The Prynne Viper

Readers of my blog know that I adored Bianca Marais' previous books, Hum If You Don't Know The Words and If You Want To Make God Laugh when I read them a few years ago. So, when she announced on Instagram that she had a new short story audiobook called The Prynne Viper, I jumped at the chance to listen to it. 

I'll be candid and say that dystopian fiction and short stories are not my usual 'jam', if you will. I don't enjoy short stories as a rule, but I downloaded this Audible Original based solely on my trust in Marais' writing chops. Sweet Offred, Katniss and Katsa! I was utterly captivated by this short but mighty story.

With several highly skilled voice actors taking on different characters and the addition of background noises to set the stage for the courtroom scenes, this story is about Naomi Prynne's trial to determine if she gets to keep her unborn and unplanned child. Set in an undetermined time in the future, women who become pregnant without the approval of their government are put on trial. 

The trial jurors are selected based on predictions of how this unborn child will positively or negatively affect their lives. These jurors, in turn, determine if this unborn child (or Viper) will be allowed to be born. Cool concept, no? Through the eyes of three of the jurors and Naomi Prynne herself, listeners get a feel for the time, the restrictions, and the eerie genetic requirements.

This two-hour digital audiobook is currently free for Audible.ca members as an Audible Original selection. Though a brief story, it is compelling, powerful, and thought provoking and will bring to mind A Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood for its dystopian setting, focus on women's lack of reproductive rights and will provide much fodder for great book club discussion.

My Rating: 5 stars

Author: Bianca Marais

Genre: Dystopian, Short Story, Canadian

Type and Source: eAudio from Audible.ca

Publisher: Audible Originals

First Published: January 13, 2022

Run Time: 2 hours, 5 minutes 

Narrators: Genesis Oliver, Shiro Kihagi, 

Bianca Amato, Julio Monge, Sura Siu

Opening Line: The first thing I notice coming into 

the courtroom is the defendant, Naomi Prynne.

Book Description from GoodReads: In a futuristic world where predictive software can map out the lives of every living person and their descendants, Naomi Prynne is on trial. The charge: endangerment by way of a pregnancy.

Thirteen jurors will determine whether Naomi is allowed to carry the pregnancy to term, but the jurors are also all plaintiffs, the software having predicted how Naomi Prynne’s child will affect each of them in life-changing ways. Among them: a history professor who has given up on her own dreams for the sake of the greater good; a student participating in his first ever trial who’s about to discover an earth-shattering truth; and a former mathematician, who knows all too well the dark machinations of the state, but is prohibited from speaking out against them. The future of the Prynne Viper— an acronym for "viable person"—is in their hands.

But this Prynne Viper is unlike Naomi’s other pregnancies. This time, Naomi Prynne is carrying a secret, one with the power to alter the future into something incalculable, and therefore, unpredictable.