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.

When I first trained to be a spy, I would stand in front of the mirror and remember how it felt when the forest burned and the river roared, reach out for Vae and miss her flailing hand, don’t let go, don’t let go, and tell myself, It’s your fault. In time, I could do this, and meet my own eyes as the fire raged in the cauldron of my mind, and see no flush of colour nor any change in my breath, but was merely the mountain against which the wind must break.” Notes from the Burning Age, Kindle edition, chapter 19, location 4057 Notes From the Burning Age marks the return of award-winning writer Claire North and her most powerful and imaginative novel yet - a spellbinding tale set in a future utopian society that is thrilling, moving and thought-provoking in equal measure. Once, the spirits of the mountain, sea and sky rose against humankind. They punished us for the heresies of the Burning Age - the time when we cared so little for the world that it went up in flames. We learned to fear them, honour them, and in the centuries of peace which followed, the spirits slept. Ven Marzouki used to be a holy man, studying texts from the ashes of the past, sorting secrets from heresies. But when he gets caught up in the political scheming of the Brotherhood, he finds himself in the middle of a war, fuelled by old knowledge and forbidden ambition. And as the land burns again, the great spirits stir. This is a visionary, richly imaginative set in an age after the world has fallen (and burned), this masterfully imaginative story asks whether humankind can change the paths we seem fated to follow. I enjoyed the main character, Ven, very much especially when he suddenly shows who and what he really is. I liked the story too and of course it was beautifully written as I would expect from this author. My problem was that I am not interested enough in politics and the middle section of the book does become slow and bogged down by discussion and argument. Why didn’t it work for me? I nearly DNFed it after 20% in, because it dragged on and on. I soldiered through, because I loved other works from the author. And indeed, the middle-part was a breathless action plot. Only, that it was too much: Too many recurring situations where I thought “yet another XYZ”. Half of it would have perfectly well transported the needs and situation without giving up anything. The plot really wasn’t driven forward by yet another flight to yet another station.Notes from the Burning Age by Claire North is about a utopian society built from the ashes of a burning world. Scholars and archivists of the Temple have long searched and collected artifacts from our present age, preserving the knowledge so it may not fall into the wrong hands. The world has been at peace, keeping these spirits (“kakuy”) at bay. But man is bound to get greedy and want more. There will always be people for whom equality and equity are not enough, people who need praise and power, and that will be the downfall of utopia. Thoughts on Notes from the Burning Age I loved reading about the relationship between Ven and Georg. They are bound together by destiny and even when they separate, they continue to cross paths. For me, a good political thriller has contrasting people and continuous tension. The political landscape and struggles set up in Notes from the Burning Age is fascinating to observe, and the interplay between Ven and Georg is very well written. On the Burning Age (our present) Webb was educated at the Godolphin and Latymer School, London, and the London School of Economics. [ citation needed] This was my first Claire North book, though I've always been drawn to her books conceptually. After my positive experience with this one, I am bumping some of her others up on my TBR list.

It was about the time of the great migrations, when all the nations began to splinter like the burning bough and the wars of water and grain came upon the lands, that the kakuy woke. First they rose from the skeletons of the ocean reefs, glistening bone and acid breath. Then they climbed from the shattered mines, and their eyes were embers of coal and their feet broke the towns beneath their feet. Then they came from the sky itself, upon thunder and lightning they blazed, tearing down the monuments of man and bidding the earth swallow whole the sacrileges of the Burning Age. When things are good, we find ourselves wondering - what more? And what will I lose if I do not get more now? It is a trait that pushed mankind across the oceans and out into space - what is out there, what else? It is one of our most beautiful qualities and has for millennia served us well in finding new ways to live better. But like all things, it is neither good nor bad, but what we make of it." On the surface, Notes from the Burning Age appears to be a post-apocalyptic tale of survival on a future Earth ravaged centuries earlier by war and man's poisoning of the environment. Yet it develops into something else - a bittersweet dystopian tale of intrigue and espionage, where the central question becomes one of man's place in the world. Whether humanity can stay humble in the face of the environmental devastation it once wrought, or is doomed to repeat the cycle and again become a victim of its own arrogance. Does man stand above and apart from nature, destined to control it, or is he just a part of the larger whole? There's enough in NFTBA to satisfy SFF fans but I hope that when NFTBA is officially released that its also marketed to entice fans of spy thrillers as they'd be best pleased with this offering from Claire North.Ven came from the Temple, and spends years in dialogue with a mastermind of the Brotherhood. Their discussions veer from practicalities to philosophies, with Ven’s acerbic voice taking us through them and a world very different from ours, but sadly the same, as the Brotherhood eagerly takes advantage of unearthed information about old tech.