to reveal its secrets to new readers.
..Oh yes, this is what it said on the cover of the proof copy of C.A.Fletcher's new book..Like a health warning on the side of a cigarette packet. By the way, both warnings are worth taking seriously. For very different reasons off course, both yielding very different outcomes. Everyone wins when a cigarette health warning is heeded. A spoiler free rewards forthcoming readers, so in order to respect this request this could prove to be a very short review. that said, here is some food for thought...
Gris, the main character , is a young boy growing up with his family on a remote Scottish island, growing up in a world in which mankind had very narrowly scraped through an extinction level event; The Gelding. Mankind has stopped reproducing, or rather cannot reproduce. So over a relatively short but significant amount of time mankind has for all intent stepped down from his place as the dominant species on the planet. A planet which does not miss us and which nature very quickly reclaims. reclaiming her territory and growing over everything it has taken mankind centuries to build, civilization reduced to a momentary hiccup.
There is so much to recommend this novel, much of which cannot be said out of respect to C.A. Fletcher and his desire to entertain and excite the reader(Yep, the book is that good.) illuminating the storyline with great skill and in a manner which elevates this novel to the list of must reads.
(Charlie Fletcher's Oversight trilogy is
also well worth picking up.)
