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This is an SF novel, written by non-SF writer. I read it as a part of the monthly reading for September 2024 at The Evolution of Science Fiction group. The book was nominated for Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ Choice Award for Science Fiction (2023).

The book starts with a couple (Malcolm and Cynthia) getting a boy Proctor as their ward. So, there is a setting where children aren’t born but somehow created and adopted, ok. Fast forward to Proctor as a student and a good swimmer, with Cynthia feeling a little rejected when he is congratulated on his win by her but by his girlfriend. A bit more forward, Cynthia takes a boat, gets away from the shore, cuts off a chip implanted in her arm and drops aboard, all is recorded by a flying drone. End of the prologue.

The main story starts with older Proctor as the protagonist. There is a bit of info-dumping on the setting: people live of the island called Prospero, which is somehow separated from the rest of the world. Their tech chiefly looks like the 20th century � cars, guns, security cameras but no smartphones. At the same time � flying drones to monitor the situation, people living to 120 fit and healthy, health-checking implants, which inform that a person is near death, in which case they are transported by a ferry to a nearby otherwise closed island, where somehow they lose their memories, while their bodies again turn young, to be sent back and adopted by new wardens� Proctor is the ferryman from the title, the person who helps people to get to their last voyage � he actually doesn’t step foot on the ferry and has no more knowledge of what’s happening after. Until one day he gets an order to be a ferryman for his father Malcolm, and before leaving the father gives some information that sounds like mad ravings, but which starts the wheels turning�

As can be seen, the story has a somewhat unreal feel to it, dreamlike, especially bearing in mind that people there usually don’t dream, and young Proctor’s dreams and sleepwalking were a reason for serious concern. Therefore, I guess it is hardly surprising that I expected some kind of Martix-like setting behind the surface. And maybe I was right, even if the final reveal was nevertheless a surprise.

As was noted by my fellow reader in the group � it reads like literary fiction, not SF, even if it has SF elements. Therefore, possibly it works better for a general readership than for SF fans like me. There are a lot of action scenes, which would have been looking great in a movie, but for a book, it isn’t what I really like. Therefore, despite the book has a lot of potential, it hasn’t been realized for me.