Wow, what an epic book! A dystopian spy novel set in a post-Apocalyptic world facing a new global climate crisis and a technological revolution which will inevitably lead to war.
North’s writing is always so astute and thought-provoking, addressing subjects that can be radical and political, environmental and empathic. I love her writing, but I found this novel to be more intense, hard-hitting and difficult to get into than usual. None of this is a negative though.
We need more writers like Claire North. Excellent stuff.

Claire North has written somewhat of an epic here, the trademark quirky writing style bringing to life a plethora of engaging characters living in a world that once burned and in war may do so again..

Venn is our main viewpoint into this world, as two factions head towards a war of principles that may turn bloody..I don't want to give anything away actually, as usual with this author the plot is sprawling and unexpected on so many levels, it is best not to know too much going in.

The intricacy of character and relationship, the vibrant spiritual and technological worlds colliding, the often exciting mental battles and the mythology created all add up to a fantastic read that I'm very sad to leave behind me.

Highly recommended.
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This is a thoughtful exploration of a world many years from now, after a 'Burning Age', a time probably close to now where man went too far, destroyed too much of the natural world and the world responded in kind. Creatures (or gods? or monsters?) called the kakuy rose up as the world set on fire - but one thing that no one knows for sure, were they the cause of the burning, or did they emerge in the aftermath?

Now man is rebuilding and most of the information from before the Burning Age is locked away on servers and 'heresy' to look at. Ven is an academic, trained to translate these materials. He is blackmailed by members of the Brotherhood - a group that yearns for revolution, that wants to take back all of man's knowledge. How far will they make him go? And what does Ven want for the world?

The book opens with children wandering through a forest and it takes a while to get from there to the meat of Ven and his quandary. It's beautifully written and very atmospheric, but I have to admit struggling to get into the story for about the first 30% of the book.

Then, all of a sudden, something unlocked - it had won me over. I found myself caring deeply for Ven, eager to understand him better. I wanted to know, what did he really believe? I got to grips with the political shenanigans and the tussles between the various powers - and I loved the spying elements. I chose a side!

This is a fascinating book that could appeal to fans of multiple genres - literary fiction, science fiction, fantasy, spy thrillers. Some won't get on with the style, but others will soak up the world North has created. I'd certainly go back for more.

I have mixed feelings about this book… it’s my first experience of Claire North’s writing after having her books on my TBR for a while, and she and her talent certainly do not disappoint. Her prose is exquisite and hit straight at the heart many a time throughout the novel, and the way she constructs her narrative is so clever that I’m sure I’ve missed a lot of the intricate details. But it is certainly not a happy read, nor a comforting one, and it was slow going for me because of the repetitive nature of the plot and the depressingly realistic descriptions of the way humanity exploited the earth both in the Burning Age (aka our current times) and in Ven’s times much later in the future. The narration also continuously switches between past tense and present tense, which at times I didn’t notice but it did sometimes distract me. Having said that, though, my feelings lean much more to the positive, and I’m definitely glad I read this book.

In the Burning Age, humanity valued excess – wealth, land, fame, food – and pursued it to the detriment of other people and the earth itself. When things became too much, and the world had caught fire due to climate disasters and nuclear weapons alike, the great beings called the kakuy rose up and began to destroy the human race and all they built. The kakuy are spirits of nature, and they hold no feelings towards people, they simply protect their environment, and once the worst of human society had been wiped out, they returned to their slumber. Those that survived the burning and the kakuy began life again, and the Temples arose to remind people to live lives that respect nature, and spent their time translating documents from the Burning Age and hiding away any that could lead to something so drastic and destructive again.

The main character is Ven, and he lives in a time hundreds of years after the Burning Age, in a small town that still venerates the kakuy, but when so many are doubting their continued existence, claiming no one has seen one in a hundred years. Ven, however, saw one as a child, when the forest around his home was burning, and he often recalls it throughout the narrative. After an opening chapter in which Ven is a child, we pick up with him later in his life, and he is living in a city, working as a bartender under a different name. When a man named Georg Mestri finds him and blackmails him, he begins to translate stolen Temple documents for him and his Brotherhood, who believe that man should not cower before the kakuy any longer.

