Title The Only Harmless Great Thing Series --- Author Brooke Bolander Cover Art --- Publisher Tor.com Publishing - 2018 First Printing Tor.com Publishing - 2018 Category Science Fiction Warnings Cancer and abuse Main Characters Regan, Kat, Furmother, Topsy Main Elements Alternate History

In the early years of the 20th century, a group of female factory workers in Newark, New Jersey slowly died of radiation poisoning. Around the same time, an Indian elephant was deliberately put to death by electricity in Coney Island.

These are the facts.

Now these two tragedies are intertwined in a dark alternate history of rage, radioactivity, and injustice crying out to be righted. Prepare yourself for a wrenching journey that crosses eras, chronicling histories of cruelty both grand and petty in search of meaning and justice.

Tor.com gave this novella away for free (I highly recommend signing up for their newsletter, in addition to being allowed to download a free book each month, the newsletters themselves are interesting).

Now, where to start describing this novella. It brings together two real events, an elephant Topsy that was executed through electrocution on Coney Island, and the Radium Girls, who use to paint clock dials with radioactive paint so they would glow in the dark, of course no good comes from working with radiactive materials every day. And also introduces the fact that elephants and humans have developed a form of sign language to communicate with each other.

We also jump to the future, we have so much radioactive waste that we need to figure out a way to warn humans away from the dumps for generations to come, even after languages have changed, something that would make people think of radioactivity thousands of years from now...glowing elephants. Yes, I thought that was weird too, I mean I don't make any connection at all between elephants and radioactivity (I guess the same way we associate black cats and broomsticks with witches) but then this is an alternate world and Topsy is the key to it all. Topsy and Regan, one of the girls quite graphically dying of multiple cancers and other side effect of radiation poisoning.

We also jump to the past, the far past, before squeaking pink things (humans) came on the scene, back when mammoths wandered the lands creating stories to be passed down through the generation through the Mothers. Bolander does an excellent job of creating elephant culture, history and language without making them seem human at all.

So while this is not a true story, there are enough elements of truth to make us think, and to give us nightmares.