The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain
Sofia Samatar
In his Foreword to the Second Edition of The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien wrote
I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done so since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence.
I guess I have become old and wary, because when I found myself asking what the blue anklets stood for, I detected the presence of something enough like allegory to be virtually indistinguishable, and I cordially disliked it.
I read Sofia Samatar's The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain because it is a finalist for the 2025 Best Novella Hugo award. It won't get my vote. It is one of those books that is so deep and literary that the story, such as it is, becomes indiscernible through the layers of symbolism and literary sophistication.
I will admit that it's more than likely that The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain is just over my head. Although it felt like a hi-falutin allegory to me, I never did quite discern what it was an allegory of. I mean, it is obvious that Samatar doesn't like slavery, but that hardly counts as an avant garde position. It is not even avant garde to equate capitalism with slavery and be against that, which may possibly have been the deeper message here.
Bottom line: if you, reading this review, are thinking, "It went right over this idiot's head" -- well, then, you're probably right. But it DID go over my head and it was no fun at all.