The Second Sleep: A novel

Written by Robert Harris

Narrated by Roy McMillan

From the bestselling author of Conclave, Fatherland, and the Cicero Trilogy comes a chilling and dark new thriller unlike anything Robert Harris has done before.

1468. A young priest, Christopher Fairfax, arrives in a remote Exmoor village to conduct the funeral of his predecessor. The land around is strewn with ancient artefacts—coins, fragments of glass, human bones—which the old parson used to collect. Did his obsession with the past lead to his death?

Fairfax becomes determined to discover the truth. Over the course of the next six days, everything he believes—about himself, his faith, and the history of his world—will be tested to destruction.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
• Release date: Nov 19, 2019
• ISBN: 9780593154946

Robert Harris

Robert Harris is the author of fifteen novels, including Act of Oblivion, Pompeii, Enigma, and Fatherland. He has been a television correspondent with the BBC and a newspaper columnist for London’s Sunday Times and the Daily Telegraph. His novels have sold more than twenty-five million copies and been translated into forty languages. He lives in Berkshire, England with his wife, Gill Hornby.

Reviews for The Second Sleep

[lamour_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The novel is set in Wessex in 1468 which is not our 1468 but rather 800 years after the 2020's. Some event such as a nuclear war or catastrophic natural disaster such as a meteor crashing into the earth has destroyed the civilization in which we live now., law and order break down.

A priest is sent out to a rural village to conduct the funeral of the village priest. Once there he discovers the old priest has been collecting artifacts from the lost civilization which is considered heresy by the church. The young priest is soon caught up in the mysteries of books and artifacts the priest has left in his home and ends up digging for more information.

A disturbing novel if it makes one consider what life would be like on earth after a huge natural disaster or nuclear war wreaked havoc with civilization and social structure.

[lewisz-546970 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A dark look at the collapse of the modern world told as a post apacolyptic regency epistolary novel. It was engaging and the characters reasonably fleshed out.

The central mystery and plot were a little flat and the ideas about the end of our age left a little half baked. However it was a alright novel of ideas.

[daftboy1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This book is very different.
I originally thought it was based in the Middle ages, but it is actually set 800 years in the future.
Seems there was a big apocalypse, civil war, and millions of people died. It pushed England back to the days before electricity.
The Church has most of the power now.
The main character is Father Cristopher Fairfax who is asked to sort out an old Parish Priests affairs after his death. Fairfax discovers the old Priest used to collect old antiquities from the time of Mobile phones and cars.
Fairfax meets a young Lady called Sarah he rerally likes her she is engaged to local hardman and mill owner Captain Hancock. Hancock helps bails out a heretic and wants his help in looking for treasure at a local landmark called the Devils tower.
Disaster strikes a worker dies the other workers run off.
Hancock blasts the tower the find a tomb to a man called Morgenstern who was a big deal before it all kicked off. The Bishop arrives with his Sheriffs to arrest them for Tomb raiding there is a big mud slide. Every one perishes apart from Fairfax and Sarah who are very weak and appeared trapped. Different book.

[edwardsgt · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Ostensibly a story set in the 15th century, but you suddenly realise that in fact is set in a post-apocalyptic England when various artifacts from contemporary 20th century emerge. Cleverly written and imagined.

[dianapeter · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I have read Robert Harris from the time he was a Sunday Times journalist, through Fatherland and a constant stream of excellent books

So I greatly looked forward to reading Second Sleep. It's an interesting concept, but the book is a complete let down towards the end, which was very weak and disappointing, as if RH couldn't see how to end the novel.

For me, the book was a waste of time.

[zare_3 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

What starts like a late medieval-set novel, reveals itself even after first few chapters to be an SF story with a twist.

We are given a dystopian view of England in far future after a cataclysmic event (after hundreds of years nobody knows what and actually when) that basically sent entire world back into middle ages. Religion is again treated as an ultimate truth, something that exist to save the humanity from the Hell created by the science in time before the Fall. Church (in this case Anglican, but story describes also similar theological societies rising all over the world - meaning all religions are on the rise, and rather tightly coupled with state and almost constant warfare) rules as the spiritual part of the state, it's moral backbone (as I said, middle ages,right). As a consequence any attempt to learn from the past (or for that case, any digression from any official religious view of world events, past, present and future), led by old, weary professor-like types is marked as heresy and people pursuing this forbidden knowledge always end up in chains, locked for life or very much up to the point where they get released broken, mentally and physically, their whole body of work destroyed.

