My review: 4 stars
A provocative and powerful novel that starts with the death of the main character. She makes a promise to remain behind as a protective entity who can look out (guide) her family. I always love a hint of magic realism in novels.
I was positively impressed with the mention of video games (such as Warcraft), programming, and apps as a positive way to connect and communicate with younger generations... but thank you, author, for showing that being a gamer is not exclusive of a specific age. I truly appreciated reading this fiction having those events present when we are addressing a major theme like sex, consent, exposure of wrong doings (violence, racism, abuse, murder for the sake of misogynistic pleasure) making a difference (even when the ones figting are minors (They can still have a strong voice to reach those in power). Using the internet, social media is a positive tool to fight wrongdoings and exposure. Pointing out how toxic society can be in every level, figting back gaselighting, even how AI nowadays is in our lives as a feral activity, and feminism.
A metaphysical activist novel with characters with a lot of courage to voice concerns.
From September Publishing:
Visit site here.
"How do you help the people you love create a future you’re proud to leave behind?
From bestselling author Manda Scott comes a visionary thriller of a lifetime."
Manda Scott trained and worked as a veterinary surgeon before becoming an author, columnist and podcaster.Her debut novel, Hen’s Teeth, was shortlisted for the Orange Prize. Subsequent works were shortlisted for the Edgar and Saltire Awards and won the McIlvanney Prize, but it is for her Boudica: Dreaming series that she is best known. Weaving her shamanic spirituality into narratives of Britain’s pre-Roman past, these books bring alive a world in which people understand their inherent connection with the web of life.
More recently, she read for a Masters in Regenerative Economics at Schumacher, the experience of which led her to set up Accidental Gods podcast and Membership Programme. Each of these explicitly aims to bring humanity closer to emergence into a connected, regenerative system by offering practices of inter-becoming within the Membership and by giving voice to the many individuals working for systemic change in the podcast.
This year sees the publication of her sixteenth novel, Any Human Power, a ‘visionary’ contemporary political thriller that maps fictional – but plausible and workable – routes toward a future we’d all be proud to leave to the generations that come after us: human and more-than-human. Described by Lee Child as ‘Instantly immersive and compelling, rich and strange, human and humane’, the book weaves currents of shamanic mythology similar to those in the Boudica series through a ‘Thrutopian’ narrative of political upheaval and transformative change.
She is currently writing the sequel, while aiming to bring the podcast to a wider audience. She lives with her wife, Faith Tilleray, live on a smallholding in the edge-zone between England and Wales. One day, they’ll go home to Scotland…
Links
Manda Scott website https://mandascott.co.ukAccidental Gods website: https://accidentalgods.lifeThrutopia Masterclass: https://thrutopia.lifeNarrative Ark: https://narrativeark.net
Social Media
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mandascottauthor/Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/manda.scott.756/Twitter/X https://twitter.com/MandaScottMastodon https://mastodon.scot/@EceniBlueSky https://bsky.app/profile/mandascott.bsky.social
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