I’ve been on a speculative fiction reading kick lately and this one absolutely worked for me. I had really enjoyed Nayler’s previous books The Mountain in The Sea and this one was also fantastic in many of the same ways. While his debut focused more on the personal sides of AI, nature, and what intelligence means, this one is definitely more political.

Nayler balances worldbuilding and giving a great snapshot of the wider world really well with intriguing characters with rich inner worlds and an interesting plot. Nayler has had a very international career and I find the way he approaches politics in his stories to be very compelling. While cities are mostly unnamed, it's easy to make guesses. But beyond that the systems he imagined are not only cool concepts, but they feel very believable.

I had planned to eyeball read this one, but when I saw Eunice Wong was the narrator, I decided to listen to it instead. Her narration was, as usual, fantastic. That being said, there are a lot of POVs in this one and I think that might feel a bit chaotic for some.

As terrifying as it is ultimately hopeful, however heavy-handed it might seem (and I hope that the future will render this work an odd piece of naive and short-sighted fatalism), Nayler has written the quintessential 1984 of our time. Whether it stands the test of time is anybody's guess, but right here, right now in the year of our lord 2025, few other books have captured the fears and anxieties of our current age and extrapolated them to a future in the disturbing middle-distance that is just far off enough to reassure ourselves these horrible things can be avoided and just near enough to make it feel like the Sword of Damocles that it is.

The main criticism I have for this work is the odd pacing. After a fascinating introduction, I personally got a little bogged down in the number of characters (which are ultimately manageable and well-juggled), trying to keep straight who was where in the world, and the typical sci-fi/futurist problem of having to explain the rules of a foreign world to those in our present place and time. Despite those things which make this sound like a dense, impenetrable tome, the story moves along at a brisk pace. Nayler has something to say with this book and it shows because he is much more interested in telling the story than in explaining the palace intrigues, the rules and parameters of the featured technology, or indulging in overly florid/descriptive language of any sort. He gives you just enough to make it feel real, to assure you that there is a hierarchy in the government, that the featured technology has an internal logical consistency, and describes just enough to render the fully formed future in your own mind.

Bringing together our present anxieties regarding the socio-political challenges the world is presently facing, the rapid development of AI, concerns about the surveillance state, and the general feeling that resistance is pointless, Where the Axe is Buried may or may not in the long-term sit alongside Brave New World and 1984 as a nouveau classic dystopian novel, but it is hard to imagine a more succinct and comprehensive illustration of the present zeitgeist.

Thank you to NetGalley and MacMillan audio for advanced access to the audiobook version of this book. Where the Axe is Buried is set to be published April 1, 2025 at time of writing.

The world in Where the Axe is Buried is just not really that different from today which makes it more of a techno-thriller or political thriller than just sci-fi. The characters are secondary to the intrigue, strategizing, and world-building, so much that I would say the characters are defined purely by their chess position in the set piece. It was not my thing but I did find it reminiscent of William Gibson or Neal Stephenson both of whom are also quite popular but I could never get into.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the arc (audiobook).

Where the Axe Is Buried by Ray Nayler

I read this book at the wrong time.

I had never heard of Ray Nayler until I saw his book The Mountain and the Sea on the nebula nomination list. (It’s still on my TBR pile!)

When I saw a new book by him on NetGalley, I decided to give it a go. This book was hard. It’s set in a world with an incredibly brutal fascist regime where the leader’s mind keeps getting transferred into new clones bodies when the body degrades. Some of the imagery was evocative and some of the language was beautiful, but reading about this brutal government as my own country descends further into fascism was not the diverting SF novel I was looking for. I also felt like many of the characters were ciphers with no interiority.

An interesting book, but not for me at this point in in time.

I listened to this at 2x speed.

Where the Axe Is Buried: A Novel by Ray Nayler, Palmer, Zoya, Nikolai, Nurlan and Krotov are working toward fighting against the global oppression of “Rationalized” leaders, holding their citizens under constant surveillance and crushing all freedoms.

I had the opportunity to be able to review both the book and audio version simultaneously. This dystopian/speculative fiction is wonderfully written. The narration by Eunice Wong was clear and well-paced, giving distinct voices to each of the characters, making it an engaging experience.

Thank you, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, | MCD for the opportunity to read the eARC & Macmillan Audio for the opportunity to listen to the ALC. All opinions are my own.

Rating: 4 stars
Audio Release Date: Apr 01 2025
Print Pub Date: Apr 01 2025

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Where the Axe Is Buried is a richly imagined looks at the potential effects of AI programs serving as leaders, and the mysterious purposes they might pursue contrary to what we typically think of as humanity's wellbeing. The title is a reference to burying the hatchet at the end of a war, where of course people will unfortunately just dig it back up and return to their violent nature at opportune times. It's full of intrigue and plotting from the AI PMs that are running each country to the people trying to restore some sense of humanity. It's a great thought experiment and entertaining as well.

