I discovered this is part of a trilogy so I assume that some of issues could be caused by not having read the other books.
I thinks it's well written but I could warm up to the story and it fell flat.
Not my cup of tea.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

I did like this book and what it was doing and how it presented the characters in this. There were moments when the writing wasn't that accessible but for the most part it was easy to follow and I like the world it created. The final section could have been a bit tighter for me but it wasn't awful, just not what I expected.

In preparation for reading Alexandria, I decided to re-read the first two parts of the trilogy (The Wake and Beast). This is not necessary and you can read Alexandria without reading either of the two other books. In an interview with The American Conservative, Kingsnorth says ”Alexandria is the last book in the series. It’s set a thousand years from now, in the same place as The Wake. There are a lot of echoes, but it’s also a book that stands alone. It can be read without even knowing the other two exist; but if you have read them, there will be an added layer of richness to it. The common theme of all the books is the relationship between people and the land — and the notion that the land is a lot more sentient and aware than we might give it credit for.”

That final sentence gives you a clue about where Kingsnorth is heading. Also, the fact that this enthusisatic interview/review is in The American Conservative gives you more clues about what is going on. To Google Paul Kingsnorth is to disappear into a labyrinth of dark ecology, the Dark Mountain Project, the Uncivilisation manifesto and much more.

The Wake and Beast were, largely, stories but with reflections of some of Kingsnorth’s views. Alexandria, it feels to me, is far more expositional about those views and the story just tags along for the ride. To be fair to the author, he has characters exploring several different, even opposing, points of view, but large portions of the book are pure exposition and become rather wearing.

The Wake was set 1000 years in our past. Beast was set in our present. Alexandria continues the progression and is set 1000 years in our future. Alexandria starts out in the same physical location as The Wake although things have changed in the intervening 2000 years, largely driven by the novel’s key theme: the activities of human beings (e.g. sea levels have risen dramatically). In the Fens of East Anglia, we meet a small community living off the land (what is left of it after the rising sea has flooded most of it). They are part of the Order and serve the Lady. There are hardly any of them left. The reason for their dwindling numbers is clear to their leader (“mother”): there is a kind of stalker out there who is dangerous. These stalkers are servants of Wayland (back to Wake territory) and they imprison people’s souls in Alexandria.

This set up gives us protagonists on two sides of an argument. There are the leaders of the small community and there are the stalkers. Eventually the two sides engage in a dialogue where they explain their points of view. This is where the book starts to fall down for me. The stalkers very much reminded me of Agent Smith from The Matrix (and we do, in fact, get a comparison of the human race to a pathogen/virus at one point, which is perhaps Agent Smith’s most famous quote). There’s an awful lot of exposition. Far too much exposition for me to enjoy the book.

The key question being explored is whether human beings should live within the natural limitations they have (our bodies) or should attempt to progress (if that is what you call it) beyond that. As we learn the truth about Wayland the whole idea of artificial intelligence comes into play.

Language has always been important in this trilogy. The Wake was written entirely in a “shadow tongue” designed to give the feel of old English in a way that was comprehensible for today’s English speakers. It worked really well. Beast was, for large parts, fractured in its language and that met with mixed reactions. I enjoyed it more on a second reading than I did on the first. Alexandria again invents a kind of language, this time a sort of cut down, minimal English. For me, this was the least effective of the linguistic experiments in the three books.

If I am honest, I felt like giving up on this book at several points. I reached these points mainly during one of the interminable info dumps. The story floating around in the background is OK if all rather predictable, but the prolonged preachy bits really put me off.

I loved Paul Kingsnorth's The Wake for its innovative use of language and while Beast was less innovative in that regard but still an interesting, if flawed read. In particular my review commented that "to Kingsnorth's credit, and as in The Wake, he doesn't make his narrators particularly sympathy-rousing mouthpieces, indeed the delusions of both buccmaster and Buckmaster as such as actually to force the reader to question their views, a brave authorial decision and one which lifts this from mere polemic to literature''.

But I am afraid Alexandria didn't work for me at all. The use of language felt rather silly, and the underlying message of the story crossed the line to polemic.

What a great book thoroughly enjoyed throughout read it super quick didnt want to put it down....would definitely recommend this book to others

I am not sure I’m going to manage to adequately summarise this book or sum up my feelings about it, but I shall give it a go! Alexandria is a work of eco-fiction, set about a millennium in the future, well after the height of the human civilisation. At this peak (now), the human impact on the earth had taken a massive toll, but humans had also become capable of understanding AI to such a degree that they could create a mind capable of building a virtual city, Alexandria, to house ascended humans so that they could live forever without bodies. Most humans escaped from the hunger and rapidly worsening climate into Alexandria, and the rest of them who don’t believe in Alexandria as a choice now live in tribes, following The Way, trying to live in harmony with nature and animals, revering birds as messengers of The Lady. Language has devolved, so it’s similar to reading the furthest future in Cloud Atlas - some words are written in a new phonetic spelling, or some come from old Anglo-Saxon (and Britain is Albion; we are Atlanteans). It’s not always easy to understand but the story is intriguing and the people of the tribe have a deep and immense understanding of nature which they pass down which is in its way immensely more wise than those who believe in the AI. The tribe are dwindling in number because of the Stalker, who comes to tempt them to join the ascended minds in Alexandria, but the remaining members of the tribe are trying to keep faith in an ancient prophecy, that when swans return, Alexandria will fall. I enjoyed reading this and it’s one I am sure I will keep thinking about, as at its heart this is asking deep questions about the way we live now and how we can live better, or if we are even capable of it.