So far, usual religion iron-fist vs science's pure seeking of truth. Right?

So when unsuspecting young priest ends up sent by his Bishop to bury the priest that was found dead in rather suspicious circumstances (again keep in mind that superstition rules in this world, at least on the surface, so finding death bodies in any place named Devil's whatever automatically means Evil Spirits are responsible, so everything is suspicious) he starts (again unwittingly) to unravel mystery around the dead priest and his parish.

What comes out is very good study of human nature. Priest, young and very much susceptible to earthly pleasures, [forbidden] love affair, nefarious Bishop, strong [in body and in will] adventurer, and broken scientists, they all become parts of the story that very slowly, in a detective-like-way that could easily be written by Agatha Christie, ends up in a climax that [at least for me] echoes the ending of the original Planet of the Apes.

I wont say anything about the end because this rather short novel is so easy to spoil. What I will say is that author perfectly explains the human nature, and what people are ready to do to achieve their goals. And if I read this book at the time when it was published (2019) I would be very much surprised (shocked is rather heavy word). But after the world-wide disaster of handling the emergency in last 3 years book rings very very true - one does not want to see what human society is willing to do in time of crisis, it is never nice and level of enlightenment of any party involved plays absolutely no role - they all see themselves as the chosen ones.

Excellent book, message of it in striking contrast with the very light, whodunit, way story is presented.

Highly recommended.

[drapple_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is an enjoyable book. It seems to be set in the Middle Ages until more and more clues let you know that this is a post-apocalyptic tale.

[starkravingmad_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Medieval England? think again. This is an England 800+ years from now. Harris creates a dystopic futuristic world where progress and science are viewed as evils. Page turner for the first 90% but the ending is a disappointment.

[paulmorriss · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I think it's best to know little about this book before starting it, because the twist that is revealed part way through, is quite a surprise. Once you know what you know it's still really interesting to see how things pan out.

[write5review · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Intriguing Idea Misses Mark

In Robert Harris’ latest, a young priest is forced to weigh his faith against historical knowledge that could put everything society believes to the lie. Harris sets the tale in the far future, eight hundred years from the present. In the intervening time, the world has undergone a cataclysmic upheaval. Turns out that the world we know came to a fairly abrupt and deadly end. People were left to fend for themselves in a primitive environment; imagine a world without cellphones, not to mention easily available food, civil government, and the like. In these circumstances, people looked for ready answers and a system they could put their faith in. As throughout human history, what could not be explained with science and rational thought became the province of religion. Thus, the church, as was the case back in fifteenth century England, shared governance with the monarchy. So then, in Harris dystopian view, this is the fate of the world, to exist in a perpetual medieval state. Of course, to protect its authority, the church suppresses all knowledge of the past before the apocalypse. Further, it allows no archeological excavations and confiscates bits and pieces of the past that surface. It’s in this world that Father Fairfax sets out to close the accounts of a church in Wessex whose pastor has recently died.

Harris combines adventure and soul searching in this novel. The adventure revolves around solving the mystery of an ancient concrete structure located on the hill near the church village. Father Lacy has been something of an iconoclastic priest, a minister to his flock, but also a man who appears to have an intense and heretical interest in the past. He died digging at the structure, and, as Father Fairfax discovers, he possesses both heretical artifacts and texts, both in inordinate amounts. These arouse Father Fairfax’s suspicions that perhaps someone murdered Father Lacy and this was directly tied to his interest in the past. As Father Fairfax gets to know people in the community, especially Captain Hancock, who pretty much controls the secular side of the town by virtue of his successful weaving business, Lady Durstan, a noble woman who is financially destitute whom Hancock wishes to wed, and Dr. Shadwell, a man questing for knowledge of the past and literally branded a heretic, he becomes more and more wrapped up in speculating about the past, about the lives of the people who lived during those times, and his own faith that suppresses knowledge that might lead to better lives for everyone.

