Very, very nice. A post-apocalyptic Earth has been invaded and occupied by enigmatic aliens who have taken over for unknown reasons of their own. However, one of their agenda items is 'social rehabilitation,' which in practice seems to manifest as casual brutality and incomprehensible laws. One of the 'rules' is that all fetuses must be carried to-term (after which, it is suspected that the aliens may experiment on them.) In this scenario, a woman must help her sister try to obtain a forbidden abortion. The perspectives here are definitely underrepresented in fiction, and although this is a rough read, emotionally, it's also refreshing to see. ( )

...How much the reader will enjoy this story depends on whether or not you can deal with the number of questions the author leaves you with. They Shall Salt the Earth with Seeds of Glass is, in a way, very open-ended and the setting is only minimally developed. Personally, I can't shake the feeling that there is a much longer piece hiding in this story, that would potentially be more rewarding. That being said, it is a beautifully crafted story. Johnson seems to have chosen very consciously what to reveal to the reader to keep us focused on the main characters' story. It's an approach she has executed very well. On the whole, I think I would have preferred a bit more detail though.

Full Random Comments review. ( )

Call me old fashioned, but great world-building isn't enough for me. I need a story where you actually mostly know what happened at the end of it. This isn't one. ( )