From there ensues a sequence like dominoes slowly falling, with Ven caught between two sides, watching as the world tries to return to the way things were before the Burning Age, building war machines and mining the earth, and the few who oppose it cannot stand against these weapons from a forgotten age. It is a beautifully written tale, and it is certainly not one of heroes and grand resolutions, but people with beliefs, or a lack of beliefs, and the way those shape the world. Ven is an endearing and fascinating point of view character, and the world he finds himself in is full of tension, and I loved his arc. This is a book that will appeal to those SFF readers who like post apocalyptic settings, as well as to fans of ‘literary’ fiction who will appreciate the prose and the character-work. I will definitely be reading more by Claire North, but might read something that will make me forget about the incoming climate disaster for a while!

Notes from the Burning Age is set in a post-apocalyptic world. Told in the POV of an inquisitor, a member of the Temple whose task is to interpret archaic texts from the Burning Age. When the Brotherhood approached Ven to translate some stolen writings, his world turned upside down. With the threat to everything he holds dear looming, he must decide how much he is willing to sacrifice to save this new world.

𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝑰 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆:
→ a blend of dystopian, sci-fi, spy thriller, and political intrigue
→ likable and complex protagonist with a great character arc
→ lush, poetic, and outstanding writing style (it has a fairy tale vibe to it that I usually encounter on retellings)
→ imaginative, unique, and complex plotline
→ it tackles themes such as corruption, climate change, greed, capitalism, and religion

Notes from the Burning Age is a captivating novel that asks interesting and important questions to its readers and lets them reflect on it. It's thoughtful and at times, philosophical. It is a slow-burn read filled with ambiguous characters and has a rich and magical world-building.

Thank you so much, Orbit Books UK and Netgalley for the DRC. All thoughts and opinions are mine.

Clare North’s writing is just beautiful. It paints such a beautiful picture of the world around the characters and I found it be be very immersive. Set in a Dystopian/utopian futuristic world where climate disaster has forced humans to denounce the many aspects of "The Burning age". The Burning age represents where we are now, with fossil fuel usage high, internet trolls, misinformation campaigns, capitalism, consumerism, landfills and more. All of which were destroyed, lost, and are slowly being rediscovers in this new age. I really liked the descriptions of the technology that managed to both feel futuristic but also within the first chapters feel homey and small country life with a make-do and mend sort of feel. Combined with the plot, it really highlights the danger of our societies (particularly western societies), of how we treat the planet and how we treat each other.

The mythologizing of our current existence is really interesting and sets up some really inventive world building. The worldbuilding is just so fantastic, how it has restructured after climate disaster, and how it celebrates and denigrates out current society. Beautiful writing that establishes such a gorgeous set of history and mythology that really captures the deep sadness as well as the moments of joy. Love the concept of an archaeologist/linguist in the future running through all the data we produce now to sift out the interesting from the cat pictures, studying online trolling as an anthropological exercise. There is a subtle humour to the worldbuilding, especially when referencing our society like our great artists “Beatless and Beyondsee”
The religious aspects have a darkness to them, a fear that it just lurking behind the beliefs. We have only just touched on the “Kakuy”, a sort of deamon/earth spirit, that have a spine chilling aspect to them.

There is something compelling about the narrator and how we are getting to know him and that keeps the pages turning. An interesting narrator and narrative style, there is a calmness to the recollection of the story they are telling that pulls you in and keeps you reading. Venn is a little morally grey but in a sympathetic way. I love how the plot, morphs and grows as we learn more about Venn. We start off in an interesting tale of rediscovery, a parable of the dangers of climate change and move towards political machinations, power, espionage and finding where you fit in the world.

It does this in such a soft a subtle way. It is just gorgeous. There is action and danger, but they are highlighted with moments of peace and reflection that are just as captivating to read. The prose walks that delicate line of speculative and literary fiction without getting too flowery. Wither it is the aspects of spy craft, the terror of history repeating itself, or the quiet grace in the way Venn witnesses nature it just combines into a really interesting read. This isn't your hail of bullets action packed thriller, instead it builds, giving you time to explore the world, to think and build up tension in your own mind as the plot plays out. There is so much emotion and depth, I just really enjoyed it.

