Sanctuary 87 by Patrick Skelton [Book Review]
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Sanctuary 87 is a pretty bleak place. In a deeply fascist future only those that can work are worth keeping alive. ‘Bedside compassion’ is scheduled for those that aren’t expected to recover. This is US style healthcare, so curable/treatable cases still get euthanised (murdered) if they don’t have a good enough job with insurance.
Sanctuary 87
The sanctuaries are to protect people against solar flares, which have got significantly worse over the previous few decades. These coincide with the discovery of a rift in space in the outer solar system that allows interstellar travel to another planet with humans on it. The title sanctuary is one in the former USA. The protagonist’s quadriplegic son is sent there after he loses his job as a journalist. A grim shanty town around a concrete bunker with constant security to prevent the inhabitants from escaping.
The plot revolves around one man who is the son of an inventor that has turned resistor against the corporation that controls the world through their patent on the barrier technology. His son is a quadriplegic, and since he lost his job as a journalist, is scheduled to be euthanised. So it’s a race against time to find out what happened to the his father, rescue his son from Sanctuary 87, and also what the significance of the unidentified spaceship heading for earth.
Summary of Sanctuary 87
I was confused in my first read through. Some of the characters choices didn’t make sensee, nor did some of the other points of view. These were all knitted together very neatly by the end of the book. The odd bits turned out to be good choices to show what was happening. There was an interesting twist to the story, which made it all make sense once you knew what it was. But no spoilers.
If you like your dystopian futures with a hopeful ending then I’d recommend Sanctuary 87 to you.
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