Review: Chain-Gang All-Stars

Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book was chosen by Midtown Sci-Fi Fantasy Book Club for discussion on February 25, 2024

This is one case where the audiobook experience lacked a bit, but it was due to the format of the audiobook rather than the narrator. Specifically, it was difficult to tell when a footnote was being read.

And this book is rife with footnotes. The author is telling a cautionary tale here, and part of it is to relate the events of the story to actual historical events, so that by the time the reader has finished, realization dawns that we are far too close to making this dystopian future come about. I've said it many times: the profit motive has no place in prisons or healthcare.

Readers may liken this story to The Running Man. Gladiatorial combat in this future is theoretically voluntary, and also theoretically, it's possible for a fighter to earn their freedom. Of course, it is de facto quite impossible to win, and the prisoner's choice in the matter is equally small.

I only worry that some people will consider the story an instruction manual.

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