Notes from the Burning Age is the latest novel from Claire North, one of the most thoughtful and creative writers I’ve had the pleasure of reading. (I really hope that she starts getting more attention from critics and readers.) In the past, her books have tackled death (The End of the Day), choices (The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August), crime and class (84K), race and curses (The Pursuit of William Abbey). All of these—including Notes from the Burning Age—use their various premises to explore the long-lasting consequences of choices we made. This is more than just turning left instead of right trousers of time stuff. The choices North explores in her novels are more like the choices we make when we’re convinced we’re right. In Notes for the Burning Age, the choices are the ones made by humans who are determined to conquer the natural world at the cost of destroying earth.

Notes from the Burning Age is set centuries in the future. Civilization as we know it is gone, destroyed when creatures (known as kakuy) rose out of the devastation of pollution and smashed everything. Humans preserved as much knowledge as they could, but most technology is beyond their descendants. To avoid a new “Burning Age,” humanity now mostly lives under a form of eco-socialism. They live in harmony nature because they’re scared witless of doing otherwise. This means that people live in small communities and small cities. They’re careful not to mine too deep for minerals or chop down too many trees. Humans being humans, however, there are some people who want to bring back internal combustion engines and submarines and nuclear weapons. Our protagonist, Ven, works as a secretary and translator of ancient knowledge to one such man, Georg. We learn some ways into the novel that Ven is a spy sent to bring Georg down before the kakuy come back and send humanity back to the stone age, rather than, say, semi-medieval but with cool, eco-friendly technology and a ton of recycling.

There are some absolutely gripping action sequences in Notes from the Burning Age to leaven the long discussions between Ven, Georg, and others about the role humanity should play on the earth. Some of these dialogues verge on the preachy, I have to say (even though I am very much in sympathy with any efforts to ameliorate climate change and avert the worst of the potential destruction). Georg reveals that he has always felt stifled by the way that religion and government have squelched people he believes are talented enough to deserve more than an ordinary life. Ven answers Georg’s arguments with philosophy learned at the Temple (a non-theist, sort of religious path followed by most people in Ven’s time) that just because humans might be special, it doesn’t mean that they have license to pollute, overharvest, or take resources from others so that their lives can be more luxurious and comfortable. North is a lot more eloquent than I am, of course, but it’s very clear who we’re supposed to sympathize with fairly early on in Notes from the Burning Age. I would’ve liked a little more nuance to the two positions, since I suspect that readers who aren’t already in favor of trying to ward off climate change and its effects might get annoyed by this book.

What interested me most about Notes from the Burning Age were the details of what life might look like if humans were forced or chose to change how we use the earth and its resources. Is that even possible for our species? Can we find a way to preserve what’s good about technology (medicine, communication, etc.) and shed the bad (pollution, overharvesting, habitat destruction, etc.)? I like to think that it’s possible. I just really hope that we don’t have to survive a burning age to get there.

TL;DR: Dystopian cli-fi that oddly reads more like a twentieth century WWII Europe spy novel. Interesting premise, but deeply pessimistic. Pick up for beautiful prose (but slow pacing) and philosophizing on whether there’s any hope for humanity to live in harmony with nature (and one another). My rating: 3 out of 5 stars.

Generations before North’s story begins, human civilization wrought havoc on the Earth through burning fossil fuels, unsustainable land use, pollution, nuclear weapons, etc. We readers are living through it, so we know the drill. This is the Burning Age. Right now. In North’s imagination, our current era of humanity arrogantly seeking to control and dominate nature comes to an end in a great apocalypse when kakuy, dangerous and vengeful spirits of nature, fight back. They burn and flood and destroy the cities and societies of the Burning Age. The survivors are set back to an earlier stage of human civilization and adopt a religion marked by reverence and appeasement of nature, in hopes of keeping the kakuy from returning. A religious order of monks--the Temple--dredge up documents and relics from the past, labeling those that describe ecologically harmful science and technology as “heretical” and ensuring they remain secret and guarded from the public.

