Abscission is a book-length story based in The Human Domestication Guide setting. I read this on the recommendation of a friend to see what the interest was because… Well, Abscission is basically a fan-fiction featuring dominate/subordinate and sadistic fetishes.
For someone with no interest in these fetishes, what is the draw? Abscission features a cast of characters with a variety of identities and disabilities. The transgender protagonist Autumn suffers from some sort of schizophrenia, severe anxiety, or paranoid delusions. Her lesbian girlfriend Dawn suffers from neurological disorders that impair her motor functions, memory, and consciousness. Autumn’s would-be murderer turned friend Qiru has autistic symptoms and identifies as a genderless robot rat. These characters have basically been adopted as pets by all-powerful plant aliens called the Affini, who have agreed to love them and take care of all their needs. The Affini have a directive to reduce suffering in the universe, and for humans that have proven to be a threat to themselves or others, adopting them as pets is required. The Affini use a lot of drugs to sooth their pets’ various fears and traumas but also genuinely love them. With their highly advanced technology, the Affini have produced an era of post-scarcity, meaning they and their pets often don’t need to worry about much but spending time with one another.
In other words, Abscission offers an escape for those who suffer from disabilities, mental disorders, or persecution for their identities. It contains a message that the reader doesn’t need to be more than themselves to be loved. The reader doesn’t need to fight through discomfort or disability to impress or prove their worth to anyone. The reader can dream of what it’s like to live in a world of post-scarcity and post-capitalism. Abscission also celebrates drugs not as tools to be used only as needed but as a method to become one’s true self and escape needless or unrealistic worries and despair. And there’s also a lot of dominate/subordinate fetishism for those who are into that sort of thing.
That said, Abscission is also an underdeveloped, minimally edited, and incomplete novel. Abscission is far from the worst such novel that I’ve read. Some manuscripts intended to become legitimate, published novels that I’ve beta read have bored or frustrated me into a rage, but Abscission held my interest by being equal parts entertaining, confusing, disgusting, and boring.
It does suffer from many common problems though. Plot holes are common. For having a directive to reduce suffering, the Affini do a lot of suffering on their own. Autumn’s Affini Solanum claims to have an important job but spends most of the book not doing it, leaving one to wonder who does any of the work around here, what compels them to do it, and how society doesn’t fall apart. Characters are inconsistent. Autumn is afraid of drugs and then wants all the drugs with little transition. Autumn is bored without Solanum to entertain her until she decides she has a history of studying alien languages. There is little conflict or problems for the characters to solve together. Most of the time, Autumn and her fellow pet friends have no life outside their Affini. Most of the book is indulgence in fetishes, drugs, alcohol, and trivial social gatherings. The writer often makes their own fantasies obvious with such nonsense as characters wearing a collar and cuffs by mandate; being casually tied up; experiencing sexual arousal through petting or submission to someone else’s will; or willingly undergoing surgery while awake. On one hand, Abscission tells the reader that they don’t need to be more than who they are to be loved, but on the other hand, it tells the reader to give up and let themselves be defined entirely by their illness, drug use, or niche identity.
Then again, Abscission perhaps couldn’t be the escape that it is if it didn’t contain some of these problems. A book lacking conflict isn’t commonly considered “good fiction.” A world of post-scarcity where everyone is accepted for who they are, problems can be efficiently solved, and people need not worry about who will care for them today or tomorrow, however, is the world that fans of Abscission, and The Human Domestication Guide in general, dream of.
There’s no excuse for the ending though (aside from it being self-indulgent fan fiction). The third to last chapter is mindless torture porn, which, really, the entire 155,000-word book had been building toward. The final two chapters, however, have nothing to do with each other nor anything to do with the rest of the book. In reaction to these final three chapters, I said out loud as I finished reading, “What? That’s insane!” Which might as well have been my reaction to the entire book. XD