2.5 stars for the excellent writing but the story.... Not so much. I didn't feel like the story went anywhere and it was way too long for what it actually was- a spy story. But I'm sure there's a million people who will absolutely love this book, I just don't think it was for me.

Thank you for my earc if this book!
I don’t know what happened here. I think its me rather than the book but I didn’t finish. I will absolutely be trying the authors other works, this story just wasn’t for me.

I found Notes from the Burning age to be a winding and slow-paced, yet intriguing experience. I adored the setting, and would have liked more worldbuilding, but found the writing style sometimes a bit too poetic and flowery. I was so intrigued by the premise that I kept returning to this book, even if sometimes it felt difficult to get through. The action scenes, and the more descriptive passages, sometimes dragged. I enjoyed the elements of spycraft, and the more personal reflections from Ven. The ending felt somewhat inconclusive to me - which is fine, but I think after something which felt like such a long read, I would have preferred more satisfaction. Notes from the Burning Age is certainly an intricate addition to the growing genre of CliFi, but perhaps could have been more gripping and tightly written.
3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

I love Clair North writing. I like some of her books more than others. This one, I think, is one of her best. This is the kind of book that you keep thinking about afterwards, trying to puzzle out things that were possibly left unsaid. It took me a while to get started and to fully appreciate the ending. The writing is masterful and the ideas are engaging and relevant to the world we live in. Clair is great at making you turn the pages following the action. Thank you for another great novel.

Thank you for the ARC copy in exchange for a review. I really wanted to love this book, and I do usually love this genre, but I just didn't feel hooked in and felt that it dragged on in places. However, there were some really cool concepts in the story!

Unfortunately not for me, I find it very difficult to recommend something I personally didn't enjoy. But perhaps a dystopian lover would enjoy it more, or anyone with a love of prose (defiantly not me). But the mix of both made this book a struggle for me to get through. This is obviously personal preference so no hate to any who love it!

Surprisingly, this book didn't hook me in. I've always been curious about the author's work and have heard nothing but praises, which is why I was excited for this book. The synopsis was super interesting and the plot had so much potential, but somehow it didn't work for me. That's not to say that the book was bad, because it wasn't. The writing is really good and the characters are great. It's a huge ensemble, though, and takes some time to get used to.

I just think that this was a case of the wrong timing to read this which is why I didn't like it much. I will definitely be picking up the author's books in the future, though.

This fell flat for me. I liked the premise and thought it would be full of adventure, but also make you think.
I found the start very confusing with many characters and settings I couldn’t keep on top of, and it just made me lose interest in the whole thing. I found myself questioning what I was following which took me out of the action I’m afraid.

Synopsis:  The "Burning Age" is our near future when the Earth itself rebels, using mystical nature spirits called the Kakuy “angels, or devils, guardian voi or djinn of fire and sea” to wipe away humanity by fire, plague, or simple physical stomping at bodies.

The novel is set some centuries in the post-apocalyptical future when the sins of our time, the greed, the climate crisis, most of the technology, are carefully redacted and tended by a monk like order called the "Temple" in precious vaults of data. 

Some technology like solar panels, wind turbines, or information technology have survived. People might have heard of combustion engines, but fear to use them because the Kakuy could wake up from their slumber at any time. Instead, they use bicycles mostly. 

The novel follows Middle-European Ven who is one of a few people of his time to have spotted a Kakuy. He becomes a priest, learns dead languages like English or German to translate the Notes of the Burning Age. Many are forgeries, most contain silly content like WhatsApp conversations, or porn. But here and there are valuable "heretical" information about technology. Ven goes rogue and sells the information outside of his monastery, ends up disgraced. He works as a bartender in  the city of Vien at the beautiful river Ube.

Ok, you've got that probably: all those Middle-European names are a little bit twisted, just like the Danube got the "Ube". The stories touches many of the Middle-European cities like Vienna, Budapest, Bukarest, or Belgrad, finally reaching Istanbul. 

There is an organization called the "Brotherhood" who wants to break free from the reclusive rule of the monasteries, who want to return to humanity's former state of knowledge, including the atomic bomb, strip mining, and sub-prime mortgages. They want to free humanity from the Kakuy. Their leader Georg has access to heretical data passed to him by a spy. Here Ven comes into play, because Georg needs him to validate and translate the data.

If Georg only knew that Ven is really a spy, passing everything what he does to the Temple. Soon enough, a game of spy vs spy comes up, Ven has to start a reckless flight through half of Europe, diving from one ugly situation to the next one. 

