The Ancients is a post-apocalyptic climate novel. One family lives a prehistoric-feeling life. They live in isolation in the wilderness trying to survive after the fish and elk they depend on for food begin to disappear. The rest of their tribe has moved on, hoping for a better life. This family is fractured further when the father is killed and the mother captured by raiders. Their children, Kushim, Maren, and Leerit, not knowing why their parents abandoned them, struggle to survive as the oldest daughter, Leerit, attempts to lead them to the rest of their tribe. In the meantime, their mother, Lilah, is desperate to reunite with her children but is held in a tightly-guarded compound by her captors. There she encounters a mother with two daughters in similar straits. Their compound is in a city of haves and have-nots with an economy based on wool. The occupants of the city are more sophisticated that the prior family, but are recycling plastic bits and bronze from a prior civilization. Sand is overtaking all grazing lands and even the city itself. Cyrus, a city-dweller and owner of sheep and wool-processing plants, struggles with his forbidden love for another man and his loyalties to the Emperor. When he fails to deliver the required quota of wool, he is unable to obtain a seat on the ark that is to transport the haves from the failing city.
I enjoyed parts of The Ancients and at times was transported by near-lyrical prose; however, I found challenging to connect with. The three threads take a long time to coalesce. The book is broken into many sections and, at times, it was hard to tell where and whom I was reading about. There are some political underpinnings, and some parts that seemed too preachy. Unlike with Larison’s Whiskey When We’re Dry, I was not immediately immersed in the story and felt that it was too long and too fragmented.
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The Ancients (Viking, October 15, 2024) is available through:
Your local independent bookseller | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
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You can read my review of Whiskey When We’re Dry here.
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