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rsdsharp

(11,040 posts)
21. I'm reading The Second Sleep by Robert Harris.
Sun Mar 23, 2025, 05:38 PM
Mar 2025

I bought it after reading a couple of pages in a Kindle sample. It seemed like typical historical fiction from Harris. The book starts with a young priest riding across the countryside in western England in “the year of our risen Lord” 1468.

It rapidly becomes clear that this 1468 is not OUR 1468. Instead, this is a post apocalyptic novel set 802 years after the collapse of our technological society in (gulp) 2025. The powers that be subsequently installed a theocracy, banned language not found in the King James version of the bible, and started the calendar over beginning with the year 666.

The citizenry know there was a scientifically advanced society in the past, but they are unable, and unwilling, to recover it, and are living as people did in medieval times. There are, however, “heretics” who are curious about the past.

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Latest Discussions»Culture Forums»Fiction»What Fiction are you read...»Reply #21