This is perhaps my favorite style of speculative fiction, and if the themes hearken back to the 1960s era UKL, PKD, and Stanisław Lem books I love, it is because we face the threat of a different rising authoritarianism today. Speculative fiction is a lens in which we can analyze our own time and the near future and then challenge with radical ideas to look to shift ideology.

In the frightening future society Nayler envisioned, it is not human dictators we watch out for, though human greed does contribute, but AI prime ministers, built to make aggressive decisions the people cannot see and presidents seeking immortality of mind.

Where the Axe is Buried is centered around perspectives of the ordinary and extraordinary people some pushing the limits of rebellion, others of science, and others who just happen to be caught in the web. The technology feels terrifyingly real to the 2025 reader, and the politics even more so.

Where the Axe is Buried by Ray Naylor is a dense and thought-provoking story of a collapsing government in an unstable world. The novel looks at artificial intelligence, and examines power, resistance, and political structures. This multifaceted novel looks at society and technology though a dark lens.

The story left me thinking about how it applied in the real world. However, while the author skillfully prompts readers to draw their own conclusions, the lack of closure for many characters left me a bit unsatisfied. Much like real-world politics there are no neat or tidy resolutions. I found the action occasionally difficult to follow.

I listened to this as an audiobook and Eunice Wong delivers a commendable narration, adding depth and texture to the listening experience. This multifaceted novel looks at society and technology though a dark lens.

In the authoritarian Federation, there is a plot to assassinate and replace the President, a man who has downloaded his mind to a succession of new bodies to maintain his grip on power. Meanwhile, on the fringes of a Western Europe that has renounced human governance in favor of ostensibly more efficient, objective, and peaceful AI Prime Ministers, an experimental artificial mind is malfunctioning, threatening to set off a chain of events that may spell the end of the Western world.

This was a very interesting sci fi novel. Ray Naylor is a science fiction author to watch forsure. I have read and very much enjoyed his two previous books and this one was his best work so far:)

#gifted I received an early audiobook from netgalley and MacMillan Audio. The narrator is very well suited to the book! She did the variety of accents beautifully. 4.75 stars, if that were possible. Mountain in the Sea got 5 stars from me.

I am baffled at how much Nayler was able to fit into this book without it being overly long. I could not summarize the plot without writing something at least half as long as the book lol!

The plot is sharp, the themes well thought through, the characters a complex web of drama that is yet simple enough to push the action forward at a steady pace through the end.

I love dystopian literature. This absolutely fits on a shelf with We by Yevgeny Zamyatin, 1984 by Orwell, Brave New World, and so on. It's a brilliant modern take on the same issues. The context is updated for our technology now and the dark potential we fear, yet the same political fears still exist around the world.

What I took from the book is how inevitable that decline is if and once that Pandora's Box of technology and autocracy is opened, yet that personal courage and anarchy is still beautiful and worth it.

I found the writing beautiful and quotable. The characters were well fleshed out. What one reviewer considers too simple and childish in the technology, I judged to have kept the story from being too bogged down. I appreciate that for the dark and intense themes of this book, I was able to enjoy and follow the audiobook while my kid was at baseball practice or walking around Costco.

The authoritarian Federation is ruled by The President, who thanks to modern technology will never die, and no one is free. The west is stagnant, under the rule of AI MPs who haven't changed anything. On the brink of the world either being destroyed or replaced by something better, the lives of Zoya, Lilia, Palmer, Nikolai, Nurlan, and Elmira are intertwined.

This is an incredible dystopian novel imaging a techno-authoritarian future that considers what is good and what is evil and what does it mean to act. It is a complicated story that is both sad and hopeful, and I could not put it down.

I thought the narrator did a good job switching between all the different POVs.

I will need to read this again to understand everything but I'm still giving it 5 stars because it had everything I love in a great science fiction novel: there were intriguing ideas, lots of action, and compelling personalities. In fact, I had to sit on this for a while after finishing because I was heartbroken, especially after the author's note.
The themes are dark but you get to see some people's weaknesses and how they try to make things better. The narration was fantastic and held my attention. Thanks so much to NetGalley for letting me listen to this audiobook

As an avid dystopian reader, I was very confused about this story until about 75% of the way through, and honestly I still don't really know what happened in this book. This book followed multiple POVs and getting them to connect and come together took way to long for it to make any sense to me. I understand the overall message of the book, but I could not tell you what actually happened. If I did not receive this as an ALC I would have DNFed.

This book was a lot. I loved it but listening to it with all the current political turmoil happening made it hit way too close to home. I can see this book becoming a classic with books like 1984 and Fahrenheit 451.

The absolute despair of realizing how hopeless it feels trying to fight against a government that does not care if you live or die. A government so detached from any form of compassion or morality other than the sheer drive to hold on to as much power as possible. The inclusion of AI and the extreme levels of censorship used to create the power vacuum was so well written.

I am now left with an even greater sense of dread with the rise of authoritarianism across the world. Just a fantastic poignantly timed book.

2.5 stars
Thanks to Net Galley for the early preview of this audiobook.

