Richard Swan's debut novel "The Infinite State" follows three unlikely characters navigating life under authoritarian rule in a sprawling galactic empire. The narrative weaves together the perspectives of a wealthy widow, a burned-out police officer, and an unassuming hypersled driver as they become entangled in the machinery of the Decurion Empire's oppressive regime.
Swan constructs his world with attention to the mechanics of totalitarian control, exploring how power operates across a vast interstellar civilization. The novel examines individual agency within systems designed to suppress it, using the contrasting backgrounds of his three protagonists to illustrate different responses to oppression. The widow represents wealth and privilege; the cop embodies complicity and disillusionment; the driver symbolizes powerlessness and accidental entanglement.
Emily H. Wilson, writing in New Scientist's science fiction column, characterizes the work as riveting, suggesting Swan achieves narrative momentum despite tackling weighty themes about empire and resistance. The novel appears to balance philosophical interrogation of authoritarian structures with page-turning plot mechanics, a combination that science fiction often attempts but rarely executes successfully.
"The Infinite State" joins a long tradition of space opera critiquing hierarchical power, following works like "Dune" and the Foundation series in asking how individuals resist or accommodate themselves to overwhelming political forces. Swan's focus on ordinary characters rather than revolutionary heroes or military leaders offers a fresh angle on familiar territory.
The novel's reception among science fiction readers will likely depend on how effectively Swan integrates character development with worldbuilding. His choice to center diverse social positions within the empire suggests he intends to examine totalitarianism from multiple vantage points rather than offering a singular heroic narrative.