Our Dried Voices by Greg Hickey

Hickey’s future is a dark, fading world with a flicker of hope in the minds of the last men who dare to think.


I enjoyed this book but it had its weak points, mostly intentional, even so they leave me frustrated. Those weak points I’ll get out of the way immediately, world building and character development. The book is claustrophobic throughout, but for good reason. We know the settlers are on the planet Pearl, but what ever happened to earth is not mentioned. Same with what Pearl as a planet is like, we aren’t given much. Just two meadows separated by small mountains. Cows are shown as a food source but other creatures aren’t mentioned.

As for the characters, the people of the settlement are purposely devoid of personality, besides the few who develop personalities by thinking, which is the primary premise behind this story and its moral argument.


What I love about this book… it feels like H. G. Wells’ Time Machine told from the perspective of the simple Eloi. Who then are forced to think and adapt to changes to their simple lives. Imagine if the Eloi woke from their stupor to fight the Morlocks and then further exercised their minds to fill in the gaps in provisions after the downfall of their keepers. That is akin to this book's setting and premise of a man, Samuel, who lives in a settlement where all is provided for, and they live happy, fed, naked, and care-free, playing in the meadows. That is until things stop working, the food dispensers stop working, or the beds in the sleeping hall disappear, when someone must step up and fix it or all will die. 

The development of thought, and the pursuit of exploration and learning is painted as one side of the moral spectrum, the simple lives provided for by the ancestors is the other end. The protagonist finds the middle way. Leaving both behind, choosing to live and lean and grow with Penny separate from the (bloody handed) thinkers and the simple people.

Samuel's name is also clearly a biblical reference, stated by a character later in the book, when he says that Samuel was a great person in the past. And making clear reference to Samuel of the Bible, meaning religion is not completely lost to the learned people on Pearl, which is another avenue which could be explored. And what morals are these people going off of that leads them to kill the simple people in order to make another "hero."

This book ended well but deserves a story from another character’s perspective, the way Wool was written can be implemented here, one character leaves and now we follow another to answer questions the last left in his stead. A sequel from one of the “heroes” perspectives, focused on building this world a little further would be a great addition to this story.

---