Book Review: Majority, (Torth, book 1) Abby Goldsmith
" A Wrinkle in Time" meets "Flash Gordon"
I don’t read many heartbreaking works of stagging genius on this Substack, but this is one. I will admit, I am conflicted about this novel. Majority, by Abby Goldsmith, is quite amazing. There’s a bit of a bumpy road along the way. But it’s worth it.
Humor me for a bit, and let me explain.
The Story
Thirteen-year-old foster child Thomas Hill had always been disabled. Born with a crippling disease, he’s frail, requires a wheelchair, and needs an assistant, his foster sister Violet, just to move around. Luckily for him, he’s a supergenius, has created his own medication, and uses himself as a guinea pig. He’s also a mind reader, so that’s given him some advantages.
When clues to his lineage take him to an old estate with nine-foot-tall Ariock, Thomas, Violet, Ariock, Ariock’s mother Delia, and Thomas’ best friend Cherise
are abducted by an alien race called the Torth—an entire alien empire filled with telepaths.
Thomas and Ariock are both half-Torth, and the alien race want them both. For Thomas, they want him to join their hivemind, where the Majority rules all. Ariock, they want dead … but maybe after some good old fashioned gladiatorial fun and games.
It’s up to Thomas to get everyone out alive. It’s one supergenius versus a hivemind of tens of trillions of telepaths, who control every known corner of the galaxy (Except for “nature preserves” like Earth)…
Assuming that Thomas doesn’t decide that the Torth hivemind is more appealing. The Torth Majority caters to every whim. It’s practically paradise. As long as Thomas doesn’t mind losing his soul.
There is some good, the bad and the ugly to this.
This book is 800 pages long. Yes, I personally think that Madam Goldsmith could have cut about five to ten percent of the book, because there is only so much misery I can tolerate. I found myself skimming through whole chapters that could have boiled down to a few pages — or, combined, could have been whittled down a bit. In her afterword, Goldsmith does note that she slammed two books together to have more of a conclusion, and less of a cliff hanger.
When I say “less” of a cliff hanger, I mean this is book one of six. The others are all half as long, so if the length of this one is off-putting, the others are shorter.
Good news: if you can get halfway through the novel, it is a faster, easier, smoother ride, and a much better read. You can ALMOST see where the book one and two divide would have been. And yes, if Goldsmith hadn’t made this one book, I would not be recommending it. But she did, and much to the good, because the second half is so much better written, and tightly written.
The second half of the book, where this really takes off, delves deep into other worlds and races, and how they work around and resist the Torth. It’s much more uplifting and entertaining. And there are elements that remind me of Frederick Brown’s Arena (credited as inspiring the original Star Trek episode of the same name). The finale is a full on escape on par with Empire Strikes Back, ending in a finale that’s one heck of a shootout.
Abby Goldsmith has created a book that my family would described as “novel novel.” The only book I can compare it to is Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time, with a scope that would match the original Flash Gordon serials (without the budget constraints). And yes, there’s a lot of Flash Gordon here—a tyrannical empire ruling over multiple worlds with distinct cultures and personalities—but it does lack the never-say-die optimism that came with that experience.
Thankfully, the finale, Empire Ender, comes out tomorrow, May 13th. If you hate long waits for a series to finish up, you might want to try it.
The Characters
Everyone here has a character arc—except for Thomas, whose arc is more of a sine curve.
With Thomas Hill, it’s interesting to watch how he fits in with the sociopathic Torth, mostly by traumatizing himself to fit in with the rest. I’ve never watched mental self-mutilation before. It was interesting once, but I don’t want to do it again. And there was a lot of skimming on my part.
And there are a lot of characters here, and as I said, they all get character arcs, they all grow and develop.
Thomas Hill’s best friend Cherise is my only quibble. Were I editing the book, I would have cut this character. She doesn’t do much during the book, and at times just disappears from the narrative. So, stick a pin in that, in the shape of a question mark.
The World
I will give Madam Goldsmith this: I want to see the Torth burn like no alien villains I can think of. These f***ers are all the worst aspects of the Borg (though it may be more “rule by lynch mob”), while they, individually, have all the charm of Stargate’s Goa'uld—they have slaves they treat as disposable, belief they’re gods, and act like they don’t have emotions (and yet, retain six out of seven deadly sins). They have a eugenics program, communist ideas about personal property. I look forward to seeing how she kills all of the little bastards.
There are a lot of worlds here, and Goldsmith develops at least four alien species, with distinct customs and habits and personality traits. It’s quite brilliant.
Politics
If you can find 21st century politics in this, seek help.
Content Warning
First of all, there’s some sex in here, but it is so clinically presented, I’m not sure there’s much to warn about.
There is mention of torture, described as “tearing ones own skin off,” but that’s as graphic as it gets. Would I have read this as a teenager? Maybe. I read The Once and Future King when I was twelve, so you can’t go by me.
If you have read A Wrinkle in Time (and if you haven’t, why haven’t you? Go, read it. SPOILER WARNING if you haven’t), the character of Charles Wallace, a prepubescent super genius with mental powers is tempted by … well, Satan. He is briefly lost to the dark side, and is pulled out again with few ill effects. The entire book takes place over a few days.
Thomas Hill, on the other hand, has to do things to himself and to other people to convince the Torth Majority that he’s one of them. If he doesn’t, he dies, along with everyone abducted alongside him. Instead of days, it takes months. And unlike with Charles Wallace, we get to see everything from Thomas’ point of view. There is torture. There is mental and emotional manipulation. There is … a lot of misery porn I wasn’t a fan of. She does thank two people for advice: Jeanne Cavelos (brilliant author) and George RR Martin, which explains some of the misery porn.
If you can get 50% of the way through the book, the rest is smooth sailing.
Who is it for?
If you like’s Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time and Flash Gordon, I think you’ll like this. Yes, I know a spread that wide boils down to “science fiction,” but it’s the best I give you.
Why buy it?
Abby Goldsmith has a brilliant work here that is an interesting ride with a solid conclusion. Despite any misgivings along the way, I do want to see what comes next