Dark and thrilling
Mark Leo Tapper’s The Vials of our Wrath creates — and then disrupts — the halcyon days of the twenty-third century, where human beings are healthier, more beautiful, and more long-lived than ever before thanks to regeneration therapy from the Global Health Directorate. But the assassination of a Directorate scientist starts a catastrophic war between a corrupt bureaucracy and a group of self-mutilating religious fanatics — and then things get really crazy. Full of strong, flawed, whip-smart characters, Mark’s novel (the first in a planned series of three) tackles the global consequences of personal actions while it thrusts humankind into a speculative (but not that speculative!) context to examine how it might react.
From a narrator’s perspective, the book offers gifts and challenges in equal measure. The earth-wide context for the story suggested a startling number of accents and dialects. I often have to remind myself, as a new narrator, that it’s not my job to trick listeners into thinking I’ve become someone else with each new character. In fact, my audience knows full well it’s still me. (I’m the one telling the story - who else would it be?) Instead, it’s my job to make suggestions — offer subtle vocal differences to remind the listener who’s speaking, where they might be from — but not to completely obscure my own voice or origins with each new instance. Which is good because, y’all, I do not have 15+ flawless accents and dialects in my pocket. (Though if I could spend a few hours every day getting coaching from the beautifully grounded Amanda Quaid, I might one day get there.) But what a fascinating way to explore how characters express themselves and interact with the world! And Mark’s prose lends itself especially well to the exploration of language as part of identity. It all rolls together.
And can we talk about villains? Good villains in this one. Deceptively sincere, ruthless folks with serious trauma to overcome, a fierce need for love, and seriously messed up moral compasses. They are compellingly evil and delicious to sink one’s teeth into as an actor.
Is this book a fun listen? Not exactly. It’s a bit grim. But it’s fascinating. It asks some good, hard questions. It believes in science and in science fiction. It explores humans in all their messy, conflicting, vulnerable power and inevitable weakness. And the plot will keep you on your toes right through to the finish. It’s a dark, thrilling, and ultimately hopeful look at humanity’s precariously balanced power to create and to destroy, and how personal striving can take unexpected turns — for better and for worse.
Get The Vials of our Wrath narrated by Stacey Lind on Audible.