Second Sleep

A Novel

No cover

Second Sleep (2020, Penguin Random House)

432 pages

English language

Published Nov. 11, 2020 by Penguin Random House.

ISBN:
978-1-78746-096-6
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4 stars (2 reviews)

4 editions

Intriguing but ultimately unfulfilling

4 stars

It’s impossible to talk about The Second Sleep without SPOILERS, so stop now if you intend to read the book.

The book starts as described. Fairfax is making his way on an old mare through the rain-soaked English countryside to officiate at the funeral of the priest of Exmoor village. We think we’re in 1468 CE but throughout the first chapter, little facts crop up that seem out of step with that time period, with the result that at chapter end we realise we are in the future.

Our civilisation crashed in or around 2022 and was followed by two centuries of ‘dark ages’ after which humanity managed to rebuild a semblance of civilisation, though it is one where the church rules with an iron-hand, having declared the cataclysm of 2022 the end times foretold in the Book of Revelations and as a result outlawed the technology of the ancients …

Subjects

  • Fiction, mystery & detective, historical
  • Fiction, suspense
  • Fiction, dystopian
  • England, fiction