Unfortunately, while all this sounds intriguing in summary, reality is another story. Familiar cliches here used obviously detract from the tale. Just by reading the above summary, you can easily discern what one is. Then there is the exploration mounted by Hancock to discover what treasure might lie within the concrete structure. In fact, this is what we all want to know and the reason most will trudge on with this the novel. The discovery is less than spectacular and even the twist Harris inserts at the end does nothing to make it better. As for the heart of the tale, that of a priest struggling with his belief system, his transformation becomes transparent nearly from the beginning. While Father Fairfax wrings his hands frequently, there’s little intellectually interesting about his struggle. So, in the end, the novel might be a pleasant read for some. However, fans of dystopian literature will probably find it lacking. Historical fiction readers will be left wanting, too. And those seeking something intellectually meatier in the dystopian realm, these readers will leave disappointed. Readers may find some of Harris’ other novels more satisfying, but this isn’t one of them.

[bravekelso · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The novel has a dystopian SF premise - civilization collapsed after a disaster, revived in and evolved into superstious dark age without electricity or powered machinery. It has elements of intrigue and bodice-ripping romance novel set in a pre-modern society.

[atreic · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Ah, this book! There are so many things I can be critical about about this book, but it was a good page turner with a pacey plot. Maybe I would have liked it better if I was 20 years younger and not so well read in the post apocalyptic genre. The world building is fine if you can suspend your disbelief ('we reset the calendar, because it would be neat if this novel is set in the 14th Century, as the schtick is that after the apocalypse we have all returned to 14th century church run pre-industrial society. Except we decided to start counting from 666, err, because that's Cool'). The characters are mostly cyphers (why does everyone fall for the slightly weak priest?) and there are ideas that are thrown in but underused, and also don't stand up to too much scrutiny (the mute woman who turns out to be the daughter of the old priest, who is not really mute at all. Surely it is easier just to not say the priest is your father than to Literally Keep Mute for over a decade?). And it's dark. Like, it's a page turning adventure romp, but no-one is really very nice, and the ending is bleak.

[socprof9740 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

That one missing star is because there are too many loose ends, not enough background, and the pay-off is a bit too small.
The fun bit is you start reading a story you think is taking place in the 1400s but soon realize it's 1400 long after our time. For reasons largely unknown, the Internet collapsed and so did our societies, reverting to medieval-style, pre-industrial, monarchical, feudal theocracy. The premise is that, in this new world, young priest Fairfax is sent out to the middle of rural England after the current priest has died. Looks like the old priest engaged in what is now considered heresy (like collecting old tech). Documents go missing and the new priest starts investigating. That's about as much as can be revealed without spoiling.
But again, this whole thing amounts not to a whole lot, which is disappointing.

[juliestielstra · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

A reliable librarian friend recommended this one - he liked it, even though Harris is not one of his favorite writers. As someone with a fondness for medieval settings, I dove right in happily enough. Hit a snag early on when Christopher Fairfax "dug his knees into the flanks of his mare," as anyone who actually rides a horse would know this was pretty impossible. But never mind. I got a laugh-out-loud moment when the bitten-apple logo appeared, and figured at least this would be fun. And it was, mostly. The setup and premise is interesting, speculating on the aftermath of a world-shaking cataclysm (reminded me of the freakouts we all had over Y2K) that ruined the world of airplanes and iPhones and The Cloud, sending the world back into a "Second Sleep" of civilization, slowly coming to life again. But... characters are thin (Hancock's bluff, superhuman stubbornness; the usual independent-woman love interest), and it devolves into a dark, wet, muddy mess. In the interest of avoiding spoilers, many others have noted they didn't like the ending - but can't / don't want to explain why. Does it just not turn out the way they had hoped or expected? Or were they disappointed in how it was realized? I have no trouble with ambiguous / unclear / unhappy endings, so the one we get serves as well as anything else might have. It was a fairly engaging read, better written than a lot in the popular genre, and had some good moments, but nothing outstanding. Not sorry I spent a couple evenings in the Year of Our Lord 1468, but probably won't seek out Mr. Harris's company again.

[lara335 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

*Spoiler Alert*
I loved the premise of this book. It starts in the 15th Century, but within a chapter or so, the word ‘plastic’ is mentioned, and it becomes clear that the action is taking place 14 centuries into the future...The inhabitants are ruled by a clergy that have forbidden excavations into the past. But one priest is curious.

So far so good, but the characters weren’t particularly interesting, and it took a lot of pages for not much to happen.

Am a fan of Harris, but found this tale disappointing, if thought-provoking , it could have been so much more.

