibles and frailties of others. And it informs her writing. Though we’ve never met in person, she is on the list of people for whom I would risk myself when the fascists come for us all. But, that said, I bought this novel, Erika did not ask me to write about it, and as with everything in my blog (or whatever Buttondown emails are called), I write about it because I want to, no agenda, no reward, no remuneration of any type.
There is a history of fiction and film in which artificial intelligence gains a level of consciousness in which its burgeoning awareness and independence renders it nearly human, and often that causes it to turn against biological humans, assert its superiority. It is a trope to which Erika Swyler does not succumb. Enita’s Nix is not a monster, not an ego-experiment gone awry, rather, Nix makes you question what is the definition of human?
WE LIVED ON THE HORIZON isn’t so much speculative fiction as it is speculative morality, a metaphysical meditation in which the nature of epistemology and questions about ontology and identity are posed, explored, and made urgent and vital. Is oppression ever justified or forgivable?
Part of what makes this novel so brilliant is that none of the very complex issues which Erika Swyler juggles in multiple plotlines with ease and aplomb hit the reader as theory, rather, the characters are so vibrantly made and imagined, the structure so expertly woven, the world so vividly of the moment, that the journey the reader makes is walking along with people who become real, in real time, in which you become invested.
And there is no acquiescence to easy answers or cheap sentiment or black and white right and wrong yes and no. Everyone is afforded a wide range of qualities and behaviors which are admirable and questionable, wise and not so wise. Which harkens back to what I earlier said about Erika, herself, she radiates an empathetic intelligence, a sophisticated but grounded humor, a willingness to see and hear and face her own fears and foibles, which makes her open and sympathetic to the fears and foibles and frailties of others.
There are so many beautiful passages and paragraphs and ideas in the novel, I hesitate to quote, and encourage you to buy, borrow, download, however it is you read, and do so right now. One might say with all that’s going on in the past few weeks, and purging of government by someone determined to replace people with AI, Erika is not just gifted and insightful, but prescient as well.
In any event, here, just one small fragment in which one sainted, Margiella, is talking to Enita in a crowd.
Enita tried to find Helen in the crowd once more, anxiousness a stone turning in her chest. “Haven’t you ever wanted anything—” Enita began. Yet there was no way to finish. “I’m sorry. I’m poor company.”
“You’re never poor company. But what are we to do? We give what we can, we carry on how we can,and try to find joy.The rest is beyond us. Be safe, En. Things are changing.” And then the touch was gone, as was Margiella, weaving through the crowd, likely in search of her nephew. Quiet, composed, ever observant. What did Margiella think was changing? Enita imagined her then, serenely passing at the end of her days, asleep, then gone, greeting even death with grace, her life hours distributed to hundreds of artists. An entire artistic movement born from the death of Margiella Hsiao.
What is striking without being obvious or strained is the way in which Erika Swyler plays with rhythms. Where she chooses periods rather than commas, and the weaving of staccato with connected thoughts, how as an actor or singer or reader, the punctuation is as important as the dialogue. And she creates tension with the pace, and then the, “things are changing”, which has an ominous, ill-boding warning built in. There floats throughout the sentences an awareness that things are off, and there is a sense of lack of agency with which to do anything about it. The novel trembles and pulsates with waves of tension and intrigue, a feeling that there is something to be dreaded, which is all the worse because we’re not quite certain what it is or where it comes from or where it is leading.
WE LIVED ON THE HORIZON is an amazement of ideas, all presented through action and emotion, without dogma, and it is deeply moving and thought provoking in addition to being a literary fiction work of art thriller.
Read it. It’s a great book club choice as there is endless fodder for discussion. And fantastically readable writing. Five stars for sure.