But human historical memory is tragically short, and the mistakes of past generations are bound to be repeated. The ruling Council government is slowly losing ground electorally and in public opinion to a rival faction called the Brotherhood. The Brotherhood believes in the superiority of humanity over nature and calls for a return to the glory of the Burning Age, kakuy be damned.

The two main characters--Ven and Yue--grew up in the same small village and are united by a shared childhood tragedy. A forest fire claimed the life of Ven’s best friend, Yue’s younger sister. Ven and Yue meet again as adults, when they’re both deeply ensnared in the political and ideological battle between the Council, the Temple, and the Brotherhood.

With that summary out of the way, I really didn’t know what to make of Notes from the Burning Age. Despite being set hundreds of years in the future, it read like a twentieth century historical spy novel set in Europe in the years leading up to WWII. The Brotherhood is not dissimilar to the fascist, pronatalist, and technologically deterministic political parties of that period. Tbh, the idea that human society will be trapped in the same fucked up cycle generations from now, even after nature strikes back and repairs itself, is pretty damn depressing.

I could have gotten over that, though, had I been drawn in by the plot and characters. But unfortunately, I found the pacing rather slow. While the writing is beautiful, I also found the naturalistic descriptions and political and moral philosophizing somewhat tedious to plod through. Ven and Yue are interesting foils, and North delivers some unexpected and affecting twists in their interweaving story lines. But I still didn’t feel much attachment to them. Both are rather guarded--attributable to their childhood trauma, espionage activities, and likely, North’s desire not to blow their covers (i.e. her plot twists) too early.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Orbit Books for giving me advance access to this book in exchange for an honest review.

A unique and amazingly written story. Reminds me a little bit of Princess Mononoke. From the very beginning with the spotting of the forest spirit, the kakuy, and its death, I knew I was in for a ride, and I was so excited to see what the rest of the book held.

Probably more of a 3.5.

I think it’s been a long while since I’ve read a proper dystopian novel, so this one took me some time to finish. Not that it wasn’t interesting, but I couldn’t find the pacing engaging enough. But I really did find the themes of climate change as well as the whole idea of future generations trying to piece together details about their ancestors’ technologies very fascinating. There is also a lot of translation, researching and archiving that goes on here and that was cool, because these are some fields which are very underrated despite being important and it’s quite rare that we find characters with these occupations in fiction. The plot was also interesting but what left the most impression on me was the question it leaves in our mind throughout - are we as humanity capable enough to learn from our mistakes, not let capitalist greed drive our decisions, and do something substantial to prevent our planet from further destruction. It’s definitely a very timely novel in this aspect, and I think anyone who enjoys the dystopian/ cli-fi sub genre would surely enjoy this one.

Thank you to Orbit Books and NetGalley for providing me with an eArc of this book in exchange for an honest review!

CWs: maiming, blood, gore, torture, assault, death of a child, child abuse, misgendering, gun violence, execution

Notes from the Burning Age by Claire North

4/5 stars

A lush, complex, slow-paced dystopian with a focus on environmentalism and information-based espionage.

This book’s most distinguishing feature is without a doubt its prose, which is descriptive, atmospheric, and complex. In that sense, this is a very (for lack of a better word) literary book, especially in the genre of science fiction. In general, more indulgent text is not my favourite, but here I can see why it was a good choice for the story - which is a lot quieter than your typical dystopian novel, and more focused on subterfuge and thematic content than action sequences. The lush word choice also partners well with the environmental themes of the novel. However, at times, I think the book did suffer a bit from the so-called “purple prose” - at times I just wanted to get on with the plot instead of dwelling on descriptions of every person, landscape, or object come into view. In these cases, it felt as though the language of the book was hindering the telling of the story, not enhancing the thematic and character-focused content. I felt this most profoundly during the middle section of the book, which in my opinion was very slowly paced. This being said, I do acknowledge that more literary sci-fi and dystopian books, as well as more lyrical and drawn-out prose, are not my area of expertise or even personal preference, so do take that with a grain of salt, and the book did include many, many absolutely gorgeous quotes. As well, I did find the espionage-centered plot lines to be very intriguing, even if they proceeded a bit slower than I may have preferred.

