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    Bannerless
    Bannerless
    Bannerless
    Audiobook9 hours

    Bannerless

    Written by Carrie Vaughn

    Narrated by Alyssa Bresnahan

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    A mysterious murder in a dystopian future leads a novice investigator to question what she's learned about the foundation of her population-controlled society. Decades after economic and environmental collapse destroys much of civilization in the United States, the Coast Road region isn't just surviving but thriving by some accounts, building something new on the ruins of what came before. A culture of population control has developed in which people, organized into households, must earn the children they bear by proving they can take care of them and are awarded symbolic banners to demonstrate this privilege. In the meantime, birth control is mandatory. Enid of Haven is an Investigator, called on to mediate disputes and examine transgressions against the community. She's young for the job and hasn't yet handled a serious case. Now, though, a suspicious death requires her attention. The victim was an outcast, but might someone have taken dislike a step further and murdered him? In a world defined by the disasters that happened a century before, the past is always present. But this investigation may reveal the cracks in Enid's world and make her question what she really stands for.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateJul 11, 2017
    ISBN9781501967375
    Author

    Carrie Vaughn

    Carrie Vaughn survived her air force brat childhood and managed to put down roots in Colorado. Her first book, Kitty and the Midnight Hour, launched a popular series of novels about a werewolf named Kitty who hosts a talk-radio advice show. She is also the author of Voices of Dragons, her debut novel for teen readers. Ms. Vaughn lives in Colorado.

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    Reviews for Bannerless

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    • 5/5
      BANNERLESS is a dystopian mystery set about 100 years after the collapse of civilization in the United States. The Coast Road section of the United States is doing pretty well because they have adopted strict population control. Birth control is mandatory. People have to prove that the can support a child before they can earn a banner and have the right to have one. Everyone has to pull their weight and work in their communities. Most people have grouped together in households within small towns.Policing this society are Investigators. The heroine of this novel is Enid of Haven. She is a relatively new Investigator whose mentor is Tomas. She is the lead investigator on a case of suspicious death, or maybe murder, in the town of Pasadan. When she and Tomas arrive she finds a divided governing committee. Ariana, one of the committee members, called her in but there is friction between her and committee chair Philos who wants the Investigators gone.The citizens of Pasadan are very reluctant to assist the investigators in any way, claiming that the victim Sero was an outsider that no one knew very well. Rumor has it that he was bannerless - illegitimate. Enid's investigation is complicated by the presence of Dak, Enid's first love. She and Dak, a traveling musician, had taken off from her home in Haven to follow the Coast Road ten years earlier. Chapters of flashback tell the story of Enid and Dak's relationship and also how Enid came to be an Investigator.Enid's investigation leads to other discoveries about the seemingly perfect town of Pasadan and eventually lead her to discover what happened toe Sero. Along the way we see what it is like in the Coast Road through some excellently interwoven world building. Fans of dystopias and mysteries will enjoy Enid's first adventure and be looking forward to more stories set in this world.
    • 5/5
      Wow, this book hits all my favorite themes -- solidly post-apocalyptic, but more interested in the politics of rebuilding than the horror of an apocalypse and its immediate after effects. Also a solid mystery, albeit a mystery in the context of a very different Utopian-ish society. I just loved, loved, loved the setting, which is a sort of neo-agrarian, survival focused, somewhat socialistic society, and where having children has become a serious and thoughtful goal that right-minded people strive to earn through their contributions to the community. And yet, our main character has an outsider's role for a large portion of the book and no interest in bearing a child herself. I just found it totally fascinating as a thought experiment and compulsively readable in both the writing and the story.

      Re-read it, because there's a new book in this world out -- I could not be more excited about that. Still loved this book, this character, this world.