Inmersive, North prose is just our of this world. Fantastic read. I was not expecting this post-apocalyptic spies story with such a compelling and beautiful writing style. Every new book of Claire North is just a new world to discover.

I have to say that I felt myself to be somewhat on the back foot while reading this. We were given very little detail about the burning age, or what caused it, but we could see the impact it had on those remaining alive. There was a post-apocalyptic feel to the world the characters inhabited, but with so little information given to us I'm afraid I found my attention kept slipping.
Our main focus was the character Ven, who appeared to be a scholar, who was asked to help the mysterious group known as the Brotherhood to translate stolen data they received. I don't really feel I understood who the group were, what they represented or quite how the factions that were fighting them linked to what was presented. Ven's allegiances seemed to shift continually, and just as I thought I was getting a handle on who he was/what he was doing there was another shift in setting and I found myself trying to catch up again.
This is my first experience of reading anything by the author, though a number of her books are on my TBR pile. The rave reviews I've seen of this do make me wonder if it is simply a case of unfamiliarity with a style of writing/approach. There were passages of writing - particularly when describing the natural world, or the attitudes of mankind to common issues - that were absorbing, but it was a story that I found myself having to work increasingly hard at in order to read. I can't see myself ruling out the other books by North that I have expressed an interest in reading, but I don't think they'll find their way onto my list that quickly.

Notes from the Burning Age by Claire North is a compelling and imaginative story that captured my imagination from the very first page. I love this author’s writing and couldn’t wait to get my hands on her latest novel, which I’m pleased to say did not disappoint! There’s a quirkiness to it that I really liked, drawing me into what is essentially a post-apocalyptic thriller with a strong, complex plot and well developed characters that you can’t help but care about from the outset.

Ven, who was once a holy man, has been tasked with interpreting archaic texts, sorting useful knowledge from the time of the Burning Age, a time of excess and Climate Change. He must guard the material as closely as he can, so that the past can never be repeated. But when the Brotherhood approach Ven and pressurise him into translating stolen writings, everything he holds dear is suddenly under threat, turning his life upside down. Not knowing which way to turn and torn between friendship and faith, Ven must decide how far he’s willing to go… and just how much he is willing to lose.

Claire North’s writing is extraordinary, with her attention to detail and inventive storyline bringing this book vividly to life. Her world building is wonderful and I soon became completely caught up in what was happening on the page, the story as thrilling as it is fantastical. A must read for any fan of fantasy fiction, I thoroughly enjoyed Notes from the Burning Age and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to anyone who loves dystopian or post-apocalyptic fiction.

Recommended.

Thanks to Netgalley for a digital copy in exchange for an honest review :)

Ven was once a holy man, a keeper of ancient archives. It was his duty to interpret archaic texts, sorting useful knowledge from the heretical ideas of the Burning Age—a time of excess and climate disaster. For in Ven's world, such material must be closely guarded so that the ills that led to that cataclysmic era can never be repeated. The world seems so much like ours, but at the same time so different. The Burning Age and how the world evolved after ( the introduction of the kakuy - Gods of the Earth awakened by humanities hubris and disregard for nonhuman earthlings) stars some interesting philosophical discussions and I found myself taking notes on the descriptions and conversations.

When the revolutionary Brotherhood approaches Ven, pressuring him to translate stolen writings that threaten everything he once held dear, his life will be turned upside down. Ven must decide how far he's willing to go to save this new world—and how much he is willing to lose. The relationship between Ven and the Brotherhood (mostly Georg, the leader) is one of the most captivating ones in the whole book. They seem to be connected to each other and understand each other in a very strange way. The most interesting conversations in the whole book were between these 2. I found myself re-read whole pages just to get more from their discussions.