I really enjoyed that the book took a deep-dive into the psychology of the main character, Ven, and his main antagonist (who I won’t name for spoilery reasons, as this is a novel with a central focus on espionage). Both of these characters are very complex and well-fleshed out, and we see their personalities and thought processes in action over the course of the novel, and how both their methodologies and ideals conflict with each other. I also appreciated how the book followed many, many years of Ven’s life, which made the various conflicts in the book appear more consequential and also allowed for a longer time period to observe his personal growth, particularly his antagonistic relationship to the aforementioned villain of the story. However, one thing I wished we got more of with regards to character was development for some of the side characters. One of the other consequences of the longer timeline is that the book cycles through a large cast of side characters and we don’t get to know any of them particularly well. I would have especially liked a bit more development for Yue, as I thought she had the potential to be a very interesting and complex character.

My favourite aspect of the book was without a doubt the examination of its various themes, most notably environmentalism, spirituality, greed, and human nature. I particularly enjoyed that the dystopic nature of the book was centred around the environment in such a believable way - unfortunately, the world does seem to be going down a similar path to what has occurred on Earth in this novel. While there was a small amount of magical realism in the book with regard to the kakuy, for me it didn’t detract from any of the real-world messages - the book still felt very much like it was taking place on a future Earth, after an environmental apocalypse. One humorous part of the book which I particularly enjoyed were the mentions of the various artifacts from present times which the characters discovered and had to decipher.

Overall, I think this was a very well-written book and a great choice if you’re into more literary sci-fi or dystopian fiction. These aren’t necessarily my individual genres of choice, so my personal enjoyment of the book might not have been as significant as someone who is a bigger fan of these genres, but I still think that it was a very well-written and insightful novel.

Humanity sinned, polluted the planet, and the earthen spirits called kakuy rose to burn it all. Now, centuries later, humanity has rebuilt itself. Knowledge of the past is hoarded, especially that of technology and destruction, by priests in archives, carefully cataloged by heresy. Others wish to use it. Ven, once a priest and translator, becomes secretary and dogsbody for the leader of one such group who wants to use the technology of the past to take over the world.

Claire North has a talent for humanizing the seemingly inhuman. In Harry August, we had immortal humans who repeated their lives again and again. In Touch, there were disembodied beings who stole bodies by touching them. Here we have a dystopian distant future and Ven, who is more alien than any of those previously mentioned creatures, in part because the others had an honesty with the reader Ven does not share. It makes for a simultaneously intriguing and slightly frustrating read.

That issue-- of not knowing Ven well enough-- struck me shortly after we first met him and haunted me for the entire book. Early on, he’s being held down by Georg’s minions in an unconventional job interview as they threaten to saw off his thumb. I reread the section several times, but we don’t find out how he drew their ire. It’s an innocuous thing, but it left me feeling unmoored through the rest of the book, like I didn’t have a foundation to build on. Nevertheless, the haunting dystopian vision of Eastern Europe-- its buildings, its tech, its societies-- stuck with me.

This is a thought provoking dystopian novel, one which could become a classic. Ms. North has great characters and complicated plots set in a post apocalyptic world. Superb storytelling!

I requested this particular read on account of previously enjoying Claire North's work, and this book didn't disappoint me. The writing was just as steady and impressive as I have grown to expect from North, and I foresee this book being a big deal in the community of dystopian genre readers!

As a huge fan of Claire North, I was super excited to read her newest novel. Set in a future, post-apocalyptic age, this is the story of Kadri, AKA Ven who ends up working for The Brotherhood, a faction who wishes to bring back the knowledge if the past deemed heretical by The Temple. Knowledge that includes bioweapons, tanks, and other weapons of war. The Council is the political arm that tries to hold everything in balance. But humans rarely change and power is everything.

Although this is a wonderfully written commentary on the trajectory our current political and socio-economic is on and speculates if we will ever learn from our carelessness, I was disappointed that it contained none of the supernatural elements that I have grown to love in Claire North’s writings. However, as a post-apocalyptic political thriller, she nailed it.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this free digital advanced reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review.

This just wasn’t for me. Very confusing and felt disjointed and just off. I can see how the book would appeal to others but it was a total slog for me.

