Breakaway Books

Authored by Tom Lin; Published May 2026; Science Fiction

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 🏖️🏖️🏖️

Babylon, South Dakota is a fascinating thought experiment of a novel. It somehow manages to seamlessly combine a narrative of the immigrant experience with concepts of immortality and parallel universes in a way that will leave you thinking for days after you close the book.

In Babylon, South Dakota, Saul and Mei have left China to try their luck on a plot of land on the American plains. As they settle in to raise steer and grow chrysanthemums, the government requests the purchase of a small section of their land–and Saul and Mei have little choice in the matter. Yet the government’s work will end up leaving an indelible mark on their lives. Saul, Mei, and later, their daughter Mara discover that the government’s experiments alter their land and open their minds to the existence of alternate universes and how they might be harnessed in the family’s favor. 

First, it must be acknowledged that the writing in this novel is beautiful and thoughtful. It feels like the author has managed to make solid the trains of thoughts that we keep to ourselves and play endlessly inside our own minds. With this language, he builds pictures that are both lovely and strange: a greenhouse made of broken stained glass windows, chrysanthemums so prolific they are almost infectious. It is perhaps unsurprising that with such vivid images and carefully cared-for language, the first half of the novel progresses slowly. This is a science fiction novel that requires a lot of build-up, and it reads much more like a typical immigrant narrative as Mei and Saul settle in to their new homes in the United States.

In the second half, things get weird. There are not many novels that make me pause, put down the book, and really think about the implications of the concept that the author has introduced. This is one of them, and I still don’t feel like I’ve fully wrapped my mind around it. In the same way that Tuck Everlasting may leave you wondering how valuable immortality is, this novel impressed upon me some truly haunting images of what it could look like to live an unnaturally long time and peek into parallel universes. Wrapped up with these ideas are disturbingly realistic portrayals of dementia, long-term disability, and the mental health effects of trauma, which do not lend themselves to a happy ending of any kind. I closed the book entranced by its perfect blend of outlandish technological concepts and brutally realistic characters.

Babylon, South Dakota is a difficult novel to capture in just a few paragraphs, but if you love science fiction that exhibit a superbly constructed thought experiment, I am sure you’ll enjoy this one.