The Offset
Ratings2
Average rating3.5
15
Ratings2
Average rating3.5
It is your eighteenth birthday and one of your parents must die. You are the one who decides. Who do you pick? In a dying world, the Offset ceremony has been introduced to counteract and discourage procreation. It is a rule that is simultaneously accepted, celebrated and abhorred. But in this world, survival demands sacrifice so for every birth, there must be a death. Professor Jac Boltanski is leading Project Salix, a ground-breaking new mission to save the world by replanting radioactive Greenland with genetically-modified willow trees. But things aren’t working out and there are discrepancies in the data. Has someone intervened to sabotage her life’s work? In the meantime, her daughter Miri, an anti-natalist, has run away from home. Days before their Offset ceremony where one of her mothers must be sentenced to death, she is brought back against her will following a run-in with the law. Which parent will Miri pick to die: the one she loves, or the one she hates who is working to save the world? File Under: Science Fiction [ Only One Leaves | The Choice is Yours | Last Hope | Counting Down ]
Reviews with the most likes.
Pros: intense worldbuilding, interesting characters
Cons: abrupt ending, several unanswered questions
Miri is angry at the selfishness of her parents who brought her into a dying world, especially Professor Jac Boltanski, “humanity's last hope”. She always knew Jac would be her offset, the parent chosen to die for the sin of procreating when their child turns 18. And Miri's 18th birthday is two days away. She's home again after running away 2 years ago, and no longer sure she's making the right choice.
Meanwhile Jac has discovered a problem with her project and travels to a lab far from home, knowing her time is short.
The book is short and to the point, focusing on the characters and the world they inhabit. It's told from the points of view of Miri and her mothers, Jac and Alix. Miri is angry and lashes out, but has also been through a lot of challenges, so you understand at least part of where she's coming from. Jac's focus on work is admirable considering she's trying to undo climate change, but it's clear she missed out on a lot of family stuff because of it. I really liked Alix and felt she got a rough deal. I felt sorry for her not having her wife around for their last few days together.
The worldbuilding was excellent and intense, with so much of society broken down but the acknowledgement that the rich will still get the best food, care, and opportunities. I appreciated that the authors (writing duo Emma Szweczak and Natasha Calder) show us how the poor and the rich lived, and how easy it is to take certain things in life for granted when you've known nothing else.
The anti-natalists are terrifying, but also somewhat sympathetic. In a world where overpopulation has caused so many problems it's easy to see how so many people would advocate against procreation and create the offset. This is brought to a head when the characters visit a ReproViolence clinic and it becomes clear that the offset isn't the only violence surrounding procreation.
The story is compelling and I found it hard to put the book down. Chapters are short so it's easy to squeeze a couple in.
I found the ending rather abrupt, expecting to see more of how things worked after Jac learned what was happening with her project. There were a number of questions I wanted to see resolved that were left hanging. The authors have expressed that this may be the first of a series, so here's hoping there are more books.
The Offset was an interesting read. The premise reminded me of Unwind by Neal Shusterman, bleak but with a hint of hope.