3.5 stars

Set in a world where in the past, humanities' greed and corruption of nature has lead to near world-ending natural disasters perpetuated by nature spirits known as Kakuy, we follow Ven- a holy man who works with the inquisition to stop humanity from repeating those past mistakes.

Notes From a Burning Age shows us an Earth where humanity has gone past the point of no return and has been given another chance, only to start inching towards that breaking point once again. It asks questions about our relationship with the world around us, and contemplates if we are doomed to repeat our ancestors mistakes once we're far removed enough to believe that they will never apply to us again. In these points- in the lore and world and history- Notes From A Burning Age really shines. The writing is great, even beautiful in the moments where we are being told about how humanity is currently living and how the past has been interpreted, and if the entire novel read like that then it would be an easy 5 stars. Unfortunately, the story occasionally falls flat when it comes to characters- particularly the main character, Ven, whose perspective the story is told through. Although learning from him is interesting, his flat, almost emotionless at times narration often leaves the impression that what is being read is more of a report than a novel. There is a certain detachment when it comes to his character (which seems to be purposeful rather than accidental) that can sometimes leave very plot-heavy scenes to feel somewhat lacking as the book is told from the first person point of view- so the character's perspective is our own. Although this choice often worked for the benefit of the story, as it highlights the characters' almost nihilistic outlook of his work and the world due to the trauma he experiences over the course of the story, there were moments where this detachment left me feeling unconcerned for Ven's well-being in situations where he was at risk since I wasn't able to fully attach myself to his character until much later in the book.

Even so, the story was still interesting with it's world, political intrigue, and spy-heavy plot. There were moments of tension where I genuinely felt the anxiety of the atmosphere that the author created, and I enjoyed reading it quite a bit- never getting bored or tired of what was going on. Notes From a Burning Age is definitely a book that I will be reccomending to those who are looking for a dystopian story that explores questions of humanities' place on Earth and the pain we are willing to inflict in order to get what we want.

Thank you to the publisher from prodiving me with an e-ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

If this book does not win a ton of awards, I will be truly disappointed. Climate change science fiction (I’ve heard it called cli-fi but I’m not sold on that name) isn’t anything new, as evidenced by last year’s The Year’s Best Science Fiction and N.K. Jemisin’s stellar “Emergency Skin.” But where this author truly excels is twisty plot and excellent characterization. Where most of those stories felt like far in the future scifi, this one felt in many ways startling immediate.

“Our ancestors were so clever, so powerful. They were not afraid of fire.”
“But they burned,” he replied. A gentle nudge, a casual correction. “They all burned.”
“The kakuy burned them. If the kakuy hadn’t risen, maybe they could have tamed the world. Maybe they could.”
He sucked in his teeth, long and slow. “Now that does sound like heresy.”


Ven was kicked out of the priesthood for selling the heretical information he was supposed to catalog. These remnants of the Burning Age – when humans consumed profligately, uncaring of the effects of their actions on the world – can be as innocuous as cat pictures or as harmful as nerve agents and fracking. In these more enlightened times, mankind lives in harmony with the Earth, doing things like planting a tree for each one cut down and relying on solar power. They believe everything natural has a spirit, even rocks, and worship giant spirits known as kakuy. These are the creatures who their religion says woke and nearly destroyed human civilization before, and failing to respect nature again will have them return in flame and fire (my brain had too much fun drawing parallels to the dwarves in Moria and the Balrog!). But the Brotherhood is pushing those boundaries, believing that it’s mankind’s destiny to conquer nature, and it’s one of their leaders who blackmails Ven into translating stolen documents for Georg, one of the party’s behind-the-scenes leaders. As Ven gets deeper and deeper into the Brotherhood operation, it’s soon obvious that there’s more than just his life on the line if he tries to escape.

