One of the characters in the book is an envoy from Tokyo 10, which is much more like something from a Kathleen Ann Goonan novel. But it is not what I would call a Flower City. Average lifetimes of wealthy citizens are much longer than in our world. Palmares Três is a fairly modern city, encased in a huge glass pyramid. The Três may indicate some sort of city franchising in much the same way as Liz Williams’ Inspector Chen series is set in Singapore Three (actually Hong Kong). The original city of Palmares was founded by escaped slaves during the 17th Century. Most of the action takes place in the city of Palmares Três in North-East Brazil. But civilization is by no means dead, it is just very different. What is left of mankind is clustered around the tropics where the climate is survivable. Much of the Earth is more or less uninhabitable. I suspect that some people will be billing The Summer Prince as “post-apocalyptic”, and the book does take place sometime after a major environmental disaster. If you haven’t heard of it, that’s probably because it is a YA book and is therefore getting ignored by many adult readers. While Ancillary Justice is undoubtedly the most garlanded science fiction book of 2013, another book that has been turning up on award lists with regularity is The Summer Prince by Alaya Dawn Johnson.
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