64 What If?
“What if?” is the jumping-off point for almost all fiction. What if you lived on an unnamed island city where the only bridge connecting the city to the mainland has disappeared? What if the government could cut off your household’s access to the Internet, with no appeal? What if a predicted disaster has finally obliterated most of human life? What if handmaids are assigned to bear children for elite couples? Margaret Atwood, Cory Doctorow and Pasha Malla are three fine authors who start with an examination of what’s happening now and ask “what if?” At a time when speculative fiction and science fiction seem less and less fictitious, novels can serve—and should serve—as a warning, if we care to heed the message.