Blog tour: The Ancients by John Larison

This post is part of a blog tour organised by Random Things Blog Tours. I received a free copy of the book in return for an honest review.

‘A young boy and his older sisters find themselves suddenly and utterly alone, orphaned in an abandoned fishing village. Their food supplies dwindling, they set out across a breathtaking yet treacherous wilderness in search of the last of their people.

‘Down the coast, raiders deliver the children’s mother, along with the rest of their human cargo, to the last port city of a waning empire. Determined to reunite with her family, she plots her escape – while her fellow captives plan open revolt.

‘At the centre of power in this crumbling city, a young scholar inherits his father’s business and position of privilege, along with the burden of his debts. As the empire’s elite prepare to flee to new utopia across the sea, he must decide where his allegiance lies.

‘With a rapidly changing climate shifting the sands beneath their feet, these three paths converge in a struggle for the future of humanity – who will inherit what remains and who gets to tell its story.’

The Ancients, by John Larison, is set hundreds of thousands of years in the future. Climate change has long since caused mass extinction, and the descendents of those humans who survived, having had to start again from scratch, know nothing of our time and lack much of our knowledge.

Siblings Leerit (aged 17), Maren (13), and Kushim (nine) are part of a hunter-gatherer population that relies largely on elk and fish for sustenance. When their parents go missing, the trio embark on a perilous journey to rejoin the rest of their village, who previously moved on to greener pastures while their family stayed put.

Their mother Lilah, we discover, has been kidnapped by raiders seeking additional hands to put to work treating wool in a faraway city. The city, such as it is, has made its fortune through sheep and bronze. Its citizens worship the sun, while their rural counterparts look to the sea and mountains.

However, the owner of this particular wool business, Cyrus, is a reluctant heir who feels more at home in the library than trying to meet increasing demands from his investors and the Emperor. Meanwhile, the city is becoming overcome by sand, and an ark is being built to spirit away those privileged enough to get a space – but will Cyrus be among them?

The Ancients is a fantastically detailed and well thought-through story. Larison brings three very different environments – the natural, makeshift world of the hunter-gatherers; the stifling, restrictive setting of the wool factory; and the sumptuous, comfortable spaces Cyrus is accustomed to – to life.

In each of these places, there are also dangers that seed a great deal of tension and suspense throughout the novel. The siblings face water, bears, and “barbarians” from the city (who, in turn, think of them as “primitives”); the women in the factory face punishment if they rebel or try to escape, as well as the unwanted attentions of their manager; Cyrus fears his biggest lender (who toys with him mercilessly), that his family won’t get tickets for the Ark, and that his gay relationship with medic Ashair will be revealed.

As well as vividly describing the physical attributes of each environment, the author provides a wealth of information on the different populations’ beliefs, customs, and histories. Not only were these imaginative and interesting to read about, but they make the book deep and rich.

Particularly central to the story, though, are the relationships between the characters, whether these already exist or we see them develop. From the outset, Leerit and Maren take their responsibility to look after their younger brother extremely seriously, and are very harsh on themselves when they perceive they’ve failed in doing so.

Meanwhile, Lilah feels the absence of her children keenly, and redirects her compulsion to protect and comfort towards Koneet and Kenta, a pair of young sisters who are captured and sent to work in the factory alongside her. When Cyrus realises his place on the Ark is in jeopardy, his concern isn’t for himself so much as for his mother, lover, and other characters of long standing in his life.

The kindness of strangers is another standout theme. The survival of the siblings in particular hinges on this: a nomadic couple provide them with a great deal of help when they’re especially desperate despite the language barrier between them, and Kushim discovers that city people aren’t universally barbaric.

This novel is marketed as an “optimistic” vision of the future, but I only agree with this to the extent that humanity has survived in a recognisable form, and conditions are generally liveable, if precarious. For one thing, it’s rather depressing to think of all the knowledge we’ve gained, and stories, music, art and so on we’ve valued over the last couple of millennia or so being lost.

Then there’s the fact that the city folk have essentially reinvented capitalism and slavery. Without giving too much away, there is a glimmer of hope that at least some of them might be persuaded of the benefits of a more collective approach, but it’s nonetheless a tad dispiriting to see humans making more or less the same mistakes again.

The Ancients is a detailed, imaginative, and suspenseful vision of the distant future.