The Middle Rings
Iren Vautrel, an Assessor of the middle rings
She came up from the outer rings the only way the city allows a child to rise, and now she forms the young in the doctrine of the order, and keeps a running account the order does not trust. It is the record of her first season in the house: a commendation, and then a Citation; a charge moved between Wings; a figure that will not agree with what she knows to be true. What the house asks of her is never a lie. That is the difficulty.
Cold procedural after Kafka; a surreal, melancholic interlude after Boris Vian. The complete first season is available now.
Specimen. Recovered from the record.
The city was built in rings, and a person’s ring was decided once a season by the figure called the Standling.
[Matter omitted. The omission has been filed.]
So the thing that decided a young life was not the judgement of the person who knew them. It was the judgement of the machine that did not.
The Inner Ring
A citizen of the centre
The second season crosses a wall the first could only listen through, into the inner ring: the easy air, the lighter labour, the court's own tongue, and the people who decide rather than those who are decided upon.
Not Yet on FileThe Outer Rings
A citizen who does not work for the Bureau, but lives beneath it
The third season goes to the edge: the poor light, the heavy labour, the households carried outward a ring at a time. It is told not from the desk that keeps the measure but from the life that is kept by it.
Not Yet on FileThe Register of Notified Citizens
Seasons Two and Three are not yet on file. Citizens entered on the Register are informed when a new season is entered into the record. Removal from the Register is arranged by Form 14.
The citizen retains, at every stage, the right to choose. Choices not appearing on the schedule are not available. For the avoidance of doubt, this clause is not itself a choice.
Form 0, the Form Concerning Forms, clause 1