I received a copy of this book for free and am leaving this review
voluntarily.
From the moment I opened Motus all the way through to the end, I was
completely engaged.
Motus is a hard sci-fi look into a society living an underground existence.
Among the things I enjoyed about this tale were the principal characters, Corun
and Cassi. Supporting characters were also well-written and added to the story.
The world building was easy to visualize, and the descriptions of the
surroundings were colorful. I also thought the science was plausible and easy
to understand.
There wasn't anything I didn't like about this tale, and I didn't want to
set it aside.
The civilization of Motus has been around for a very long time. Corun, a man
who digs to provide the people with the resources necessary for life, find a
strange rock he has never seen before. He hopes his find will help him change
his life, and perhaps even elevate him in the strict caste system governing
Motus. But alas, the substance he found is simple slag from the city's own
furnaces.
Employing a little deductive reasoning, Corun is a bit alarmed to realize he
is living in a city that moves through the same places over and over. He also
realizes that this could mean the end of the city as resources are used up.
Corun meets Cassi, a smart woman who has a secret. She is advocating for
change, which could get her into a lot of trouble. When she isn't working her
assigned job, she writes pamphlets that will hopefully inspire people to fight
for better conditions for all the people in Motus, not just the elites.
Together, Corun and Cassi deduce that change is necessary, and they are the
ones who have to lead it. Their choices, other than following the status quo,
are to either dig deeper into the rock, or dig up to the surface of the planet.
They have been told all their lives that the surface is uninhabitable by the
elites, but is that the truth? Corun decides it is time to find out.
Corun, the principal character of Motus, is a worker who can be depended on
for an honest day's work. He is good at his job and respected among his peers.
Like any typical miner, he is tough, and the people he associates with are also
just as tough. They work hard, and they play hard. But Corun is also a thinking
man. There are some things that don't seem right with Motus, and it takes Cassi
to help him better understand the city's situation.
Cassi is a young woman with roots in the elite class, but she is also
well-educated and knows and has access to resources that few others have. She
thinks and studies and writes about the evils of the current system and passes
what she learns on to others to inspire them to think about change for the
better.
Together, these two might just change the world.
My favorite plot point is that, thanks to Corun's discovery, the workers
establish how they are actually mining their own graves by digging through
their own waste material. They realize that there must be a major change in
their direction to stave off disaster in the near future as their resources are
used up and soon to disappear.
This is also related to what is, for me, the major theme of the book.
The theme of a struggle against stagnation is rooted in the politics of
Motus. There are three major philosophies in the story. One is the
Ascensionists, who believe that they need to move toward the surface of the
planet and see if the legends about its habitability are accurate. There are
the Descensionists who feel they need to dig deeper into the planet to uncover
new resources. Then there are the Lateralists, the elite who are in charge of
making decisions.
The Lateralists are imposing their wishes on everyone despite the promise of
doom in order to preserve their hold onto power. They know the consequences and
what will eventually happen, but maintaining their power pulls them to ignore
the consequences.
My takeaway from Motus is to remember a quote from a politician: "It is
not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield
it." — Aung San Suu Kyi
But political considerations aside, this is just a plain good story. The
story is paced well, with the action always moving forward. I appreciated the
focus of the tale on the characters who were allowed to tell the overall story
through their thoughts and dialog. I appreciated how the relationship between
the principal characters developed over time, slowly. I also enjoyed the
lighter banter that would occasionally crop up and remind me that the
characters are human. I also loved the intensity and urgency the characters
felt after the discovery Corus made at the beginning of the book. Motus is a
well-written speculative look into reasonable actions people can take when they
find themselves facing the end of their existence.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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Well, there it is...
Qapla!
