Dystopian Sci Fi Book Review: The Poison Maker

Prof. Savannah Selbourne is a tough character to love. She’s frequently sarcastic. She kisses ass, and climbs the ladder at work. She thinks of her interns as numbers, and hides from them instead of teaching them. She has no idea why they have such a difficult time approaching her. But she is also loyal. Loyal to an eccentric cast of friends. Loyal to her wife, who is sinking into a deep depression. And loyal to a government that treats her like a second-class citizen and denies her the one thing her wife needs—permission to have a baby.

At last, Savannah’s day has come. She is getting a promotion and a raise that will put a bigger apartment within her reach. Finally she has a shot at achieving her wife’s dream of having a baby. But the journalistic responsibilities that come with her new job lead her to the mystery of the Poison Maker. The closer she gets to the truth about this mysterious figure, the father she gets from her goals, and her loyalty to her nation is about to crack under the strain.

Emma Ellis has converted British isolationism into an eerie, foreboding future. Decades of war, famine, climate change, and epidemics have driven the human population to near extinction. Only Britain has been able to keep its civilization—at a price. They paved over the soil and exterminated all other species on the island to control the serial pandemics. Now they survive on an unmoored concrete and chrome island adrift like a raft on the world’s seas while the population survives on artificially-manufactured sterile foods.

I received an advance review copy of this book and so glad I got the opportunity to read it. Savannah is a complex but determined anti-hero who is fun to follow through this dystopian world. Her friends and enemies are wonderfully colorful, and the world building is superb. The mystery of the Poison Maker kept me guessing. I didn’t see the conclusion coming, but it made perfect sense when it arrived.