Published 29th February 2024 by Orenda Books.
From the cover of the book:
Kweku Ashworth is a child of the cataclysm, born on a sailboat to parents fleeing the devastation in search for a refuge in the Southern Ocean. Growing up in a world forever changed, his only connection to the events that set the planet on its course to disaster were the stories his step-father, long-dead, recorded in his manuscript, The Forcing.But there are huge gaps in the story that his mother, still alive but old and frail, steadfastly refuses to speak of, even thirty years later. When he discovers evidence that his mother has tried to cover up the truth, and then stumbles across an account by someone close to the men who forced the globe into a climate catastrophe, he knows that it is time to find out for himself.
Determined to learn what really happened during his mother's escape from the concentration camp to which she and Kweku's father were banished, and their subsequent journey halfway around the world, Kweku and his young family set out on a perilous voyage across a devastated planet. What they find will challenge not only their faith in humanity, but their ability to stay alive.
The Descent is the devastating, nerve-shattering prequel to the critically acclaimed thriller The Forcing, a story of survival, hope, and the power of the human spirit in a world torn apart by climate change.
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Two years after the death of his step-father, Teach, Kweku Ashworth rereads the manuscript he left behind, telling what he knew of The Forcing that brought the planet to its knees through an unstoppable climate emergency. Kweku knows the importance of these stories in recording the events that led his family to travel half-way across the world to their refuge in Australia, and feels it is time for this knowledge to be spread to other survivors on this devastated planet.
Kweku begins broadcasting Teach's words on a short-wave radio, hoping that someone out there will hear them. Unexpectedly, he receives a response from a woman calling herself Sparkplug with her own shocking revelations about how The Forcing was managed, and her complicity in the planet's descent into chaos. She also feels it is time for her story, The Descent, to be told.
As Kweku begins to put together more pieces of the puzzle about how ruthless corporations and corrupt politicians turned their back on the truth to line their pockets, he realises that there are gaps in Teach's stories that need to be filled - gaps that his mother is reluctant to explain. But before he can understand why his parents kept secrets from him, tragedy comes to his family's haven in the Southern Ocean. It is time for Kweku and his own young family to go on a dangerous quest for the truth, and what they discover will not only reveal the full impact of the past, but also the reality of the world they are now living in.
Following on from Paul E. Hardisty's incredible climate emergency thriller, The Forcing, which should absolutely be required reading for all, The Descent revisits the same timely themes in a way which is brilliantly both prequel and sequel to the first book. You do have to have read The Forcing before reading The Descent - you can thank me later for the way it will open your eyes to what is going on right now around the world.
The story unfurls in two cracking storylines - one in the near future following Kweku and his family's fight to survive, and the other through Sparkplug's revelations about the horrific events that led to the collapse of society. Kweku's part in the novel builds beautifully on Hardisty's writing in the earlier book to give you a disturbing wider view of the way people are scratching together an existence in a world that has changed for ever, and plays out in a series of edge-of-your seat scenarios that make for a thrilling dystopian nightmare all of their own. But the real magic comes from the way Sparkplug's narration gradually completes the tale of how The Forcing was not only managed, but how its instigators planned to ride out the storm while engineering the destruction of the society that raised them as gods. Both storylines feed into each other with masterful storytelling, with deliciously contrived links between the two in terms of characters and history, until they collide in explosive style.
Both threads of this tale are full of unsettling acts and intent. Kweku's side of the novel carries with it the biggest emotional punch, exploring poignant themes of family, love, and humanity. However, as a huge fan of the prescient nature of the first book, for me, it is Sparkplug's side of the novel that is the most chilling, and the one which carries with the most significance in guiding us through the difficult times ahead. I do not think it is any mistake on Hardisty's part that Sparkplug's narration begins with a climate emergency conference in 2024, where attempts to educate are cynically subverted by greed. Hardisty almost offers a blueprint of how repudiation can lead to the most horrific of futures, with sharp insight into the insidious tactics that can be employed to distract from the truth. Some of the most upsetting scenes in this story are those which describe the sordid veracity of obscene consumerism while the planet burns, and those where callous acts lead to slaughter in pursuit of a fast buck - which feel all too real.
While this has a difference in tone to the first book, with two threads that are equally pacy, it is every bit as terrifying and awareness-raising. There are lessons to be learned here: ways to act that still offer us hope - and with a US presidential election on the horizon that could be potentially disastrous should a certain figure return to the Oval Office, I have my fingers crossed that more people will take notice of them. Another must-read book from Paul E. Hardisty!
The Descent is available to buy in paperback, ebook and audio formats. You can support the best of indie publishing by buying direct from Orenda Books HERE.
Thank you to Orenda Books for sending me a copy of the book in return for an honest review, and to Random Things Tours for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.
About the author:
Thanks for the blog tour support x
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