[john_warner-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This novel began strong, simmered nicely in the middle, but ended with a whimper. It is as if the author ran out of steam with its abrupt ending leaving a number of loose ends untied. Although I believed this to a standalone novel, now I'm not too sure. It is as if the author is setting the stage for a sequel.

The novel opens in the year 1468 with our protagonist, Fr. Christopher Fairfax assigned to the cathedral city of Exeter, England being directed by the Bishop to celebrate at the funeral of the pastor of the distant village, Addicott St. George, who recently died after a fall from a nearby geological outcropping called the Devil's Chair. Shortly after he arrives, Fairfax discovers that the pastor's office contains a number of heretical documents.

When I first began reading this novel, I believed I was reading a medieval mystery similar to Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose. However when Fairfax also discovers that the local parson's office includes a collection of artifacts, such as a plastic rectangular object with the symbol of an apple with a bite taken out of it, that I wasn't reading a medieval mystery. The year is actually the number of years after a major catastrophic event which has driven the world to a pre-technological state. No one remembers exactly what the catastrophe was that created a now dystopic environment. Additionally, the church has become arbiter of which actions are heretical with full authority to punished the heretics.

If this book is the prequel to other books, I might re-evaluate my rating; however, for now it stands because it of its abrupt and dissatisfying climax.

[smik_3 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

You might want to challenge some of my categories for this book. I've said it is not crime fiction although crimes have been committed. And I've said it is historical although it is set in the future.

The first challenge for the reader is to work when this novel is actually set. Dates are given that challenge our ideas of chronology. How can a book that is set in future feel so much like it is set in medieval times? What has happened to "our world"?

I saw some reviews that said this book went nowhere - that the initial idea was good but the result was disappointing. I actually thought it gave us a lot to think about.

[dramman_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An inventive tale but somewhat short of excellent , so a bit disappointing- compared to Harris's other work - Archangel, the Cicero Trilogy etc

[ken5me5old5mate · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Everything I have read by Robert Harris I have enjoyed immensely. This book is no exception.

There is a degree of mindfuckery going on here but I wont spoil it by telling you how that works, just be prepared to be surprised and surprised again when the surprise you get is not the surprise you were expecting. The body of a good mystery gets uncovered again and again.

Superficially simple, but anything but.

Very enjoyable indeed.

[gwendydd · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I thought about giving up on this book a few chapters in, and in retrospect I wish I had. It was just engaging enough to keep me going, but ultimately it didn't really go anywhere.

It's set in a post-apocalyptic future. Something has happened to wipe out all technology, and society has basically reverted to the Middle Ages, sort of. There is no explanation of how the Catholic Church ended up becoming the dominant religious and apparently political structure. There is no explanation as to why society went backwards to something that resembles the Middle Ages instead of forwards to something new. There is no explanation (other than "The Catholic Church is repressive") for why science and technology and other forms of learning have been repressed.

The book is kind of a murder mystery - a young priest has been sent to a small town to perform a funeral for the village priest. He soon begins to suspect that there is more to the death than meets the eye, and realizes that the dead priest was involved in a secret society that collected forbidden information about the technology of the civilization that existed before the apocalypse.

The characters are all very flat and trite - there's the naïve young priest, the attractive worldly older woman who is inappropriately independent, the brutish rich man who is determined to control the woman, the oppressive powerful bishop, and the aging charlatan heretic who knows all the forbidden secrets. The women are all attractive (except for an old crone) and all attracted to the priest. Harris tosses these characters together with a bunch of pre-industrial stereotypes, and the story builds and builds, and then he doesn't seem to know what to do with it and it ends all of a sudden.

The best I can say for it is that it's engaging, but there is really nothing original here, and the book doesn't seem to have any point.

[arubabookwoman · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The cover of this novel (the silhouette of a hooded figure on a horse in front of a Norman church tower) and the blurb led me to believe this was a medieval murder mystery. But only a few pages in, an anachronism: reference to a "patchwork quilt." I know (but maybe a lot of people don't know) there were no patchwork quits in the Middle Ages. But this was a small thing. But then there were references to artifacts from the past--made of plastic. Huh?

Anyway, the novel is set in 1468. A young priest has arrived in a remote village to conduct the funeral for the village priest who has died under mysterious circumstances. His death may be related to his hobby of collecting artifacts from the past, including strange devices embossed with the symbol of the devil--an apple with a bite taken out of it. The mystery of course is what caused civilization to collapse, and why are people continuing to live in primitive circumstances.