My thanks to #NetGalley and the publisher Faber and Faber, for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

This is the third and concluding volume of a two millennia spanning trilogy, which started with ”The Wake” (Booker longlisted, Goldsmith shortlisted, Gordon Burn Prize winner) in 2014 and “Beast” in 2016.

“The Wake” I found an outstanding novel. Set in 1066-1068 (ie around 1000 years ago) it featured Buccmaster, Lincolnshire landowner, and is effectively a tale of resistance to Norman invasion by someone though who was already set apart from his fellow fen dwellers by his following of the old gods and particularly his belief that he has been chosen and marked out by the legendary blacksmith Weland. Kingsnorth wrote at the time about the historical Anglo-Saxon legend of Wayland that he was from a “liminal territory, where magic meets metalwork ……….. a goldsmith with magical powers, he is enslaved by a greed-addled king, upon whom he wreaks a terrible, bloodthirsty revenge. …. His fires transform base metal into gold, the mundane into the magical, injustice into bloody revenge. Wayland is not just a smith. He is an alchemist.”

The Wake is written in a “shadow tongue” – a version of Olde English updated to be readable but respecting many of the rules of that language

“The Beast” I found a less convincing novel – set in our present time about a hermit Edward Buckmaster, obsessed with a with a beast (a large black cat) which he spots occasionally and decides to track. Language is important here – but rather than a language invention of Kingsnorth it seems that the ungrammatical, fractured English reflects more the increasing disassociation of Buckmaster from modern life and the increasing blurring of reality and dreams, consciousness and unconsciousness. It did have some common themes – particularly the rejection of a changed world, dreams and omens, a strong sense of the importance of the soul of the natural world, perhaps controversially the self-delusion/self-centredness of the main character.

This the third novel – is set 1000 years in the future, and I feels much more of a return to “The Wake”

The book is (like that one) set in the Fens.

Wayland returns as a fundamental influence.

The book also features a group looking to fundamentally remake the world and one looking to return it to an older way of life..

It also features – at least at first - a different language. This is I think easier to follow than in “The Wake” and one that is perhaps more of a stripped down form of English with simplified spelling, reduced vocabulary and with (by our standards) tenses shifting fluidly, although interestingly with a heavy Anglo-Saxon influence (to a 21st Century reader it is the Anglo Saxon terms – particularly Wight for animal and Holt for wood – which initially jar. The language I think reflects the pared back nature of the lifestyle of the group with which the book starts, their reaching way back past the 21st Century for a lifestyle to emulate and their very different sense of time and space (with a quite respect for the circularity of nature replacing a fervent belief in the arrow of progress).

The author himself has said “The first book, The Wake, explores cultural identity and roots. In that book, the central character’s stubborn refusal to surrender his very particular notion of what it means to be English in the face of unstoppable change leads to tragedy for everyone around him. Beast, the second novel, shifts from culture to the individual. What does it mean to be an individual mind in the world, what is the mind, can it be broken open and what lies outside it? Reality in that book is far from fixed. If The Wake is about the culture, and Beast is about the mind, Alexandria is about the body. The central conflict in this novel is between those who live determinedly within their given, natural forms, and those who seek to escape them through becoming “as Gods” and remaking reality to suit human desires. The struggle is between accepting limits and denying them in pursuit of our own divinity”.

The start of the book, set in a post climate changed warmed Fens (where yams are gown) features a Fen dwelling community – the Order (later we find known as the Nitrian order).
The Order believes in a kind of part animist, part Christian worldview – with a great Mother, with birds acting as messengers, confidants, advisors and dream gods (and with a symbolic series of poles each carved with the bird whose visit represents the year) - and live in a wooded cloister in a sustainable relationship with nature – one which acknowledges the needs of their bodies (they are for example far from vegetarians) but also respects those of the animals, trees and plants around them.

Once their own number was much larger and they were part of a wider series of such communities – now their numbers have dwindled and they think they may be alone. The others seem to have been tempted away to join a mythical city called Alexandria and ruled over by Wayland – a City where it seems people are freed from the confines of their mortal bodies and given some form of disembodied mind immortality. Wayland even their own legends seem to say was some form of Artificial Intelligence developed by an increasingly rapacious mankind (for whom nature was no longer sufficient) who then, in their view, enslaved man and whose offer of transhumanism is one which should be resisted as effectively genocide on the human race.