The book left a huge impact on me. I am sure I will re-read this and take notes on my favourite aspects. The book is not just about saving the new world, it's about understanding and accepting yourself and the role you have in the bigger picture, surviving and continuously adapting, sacrifice and forgiveness (of yourself and others). It is about death, violence and war. It is about family, it is about LIVING and being ALIVE.

I cannot recommend this book enough! Read it, please.

I’m a fan of Claire North’s books, having read a few of them and with several more on the old TBR. So I jumped at the chance to read and review this on the blog.

The last thing I read by the author was a short story called Sweet Harmony which was just brilliant (and highly recommended if you haven’t read it and are a fan of things like Black Mirror) so I had fairly high expectations of this one going in.

It didn’t disappoint! This is a primarily spy story, with our main character Ven, being recruited by the ambitious and ruthless Brotherhood to interpret “heretical” texts that one of their agents is stealing from the other side. But it’s also more than that; it deals with the devastating path that humanity finds itself on as we try and seemingly fail to preserve the planet which we call home, it deals with faith, it deals with politics, it deal with friendship.

The setting and world building are fabulous. The “Burning Age” referred to in the title is now, present day. We have been our own worst enemies and the life as we know it has been destroyed. Humanity survives to live on and adapt but the events of the novel hint at our inability to learn from our mistakes and just repeat history all over again in pursuit of more, of better and of power. We never quite learn *exactly* what happened but we don’t need to.

I enjoyed the references to objects and information from the Burning Age, things like text messages, tweets etc. have clearly been saved along with information on humanity’s scientific and technological advances and it was fun to see them pop up. The reference to the “reconstructed ballads of Mozert, Beatless and Beyondsee” made me smile!

I liked the main character Ven, who leads us through the story and we see him struggle with the actions he has to take in his part of the impending conflict. The back and forth and overall relationship between him and Georg, the driver behind the Brotherhood’s progress, were great too.

Things got tense at times and I found myself desperate to find out what going to unfold and how the power plays were going to turn out. It did take me a little while to get to grips with all the difference organisations at play here, how they interacted and who was working for who but I got there.

The author has a wonderful imagination and the ingenuity of each of the books I read of hers is really striking and is, I think, what makes me pick them up. Sometimes, an author can have a good idea but fail to execute it well, but I have yet to see that with North.

I’d recommend this to existing fans of North’s work but also fans of dystopian fiction who would enjoy the espionage twist to this book.

Notes From the Burning Age marks the return of award-winning writer Claire North and her most powerful and imaginative novel yet - a spellbinding tale set in a future utopian society that is thrilling, moving and thought-provoking in equal measure. Once, the spirits of the mountain, sea and sky rose against humankind. They punished us for the heresies of the Burning Age - the time when we cared so little for the world that it went up in flames. We learned to fear them, honour them, and in the centuries of peace which followed, the spirits slept. Ven Marzouki used to be a holy man, studying texts from the ashes of the past, sorting secrets from heresies. But when he gets caught up in the political scheming of the Brotherhood, he finds himself in the middle of a war, fuelled by old knowledge and forbidden ambition. And as the land burns again, the great spirits stir. This is a visionary, richly imaginative set in an age after the world has fallen (and burned), this masterfully imaginative story asks whether humankind can change the paths we seem fated to follow.

This captivating tale puts an utterly original new spin on speculative fiction; North continues to amaze with the scope of her imagination and I was wowed by its sheer brilliance and uniqueness. It is a story that mostly defies categorisation but it's part prescient thriller, part political, part post-apocalyptic yarn and a compulsive tale of subterfuge and dark indulgences. The luscious prose paints a picture of juxtaposition between the massive overconsumption from which the Burning Age resulted and the close to utopian present. Ven becomes trapped between two worlds and two increasingly incompatible ideologies: the Temple’s teachings on worshipping Mother Nature and the Brotherhood’s political manoeuvres and proclivity to favour human political and military might over all else. A compelling, palpably tense and unsettling read from beginning to end. When it comes to making the decision, humanity must choose between continuing to destroy the earth, the environment and the climate or rein in its destructive tendencies so dawn can break on a better and brighter day.

