Oversight
Marked by continual intrigue and mystery, the fabulistic science fiction novel Oversight follows daring teenagers as they work to thwart a would-be tyrant.
In Dennis Batchelder’s fabulistic science fiction novel Oversight, a technology enthusiast travels through time, seeking to better understand her fate.
Zelly is seventeen; Simon is fourteen. They’re looking forward to their nineteenth birthdays, when they will be able to join Ying as overseers of Soul Identity, the world’s oldest and biggest bank, which allocates relics to people’s future reincarnated selves. But Zelly is skeptical. She suspects that Ying is planning to eliminate everyone else before then and become the sole ruler of Soul Identity.
Meanwhile, a technological breakthrough offers to assist people in observing their ancestral experiences. Zelly suspects that it this new technology is actually Ying’s tool for discovering how her ancestor murdered Zelly’s, and she thinks that Ying will use it against her in the future. Thus, Zelly and Simon resolve to journey through their former lives in search of ways to thwart Ying’s plot.
At first reading like a fable that introduces an established task for the three teenagers to complete, the narrative deviates from this style as it progresses, though it also reverts back to it by its end. Quick-witted Zelly narrates, standing in for other technologically minded young people; her limited perspective confines the story, though. Her uncertainties, anxiety, dread, and envy drive her forward; they have the same impact on the plot, which is marked by continual intrigue and mystery. The two sides of humanity collide throughout the book, resulting in some additional psychological suspense.
The novel intertwines aspects of Zelly’s and Simon’s everyday lives with details from ancient Egyptian and Roman history: references to rulers from 321 BCE to 231 CE mix with mentions modern technology, including to LinkedIn and Glassdoor. The ancient disciplines of yoga and meditation are also explored. This juxtaposition of two vastly different worlds serves to highlight the corruption of the modern day, when ancient means of learning one’s forebearers’ ways are transformed into a weapon against one’s enemies by corrupt brains. Still, the particulars of the wickedness of Zelly’s world are somewhat elusive. Further, the book’s technical and coding jargon have a distancing effect, though Simon, whose roles are nontechnical, is an able translator who decodes complicated concepts well, representing them in simple terms.
In the high-tech, mysterious science fiction world of Oversight, teenagers sift through ancient secrets to protect their futures.
Reviewed by
Tripti Kandari
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