Contemporary
The climate apocalypse predicted by today's scientists has finally come to pass. The Eurasian landmass has become one vast desert scorched by ferocious heat. Most of humanity has been obliterated by the ferocity of heat, rising oceans and storms of unimaginable force. All knowledge of today’s science and technology and of our civilisation has been lost.
Amanaar and Mayzaar, who live in the underground city of Kaimakla, discover that the oasis on which the city depends is drying up, and that they will all die soon from thirst and starvation. As a desperate measure, Amanaar organises a journey to cross the vast desert to their north in search of a safe haven. On their journey they face many terrors, but also stumble upon objects from today’s world which are incomprehensible to them. They meet Stinna who passionately believes in the truth of the legends of great cities and a vanished hugely advanced technological civilisation. Stinna persuades the two men to join her in the search for the truth and for an explanation of what happened. This is their story.
Here's what readers have to say about this book....
The novel's central message is to warn about CLIMATE CHANGE. It is set 500 years from now, when the world has been devasted by heat, storms and huge explosions of methane gases currently locked in the earth's crust but released by global warning. The book's central characters are descendants of desert people who knew how to survive intense heat and drought, and took refuge in the cave complex in Kaimakla (located in present day Trukey). They engage in a perilous journey to the more hospitable north, which has seen massive POPULATION DISPLACEMENT and is inhabited, in the novel, by people of Chinese descent who migrated via Siberia into Scandinavia. As well as climate change and population displacement, the book explores the LOSS OF CIVILISATIONAL memory. The novel's protagonists discover archaeological wonders in their travels, that had been entirely forgotten. There's a poignancy when they stumble upon the statute of Mother Russia, broken in pieces in the sand, where her hair, "broken and separate from the head, seemed chiselled to fly behind her head in the wind". As well as the loss of civilisational memory, the novel expores the retreat of RATIONALITY where knowledge has been displaced by religious dogma. The tension between rationality and religion is explored in several scenes, such as in the disclovery of disused rockets or "spears of the Gods". The good natured "Achinbai as usual was exasperated by everyone's curiosity" - he is a humourous counterfoil to the reflective Amanaar who disbelieves received wisdom from the priests. These serious messages are wrapped up in a beautiful LOVE STORY between an exciting and determined woman who comes to dominate the story, Stinna, and the young narrator, Mayzaar. I greatly enjoyed reading the book and HIGHLY RECOMMEND it. The political scenes in which the author speaks through the scheming Amanaar, such as the scene with the Council elders where he "works his charm", are some of the best in my view.
A sizzling first novel: a journey of discovery that could easily become reality. The time is many generations hence. The worst has happened (as expected). The Earth has been turned into a burning desert swept by terrible sand storms. All scientific knowledge has been lost. The three leading characters are extremely sympathetic. Their enthusiasm and their spirit of adventure and discovery are infectious. A prequel and sequel are urgently needed.
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