The Hive

This dystopian novel is set in The Hive, a community ordered on hierarchical lines in a world almost totally engulfed by the sea. A royal family and their ascendants rule, protected by human shields who are conditioned from birth to sacrifice their own lives if their charges are under threat. The story begins with the death of an ascendant, Euphemie, by poisoned arrow and because Feldspar, her shield, was unable to prevent her death she must be burned alive within three days. However, because a shield has never before survived the death of their charge the assumption is that the shiel bond has been broken, endangering the Hive’s defence systems, an investigation is mounted. Nikolos, mysterious and fabled master of the Dark Arts, is instructed to extract the truth from Feldspar, using torture if necessary.

Nothing is quite as it seems in The Hive. Gentle, considerate and determined to use Feldspar to aid him in his investigation, Nikolos soon realises that treachery is afoot and the pair begin to work together, forming a close attachment, to discover the identity of the mysterious and elusive assassin. They unearth both corruption within the coterie of royal rulers and ascendants and the precarious nature of The Hive’s diminishing essential resources. Winnowings – ritual killings of the weakest members of the community, supervised by the royals – are used regularly to avoid an increase in numbers as resources are now at dangerously low levels.

Treachery is layered upon treachery and murders increase apace, creating a narrative complexity which only an able reader would navigate successfully. February cleverly draws analogies between the Hive’s world and our own. Too many people are defined purely by their role – shield, ascendant, worker, royal – creating a fractured community in which there is no encouragement to make the far-sighted and courageous changes which are needed to save The Hive. When people are demonstrably expendable, they choose to do nothing to disturb the status quo, however rotten it is.

During the course of his investigation, Nikolos discovers that Feldspar, a shield all her life, is in reality a member of the ruling royal family, switched at birth. When Euphemie’s murderer is finally discovered and brought to book, it is Feldspar who initiates the changes in The Hive which are essential if it is to evolve as a fair society in which everyone has a voice. The seeds of a new era begin to be tentatively sown. There is much in Survival Is Treason which should and must speak to us, this race of people seemingly hell-bent on destroying this unique and beautiful world which we inhabit and who seem unable to live in harmony with those around them.