Bats of the Republic
Zachary Thomas Dodson
2015, 448 pages
Fiction
Bats of the Republic is an “illuminated novel,” which means that it is illustrated using computer graphics, drawings, handwriting and scans of another book (written by the author and made to look old), and it is also interactive, with plot twists that send the reader back a few pages and an envelope at the end of the book which the reader is cautioned not to open until the story ends. Equal parts historical fiction and post-apocalyptic futuristic, this book takes speculative fiction to a really amazing level.
Dodson’s world-building is top-notch and the characters are well-crafted. The 1843 storyline follows Zadock Thomas as he attempts to prove himself to his hoped-for father-in-law by traveling from Chicago to Texas during the Spanish American War to deliver a top-secret letter. Zeke Thomas, several generations later, inherits a letter from his grandfather that seems to threaten the stability of the American city-states 300 years after Zadock’s mission.
Bats of the Republic develops some very interesting thought experiments and innovates the genre beautifully from beginning to end.
Cheri Hardy Concord Public Library
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