I suppose overall that this book was not for me. There was too much going on and I had a hard time getting into each of these individual story lines. There were a lot of little story lines going on and I feel like when I was finally getting into one of them, it would move to something else, and that would make me lose interest altogether. I did like the author’s note at the end. It gives the book much more meaning.

I feel bad giving this a 2-star rating, but I unfortunately cannot assign half stars to my reviews.

Audiobook narrator Eunice Wong rating: 3 stars
I liked her a lot better in reading All the Water in the World. I feel like she changed her voice a lot better in that one. Either way, she was mostly ok at reading this book. There was a lot going on, so there was a lot to keep up. That is not an easy task.

This was such an incredible read (listen) for me. Futuristic authoritarian society, an incredible narrator, bleak hellscape. It was hard to stomach in our current climate that this is not a far-reaching event, but it was still important to read and have some takeaways.

4.5/5. Thank you to Mr. Nayler, the publisher, and Netgalley for the advanced listening copy.

First off, I hate how this dystopian future is something that I can see within arms' reach. AI has become a more "efficient" method of making decisions, to the point that these programs have become prime ministers. A president seeks eternal rule by downloading his "mind" (to be defined) into new bodies. Cameras are everywhere, and there are only a few "observation shadows" that give the citizens any freedom. It's a modern day 1984.

The plot follows the characters listed in the novel description, so I won't go into those here. But the author threads their POV together in a way that progresses the story forward while giving just enough of a hint of how each person influences the others (and the world). Each person serves a role in their own way of breaking the authoritarian rule of their countries, whether they do it intentionally or not. By the end, when the final chapters wrap up, it makes you sit back in your chair and really reflect on just what is happening in the world now and the influence on the future that Nayler rightfully addresses in the acknowledgement.

Also - Eunice Wong did an excellent job with the narration.

Full disclosure: I read this book twice. I really had to, and I got so much from the second read. It's a complex novel, or at least I found it to be so.

I've been an enthusiastic fan of Ray Nayler since his debut novel, and believe him to be the heir apparent to Michael Crichton. His first novel and novella were full of really smart science supporting first rate thrillers. There's science here again. It builds on the story told in his sophomore novella, actually. But as much as science is a part of the plot, he doesn't really get into the nuts and bolts this time around, because what this book really is is a political thriller. A distinctly dystopian one. Nayler looks at technology today, and at current authoritarian trends, and in best Crichtonesque form he looks forward. It ain't a pretty picture.

I don't feel the need to give further plot details. What I will say is this... While there is a female scientist at the center of the novel, it is more of an ensemble cast. There were a fair number of characters to keep track of, and many of them had challenging names. (Kurlan, who was that? Man? Woman?) There were also quite a few narrative threads. And while generally when I compare an author to Michael Crichton, it's a compliment, he wasn't the best with character development. That is also not Mr. Nayler's strong suit. For all of these reasons and more, there was a lot to keep track of. I'm sure a single read will suffice for most readers--or at least that's what most will be willing to invest--but it wasn't for me.

This is an intelligent speculative thriller. Yes, it's a little different than what we've seen from Mr. Nayler before, but this is only his third novel. It's good to shake things up. He remains at the top of my must-read list, and I look forward with anticipation to what he comes up with next.

This ended up being a hell of a ride. There's a lot going on here, to the point of there almost being too many POVs to track across all the intersecting threads, but at its core it's a story of change and what people are willing to do to enact it. It just also happens to feature using dioramas to implant thoughts in a subject's head, AI Prime Ministers and hellish social credit implementation, a President who's been reimplanting his consciousness in successive bodies, and the woman he exiled decades ago for the book she wrote about the world as it is now. Masterful plot work, and absolutely one of the books to read this coming spring. The narrator does an amazing job with the various threads she has to balance.

Where the Axe Is Buried paints a bleak picture of a futuristic world dominated by authoritarian AI and pervasive surveillance. Characters struggle against this oppressive rule, often finding their resistance futile, yet they continue to strive for something more. The narrative explores the chilling consequences of ceding control to artificial intelligence, even when done with good intentions, such as addressing global warming. The story follows various perspectives, including Lila, an inventor caught between the stability of AI-run London and the oppressive regime of The Republic as she attempts to see her ailing father. The narrative weaves together themes of resistance, technological control, and the potential collapse of societal structures.

I found the premise intriguing and appreciated the exploration of complex themes, drawing comparisons to works by Philip K. Dick and The Three-Body Problem. The novel's dark and often repetitive nature, however, polarized readers. Some found it enhanced the sense of despair, while others felt it dragged the story. The narrator's deadpan delivery was praised for adding to the overall atmosphere of bleakness. The author's note at the end was also highlighted as particularly thought-provoking.

The book's exploration of current social and political anxieties resonated with many readers. The parallels between the fictional dystopia and real-world events, particularly the rise of authoritarianism, were frequently noted. I found these connections disturbing and wished to avoid them, others considered them essential for understanding the book's message. The well-paced plot, diverse characters, and effective narration contributed to an immersive, albeit unsettling, reading experience.