Book Review: Lethal Injection

Reviewed by J.B. Leddington

Gripping sci-fi set in an alternative 1980s where technology is a lot more advanced than the boombox and NES

Karin Lovold’s Lethal Injection explores the evil that hides in the hearts of men, whether on Earth or on the Moon. Through an action-packed but still thought-provoking approach to weighty and disturbing issues such as eugenics, collective punishment, and mass murder, it manages to simultaneously shock, entertain, and perplex.

It’s 1986 and emotionally incontinent scientist Ian Mitchell has just announced that he is abandoning his girlfriend and young son in favor of pursing a great but unspecified work project. The resulting conversation goes about as well as can be expected, but Ian soon has other things to occupy him—namely, memory loss, crippling physical sickness, and sudden transportation to Reathran, which is apparently “located on the far side of the moon.” It’s all very disorientating.

While he slips into unconsciousness, Ian’s story jumps back in time to 1980 and events that transpire beside his grandfather’s deathbed. In light of the upcoming death, Ian agrees to give up his professorship at Harvard University and take over his grandfather’s role with The Circle, a group of scientists working for Renewal Energy, Inc. It’s a bold decision, as “ever since Grandfather became a part of The Circle, he seemed to be on edge, living his life as if he had no peace inside.”

Using the last of his energy, Ian’s grandfather explains what is in store for him. “The Circle was created to make our new energy, but when the government discovered a small, livable territory on the far side of the moon, everything changed—” Ian is understandably skeptical at first—after all, the existence of a livable area of the Moon has not been made public—but as he learns more, he begins to both believe in and   dread what his grandfather and, later, other members of The Circle tell him.

That is, certain corrupt members of the United States government and Renewal Energy, Inc. are operating Reathran, a secret prison colony on the Moon, where the prisoners spend the remainder of their days mining memroth, which is required to create a new type of energy that will replace fossil fuels. As it’s a covert operation, the prisoners/miners are effectively kidnapped from death row after being given the lethal injections that are supposed to end their sentences and their lives.

And it’s actually even worse than it sounds, as Ian soon learns that there’s a secret behind the secret, a plan to cull a vast amount of the human population of Earth. “They’ve devised a formula that alters the radiation power from the memroth just enough to destroy lives, individual human lives. Its name—Prescription Ultraviolet Therapy Pods. […] They will be available by prescription only for the elderly, the terminally ill, the severely mentally ill, and others who are very vulnerable.”

It is this horrifying discovery that sets Ian on the path to what transpires in 1986, when he abandons his family, assumes a phony identity as a murderer, and undergoes a supposedly lethal injection, all so that his memory can be wiped and he can infiltrate Reathran to find proof of the dastardly wrongdoing. It’s a perilous plan, but it’s the only option Ian and his few friends can perceive for preventing mass murder on an unprecedented scale.

Lovold’s decision to set Lethal Injection in the 1980s is a wise one, allowing the story to be both futuristic and nostalgic. For example, when Ian first starts work in the laboratory at Renewal Energy, Inc., he’s impressed by the use of retinal technology to gain access to restricted areas. While such technology is common now, it was highly innovative in the 1980s, which highlights not only just how advanced the covert Reathran project is, but also how plausible.

The unique technologies that she incorporates into the story are also very well thought out, particularly the use of lethal injections—a method of execution only introduced in the United States in 1977—to allow prisoners to disappear to the Moon. To keep the Reathran workforce docile, the injected drug wipes their memory of every except their guilt. “Tetracophoxin attaches to their true guilt—the guilt from their crimes—and once it attaches, their memories are gone. Minus their crime. That is all they’ll remember.”

This detailed and feasible worldbuilding is impressive and adds richness to the story, as does the attention Lovold pays to characterization. As the hero of the story, Ian Mitchell is a complex character. Startlingly single-minded and with a tendency to fly off the handle, he’s not always particularly likable, although he certainly has the intellect and tenacity to succeed with a bold and dangerous plan. And even when he’s unpleasant or somewhat inhuman in his thinking, it’s because he’s consciously working toward the greater good.

Ian’s interactions with others are just as complex as his own personality. Initially, in his dealings with his girlfriend and son, he seems unemotional and mercenary, even if he does claim to be distancing himself for their own good. “He had to keep a guard up around his heart. Nothing could stop him from completing this mission. Not even love.” However, as the story progresses, the truth of his feelings and motivation becomes clear and he appears more self-sacrificing and understandable.

His friendships are actually more fleshed out than his familial relationships, likely because they derive from his committed work on project to expose Reathran. In particular, his friendship and close working relationship with Malaki Pederson, one of the few people his grandfather trusted with the truth, is affective and adds depth to Ian’s actions throughout the story. Seeing how things unfold through Malaki’s eyes also imparts considerable tension to the story, especially while he’s maneuvering Ian to the Moon.

Somewhat less impactful is the portrayal of the main villain, Charles Price, who is hated in a rather flat way. “Damn, why weren’t we more careful when Elijah flat out told me about Price’s evilness and that he’d been tracking him?” For someone who is helping to mastermind a nefarious plan to wipe out a large part of humanity, he could appear more insidious and frightening. Still, Price’s normality is actually frightening in its own way, evidencing how reprehensible plans can spring from mundane characters.

Lethal Injection is an exciting sci-fi action novel with a unique premise. There’s plenty to think about from the outset of the story, some of it both disturbing and disturbingly plausible. There’s a real sense of menace surrounding the overarching plot to exploit the prisoners, mine the memroth, and kill off whole groups of people whom the plotters deem to be undesirable. Reathran itself is well crafted, as are the life and work of the prisoners there. It all makes for an immersive story with plenty of thrills and a proper sense of danger.

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