Beyond the Burn Line

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first stars that formed in protogalaxies a few hundred light years across were composed entirely of primordial hydrogen and helium. The two central characters in Ned Beauman's dark comedy are, broadly, personifications of the commonest reactions to the great thinning of the world's ecosystems: grief and anger. Emotions which in this case are generated by the accidental destruction of what may have been the last breeding grounds of a 'bumpy and greyish And so it seems to go, only for the story to take an unexpected turn and lead to Pilgrim's most important discovery which seems to suggest that recent history including the fall of the Bears civilization to plague and the rise of the people to their peaceful but definitely materially and technologically progressing society along the lines of the long ago Ogres civilization, though hopefully this time without violating Mother (Earth) so inviting her brutal response that led the Ogres to extinction, is actually not quite as in the official histories preserved in the vast Library of the People where Pilgrim worked for so long. Risking his reputation and his life, Pilgrim’s search for the truth takes him from his comfortable home in the shadow of a great library to his tribe’s former home on the chilly coast of the far south, and the gathering of a dangerous cult in the high desert. Whether or not the visitors are real, one thing is certain. Pilgrim’s world and everything he thought he knew about his people’s history will be utterly changed.

The first half of this novel is catnip for a science fiction reader like me, delivering hints which allow one to build a theory of where, when, and what is going on. The characters have snouts, but on those snouts they sometimes wear glasses. The scholars of this society have, in recent decades, arrived at a theory of selective change. Their more modern trains are powered by batteries, whilst older ones have wood-burning engines. These snippets are strewn across the opening chapters whilst, in the foreground, we are introduced to Pilgrim Saltmire, a servant of a leading scholar, in mourning and keen to continue his employer’s last work. In this society, Pilgrim is unusual because he feels no sexual urges in the annual Season. This provides more insight into his world, adding to growing indications that these “persons,” as they are often described, are quite different from us. Whilst it could have been mere decoration, then, this reference to Pilgrim’s nature makes him subject to prejudice which shapes his character and characterises his world — and which, in due course, becomes directly relevant to the plot. Peaceful and emphasising harmony with nature and cooperation between its tribes, but with strict divisions between the roles of men and women, it spans the American continent and is beginning to explore the rest of the world. But now, sightings of mysterious visitors are being reported. Are they bears which escaped the plague, a remnant population of human beings, or an unknown intelligent species? Where are they from, and what do they want? During the rest of the fortnight I read my way through that shelf, five books at a time, even when the rain stopped and the sun reappeared, just in time for the opening of the third and last IsleMcAuley’s eccentric retread of late 19th-century science (Saltmire’s kind are just wrapping their furry heads around the concept of adaptation through natural selection) provides the intellectual framework for a spirited tale of travel, manners and professorial skulduggery ... McAuley is not a showy writer, but his fiendishness gets under your skin.' Later the story moves along some decades in the future and switches again in perspective, though Pilgrim's discoveries are still its main focus. The second part is by its nature much faster-paced than the first and at times this makes it seems a bit rushed especially towards the ending which solves the main mysteries at least to a large extent, though as in any good story, leaves enough hooks for a possible sequel. advanced by Peter Davies and others, that all of life on Earth may be decended from microbial life that first evolved on Mars, and the rivalries, politics and commercial chicanery Mariella must navigate to arrive at the truth.

Beyond the Burn Line shows us what a skilled writer can do. Imaginative, intelligent world building, with a far-future setting that allows our characters, whilst different, to exhibit endearingly human traits. It is going to be one of my books of the year, I think. I think the thing that gets me is that it seemed to be very intentional and I just don't understand what purpose it served.They call themselves people, and certainly deserve the name. They are, with some significant exceptions, curious, peaceable, likeable and inventive. But they are not human. Pilgrim Saltmire is one of these (a mole, or badger, or what-you-will), a young academic determined to finish the monograph of his dear departed master, Able. The philosopher Timothy Horton described global heating, climate change species loss and all the other upheavals of the Anthropocene, as hyperobjects 'massively distributed in space and time relative to humans'. Although we can see evidence for their existence, the totality of these hyperobjects is much harder -- if not impossible -- to comprehend, and attempting to depict them from the default close third person point-of-view presents obvious difficulties for the novelist. One solution is to distribute the story amongst multiple characters scattered across time, a technique used to fine effect in E.J. Swift's novel about three women who in different centuries observe the unspoiled beauty and the decline and fall of Australia's Great Barrier Reef.

Beyond the Burn Line is a book of two halves. The first takes us into a far future Earth, where the dominant species, simply referred to as 'people' but clearly not human, live a relatively low tech, but rich life. We discover that they used to be slaves of intelligent bears, who were the main intelligent species on Earth for thousands of years before their relatively recent demise. Humans (referred to as ogres) have been extinct far longer, which, until things are explained further, made the tag line of the book 'What will become of us?' confusing. Paul McAuley seems to specialise in these conceptual novels. This is no exception. It takes place 200.000 year after the exctinction of humanity. A race of intelligent raccoons has arisen. One of them, Pilgrim Saltmire, tries to complete the research of his mentor, who has passed away. It concerns the observations of mysterious 'visitors' and the question if these are a real phenomenon or pure imagination. Pilgrims journey takes him to the south of his continent, where he finds a map from an earlier civilisation ... The map contains clues to something bigger going on ... At the end of the first section, the mystery of the Visitors is solved. The second section is set forty years later. The Visitors play the viewpoint role in this section as we discover the answers to the mysteries that Visitors existence are disclosed. This section involves a Visitor who specializes in Visitor-People relations. Those relations have soured. In addition, the question of the plague that overthrew the Bears becomes important.The book is divided into two parts. Part One is the story of Pilgrim Saltmire, a sentient raccoon who lives 200,000 years after humanity's extinction. It's also 600 years after the immediate successor to humanity, sentient bears, fell victim to a plague, which will be a key plot point. I found the story and worldbuilding of a society of sentient raccoons to be fascinating and informed by the author's PhD in biology. Also fascinating is that Saltmire is investigating what the late-lamented humans would call UFOs. Where do writers get their ideas? Anywhere and everywhere they can. In the case of Beyond the Burn Line, it began with something so slight it barely qualified as the ghost of a notion. A throwaway remark by a minor character in one of my earlier novels, The Quiet War, who wonders, as nations struggle to fix the damage to ecosystems caused by previous generations, if Earth might not be better off without humans. ‘In The first reissue is an ebook edition of my second novel, Secret Harmonies, first published in the US, in 1989, as Of the Fall. A title whose slight pun wouldn't, my then-editor Malcolm Edwards said, be appreciated by British readers; and thus the title change.

In summary then, as with the best of Paul’s work, Beyond the Burn Line is inventive and smart, engaging and logical. As a reader I found myself caring a great deal about what happens to Pilgrim, his descendants, and their world, until by the end when the story was done, I was sad to find it finished. I'm the author of more than twenty books, including novels, short story collections and a film monograph. My latest novel is War of the Maps. After the death of his master, a famous scholar, Pilgrim Saltmire vows to complete their research into sightings of so-called visitors and their sky craft. To discover if they are a mass delusion created by the stresses of an industrial revolution, or if they are real—a remnant population of bears which survived the plague, or another, unknown intelligent species. That is a clue that something is going on which is not natural. Two-hundred thousand years is not enough time for the evolution of a new intelligent species, much less two. There is an explanation for this, but I will not spoil it here. I was also, in the later stages of my science career, a published science fiction author. The Secret of Life, published a few years after I became a full-time writer, and just now republished as a Gollanz Masterwork, is my attempt to write a novel that tapped into my life in the labs, foregrounding the practice and

The first half feels like a rather meandering prelude that can probably be summed up in one sentence. Things really get cooking in the second, so my advice is to persevere.