      Advanced reader's copy provided by Edelweiss.
    • 4/5
      Half murder mystery and half dystopian coming of age story, Vaughn manages to write a compelling who-dun-it while sketching out an entire post-apocalyptic world. At the center of Bannerless is The Coast Road communities, a bucolic seeming utopia built after 'The Fall' of the modern world. This is a society where everyone works for their place and views themselves as caretakers of resources for the next generations. It isn't until protagonist Enid's story begins to unfold, both in the present and her wanderer past, that the unsettling foundations of this new society begin to poke through. Enid of the present is a brown tunic'd investigator sent into a text book perfect town to investigate a possible murder. Despite claims that no one liked the deceased or talked to him, it's obvious the town is nervous about something and it just might shatter their future. Enid of the past is a directionless young woman who seizes on an invitation to travel from a young troubadour she's fallen for. As they travel the coast road, it becomes clear that this utopian life isn't everything it seems to be. Through alternating chapters, Vaughn uses Enid's past to inform her present, and helps to deepen the reader's understanding of the their world along the way without heaps of exposition. Bannerless is a great pick for a summer afternoon read - compelling, interesting, and surprisingly bright despite it's themes.Disclosure: This review is based on an ebook version of the memoir provided by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt through Netgalley.
    • 4/5
      I have read a lot of Carrie Vaughn's work and have liked it. This book didn't disappoint although it was a very large departure from her Kitty Norville books. This is a dystopian story that doesn't involve zombies or apocalyptic monsters it instead focuses on current problems such as overpopulation, hunger and anti-environmentalism and describes what happened in a future world when these issues got out of hand. There are strict rules and quotas applied to many aspects of life including farming and reproducing and a people, villages and territories are defined and judged on how well they work together for the greater good of the human race. Don't take too much, don't overproduce is the underlying theme. There are some bits of technology that survived but not others. It was hard for me to believe that solar cars survived but not paper and other everyday items. I enjoyed all the characters but the way they were written, made them feel distant. They didn't seem all that happy and were a little melancholy in my opinion. I didn't feel that close to any of them but that doesn't mean I didn't like them. The way the chapters jumped from past to present to past again was a little jarring but it aided in understanding the respective relationships. I liked this book but I also cried in several parts and felt sad for the characters in the end. Overall, It was an interesting take on a dystopian society and I think it was very well written.
    • 4/5
      This novel couples crime fiction with science fiction in a dystopian view of America in one hundred years' time. Much was lost during The Fall, when political, social and technological chaos resulted from some sort of cataclysm. The population has been decimated by pestilence and the large cities have gone along with most of their populations.An interesting read. Investigators Enid and Tomas have been sent to a nearby community to investigate a serious death reported by one of the community leaders. The man has already been 4 days dead by the time they arrive, and nobody wants to give them any information. It appears Ariana, the community leader who has requested the investigation actually has another agenda altogether.
    • 3/5
      Decades after environmental and economic collapse plus a widespread contagion destroyed the United States, the people are reduced to small, far apart villages on the Coastal Road. The main focus of the government is to keep people living within their means, which means only harvesting enough and requiring a banner for the privilege to bear children. Enid of Haven is an investigator sent with her partner to investigate a mysterious death of an ostracized person in another village. From the beginning, the people are cagey and unwilling to cooperate. Did someone murder this outcast, was it a tragic accident, or is it something else they are hiding?Bannerless is set in a future where technology all but gone and resources are scarce. People live in small villages, only farming or fishing or hunting what is necessary to make sure food is able to be acquired later. Banners are required for having children to prove you have the resources for them. On the upside, no one really starves. Struggling villages can be helped, relocated and shuffled about to make sure resources get to everyone. Everyone also has to pull their weight in some way to contribute to their household. Because of this, girls hitting puberty are given a birth control implant only to be removed when given a banner. Of course people try to go around the law, but those people are dealt with on a case by case basis. It's implied that abortions can be forced if it's early enough or, if it's too late, have the pregnant woman transferred to a household with enough resources. The only other option is to be ostracized and starve to death. I wish this was a bigger point in the book. It's one of the most interesting and horrific things about the world and the entire doing away with women's bodily autonomy should have been examined a bit more.The main story is Enid's in the present and the past. In the present, she is investigating a possible murder and finding out why this village is so uncooperative. In the past, she is traveling with her musician boyfriend Dak, performing and doing odd jobs to pay their way across the Coastal Road. In a world that is so interesting, I found Enid and her story rather dull. She was described as emotional and with a temper, but most of what I see is her bottling up her emotions to appease others. The only thing I liked about her was that she didn't find a lot of inherent value in a banner and didn't want children. The murder mystery doesn't have any huge plot twists or anything. It almost seems mundane. I am way more interested in other parts of the world, especially in Auntie Kath who remembers what it was like before the fall. She would essentially be us if we lived through something like that, remembering everything she lost while others have no idea. Bannerless has an interesting world, but kind of a dull story. It's written well and kept me reading, but Enid is kind of a wet blanket. I think nonchalance was a problem for me There's no big revelation. It's just people being predictable. I will be reading the second book in the series to see if a different focus in the world would be more enjoyable.
