Review: The Sentence by Gautam Bhatia in Locus

Gautam Bhatia might best be known to science fiction and fantasy fans as the editor in chief of Strange Horizons, and as the author of the intriguing, Ursula K. Le Guin-meets-China Miéville novels The Wall and The Horizon. In his everyday life, however, Bhatia is a lawyer and a scholar of the Indian constitution. These specialties come to the fore in his third novel, The Sentence, which takes the surprisingly rare step of examining how laws, constitutions, and trials play a role in fantastic worldbuilding. Set in a city that emerged from a bloody civil war with a tentative, shaky arrangement held in place by an order of lawyers, The Sentence examines how a single legal action might end up impacting on a whole society. My review, which appeared in last month's Locus, is now online.
Nila – and her trusty roommate and sidekick Maru – discuss both the facts of the case and the merits of their legal strategy. Should she try to impugn long-accepted testimony, or take a purely procedural approach? Should she, as an abolitionist group urges her to do, attack the validity of the sentence of cryogenic suspension itself? (The bitterness with which Nila dismisses the naivety of this suggestion – guaranteed, she says, to produce nothing but bad precedent – feels particularly lived-in.) Inevitably, these discussions end up hinging on the gap between law and ethics, on Peruma’s tangled history, and on realpolitik. When Nila's superiors try to persuade her to drop the case, they remind her that Guardians rule by consent. A sufficiently provocative ruling, they warn, could bring the entire system down.
At the close of my review, I note how frustrating it is to recommend such a unique and original novel knowing that it is currently not available outside of India. Happily, things have progressed since the review was submitted. Bhatia recently reported securing UK representation, so hopefully it won't be long before readers outside the subcontinent are able to discover his work.

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