Book Review: The Dabare Snake Launcher by Joelle Presby

The first entry in a new Afrofuturistic series

When a wealthy West African family, the Sadous, snag the contract to build Earth’s first space elevator, everyone wants a piece of the action. All the major players in financing and construction, geology and real estate, are simultaneously playing nice and stabbing each other in the back, even as corporate espionage threatens to topple construction before it even gets off the ground.

Ultimately, the success of the space elevator becomes the responsibility of the youngest Sadous, Pascaline and Maurie.

One wants to have her own career, and the other finds herself plagued (or is it possessed?) by a water goddess.

The Story

Right now the only thing we lack to build a space elevator is make carbon fiber supports long enough to support one. Mount Kilimanjaro is the ideal location, with enough nearby mountains and dormant volcanos to serve as launch sites for support shuttles. In The Dabare Snake Launcher Joelle Presby imagines a near future where that final piece is finally available.

Tchami “Chummy” Fabrice manages to arrange a deal to get his family the support site development contract and places his nieces, Maurie and Pascaline, in charge. If his nepotism is uncovered, he loses everything. If he his nieces fail to deliver, the same. Maurie receives news of her new assignment while recovering from a severe fever in a bush hospital. A side effect of her illness and medication is hallucinating spectral snakes and the water goddess, Mami-Wata. Well, it’s probably just a side effect and her imagination. Probably. Maybe.

Pascaline, despite her lack of formal education, is an engineering prodigy. She wants as little to do with her family as possible, though, and is less than thrilled to learn that acquiring the mountain land to build the launcher requires her to marry Adamou, whose family has resided on the mountain volcano for generations. More than that, he’s also a geologist with a spiritual connection to the place. He actually finds the abrasive Pascaline charming and has no objections to marrying her. Actually, irritating her amuses him.

Meanwhile, all the investors of the various corporations and their minions are doing their best to use the project to acquire status. Some only want money. Some just want power. Outside companies want to steal secrets to get leverage. And the gods only know what they want. It’s left up to the reader to decide if the gods even exist. The story places greater emphasis on the social engineering that needs to happen for a large-scale project than the technical engineering, which isn’t a slight against the implementation of Presby’s clearly meticulous research. Ambitious projects draw ambitious people, perfect for human stories. 

The Characters

The Dabare Snake Launcher has a cast to rival a cable soap opera. Trying to mention all the point of view characters would be unwieldy, as they’re all distinct, endearing, or despicable in turn. But a few players are the clear stars.

Tchami “Chummy” Fabrice is the wheeler-dealer distant gay “uncle” at the center of the growing cluster-you-know-what. Just clever enough to succeed, and foolish enough to be dangerous, he and his assistants pull all the strings. 

Cousins Pascaline and Maurie are far removed from corporate world in which their uncle thrives. Engineering and logistic prodigies, they’re motivated by obligation to their family. Pascaline may even have to marry Prince Adamou to secure the land, when she’d rather be free to pursue a solo career. While she lays the groundwork, Maurie struggles to keep the supplies moving. The fact that Pascaline is a procrastinator and Maurie is recovering from an illness that has her hallucinating giant snakes only complicates an insurmountably difficult situation. 

Adamou seems to like his family and accepts his role in it. He loves the mountain and using his charm to get what we wants from people, while maintaining an edge appropriate to a tribal chief. 

The World

It’s Afrofuturism without being Wakanda. The world is run by both tribal alliances and self-driving cars, with a hint of mysticism. But these are just bits of texture in story that is centered in the world of megacorporations and muddy job sites. Greedy, ambitious people and those who work for them will likely forever and always find themselves in the same places and situations, regardless of the available technology. The only reason it’s sci-fi is because the technology of the world is just advanced enough to make the idea of a space elevator plausible.

The Politics

The only politics are family and corporate. It’s actually surprising that the entire focus is on private industry with no geopolitical angle at all.

Content Warning

A couple of F-bombs and Pascaline accuses Adamou of checking out her boobs (he totally was, too) is about the extent of it. In a cutthroat world like this no one actually bleeds.. . 

Who is it for?

This would make a great HBO series, so anyone who likes intellectual prestige television with huge casts and where boardrooms are battlefields will love it. If you’ve ever wanted to see into the world and minds of those tasked with “making things happen,” this is for you.

Why read it?

The Dabare Snake Launcher is a nuanced, realistic portrayal of what it would take to build an elevator to space and the strong personalities those who would try. It’s impressive in its realism and complexity, well-crafted, and interesting.