Thank you to NetGalley for sending me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book was not what I expected. If you fancy a story about assassins, spies, corrupt governments etc. then this is your cup of tea. It's very much a dystopian setting that challenges the notions of humanity and faith.

The main character is likeable and has a great ARC. The writing style was a joy to read and really flowed although at times I found it difficult to keep up with what was going on (I had to re-read the odd bit as I got a bit muddled up). I'd have liked to know more about the kakuy (mystical god like creatures of the earth). I think for me I just couldn't decide if it was supposed to be fantasy, sci-fi or political.

It did have a satisfying ending.

This was my third book by Claire North, my favourite being The Fifteen Lives of Henry August.
She is undoubtely a fenomenal writer, highly imaginative and a superb storyteller.
Notes from the Burning Age is set in a future post apocalyptic world, in a utopian society born from the ashes of the ancient times (our present time), when people spoke the ancient languages (our current languages) and nature rebelled to mankind and destroyed everything they had built (makes you think, eh?).
Which knowledge from the ancient times must be kept from the new humans in order not to make the same mistakes again? And is it right to keep it secret in order not to destroy the world again?
Very thought provoking, definitely not an easy read, political, ideologistic, suspenseful and evocative: a must read!

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an arc in exchange for an honest review.

Currently 50% through this book.
I must admit I am struggling with it but I will carry on until the end.

I will review this comment upon completion of the book.

Perhaps midway through the first lockdown (my goodness, doesn’t that feel like an age away now?), I was part of an author discussion that explored what fiction might look like in a post-Covid literary scene. A consensus that emerged was that when (if) things got back to normal there would be little appetite for dystopian fiction — presumably because we’d all found ourselves living in dystopia anyway — and instead we would prefer more escapist and feel-good genres, like romcoms and the like.

I personally wasn’t convinced. Not just because I like a good dystopia but because it also seemed like an abrogation of a writers’ responsibilities, which should stretch merely beyond the market, although, obviously, not ignoring it. All novelists, regardless of genre, should be at least part journalist, reflecting the world as it is lived in at the time of writing.

Publishing is a heavy tanker that is rather difficult to turn around so perhaps this vision of a literary shiny, happy future is yet to come to pass but this year I’ve read a number of good, smart and entertaining literary novels that turn on a somewhat dystopian premise, with Claire North’s Notes From The Burning Age, being the latest of these.

I do like a book that keeps you guessing and that’s certainly true for Burning Age. It definitely took me a while to get a handle on just what kind of novel it was going to turn out to be. It’s set in an eastern Europe recovering from a devastating ecological apocalypse. Human populations are sparse after a near-genocide by the kakuy, the vengeful spirits of the Earth itself, kicking back after centuries of human exploitation. As a result, what society there is runs along lines that would very much please your average Green, with a deep respect for the natural world and harsh strictures against hoarding and greed.

It’s an interesting world and North sets it up brilliantly. Books like this rise or fall on their world-building and I very quickly found myself believing absolutely in this world. My initial thought was that someone had been getting very into Horizon Zero Dawn (in no way a bad thing) and for a moment I thought we were perhaps going to get post-apocalypse wilderness drama.

But then things take a turn and we leave the relative rural peace of Lyvonia for life in the city. The next quarter of the book is taken up with the protagonist Ven falling in with a group called The Brotherhood who are basically neoliberal human supremacists who want to revive all the technological achievements that led to the awakening of the kakuy in the first place. North builds up this aspect incredibly well too and it was with a sinking feeling that I started to dread that we were in store for some Randian Objectivist parable, which I wasn’t sure I was up for, even if it was of a satirical bent.

But thankfully North had something else in mind. Burning Age is essentially Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy meets A Canticle for Leibowitz. The narrative is essentially that of a spy thriller dressed up in credible, if just slightly derivative, future world.

And on those terms, the novel works really very well. It perhaps drags a little just past the middle as Ven’s incarceration by the Brotherhood goes on just a bit too long, indulges in just one too many philosophical discussions between Ven and chief antagonist Georg (meant, perhaps, to mirror Smiley’s sporadic confrontations with Karla). The ending too is a little flat too, with the identity of the Pontus (the Bill Haydon double agent figure of the book) being a little too telegraphed to be truly satisfying. And it’s this slight flatness that prevents the book reaching the heights we’ve seen North reach in The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August.

