I admire  this book as a monumental work of speculative fiction- so many political activists are so focused on tearing down the current world without proposing a new vision. One star for that. 

That being said, this vision solidified my aversion to communism and leftism in general. 

Like most leftist writing, it operates on the delusion that communism will somehow cure addiction, domestic violence, and all interpersonal conflict with no explanation of how. Providing sex workers to everyone somehow cures all mental illness (what happens if demand for sex somehow exceeds the supply of human beings being commodified? No answer). There are also no answers to what happens when people abuse children, rape, or assault each other in a world with no justice system. No interpersonal violence happened before capitalism, obviously. This is especially ridiculous because drugs are abundant and widely used. Because people that are actively on drugs are notoriously peaceful, healthy, ready to sit in eight hour commune planning meetings, and somehow also invent immersive VR implants in their free time. 

Who is managing the garbage, generating the power/distributing electricity, certifying therapists and medical professionals, or building roads in a world with no states? Who cares, let’s talk more about polycule group therapy. 

The narrative glamorizes and romanticizes political violence- executing, starving, and villifying people you see as anti-revolutionary (any business owners, police officers, or landlords, to name a few) is actively celebrated. Somehow this is presented as better than what we have now. 

As usual, the leftist utopia is an absolute hellscape for women- that first chapter about “skincraft” is fucking bone chilling. It’s genuinely breathtaking how much leftists hate women. 

Their vision for a better world is a literal Handmaid’s Tale scenario where you get a “skin crafter” AKA prostituted woman if you can’t get actual sex. Don’t worry, women only enter the sex trade because they just love having sex with undesirable men out of the goodness of their hearts! No other reason! You can also easily access a womb transplant, of course with zero discussion of the women whose body parts are being harvested and/or sold. No such thing as pregnant women giving birth to their own children, only “gestators” who produce children that belong to everyone. Can’t imagine any issues with that! The communist revolution also somehow happens because sex workers trade sex for food. And, once again, that’s somehow presented as an ideal. 

On a broader level, gender still exists even after violent revolution has destroyed the family, the state, and every single other social construct in the world. Hey, at least they recognize that biological sex is a lived material reality that will never go away.

Another pet peeve I find in modern leftist speculative fiction: the story acts like communism means people don’t have to work anymore and somehow massive consumer tech development happens without a market and after global economic collapse. The new internet somehow comes from drug-fueled dance parties. A “council of grandmas” somehow end up being the ones arming and selecting a paramilitary group to defend the commune. It's like the authors are living in a different reality. 

As a novel, the writing is pretty bad. It’s clear that this is coming from two academics instead of people experienced in crafting interesting stories. The tone is really cloying. Imagine the preachiest person you know or have ever seen at a campus protest just straight up lecturing at you for seven hours. The book feels like it was written to be assigned as reading in an undergrad sociology course. 

If you told me this book was written by conservatives to convince people against communism, I would believe you.

Just put this book down and read The Disposessed.