And that’s as much as I can say without giving away too much. It’s the twists that sell this story. It’s a philosophical thriller at heart, and Ven is our mostly competent and amazing brave narrator, though he’d never describe himself that way. I loved him immensely and cared way too much about what happened to him. The prologue (set in his home village of Tinics) is an event from his childhood that shaped his life, but exactly how – and how profoundly – is something it takes the entire book for you to realize. The regular part of the book started off slowly, but after the first chapter or so, I was drawn into his first-person POV and simply couldn’t put the book down. There are vignettes from the book that keep popping into my head, little scenes like Ven interacting with a Jewish family (though it’s not specifically called out on page) or a tense moment in the ruins of a coal mine. Ven is at times witty or despairing, but the prose is always emotionally resonant, deeply evocative of the dystopian landscape that he lives in and feels connected to. It’s imaginative and encompassing, and finishing the book felt like saying goodbye to a dear friend.

“The kakuy teach us that every breath of air is a gift, that the first shoot of spring green is a wonder to behold. But it is easier to be big and loud in your terror than to be tiny in your gratitude. We are to blame.”


Interspersed with the espionage and terror and joy, this is a book about how humanity interacts with nature, whether we conquer nature or live in concert with it. The Temple understands that without nature there is no life – and without death, there is no life either. But it’s harder for people like Georg to accept that are people are equal to ants in the eyes of nature, and his brand of humanism further perpetuates the haves and have-nots we see in our own societies today. Perhaps it’s not so strange that the insistence on dominating the earth also usually goes hand-in-hand with subjugating other humans. The book highlights both the small impacts and societal impacts of climate change, whether it’s one of the fellow Brotherhood workers that Ven contemplates a fling with, or the lives of all the Temple novices in Vien; whether the time scale is life and untimely death of a child or the hundreds of years it took to recover from the Burning; whether it’s a lowly temple priest drinking tea or a kakuy prowling in the deep woods.

“I saw the forest burn, when I was young.”


Overall, it’s no exaggeration to say that this will easily be in my top 3 books of the year. It’s thought-provoking, emotionally resonant, and just a plain old thrilling read. Highly recommended!

I received an advance review copy of this book from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

A beautiful look into a dystopian future that interrogates climate disaster and combines political intrigue with folklore. Not really the genre I enjoy reading, but definitely worth checking out if science fiction is your thing and you want something new and different.

"Notes from the Burning Age" by Claire North is a fascinating look into a post-apocalyptic future and how humans lean on the past, sometimes as a crutch, and sometimes as an object lesson. This is definitely a dystopian story: following a global ecological apocalypse, much of the Earth is left burned and barren and dry. Survivors in Europe are rebuilding on the bones of the past, literally: old cities are rebuilt with new materials, wind and solar power abound, and different factions (both religious and secular) mine old landfills for information and archives about the past and what brought humanity to ruin. Ven is a spy, an "inquisitor" and archival expert of the primary religious order who infiltrates the "Brotherhood," one of the more powerful secular factions who seek to use the archives to rebuild the worst of humanity's efforts: fossil fuels, extractive technologies, and war-making capabilities. Ven seeks to keep the peace, then prevent a continental war, but he is opposed by another spy infiltrated into the enemies of the Brotherhood. The spy story plays out, with some fantastic elements grounded in Ven's past and the author's rich, evocative prose. Atmosphere abounds, beautiful and serene at some places, charged with anxiety and fear at appropriate others. Ven's emotions, his training, and his mission are always at the forefront in a richly blended portrait of the spy who questions everything, and not just because he's trained into it. He works to maintain his individual view of the bigger picture while dealing with his present circumstances, holding on to his integrity and pragmatism in the face of driven opponents and far-less-than-honest leaders who readily play games with the lives of their pawns.

Mostly, this book was just not for me.

I absolutely loved the prose, which was definitely flowery. I found it to be incredibly immersive, and the prose combined with the post-apocalyptic setting and the kakuy—fantastical nature spirits/gods—made for a setting reminiscent of a Studio Ghibli movie.

Due to the beautiful prose, I kept reading through a story that felt very shallow. We only got to know a few characters well, which muddled the political intrigue of the story. Additionally, the story covered such a long period of time that it often felt like it was “telling” rather than “showing” the story.

I think the audience of this book is those who enjoy flowery prose and like to sit back and watch a story unfold.

Thank you to NetGalley to providing this ARC in exchange for a review.

