This dystopian novella is a finalist for the 2021 Hugo Award. It was published by Tor.com in February of 2020 and runs 171 pages. Gailey is a Campbell and Hugo Award winner and makes regular appearances in the list of Hugo nominees. This review contains spoilers.

Esther’s domineering father has killed her female lover and means to make her marry the man of his choice, so she has run away to join the traveling Librarians instead. These women bring materials to small towns to loan to residents which have been officially prepared and approved by the Media Review Committee, the Board of Materials Approval or the Textbook Approval and Research Council. Bet and Leda are angry to find Esther stowed away in one of their wagons, but they accept her into their group where she is attracted by the non-binary Cye. The group picks up three people who have asked for an escort to Utah, and suddenly they are battling for their lives against local sheriffs and their posses. Esther goes into a town for supplies and finds that Amity, one of the three, is an assassin for the rebels fighting against the State. Can they make it to Utah safely?

The word “Librarians” seems to have taken on broader connotations just lately, possibly because of the TNT films and TV franchise. It now seems to suggest protectors of knowledge and possibly antiquities and action against evil. In this case, the Librarians are, while ostensibly doing the State’s business, actually operatives of a rebel organization who distribute subversive literature along with the state approved media. This story also makes use of the name “Galahad”, which in the TNT series was the immortal leader of the organization.

The world building here suggests a major disaster of some kind has struck the US, and the current organization is four quadrants separated by a military corridor. The story references an industrialized Northeast that builds weaponry for war, but the local setting for the story is a very repressive, unpopulated Southwestern desert where towns are only about eight or ten buildings and protected by guard checkpoints. The theme seems to be freedom for LGBTQ women and people who fail to meet the cisgender requirements of the society. Esther is fairly well developed as a character and her attraction to Cye is well handled. The story starts with a strong emotional impact as Esther recalls the death of her lover and ends with a warm feeling of inclusion.

On the less positive side, a lot of this seems impossible. Horses appear and disappear as if by magic, and what must be long distances between towns seem to take just a short time to cross. There are no indications of farms or ranches or where water, ammo and food supplies come from. It’s also hard to reconcile a technological, developed Northeast with the barren conditions here. What happened to the ~330M population of the US? Although Esther and Cye are clear as characters, there’s very little to bring any of the others into focus. And why doesn’t the blond Esther totally burn up in the sun? She doesn’t even seem to have a hat.

Regarding the theme: There seems to be a mixture of messages here. The main one, of course, is freedom for LGBTQ women and non-binary people to pursue their lives and loves without interference. After her lover is killed, Esther flees and joins the subversives carrying out a revolution. That’s all okay, but the source of the repression is unclear. This feels something like the Scarlet Letter days, where the patriarchy ruled, but how did these people get from the fairly free society we have now to that condition? Next, all the sheriffs and their posses are men, so are they agents of the repressive state? Is this anti-patriarchy? And last, supposedly the State has wasted all the country’s resources on wars, leaving everyone poor, so is this anti-government? Actually, this political setting sounds like the results of the current “revolution” where anarchists are pushing to remove capitalism, small business and government, leaving people to fend for themselves. It doesn’t quite make sense.

Three and a half stars.