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francoisvigneault 's review for:

Underground Airlines by Ben H. Winters
5.0

Wonderful both as a nuanced character study and also as a fascinating and disturbing look at a thought-provoking premise: In an alternate history United states, slavery is still legal in four Deep South states, and the US Marshals Service is tasked with the morally-repugnant task of hunting down escaped slaves. Does a really good job of spinning out the insane real history of slavery, the Runaway Slave Act, etc into a nightmare-fuel sci-fi cocktail. The main character and narrator is brilliantly conceived with lots of complications.