Notes from the Burning Age
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4.8 • 5 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
“ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS I'VE READ IN RECENT YEARS. THOUGHT PROVOKING, IMAGINATIVE AND PACKS A HELL OF AN EMOTIONAL PUNCH.” —Adrian Tchaikovsky, author of Children of Time
From one of the most imaginative writers of her generation comes an extraordinary vision of the future…
Ven was once a holy man, a keeper of ancient archives. It was his duty to interpret archaic texts, sorting useful knowledge from the heretical ideas of the Burning Age—a time of excess and climate disaster. For in Ven's world, such material must be closely guarded so that the ills that led to that cataclysmic era can never be repeated.
But when the revolutionary Brotherhood approaches Ven, pressuring him to translate stolen writings that threaten everything he once held dear, his life will be turned upside down. Torn between friendship and faith, Ven must decide how far he's willing to go to save this new world—and how much he is willing to lose.
“A riveting tale of subterfuge and deadly self-indulgence” (Publishers Weekly, starred review) from award-winning author Claire North, Notes from the Burning Age puts dystopian fiction in a whole new light.
Also by Claire North:
The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August
Touch
The Sudden Appearance of Hope
The End of the Day
84K
The Gameshouse
The Pursuit of William Abbey
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
World Fantasy Award winner North (The Sudden Appearance of Hope) spins a riveting tale of subterfuge and deadly self-indulgence in this postapocalyptic thrill ride. Ven Marzouki was once a priest whose duties included translating archaic English texts to sieve useful information from the heretical knowledge of the Burning Age, a time of human excess and climate devastation. Ven's working as a bartender when the Brotherhood, a brash, humanist political group, comes for him. Unable to refuse, Ven must translate and verify stolen texts detailing the most dangerous of heresies, among them mortar schematics and military papers on radioactive substances. North's eloquent prose paints a vivid contrast between the overconsumption that led to the Burning Age and the near-utopian present even as Ven becomes ever more deeply involved with Georg, the brains behind the Brotherhood's steady crawl to power. Ven's internal ideological conflict between the Temple's teachings on honoring nature and the Brotherhood's rhetoric of human might leads to a satisfying revelation. Meanwhile, the shifting enmity and companionship between Georg and Ven creates a tense, fascinating dynamic as the Brotherhood gears up for war. North's convincing view of postapocalyptic society captivates, and the political intrigues will keep readers hooked right up until the explosive close.
