Notes From The Burning Age by Claire North
I would like to thank Nazia from Orbit for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review
Publisher – Orbit
Published – Out Now
Price – £8.99 paperback £4.99 Kindle eBook
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.
One of the reasons I love to read science fiction and fantasy is the dialogue it can create with the issues of the current whatever future setting or alternate world we are reading about. One of the biggest issues we are facing is climate change and where are we heading. We’ve seen tales discuss the alternative options or the apocalypse that results but reading Claire North’s excellent Notes From The Burning Age is the first time I’ve ever given some thought to the reason we are so fixated on doing things that can destroy us. This delivers both a splendid piece of science fiction and surprisingly a highly entertaining spy thriller in the process.
The world goes too far. Pollution results in massive climate change, flooding, and the end of the world as we know it. Myths also talk of strange beasts known as the kakuy rose from sea, land and sky destroying the world in anger at humanity’s hubris in thinking they could control the planet. The survivors of this period known as the Burning Age have slowly started to reassemble a life and a low- tech co-operative society with a focus on sustainability at all costs has evolved. A religious order known as Medj teach the world about the perils of consumption and keep the old knowledge of the past secure and mark anything dangerous as heresy. In what was once Central Europe a small province though is getting discontent. An ambitious politician named Georg has decided the time is right to rebel against the priests and start the old ways of making men rule the planet for the greater good. To do this he needs knowledge and has recruited a former priest Ven to decode samples of the old knowledge. Ven someone who believes in nothing anymore sees this as an opportunity for some money and knowledge but slowly gains Georg’s trust and sees the scope of his ambition as well as he has sources in high places to get him the more dangerous pieces – combustion engines, weapons, and mines. As the forests get cleared, the mining re-starts and tensions rise across the remaining world Ven has to decide how and who he can trust to do the right thing for the future.
This is an intelligent story that wrongfoots us from the start. The very early chapter tells us of Ven’s life as a child and an event that shaped their life being trapped as a child in a fire and losing a friend. North paints a story of our world’s end and then rebirth creating an absolutely fascinating new society. Rather than seeing a world develop from our current standards of living to a greener one we get a world where the apocalypse happened, and humanity had to pick itself up and over a very long period reassembled itself into a new group but with a very pertinent philosophy. Solar panels, low population and sustainable farming prevail with the constant warning via the Medj that humans are not the centre of the universe and if we stray the world for us can easily end again thanks to the awakened kakuy. You may be expecting your typical Mad Max style re-assembled society but when this story appears it’s a more genteel pastoral one then as we move to Ven as an adult soon resembles early 20th century Central Europe. Look closely at the place names that have changed over centuries and you can start to picture this world even though it’s changed quite a lot. That this then becomes the setting for a spy thriller then makes perfect sense why we seem to be in a place that would not look out of place to a Le Carre novel.
The thriller aspect is another surprise we are so used to stories with environmental change being about the scientific debates that actually Georg’s quest for power wrongfoots us. The early chapters are about Ven being discovered and a strange relationship between the two that starts as unwilling helper then turns into a form of aster and servant and ultimately a would-be world leader and his essential aide. The dynamic shifts between these two continue throughout the novel and we are not sure what the final state will be. Finding Ven’s reaction to Georg and their realisation of what he is capable of give the story a constant tension as we know Georg has a ruthless streak. Ven starts to interact with other elements, and we see a web of spies and deceit develop throughout the story and learning who we can trust makes every encounter feel dangerous. You never know who to trust and we see various factions with various aims all now vie for power with a growing rumble of war getting louder. This is a story of rising tensions, and you can sense this world is getting closer to the blue touch paper being lit.
The story is very character focused we meet all sorts and what I liked a lot is we rarely meet someone truly evil just wanting to be ruler of the world. North for me seems to be explaining that our ability to destroy the planet isn’t coming out of simply a desire to wreck it but a sense that humans are special, and we shouldn’t be limited in any way. We see as Georg’ groups gain power though the end of free prescriptions, the wealthier and powerful get more and ‘deserved’ privileges and ultimately we see that it is the return of capitalism in its full-throated desire to take everything without question that once again endangers the world. This becomes a story of competing ideals – sustainable co-operatives versus old school greedy powerful political groups pushing individuality and technology. One of the interesting takes North has is that we increasingly see the Medj’s view as correct in keeping the old knowledge hidden as we start to quickly see the consequences when it is used again for favouring short term gains. Typically SF doesn’t like to hide knowledge and this raises an interesting question is are there times when we should?
As well as a battle of the spies it is about a battle of ideas and with the hovering warnings of the kukay as a constant threat. The story treads an interesting path between science fiction and fantasy that I was not expecting. Reading this story in the light of the UN’s recent report regards our ever-nearing point of no return unless action is taken is a sobering and sometimes chillingly familiar experience. The drivers for Georg’s factions I once again heard on the news as counterarguments to not doing anything and this story reminds us why that route isn’t wise or safe. This novel does for science fiction with climate change what Dave Hutchinson’s Europe books have done to talk about nationalism and borders. Definitely one of my reads of the year and highly recommended you’ll be thinking about its messages for a long time after its final pages are turned.
