Vagabonds, by Hao Jingfang, translated by Ken Liu, published back in 2020, is a long, shaggy dog story of Mars colonists gradual rapprochement with Earth, after a war of independence 100 years earlier. Jingfang imagines Mars as very much like a small country, rebelling against the commercial imperium of corporate control from Earth. Totally plausible. The Martians then establish a command economy, with some decentralization, in order to survive, and eventually to prosper. Inevitably, the command economy butts against desires for individual liberty and more freedom of choice. The novel traces through several characters, but focuses on an adolescent girl coming to understand the system. She’s waking up! As she struggles to understand the complexity of a social system, other actors are not waiting, and the system evolves even as her understanding grows. Jingfang nicely advocates for intellectual and engagement humility and sobriety. The enemies of the people end up being the hotheads, whether on the communitarian or the libertarian side. It’s long, but worth reading.