The characterisation is also perhaps not quite as nuanced as in North’s other novels and I’m not sure that Ven, Georg and the other characters really quite lift themselves off the page. It’s perhaps another reason why the many betrayals, twists and reversals of fortune don’t make the impact they perhaps should have.

Nevertheless, it’s a compelling read, with lots of great and prescient ideas and offers plenty of real-world parallels, plenty of food for thought and discussion as any good piece of speculative fiction should. And as well as being an entertaining thriller, it’s a valuable contribution to the sorts of conversations about the current state of the world that we owe it to ourselves not to flinch from.

Notes from the Burning Age is a political spy-thriller novel set in a post-apocalyptic utopia where a section of society is bent on turning the world back into a dystopia again. After ecological disaster, humanity has learned to live with nature but hubris threatens the idyll, seeking the forbidden heretical knowledge of the Burning Age to bring back human domination.

Our hero Ven is a complex character. He’s dedicated his life to preserving the secrets of the Burning Age, but is forced to work for the opposition. Can he be true to himself and escape the revenge of the powerful when his betrayal is discovered?

A thoughtful and slow-burning four stars from me.

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

I own three of Claire North’s books but haven’t read any of them yet, so this was my first time discovering this author.

I love dystopian fiction but this book felt like it was veering more towards science fiction which I have very little experience with, it was also part crime fiction.

I DNFd this book at 30%, I found myself lost and didn’t care for the characters which is a real shame. I may pick this up again at another date when I’m more in the mood for a book you need to concentrate on.

This was the first book I've ever read by Claire North.
While I did enjoy this book it was not a favourite as I did struggle to connect with the writing style.
I did like the plot though!

I’d say I went into this completely blind, as the blurb was the opposite of informative, but that’s not exactly true, since I’ve read Claire North before and have faith in her craft as an author. That said, I first fell in love with her as Kate Griffin, with her whirlwind world of urban magic-soaked London, and some of her novels penned as Claire North worked less well for me than others. So I approached this book with a certain degree of caution, ready to dive in but wary of disappointment.

And now I can safely say I shouldn’t have been. Claire North’s talent shines in this one; she often leans towards the philosophical in her standalone works, but this time it’s perfectly balanced with a personal perspective of someone who is more involved in the unfolding events than they would like to be. I would love to elaborate on the main character’s journey, but having read the book, I’m deeply convinced it is the kind that would be best enjoyed with as little information about its twists and turns as possible. I will say that I was delighted to discover that my initial understanding of where it was going was quickly turned upside down and catapulted into a political and philosophical dimension rather than remaining at just the personal story/growth level.

The world building is superb: what we see is neither Mad Max-style post-apocalypse nor devolution back to the Stone Age. It is a new type of “do no harm to nature” existence; the details about it that make up the full picture are fed to you slowly, oh so slowly – slowly enough so that when the main philosophical conflict takes shape, it is as organic to the story as it is impossible to really resolve. More than once, I caught myself thinking about how some descriptions seem to evoke Mononoke visuals, which perhaps is not surprising, considering the focus on the environment and the destruction humanity wreaks on the planet.

Unlike in most of Claire North’s other novels, the supernatural element here is mostly on the sidelines, a ghostly presence, and it’s never fully clarified whether this is something that really exists or more like part of the popularized theology meant to curb humanity’s ambition to once again subjugate nature. You would expect to be frustrated not to get a clear answer – and admittedly, a lot of people in-universe very much are – but I actually thought it was neatly done. Similarly, I found the way the overarching theme was handled to be thought-provoking and topical, but I can see why some readers might see it as preachy.

Overall, highly recommended to Claire North’s fans and anyone who is willing to delve deeper into a seemingly uncomplicated book to discover a fascinating story.
Thanks to #NetGalley for the advance copy of #NotesfromtheBurningAge