Review: I so much wanted to like this. A book spy! Magical Futurism! My home river, the Danube! Many places where I've been like Vienna, or Budapest! 

Why didn't it work for me? I nearly DNFed it after 20% in, because it dragged on and on. I soldiered through, because I loved other works from the author. And indeed, the middle-part was a breathless action plot. Only, that it was too much: Too many recurring situations where I thought "yet another XYZ". Half of it would have perfectly well transported the needs and situation without giving up anything. The plot really wasn't driven forward by yet another flight to yet another station. 

The Who'sTheSpy mystery was resolved in a single exposition within the last 10% of the novel which I didn't like at all. 

It remembers me too much of Miller's "Canticle for Leibowitz" (review), and not in a good way. I'd recommend rather to read that one. 
2.5 stars rounded up!

North's engrossing post-post-apocalyptic world building and fast-moving plotting make for a compelling read despite sometimes-overwrought prose and a spycraft "mystery" that really isn't..

Like the priestly Medj of her future not-quite-Ottoman Provinces, North knows that you need tropes and action sequences to get bums in seats, but it's clear she aspires to something more. Indeed, "Notes from the Burning Age" is at least as interested in quasi-Buddhist philosophising as in tracking down moles or freezing its narrator half to death so many times it becomes almost a bit of a rake joke. Although the insights aren't always deep, they are enlivened by North's sometimes Miyazaki-esque eye for nature, and her sometimes nuanced, often blackly funny view of humanity's place in the universe. Like the fractured spy telling our tale, "Notes" never quite coheres, but it's an unexpected and charming mix.

I was really pleased to get my hands on a new Claire North book but sadly "Notes from the Burning Age" isn't my favourite of hers'. It was set too far in the future with names of countries and places a little too far removed for me to have any reference to the 21st Century. I got some of the ideas of The Burning Age that must be a nod towards climate change but the characters and rest of the story didn't really do it for me.

I really wanted to get on with this book, as I've read and enjoyed other works by the same author, but somehow it just didn't hook me sufficiently - there's a lot going on in terms of world-building and at times this overwhelmed me, as I was struggling to keep straight exactly who was who and how they related to one another.

In general terms, I liked the idea of the world that Claire North creates, one where humanity has come to the brink of destruction and the information which led to that situation has been locked away (as heresy, no less), only for the unscrupulous and power-hungry to attempt to find it out once more. Our protagonist, Ven, ends up in an uneasy situation as both someone who is transcribing this material, since it's unreadable to the mass of people who want it, but also who is passing on information to the people who oppose that. Unfortunately, I didn't find him engaging enough as a character to really care about what happened to him, so I DNF at about 35%.

If you like dystopia that's not teenagers battling for the benefit of others, this might be an ideal book for you but it just didn't grab me sufficiently.

A childhood incident leas Ven away from the path of a holy man with his text interpretations and out in to the world. But when his past comes back to recruit him once again into that world nothing will be the same again.

after reading and enjoying 84K I was intrigued by the premise of the story and I wasn't disappointed. this was part adventure and part fairy tale-ish and I was completely intrigued. I read the novel in one sitting as I couldn't put it down.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Little brown Book Group UK for a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review

Rounding up to 3 stars

Sad to say this new book is not one of my favourites by this author.
There were times I had no idea what was going on at all.
There were times I was fully invested in the story.
Very much a game of two halves.
As much as I like a dystopian story,this one didn't capture my imagination enough.

I have to admit, I didn't get on as well with this book as I'd hoped, having read so much glowing praise about it.

The post-apocalyptic setting might have felt quite humdrum, except for the unique touch to it in the form of the kakuy - I just wish they'd been more central to the story! The story itself gripped me at the beginning, but I found myself losing interest over time. Partly that may be due to the book's length - I really feel it could have been compressed without losing the central themes. I also felt distant from the narrator/protagonist - I really struggled to get a sense of him as a person, beyond the tragedy he experienced in his childhood.

However, given how many people have loved this book, most other readers probably will too.

(With thanks to NetGalley and Orbit for this ebook in exchange for an honest review)

i enjoyed this book for what it was. it's got an interesting narrative voice that i enjoyed reading, though this is nothing like i've read before. some of the themes explored in this book rubbed me the wrong way, but it didn't take away from the overall arc.

— thanks to netgalley and the publisher for providing me with the digital copy of this book.

I really enjoyed this book, the writing was good, the characters were well developed and the storyline, narrative and sub plots were so compelling that I couldnt put it down. and I didn't want it to end.