The community now is only the two designated elders “Father” and “Mother”, Sfia, her husband Nzil and precocious daughter El, Yyrvidian – the communities dreamer – and Lorenso (Sfia’s lover but also an agitator for the community to seek out Alexandria).

While the community is prowled by a red stalker (an emissary of Wayland they believe come to tempt them away) – Yyrvidian has a dream of a swans (which points to the possible fulfillment of a 1000-year old prophecy of the downfall of Alexandria). Father and an increasingly dissatisfied Lorenso set off West to see what has happened.

However both the two seekers and the even smaller community left behind are then more directly approached by the red stalker – who reveals himself in whatever form is necessary to each member to overcome their initial hostility and to allow him to reveal his true self (he is we find an intelligence called K put into an embodied form in the service of Wayland until he can harvest sufficient recruits for Alexandria) and to set out the real vision of Alexandria – the freeing of humanity from the confines of its bodily weaknesses and freeing the Earth from the consequences of mankind’s destructive bodily appetities.

So we have the situation where both The Order and Alexandria agree on the problem – but not on the solution.

I enjoyed some of the ways in which the two sides are contrasted:

- In their language – I have already discussed the language of the Order, but K’s reports on his encounters with the Order are set out in what is very much 21st Century English – Kingsnorth I think indicating what side he thinks is currently dominating discourse in our present day

- In their names. Alexandria is of course based on its Great Library – a collection of human minds rather than human written knowledge. And the Order is I assume named after the Christian monastic community in the Nitrian desert close to Alexandria

Overall I thought this was a superb continuation to “The Wake” and while I still have not fully processed the full role of “The Beast” (other than in the continuum of time) this remains a groundbreaking and hugely thought provoking trilogy.

I read and enjoyed The Wake by Paul Kingsnorth a number of years ago, finding the simulated Old English text very intriguing and atmospheric and providing immersion into the historical past. For some reason, I never got around to reading Beast, but my curiosity was aroused when I was recently given the chance to read the third book in the Buccmaster trilogy, Alexandria.

Alexandria is set in the far future after an unspecified environmental calamity. Like The Wake, there is some alteration to standard English text to assist with the immersion into the time and place of the story. Also, like The Wake a band of people exist in the landscape, trying to resist and avoid a sinister power which seeks to destroy them.

There are a lot of thought-provoking themes running through this book: the warlike nature of man, the need for and effect of love and what it means to be embodied as a human being. I found it an interesting and worthwhile read. I now plan to go back and read Beast to finish off the trilogy (albeit in an unorthodox order).

Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for providing a review copy in exchange for honest feedback.

Well, I thought this was absolutely STUNNING. I could NOT put it down and stayed up late to finish it, which I rarely ever do.

I will be honest: I read the first 5-10% of the book with some trepidation. God, I thought, this is hitting a LOT of familiar post apocalyptic notes. Riddley Walker, Cloud Atlas, The fucking Road. The retelling of the ancient apocalyptic collapse as myth. Men and women in typical gendered roles. I began to sweat a bit, grow nervous.

And then the book went in a direction I was NOT expecting. Idiot that I am, I totally should have seen it coming! But I did not.

This is the point to stop reading in order to avoid spoilers. Basically, it all becomes very Philip K. Dick. And so...this book got its hook in me and did NOT let go!

I really loved the main theme in this, that of the body versus the mind - the mud between the toes versus the heavenly ideal. I thought it was so beautiful and so powerful, and such an elegant solution to the suffering espoused by Ottessa Moshfegh's characters (who are trapped, trapped, trapped). I was also reminded of Ishiguro's <i>The Buried Giant</i>, especially via the character of Lorenso. I thought the book did a BEAUTIFUL and really fair and balanced job of showing the difficulty of being a young man (in an <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_John:_A_Book_About_Men">Iron John-Jung kind of way).</a> I'm also pretty sure I spotted some cameos from the titular "Beast," the second book in the trilogy. Believe it or not, I have yet to read The Wake!! (I definitely will now, though.)

This book tackles some BIG, BIG themes. Are humans essentially evil? Is the earth better off without them? Is religion evil? What about primitivism? Is desire evil? Is a Buddha-like merging of the universe and all consciousness ideal? Or is a fucking horrifying nightmare? What is preferable, understanding or ignorance? What's better, freedom or containment?

I'm not entirely convinced by the book's solution/final twist, assuming I understood it correctly. I definitely have... questions.

Overall, this was one of the best books I've read in years. Thoughtful, provocative, and challenging, which is everything I want from fiction.

(One important thing to know is that <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holt,_Norfolk#History">'Holt' is the Anglo-Saxon word for 'woodland,'</a> and NOT a reference to Holt the city, which is what I assumed it was for the first quarter of the book like a fucking idiot until I got on Wikipedia.)

Thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for the ARC.

Full disclosure at least on good reads this seems to be a third in a series. Which I didn’t know before picking this book. The words on the page are written phonetically. This means that the story at times can almost be like a novel in verse especially the way that the prose is presented on the page. I struggled to connect with the characters, however I think that this was intended by the author. I enjoyed the plot line.