Thank you to Viking/Penguin and NetGalley for the ARC of the novel.

Earlier this year I read <i>Golden Days</i> by Carolyn See, a novel that in part imagines life in a post-nuclear war southern California. The world See describes before the nuclear annihilation is one of Los Angeles glamour, parties at mansions, the accumulation of wealth, while in the air there is the distinct scent of doom. It is never addressed directly, but there are references to tensions in the political sphere, chest-thumping politicians, whispers that grow louder of a nuclear threat. Would <i>they</i> really do it? But life goes on (what else can one do?), until it suddenly doesn't. The final section of <i>Golden Days</i> is the aftermath of the nuclear battle written with great detail and attention to the devastation on the environment and the human survivors. Eventually those survivors make their way to the California coast, where they join other survivors on a beach where the sand has melted into glass. And these survivors start to build community again.

I thought of See's novel when I finished <i>The Ancients</i>. John Larison has written a novel that is an acclamation of the human spirit, a celebration of the human will to live, and a reminder that humans thrive in community. In <i>The Ancients</i>, the existential threat is environmental made worse by the dominant civilization's refusal to change and adapt to the new reality. Instead of moderating their wants into needs, the empire seeks to extract more resources from a dwindling supply, causing devastating suffering for the many people not wealthy enough to purchase even the basics to sustain themselves. The leaders of this empire continue on this path of destruction because they have created an exit plan for themselves, a means of survival that does not have room for everyone.

Of course, there are echoes here of today's world with climate change and its potentially devastating effects along with the stories of the super-rich building their bunkers and spaceships in order to survive. <i>They</i> have their escape plans ready to go. The world of <i>The Ancients</i> is the world we are creating (destroying?) now, generations into the future. It is a world where humans are once again hunters and gatherers, living symbiotically with their environment, appreciating what nature provides without wasting the resources. Yet those humans who live in concert with nature suffer the consequences created by those who don't, those who seek material wealth above all else. And the cycle begins again. But Larison's novel is ultimately hopeful, seeing in humans the potential to survive, to come together and live together as community. There is definitely an appeal in the novel, I think, quiet, yet insistent, that maybe it is time to try a matriarchal approach to civilization. Larison's female characters are as strong as men, as fierce, yet ultimately the wiser, the ones gifted with the "longer view."

<i>The Ancients</i> is a fast, entertaining novel. Larison jumps right into the narrative, and readers are pulled along for a great story with characters that move you. What begins as three separate narratives gets funneled into a cohesive final whole that is satisfying and rich. In some parts almost Biblical, in other parts violent, and in other parts tender, <i>The Ancients</i> is a novel that is compelling in its writing and its vision.

Thank you #PenguinGroup #Viking and #NetGalley for providing this #ARC Advance Reading Copy. Expected publication date is October 15, 2024.

3.5 Stars • In a future where climate change has drastically altered the world, siblings Maren and Kushim embark on a journey to find their missing parents. Their mother, Lilah, has been kidnapped by Cyrus, a wool magnate with an obsession for ancient texts. The story explores survival, family bonds, and the impact of humanity's past on its future.

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This is a good character study focused mostly on a once content Neolithic family that gets split into factions by events mostly out of their control. As the fragments of the family split further, they pick up added characters including great tension with urban people living in a Bronze Age culture. Each player has a unique arc all of which are interesting as well as credible.

The writing is simply beautiful often brushing up against the lyrical or poetic. I particularly liked the image of an estuary as a place where the river braids before meeting the ocean. That phrase alone was, for me, worth the time reading this book. Each character covered in any depth has issues both external and internal. All are handled well.

I found it beyond whimsical that the citizens of this world or time eagerly mine a particular substance they prize for jewelry. It’s not core to the plot or theme but gives a good deal of timbre to the work. What one man prizes, another discards.

For me, one mark of how involved I get in a book is how annoyed I get when I have to leave off reading it. I was annoyed every time with this one. There is one overwhelming event affecting everyone which has caused an imbalance to an otherwise stable existence between the urban and rural factions. That fractionalization is very much a mirror of our times.

As the book fleshed out, I wondered at the speed of the event, or catastrophe that destroyed the balance. The event is a desiccation of the planet but not occurring in geologic time as it does but rather within a generation or two of the humans figuring out how to cope with it. The book finishes with unexplained and vastly unlikely meteorological drama as well.

It made no sense to me, but was fleshed out in the afterward or the author gave an explanation which I purely did not buy but I’ll not talk about either for not wishing a spoiler. As a tale, it’s engrossing and enjoyable. As a parable for our times, it misses the mark entirely, but I read it for the tale and not the lesson so five stars.

Thanks to Penguin Viking for this digital ARC of 'The Ancients' by John Larison.

This novel is absolutely spellbinding - the writing is beautiful and the structure is captivating.

Set sometime in the very distant future - from my calculations based on a comment it feels like about 5,000 years had passed since the ancestors of the people of this world had begun to re-establish 'civilization,' that starting point itself being a long time after a global catastrophe which I took to be both climate change (human-caused) and something more, possibly nuclear war? There are fleeting references to what we'd consider 'our' time (structures, myths derived from this time in history) which somewhat anchors elements of the story but it's very ambiguous and I loved that about it.

What became clear is that because of or despite the generations that had passed the Earth's inhabitants had forgotten and not learned a thing about conserving the planet or fairness, equality, and acceptance in society. The book sets out a very clear caste system within the urban population, especially, and describes a pretty familiar process of over-farming and abusing the land and over-fishing the seas and all of the human abuse that attends that.

Given that this book depicts another massive climate change in occurrence and there was this repeat of rich v poor thousands of years in the future this is not a terribly optimistic book but it's very believable.

As the blurb suggests, this is a multi-layered story and included throughout that bigger picture narrative there are two main character driven stories - an oceanside family shattered by circumstance and injury trying to reunite - blindly in the main - and a young aristocrat in the city struggling with his gayness - it's still verboten - and his place in this rapidly changing world. There are many layers of connectedness and strands throughout, it's really well structured.

This really is a gorgeous and poignant book - congratulations to the author.

I enjoyed the journey of this book. The visual imagery and writing made the reading easy to pick up,

The prose? Evocative. The landscape? Harsh and fleetingly beautiful. The story? A testament to human resilience and hope.

This novel is a journey—one that everyone should take.

Set in a world where the line between past and future blurs, the story follows several different perspectives, all through a lens of survival. The characters’ depth and versatility shine against the ever-changing backdrop, embodying endurance in the face of overwhelming odds.

I couldn’t exactly pinpoint where in time the story fell, but ultimately it was irrelevant—the themes are timeless and universal. The spare writing style starkly captures their world yet enriches it with sensory detail, creating a contrast that kept me engrossed from start to finish.

The interwoven fables lent a mythical quality, transforming the narrative into a profound cautionary tale of survival, loyalty, and the quest for a better future.