@Nymeth @xicanti @readingtheend I admit gemsigns as a title makes me think of animated 80s Rock bands

— Aarti (@aartichapati) March 11, 2016

But it happened to be lying around my Overdrive wishlist when I was picking out books for a long trip, and I happened to choose it out of all the books on my Nook on a train ride to Connecticut because the train was filling up rapidly with business bros and I wanted to quickly be in the middle of reading something in order to deter potential conversation-makers.¹

From inauspicious beginnings, what a glorious outcome! Gemsigns was so good. It was so good that although I was only using carry-on luggage for a weeklong trip, I went and bought the sequel the next day so I could read it on the plane ride home.²

The premise of Gemsigns is that an electronics-related plague wiped out most of an entire generation’s labor force, and industries responded by creating genetically modified humans (GMHs, or “gems” for short) to do the heavy lifting nobody else was physically able to do. As the plague tapered off, the gemtech companies expanded their repertoire, breeding gems smarter and with specialized skills like heightened language acquisition or dramatically heightened vision. Now, gems have wrested themselves away from ownership by the gemtech companies, and Eli Walker is preparing a report for the European Union about the differences between gems and humans. The report’s findings are expected to reverberate throughout Europe and the world, setting the longterm course for gem independence and self-determination.

Gemsigns is sociological af. In a society that has all but eliminated disability as a going concern, gems who were considered failed experiments, or whose mental or physical design will not permit them to live without support, are a curiosity—and a costly one. Should taxpayer money cover their care, when gemtech companies have freely offered to pay for it (as long as gems continue to be considered their property)? Should special laws be put in place to protect regular humans from gems with modifications that could do real harm?

That the most important worry in this story is who will pay for all the infrastructure that a new class of independent, rights-having people would create is one of my most favorite things about it. In my many years of study³, I have cleverly spotted that most everything comes down to exactly this: Money and power. Who has it, who wants it, and what will they do to keep or get it? Gemsigns plays these ideas out in fascinating, surprising detail.

If I’ve made it sound like there are no characters worth caring about, please believe that that’s only because I was so enthralled and surprised by Saulter’s worldbuilding that I had to put it front and center in this review. Gemsigns is full to brimming with interesting, complex characters with clashing motives and lives outside of the story. It’s just a really, really good book, and y’all should please read it.

TOGETHER WE CAN make Stephanie Saulter as famous as she deserves.

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