This was a nice quick read. Nothing earth-shatteriing, but definitely diverting. Recommended for escapist reading.

3 stars.

[antao-3 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

“The Second Sleep” is set 80 years in the future (which puts it at 2800 AD) though the year is described in the book as being “the Year of Our Risen Lord 1468”. I shall say no more…

I was so looking forward to reading Robert Harris's “The Second Sleep” that I think I gave it too much of a build up. I'm a fan of 'post-apocalyptic' novels and he's such a good author, it seemed a marriage made in heaven. But all that changed inexorably as I read deeper - the future he imagines has been done to death already. Why must we always be seen to be slipping back into something resembling what has gone before? The 17thC as a trope for future re-imaginings is tiresome. It's not a foregone conclusion that we return to a kind of semi-feudal state, or that superstition and re-entrenched religion command our lives and yet this seems to be the way of things in schlocky sci fi, of which, I'm disappointed to say, 'The Second Sleep' is a prime example. The ending seemed rushed too, as though Mr. Harris wanted a quick way out of a narrative that he also felt himself bogged down in. From a masterful storyteller I expect better than this. Oh well, better luck next time, Robert (see, projection doesn't always have to be gloomy!).

I would highly recommend “Little Bird” by Darcy Van Poelgeest, Ian Bertram and Matt Hollingsworth. It's a comic series about a war between a fundamentalist Catholic United Nations of America and a liberal and secular Canada. It's quite heavy on the SF so it might not be everyone's cup of tea but it touches on the same themes as similar premises such as “The Handmaid's Tale” but of course with beautiful and intricate drawings by Ian Bertram and fantastic colours by Matt Hollingsworth.

It's a disturbing thought that the modern world, with its Enlightenment values and scientific progress, might be a historical blip. The industrial revolution is the material basis for it all, and what's left to sustain it once we've squandered those resources? Of course, Enlightenment values did not come into being out of the blue. They have had antecedents throughout history. As has science and empiricism. All ancient cultures did science. They all exercised scepticism - maybe a bit less than they could have, but then they did not have the luxury of vast amounts of data. They all asked questions about the role of the state, and the responsibility of rulers towards their subjects. They may not have reached the same answers as the Enlightenment, but the striving towards greater knowledge, and better forms of social organisation, was universal.



SF = Speculative Fiction.

[bridgey_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A bit of a strange book this one, I really enjoyed the idea of a plot set in the middle ages especially after having read Conclave and enjoying it. I don't think I can really describe the plot in too much detail without creating spoilers, but we follow a young priest - Christopher Fairfax , who has been sent to a remote English village in order to bury the former vicar - Thomas Lacy. However, there seems to be something a little odd surrounding the life of the recently deceased father, and in a world dominated by the church it appears as if he has broken rank and taken interest in science. On a daily basis new artefacts are being found that point to a different history to that being taught in the pulpits, but at the risk of being deemed a heretic will Fairfax delve deeper?

Brilliant idea for a book and the first half 2/3rds was really page turning, but the ending was just such a let down. It was almost as if Harris couldn't wait to get it done or simply ran out of ideas, or more than likely committed himself to the book and the ending and didn't want to give up. It's not a bad read by any means but it definitely isn't his best. Worth a look though.

[ineilc-279646 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

An intelligent imagining of the collapse of our civilisation.

[hadden_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An interesting book and a good read. A misty, medieval England is the setting for this novel where a young priest is sent out to a remote village to bury the vicar who died under, perhaps, mysterious circumstances. Like the priest, the reader must follow the clues to find the story behind the given facts. Soon, the reader realizes this is not a story from the past, but from the future, when civilizations collapses and must be re-discovered. However, science and research are forbidden, and the dead priest had evidently been involved in digging for artifacts from the past.
Entertaining and well written, the book sets the stage for what is apparently planned for a sequel. As others have said, this book reminds me of the 1959 novel, "A Canticle for Leibowitz", by Walter M. Miller. A sense of feeling that past years were better than the current ones adds to the dystopian atmosphere of the book. I also like any book that quotes freely from the Anglican Book of Common Prayer.
Like other reviewers, I feel the dénouement was abrupt and the reader is left hanging. I hope this is because a sequel is on the way, which I truly would like to read. Recommended.

