Freedom is the sure possession of those alone who have the courage to defend it. – Pericles
On Earth, sometime in a future that we all should hope never materializes, there is a caste system in which the aged are venerated and the young are relegated to a role of subservience that ignores their humanity and elevates their status as objects to be manipulated, molded, and bound in servitude. It is a hierarchy of slavery, one in which homosexuality and bisexuality are encouraged not because the world is a more enlightened place but as a way to control the population growth of the lower classes. Things are about to change, though; there is about to be a paradigm shift that will become a catalyst for revolution.
Dorian’s Worlds is that future realm, and Dorian is the young man who, along with his friends and fellow rebels Bryn and Lasa, will lead Workers in a rebellion to take control of their lives and of the bodies they’ve been taught are for nothing but the sexual pleasure of the elders.
This is a story that shows how society may attempt to strip a man of his free will, but how it cannot strip him of his will to be free. It’s a story of a man’s fight to reclaim his soul and his Self, and to fight for all those who, like him, want nothing more than to be the master of his own destiny. And, in the end, it is a story of honor and of sacrifice for the greater good so those who will come after him will know the meaning of freedom and what it means to live rather than to merely exist.
I really liked the premise of this story, as well as the sci-fi elements and world building that happened in the relatively limited time frame. The setting is a dystopian future, not of the landscape but of the humanscape, which is a chilling prospect itself. Dorian, as a hero who becomes the venerated patriarch of a brave new world, was a blend of innocence, cynicism, and a fierce determination to fight for the greater good, and I found myself rooting for him every step of his brief but significant quest.
There is only one thing I can say I wish I could’ve been given a glimpse of at the end, and that’s to know what became of Bryn, the man Dorian comes to love, after the series of events that lead to the conclusion of Dorian’s story. I missed playing witness to his thoughts, feelings, and reactions to the story’s climax, during and after it’d run its course, but otherwise can say I enjoyed Allen Mack’s pioneer journey into futuristic fantasy.
You can buy Dorian’s Worlds here: