Review by Booklist Review
Sloan (Sourdough, 2017) continues his exploration of the vicissitudes of technology and humanity with an unusual revision of the Arthurian legend. In 2279, humanity sent AIs to explore the universe, but when these "dragons" returned, they established a moon base and promptly shrouded the planet in a perpetual veil of dust. Humankind fought back but ultimately lost the war, although their conflict was chronicled by a microcosmic AI embedded within a human host and engineered to record and preserve events. Eleven thousand years later, that AI is reawakened by a twelve-year-old boy named Ariel, who discovered the sealed remains of its former host in a crashed escape pod. The chronicler immediately integrates with Ariel, becoming a voice in his head. The boy is curious, brave, and knows he is meant for something important if he can just figure out what. Unknown to Ariel, the local wizard has imbued in him the Arthur archetype, but when Ariel retrieves the wrong sword, the story changes, upsetting the wizard's plans. Suddenly Ariel must flee for his life, venturing into a wider world he never knew existed. Talking animals, robot pilgrims, and enthralling alternative technologies abound in this heartfelt mix of fantasy and sf that features imaginative world building and ingeniously crafted characters.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
A young boy goes on a quirky quest through a postapocalyptic world in bestseller Sloan's gentle yet thought-provoking adventure set 11,000 years after humanity lost a war to the genetically engineered "dragons" it had developed for space exploration. Now 12-year-old Ariel de la Sauvage is tasked by the Wizard Malory with pulling Excalibur from its stone. But Ariel angers the wizard when he returns with another sword, bucking his destiny. Fleeing Malory's wrath, Ariel experiences life beyond his small village for the first time as he travels toward the city Rath Varia, helped along the way by talking beavers and amiable robots. Once there, he learns how wizards can reshape life and concocts a dangerous scheme to defeat Malory by activating humanity's "Plan Z" in its fight against the dragons, a signal meant to summon a human army held in stasis in space. Unfortunately, the signal brings only Durga, a teen girl trained by humans in propaganda and kept in stasis for centuries. She agrees to help topple Malory if Ariel will help confront the dragons once and for all. Narrated by the fungal chronicler implant that attaches to Ariel, the story is full of wildly inventive and audacious worldbuilding delivered in a cozy tone reminiscent of Becky Chambers. With the flavor of a classic coming-of-age adventure or a complicated video game, this is a world readers will hope to come back to. Agent: Sarah Burnes, Gernert Co. (June)
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Review by Library Journal Review
Sloan's (Sourdough) thought-provoking novel explores the limits of what it means to be human. The story begins in the distant future, when humanity takes its first halting steps into the void, only to find itself at the mercy of monsters. Humanity's foray into space is brief, bringing back terrible dragons that lock down Earth and devastate humanity. But all is not lost. The novel's main character is an artificial intelligence, a chronicler and counselor living in a small bit of cells that functions as a narrator for its host body. The chronicler sleeps for 11,000 years, then wakes to find a new host in the boy Ariel. The novel's plot is a predictable one, with Ariel's coming of age proving to be the twist of fate that allows humanity to return to the stars. However, Sloan's world is far from standard, being a captivating meld of fantasy and science fiction tropes that are both startling in scope and impressive in their concepts. VERDICT The depth of ideas in Sloan's excellent new book will entice readers who enjoyed James S.A. Corey's "Expanse" series.--Jeremiah Rood
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A sentient artifact that witnessed the fall of human civilization becomes a friend and advisor to a boy who discovers it many lifetimes later. Twelve-year-old Ariel de la Sauvage has never seen a blue sky or tasted tomato sauce. Millennia before he began life in the small, remote village of Sauvage, humanity was defeated by AI-begat "dragons" in a war to end all wars, changing the course of life on Earth forever. While exploring the valley around Sauvage, Ariel discovers an object dating back to that era: a spaceship's escape pod, entombed in a cave revealed by the calving of a glacier. In addition to the body of human warrior Altissa Praxa, the pod holds the chronicling device that served Altissa in life, a sophisticated and self-aware apparatus designed to record human memories. (For its part, the chronicler describes itself as "a hearty fungus onto which much technology has been layered, at extraordinary expense.") Making the leap from Altissa to Ariel, the chronicler, who acts as the book's narrator, finds society transformed. Animals talk. Robots roam the roads. Wizards hold sway, including the Wizard Malory, the ruler of Sauvage. When Ariel inadvertently thwarts Malory's secret plans one day, revealing an intricate conspiracy revolving around Ariel himself, he incurs the wizard's wrath and only manages to escape Sauvage by the skin of his teeth. Pursued by Malory and his forces, Ariel is aided by a colorful cast of characters ranging from an elk to a bog body to a trash picker as he searches for a way to defeat the wizard--and figure out why Malory wants him in the first place. Thanks to the chronicler's distinct voice and novel point of view, it makes for an ingenious choice of narrator; the plot itself is replete with thorny quests and arduous journeys in the manner of classics like A Wrinkle in Time and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, though the finale feels somewhat rushed and leaves a few questions hanging. Coming at the dawn of the AI era, this is a thoughtful (and hopefully not prescient) book that, like its characters, asks: What happens next? An expansive adventure that blends fantasy and SF to address one of the most pressing issues of our time. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