[auntmarge64 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Post-apocalyptic dystopian fiction that never quite gels.

In a future middle ages, a young priest is sent on a 30-mile journey from Exeter to bury the priest of a small hamlet. He discovers that the priest was interested in antiquities, a heretical study condemned by the church with prison sentences, branding, and sometimes execution. Despite himself, the priest gets drawn into the subject and risks everything to try to uncover what the dead priest was searching for when he fell to his death from a nearby hill. It's an interesting premise, has the feel of "A Canticle for Leibowitz" to some extent, but it doesn't quite hold together, and the ending didn't work with the book as a whole.

[davidroche_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

As well as visiting the North East, I nipped along to south west London’s Wimbledon Book Festival last week to hear Robert Harris talk about his latest book The Second Sleep (Hutchinson). It seems that more than one of our nation’s best-loved novelists is looking to the future to try and make sense of where we are now. The author confirmed that there is no point in writing Fiction about our current predicament - it is beyond the plausible, nd every time you think that events and the cast of characters have stretched it to braking point, along comes a pole-dancing American who is an IT expert. About to dive in...

[tedwitham · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The Second Sleep is set several centuries into the future after the great collapse of civilisation. A powerful – and fundamentalist – church has taken power while England has returned to pre-industrial conditions: there are no cars, and therefore roads are poor. The fastest travel is horse-back. Village life centres around small-scale horticulture, providing just enough for the villagers.

A young priest is sent to a tiny village in Exmoor to bury the parish priest who has died after decades in the same parish. He discovers a world of secrets, from the housekeeper’s relationship to the old priest, to the illegal search for evidence of pre-collapse civilisation.

Many of his discoveries take place between the first and second sleeps, as people have reverted to the pre-electric light habit of having a period of waking between two stretches of sleep. ‘The Second Sleep’ begins to take on more meanings as the novel progresses.

Robert Harris is known for his novels of Ancient Rome (Imperium, Lustrum, Pompeii) and of institutions under stress including the army and the church (An Officer and a Spy, Conclave). He writes page-turners, and his writing is simple and clear. You feel the mud and slush of unpaved streets and the smell of animals sharing living space with humans.

The Second Sleep is a compelling novel of the new genre of cli-fi (climate science fiction). Itis a meditation on our world on the brink of great destruction, perhaps brought about by climate change, perhaps not, and our values of freedom and progress.

Harris makes no final judgement as to which is worse, our world or his dystopia, but The Second Sleep is an appeal to maintain an open society in which power is shared between citizens and not centralised in a power-hungry institution.

It is also a novel of finding love and the difficulty of holding onto love in a repressive society. After a slow start with the characters, I enjoyed the priest Fairfax, his Lady, Sarah Durston, and Captain Hancock.

[drmaf-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Intriguing novel spoilt by a rushed and unsatisfactory ending. Christopher Fairfax is a young priest in 1400s Wessex journeying to a small village to conduct the funeral of the village priest. The big reveal is made very matter of factly 10 pages in, it is in fact several hundred years after the collapse of technological society, science is outlawed and the Church rules. Fairfax discovers forbidden books produced by an antiquarian society dealing with the collapse, and has to choose between his faith and his desire to solve the mystery of why technological society fell. He is assisted by a local lady whom he falls in love with, her fiancée the local squire and an eccentric philosopher facing a death sentence for heresy. The novel is praiseworthy for the suspense it builds, totally wrecked though by an anticlimactic and very rushed ending, and its very valid questions about the fragility of our advanced society and what will come after. Certainly worth reading, but be warned, the last couple of pages will make you want to throw the book against the nearest wall.

[beamis12 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

3.5 A versatile author who has tackled everything from Pompeii to the election of the pope in Conclave. In this one he presents the reader with another unique plot, one I will not discuss as it would be deemed as ruining the read for others. I will say it is done well, is a very interesting concept and presents a moral dilemma for a young priest. The characters are varied, and a few not what they seem.

The book was going along nicely, was thoroughly immersed in the story, wondering where it would lead and how it would end, when it went off the rails. Wish the ending wouldn't have been as melodramatic as it turned out, I was enjoying the literay flavor of the read, and the ending put to much into too short of page amount. I did though enjoy the stories originality, so there is that. Pros and cons, but still worth reading.

ARC from Edelweiss.