A Man With An Agenda

Jonathan Bridge enters the Fortress today. It was the only option if he wanted a life with his wife and unborn child. Jonathan is a young executive, born to privilege and a hard worker, and is unused to being out of control. Jones dives into the narrative, quickly introducing the strange world of the Fortress and the Vaik who live there and teasing out their history and the reasons behind Jonathan's service there.

'The Fortress' is a gripping speculative novel. It involves a country much like ours with modern corporations, play stations, and smart phones, but it exists alongside an ancient civilization governed by women who have existed alongside it, though sequestered and secretive. Women and the transgendered are eligible for citizenship, under unknown guidelines, but men are workers subject to the whims of women. Most men enter the Fortress under National Service contracts or as petitioners for personal, penance reasons such as Jonathan. A third category is criminal. Some men are sentenced to serve in the Fortress in lieu of a death penalty.

Once I started it, it was hard to put the book down. There are times when the tone and the message of the book - conveyed through our sole narrator, Jonathan - seemed a little forced and on-the-nose ("it was hard to give up control", "I was used to being listened to", etc.), but the message was an important one. Jonathan is forced to examine his life and the circumstances that led him to the Fortress. I appreciated that Vaik society is flawed, however, and there were unanswered questions and problems for the reader to consider.

A warning: there is unconsensual sex in this book, one aspect of Vaik society is free love, but men can't refuse without facing severe punishment.

This was released in Australia in April, 2018 and is due for a U.S. release in March, so I don't mind publishing a review now.