Unfortunately not the book for me. The beginning of the book was interesting and I really loved it but then it shifts gears and I found it difficult to connect because it mixes genres, which might not be my thing after all.

I've attempted to read several Claire North books before. Gameshouse and 15 Lives of Harry August. Her writing is beautiful and I really really enjoyed that part. My biggest issue with her other books and this one is trying to follow along. I probably shouldn't give this book a rating before I completely finished it. I'm not trying to DNF, but I'm just not in the mood for a book like this.

I might try to give this book another chance when my head is ready for a much heartier book than my diet of V.C. Andrews and Kindle Unlimited.

Notes from the Burning Age by Claire North
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Claire North's new SF is climate-punk without as QUITE an uber-bleak outlook as usually comes with such cli-punk SF. Lots of intrigue, repressed societies, quasi-religious cultural restrictions that summon up the monsters that burned the old world, but still enough technology going around to make this world quite interesting and believable.

I mean, inquisitors, people.

What imagery!

But what we've got here is spycraft, a tightly plotted novel, characters that are quite memorable, and enough twists and turns and harrowing situations that amount to all-out war to fill any kind of cold-war thriller. Only this one revolves around old technologies plummed from the old internet, making a wild combination of translation issues, research espionage, and knowledge-is-power inquisition versus humanist revolutionary thugs... all during a post-climate disaster where most people have died.

It is not only believable but it's wonderfully described and rich enough to make me live there.

I've always been impressed by Claire North and this one doesn't disappoint.

…The forest grows. And the kakuy are watching….

There’s something vast and implacable about the legendary kakuy in this post-apocalyptic world, which is many years after the collapse of the environment, after refugees sought dry, safe land, and after the deaths of millions, possibly billions.
People survived and reestablished towns and cities, and developed new technologies that were less damaging to world. Along with the rebuilding, people developed a stronger sense of the interdependence of everything, personified by the planet’s earth, sky and water spirits, who had become fed up with our heedless destruction of the very things keeping us and every other thing alive and poisoned us, drowned us and burnt us to teach us a lesson. Those left behind became more careful of their use of planetary resources and of cautious of repeating old, climate destroying mistakes, and gave thanks to the kakuy.
There is an entire religious order who function as priests and archivists of the ancient, unearthed and spotty records about old technologies and beliefs and practices, such as selfies, the internal combustion engine, submarines, and other things. Temple also has inquisitors, who control the spread of dangerous information, such as missiles, radiation, gasoline, strip-mining, and other things.
Ven, the main character, saw a kakuy of the forest of his hometown die when he was a child, during a terrible and traumatic flight away from a massive forest fire. This event remains a singular, indelible event in his life, and forests are a recurring motif in his mind, and in this terrific book.
Though most people are happy to accept what they have so as not to anger the kakuy, there are others eager to regain the many ancient technologies, however destructive, and the power and gender structures of a strong man, and subservient others, including the earth, from the pre-Burning days.
This conflict fuels the action of the book, of those feeling only a few deserve the best of technologies, comforts and opportunities, as exemplified by the Brotherhood, and many others have a strong belief in community, of being mindful of one’s affect on the land and on others.
Ven came from the Temple, and spends years in dialogue with a mastermind of the Brotherhood. Their discussions veer from practicalities to philosophies, with Ven’s acerbic voice taking us through them and a world very different from ours, but sadly the same, as the Brotherhood eagerly takes advantage of unearthed information about old tech.
The differences in mindset and world views ensure that despite the fears of a world that could bite back, some people will always want to take advantage of others and of resources, leading this post-Burning age to war.

The plot is big and covers a lot, but I never felt my interest flagging. Claire North combines a tale of espionage with philosophy; North’s world is vivid, and Ven’s life and interactions are full of tension, and many times suddenly violent. At the same time the text is frequently beautiful, and has scenes full of sound and wonder.
This is a complex, complicated book dealing in ideas and beliefs. It’s absorbing and thought provoking, and very good.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for this ARC in exchange for a review.

This title just didn't work for me. I'd been hoping for something like Canticle for Leibowitz, which was probably unfair of me, since each book is its own creature. The writing was lovely, but the plot wasn't what I was looking for.