    • 3/5
      The world-building and characters are good, but the actual mystery story is kind of weak.
    • 3/5
      Set on what's left of the American West Coast decades after environmental disaster has devastated the cities, the remaining populations are gathered in small, tight-knit villages. They use societal pressure to maintain strict controls on food production and human reproduction, with local Investigators to tackle any intransigents. At first it seemed like an exercise in a sort of eco-nostalgia – people in small communities without modern technology, growing their own food, blacksmithing, making clothes and pottery, limiting production and reproduction by mutual agreement – but gradually the cracks in the system began to show as jealousies and selfishness vied with communal values and concern for the future. A couple of anomalies like contraceptive implants and solar collectors were glossed over without explanation as to how these basic agrarian societies could continue to produce such sophisticated tech, and I would have like to see the consensus and co-operation aspects of the society more fleshed out, but it was an enjoyable antidote to the standard post-apocalyptic scenarios full of violent scavengers and brutality. I would read more set in this world.
    • 3/5
      Earlier this week we saw the release of Bannerless by Carrie Vaughn. This is a murder mystery set within the framework of a post-apocalyptic world where every day it takes everything just to survive. The story unfolds in two timelines. The first, current timeline follows Enid as she works as an Enforcer attempting to solve a murder. The second follows Enid through her teen years as she follows Dak the musician around the countryside. The novel takes place on the west coast, the exact location never quite revealed. This is a future earth, a place where modern society has collapsed. A series of ecological disasters ravaged the land, the remnants of which still occur. Along with this was a series of terrible epidemics which killed off large swaths of the population. This sets up for a fantastic post-apocalypic world, a place where humanity has banded together in small, tightly knit communities. There is strict birth control in an attempt to desperately ensure that there is enough food and other resources to support the town. This is a novel that is set up well and should have a lot to say on a wide variety of topics. However, the novel never really gets there. Not much is said on these topics. The world within the novel is explained rather thoroughly, but nothing is commented on. Enid doesn’t question the rules of her world, the framework upon which her society is set. No commentary slips through in the discussions between characters. Which leads to my next point. The blurb markets this as a dystopian novel. While it is most definitely post-apocalyptic, it is not particularly dystopian. The novel never makes the next step into that territory. Not enough is given to show us the pitfalls of how their society works, either in regards to population control or otherwise. Sure, we get a small glimpse into the harsh life those who’ve stuck things out in the dilapidated cities survive and how it differs from the life Enid knows, but we don’t really have enough to make a lot of commentary on it. And, again, the characters don’t provide a lot of dialogue – either inner dialogue or with each other – either. The tale told within the past was more of a coming of age tale than anything else. We saw Enid grow and change within that story. I found this the more intriguing of the two parallel tales being told. I liked seeing the post-apocalypse setting and learning how society and the world became the way it was. The mystery, on the other hand, fell a little flat. The whodunit aspect was very predictable. I wasn’t at all shocked or surprised at the outcome of the mystery. This was rather unfortunate. While Enid had obvious character growth throughout the chapters set in the past, I couldn’t really say the same thing of the present day mystery story. This leads to another gripe. The book’s blurb states that what Enid finds on her case makes her question everything she stands for. At no point does Enid do any such thing. She doesn’t question anything about her world or its rules. At this point she doesn’t even question the methods as to how their world got to be the way it was, as she’d read various books from the old world and journals written during the fall of civilization.Sometimes when I find a book like this, the simple beauty of the prose saves it for me. I can’t say this happened this time. The prose isn’t poor by any means, but it didn’t quite save it for me. The book is a very fast read. Overall, Bannerless by Carrie Vaugn fell a bit short for me. I was looking forward to a dystopian, post-apocalypse murder mystery that asked a lot of a questions. What I got fell short of that mark. Still, the world in which Enid lives is quite intriguing, and I wouldn’t be against reading more by this author or other works set in this world. It’s unfortunate, but I think the thing this book suffered the most from was mismarketing. If you like post-apocalypse settings maybe give this book a read. If you don’t like predictable mystery stories this may be a book to pass up.
    • 4/5
      A hundred years after the Fall ended global civilization, the Coast Road communities in western North America have made a good life for themselves, despite violent storms. In order not to overload their environment, they enforce strict quotas on maximum crop yields, number of children, and related matters. Humans are still human, however, and some people want more than they are allowed. When a suspicious death brings investigators Enid and Tomas to a seemingly idyllic small town, there is more there than first appears. Intercut with chapters detailing Enid'd younger days, and her travels down the coast with an itinerent musician, this is simultaneously a murder mystery and an intriguing look at one possible post-apocalyptic future.Recommended.