Book Review: Archipelago by H.R. Hawkins

Reviewed by Warren Maxwell

An interplanetary exploration of politics, morality, and the human quest to belong somewhere

Set millennia in the future, in an age where humanity is scattered over countless planet systems and governed by world spanning bureaucracies, we meet Ren, an agent in the External Affairs agency for the most powerful planetary group, the Core Planets Federation (CPF). 

Worn down and increasingly disillusioned by his covert missions to destabilize governments and incite revolutions on weaker planets, he is reinvigorated when Archipelago (Arc), a mysterious cluster of planets that cut off all communication decades ago, sends a message to CPF, inviting a delegation to visit and restart diplomatic relations. Joining a crew of three other delegates from competing planetary systems, Ren arrives in Arc with directions to alternatively manipulate the situation to CPF’s advantage or support the other delegates in undermining Arc’s government and laying the grounds for future exploitation.

“This wasn’t home in any conventional sense. Ren wasn’t from Super Paradise. Hell, he wasn’t even from Marrakesh, but he rarely wasted time thinking about Palau, a world some sixty light-years distant, where he had been born and spent his first twenty years.” 

Beneath Ren’s professional exterior lurks a groundlessness and a deep longing for community and belonging. His parents were natives of Arc who were caught in the CPF planet system when Arc broke connection with the rest of human civilization decades earlier. As he becomes one of the first outsiders to see the lush natural beauty of Arc’s worlds in fifty years, Ren is concurrently struggling to establish a connection between the blood that runs through his veins and the alien planet he finds himself in. A clash of societal principles, governing structures, and human values plays out on both the micro and macro-scale in Arc, as Ren navigates the governmental interests he represents and the intimate desires he can’t suppress.

“On Jericho, he stepped straight into a wide forest clearing dappled with sunlight. Paths wound away through the trees in all directions as if he were standing at an animal watering hole in the midst of a savannah. There was not a single man-made thing other than the obsidian sphere of the gateway.” 

Moving through different planets and environments, Hawkins demonstrates a lush imagination and capacity for capturing futuristic innovations. Computer implants are a regular part of this novel’s world, with tech-reliant telepathy and all manner of ideas into the story. Gateways teleport people between planets, trains operate through gravitationally powered tunnels, and terraforming has created a powerful means by which humans colonize new planets.

The technological feats are beautifully described and thrilling, giving the many worlds we encounter in this book a distinct flavor and tactile frisson. In the vein of classic science fiction, these many new inventions provide a fresh perspective on timeless questions, such as man’s relationship to technology, what constitutes justice, and the boundaries between freedom and privacy.

At the same time, there is a loquacious tendency to indulge in descriptions that mires parts of the book. Descriptions of Ren’s existential desire for a concrete identity recur without deepening into a more three-dimensional investigation of loneliness and belonging in human affairs. Provocative questions about an individual’s capacity for creating their identity from scratch are raised, but many follow-up questions regarding the inevitable sacrifice and trade-offs this would entail go unaddressed. Nonetheless, the underlying themes are evocative. In the contrast between Arc and CPF we find a taught conflict regarding the nature of government, the tension between power and corruption, and the ethics of colonization. These and other vast concerns make Archipelago feel like a book written for today. It speaks to every hot button issue roiling the political world with a refreshing, science-fiction inspired lens.

A classic-feeling sci-fi tale in which the excesses of one form of government are pitted against another, Archipelago creates a compelling futuristic universe where core modern ethics and values are thoughtfully reevaluated.

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