What I’m Reading: HUGH HOWEY LIVES by Daniel Arthur Smith

I’ll admit it, I was skeptical at first. A book with the title Hugh Howey Lives seemed like a not-so-subtle way to play on Howey’s fame as an indie author. Still, the book recommendation came from a trusted source, EE Giorgi’s Chimeras blog, and when I read the book description, it didn’t seem self-serving. That’s a long way of saying that when an offer of an ARC came my way I jumped on it.

I’m glad I did.

Hugh Howey Lives is a sensitive, sci-fi story of creative sacrifice. Tia and Kay, two young women in love, are on a sailing adventure. At the beginning, Tia is humoring her author friend who is convinced that she has uncovered clues, hidden in the text of Hugh Howey’s tales, that have led her to a mysterious island. Kay believes that Hugh Howey—who would be two hundred years old now—is still alive.

The futuristic world inhabited by the couple is hinted as post-apocalyptic. Tia, who is from wealth, notes that her family was “fortunate to have survived times when wealth was dangerous” and there are ample references to scarcity in resources, such as paper to print books. It’s also apocalyptic in the creative sense: books are written by machines and the “Librarians were essentially guiding societies conscience.” Authors, it is believed, are an anachronism.

Yet Author Smith establishes a subtle creative tension between the characters and their world. Tia sails a wooden boat and takes pictures with an analog camera; Kay wants to be an author like her hero Hugh Howey, even though she knows that’s not a real career. The island itself is brimming with strange flora that should not be growing there…

The creative dissonance deepens when the girls, stranded on the island by a massive storm, are taken in by a group of scientists working on something called the “Calypso Project.” (If you’ve forgotten your Greek mythology, Calypso was a nymph who enchanted Odysseus into staying with her on an island instead of going home to Penelope. Cue creepy music.)

Hugh Howey Lives is a short novel, just a bit over 100 pages, but Smith packs a lot of creativity into a small package. The world-building and connection between the message and the imagery will make you wish this book were longer.

Recommended.

David Bruns is the creator of the sci-fi series The Dream Guild Chronicles, and one half of the Two Navy Guys and a Novel blog series about co-writing the military thriller, Weapons of Mass Deception, coming in May 2015.