WHAT IF YOUR FUTURE LIES IN THE PAST?

Dusk is gathering as a young priest, Christopher Fairfax, rides across a silent land.

It’s a crime to be out after dark, and Fairfax knows he must arrive at his destination – a remote village in the wilds of Exmoor – before night falls and curfew is imposed.

He’s lost and he’s becoming anxious as he slowly picks his way across a countryside strewn with the ancient artefacts of a civilisation that seems to have ended in cataclysm.

What Fairfax cannot know is that, in the days and weeks to come, everything he believes in will be tested to destruction, as he uncovers a secret that is as dangerous as it is terrifying …

It was well written and very gripping at times, if you like post apocalyptic novels while we are going through a pandemic ourselves. It did make me sad though that some 700 years after "Armageddon" all that remains from the so called ancients is plastic !
The ending was a bit too rushed and left me disappointed, I had expected more from Robert Harris.

Off to Nu-Knees
Happy reading

Thank you very much, kinedi, for the welcome parcel of books delivered by the postman this morning. My supply of books to be read has been dwindling again, so it's lovely to receive some fresh stock, thank you.
I've enjoyed several books by this author, so have high hopes of getting engrossed in this one, although I'm a bit mixed with post-apocalyptic novels generally . . . maybe yes, maybe no . . .

Robert Harris is a superb teller of tall tales who knows how to spin a page-turning yarn. In this case, the world he imagines after the Apocalypse of 2025, renumbered 666 ARD, is unrelentingly bleak and unattractive, with Science as the big baddie and Religion reigning supreme, a total nightmare . . . but somehow the story itself isn't too depressing . . .
Thanks again, kinedi!

To tree-hugger during our garden visit this afternoon, the first since such things were allowed again as of last Monday :-) Hooray! Lovely to see you! Happy Easter!

I'm afraid I'm having to clear out a lot of bookcrossing books unread, which I feel very bad about, but needs must. I don't read much any more, so having hundreds of books on a To Be Read shelf is silly because I know I won't get around to them - they're better off finding new homes where they might get read.

This is now taking a break back in Knaresborough before travelling on . . .

Heading from North to West Yorkshire in the hands of the Royal Mail.

Thanks so much this & the other books received today. It sounds intriguing...

I hadn't read any reviews, JE's etc about this book only the back cover blurb & the "…picks his way across a countryside strewn with ancient artifacts of a civilisation that seems to have ended in cataclysm" obviously didn't register properly with me & I was expecting a tale set in medieval times, a fact that the opening line "….in the Year of Our Risen Lord 1468" seemed to confirm but as I read on somethings didn't quite fit with that time period…

Anyway it's very hard, nay on impossible, to talk about this book without spoilers & there's so much to say! So wary of spoilers – & as I really don't want to ruin it for future readers – I'll try keep it general & just say I found it quite unsettling as I can see that this is the way things could (will?) go. For me though it was a book of two parts with the first part being slightly more entertaining as we learn about the world Fairfax is living in & follow his quest to uncover a long, lost secret. The latter part, while still engrossing, sees the pace really picking up, reminding me of one of those hunt-for -ancient-object-adventures that flooded the market after "The Da Vinci Code". By the time I was down to the last 50 pages, I had no idea how things were going to conclude & honestly thought there must be another book to follow but no, things were just wrapped up rather hurriedly, making the ending a bit of an anti-climax for me.

I particularly liked this quote but as it could be classed a spoiler I’ll hide it:

"We know that almost every person, including children, was issued with a device that enabled them to see and hear one another, however far apart in the world they might be; that these devices were small enough to see and hear one another, however far apart in the world they might be; that these devices were small enough to be carried in the palm of ones’ hand; that they gave instant access to all the knowledge and music and opinions and writings in the world; and that in due course they displaced human memory and reasoning and even normal social intercourse--an enfeebling and narcotic power that some say drove their possessors mad, to the extent that their introduction marked the beginning of the end of advanced civilization."

Overall a good, gripping, thought-provoking read & the author had me totally believing in the possibility of this world…..hope I'm not around to see the vision come true.

This book is now reserved for another member of the Elland Literary & Potato Pie Society though as I'm struggling to get to meetings it may have to be left in the Telephone Book Swap for her!

Left at the bookswap for another member of the Elland Literary & Potato Pie Society... hope it's still there when she does her Tuesday Tidy up!

Released as part of the 2023 SEPTEMBER SAPPHIRE CHALLENGE (#59)




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