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Rating: Mike Resnick is one of the greatest contemporary science fiction authors and a great scholar and connoisseur of the African continent and the history of colonialism; knowledge that he has documented and analyzed in essays and developed in his novels. In this second chapter of an ideal trilogy dedicated and titled "Purgatory" (1993), he focuses on the socio-political technique universally known as "Divide et impera," which consists of controlling and governing a people by creating divisions, provoking rivalries, and fomenting discord, a method that has been applied scientifically for two thousand years with increasingly sophisticated and harmful methodologies.
We are on the distant planet Karimon, inhabited by a population of sentient beings (the "serpents") that descend from reptiles and whose social structure, stuck in the Stone Age, is divided into tribes in conflict with each other, among which the people of the Tulabete of the great serpent Jalanopi stand out.
The story of the planet's colonization, initially contested by humans and their bitter enemies (the Canforiti), sees the former prevail by gaining the favors and alliances among the Karimon populations. With the rise of economic interests from large interplanetary companies, the process becomes unstoppable, despite the opposition attempts by Catholic missionaries and the limitations set by the central government of Deluros VIII. The introduction of an "evolved" economic system combined with the prolonged exploitation of the planet's resources and its population will radically change the structure of the planet until the rebellion of the Karimonites (who are obviously in overwhelming majority over the Earth emigrants holding economic power) led by the leader Thomas Paka. Having gained political power and determined to lead his government in a balanced manner, also considering the Karimonites' unpreparedness on the technical and scientific level, Paka and Karimon will succumb to an unprecedented economic and energy crisis after losing all cultural identity and being left isolated and abandoned to themselves.
Difficult to recount in all its developments and according to all the dynamics represented in the complex yet shrewd plot, Resnick's novel deserves for this reason to be read and almost "analyzed." We are not, however, obviously facing a true "essay," but a compelling and easy-to-read novel: the various speculations are argued and an integral part of the plot and do not impede its fluidity, but rather prolong its pleasure and utility even after its end, giving the work that broader meaning that we require from each of our readings. Every single situation and "topical" character should be considered as if they were pieces on a great three-dimensional chessboard that would then be our history, full of contradictions and dark pages, where every "encounter" and change never happens without very often painful consequences destined to leave deep marks and lacerations over time.
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