Book Review: Bannerless

One of my goals this year is to keep track of what I read. Whether I enjoy the book or not, I'll post a blurb and brief review. Most will be speculative fiction in some form—genres I gravitate toward in my own writing. Today, it's the PKD-award-winning post-apocalyptic crime novel Bannerless by Carrie Vaughn. Here's the description:

Decades after economic and environmental collapse destroys much of civilization in the United States, the Coast Road region is building something new on the ruins of what came before. A culture of population control has developed in which people, organized into households, must earn the children they bear by proving they can take care of them and are awarded symbolic banners to demonstrate this privilege. Enid of Haven is a young Investigator, called on to mediate disputes and examine transgressions against the community. A suspicious death requires her attention: The victim was an outcast, but might someone have taken dislike a step further and murdered him? 

I really wanted to like this one. I've always been a fan of post-apocalyptic stories where rugged pioneer-types have to struggle to survive and bring some semblance of civilization back from the ashes. Unfortunately, Bannerless is not that. No marauders, no real sense of danger other than humankind falling into the perilous patterns of the past. Overall, the stakes just didn't seem very high. And unlike Investigator Sera Chen in my Dome City Investigations series, Enid doesn't have any real foibles to endear her to the reader. She, as with most of the other characters, is bland as broth. 

The premise is excellent, the world-building realistic, and there was one supporting character I cared about (who dies). But it's The Village minus much in the way of intrigue—besides your standard whodunit. And the incessant flashbacks were quite the slog. 3 out of 5 stars.