The Lost Art

Simon Morden's THE LOST ART is set in a future world Dark Age when war machines have changed the face of the planet - a world in which technology is hidden by a Church determined to present a new Armageddon. Benzamir Mahmood, a descendant of tribes that fled the planet during the old wars, pursues enemies from space and returns to earth bringing with him wondrous - and forbidden - technology. A fine science fiction tale for older readers evolves.

Every once in a while you pick up a book that you don't have any expectations about. In this case I'd never heard of the author before. The cover looked stupid, and to make matters worse it was a YA novel. A friend said, "read this book, it's a bit like 'The Golden Compass' meets 'A Canticle for Leibowitz' and I said 'yah sure'. I literally thought I would waste a couple of hours on this, read a couple of chapters before moving on to something different. Instead I was actually surprised at just how good this book is. Some sort of holocaust has occurred, and as a result Kenya is the big dominant empire and Islam seems to be one of the dominant religions. The time period is about a thousand years into the future. People are reluctant to use technology and are living at a feudal level. And yet a monastery has been broken into and a hoard of pre-fall books has been stolen. The thing that really makes this book are the characters. In a way the could have been clichés, but they never really are. You would expect a monk who was at one point in time the greatest general ever to eventually lead troops, he never does. You would expect love to triumph, it never does. Instead you get people acting like they do for a purpose that makes sense but except for some slight science fiction action never really escapes the bonds of plausibility. This really is a freakish good book. And it is too bad that it is being marketed as a YA novel under the aegis of a publisher that I have never heard of before, because it deserves a wider readership than it will undoubtedly get.

A thousand years have passed since the great war destroyed civilization and radically changed the environment with massive climate alterations. The age of the machine users is gone replaced by a Church enforced Dark Age in which pre-industrial pockets have formed. Science is forbidden and technology taboo in the Turn post machine world. Something attacks the remote Siberian Saint Samuil of Arkady monastery that contains in its scriptorium books written by the Users; every resident except Va the monk dies in the assault; the reference tomes are stolen. Va vows to retrieve the books before they are misused. Princess Eleyna also saw the carnage and joins Va, whom she loves, on his quest. Two groups of earth descendents who colonized another planet differ on how to help the beleaguered orb. One wants to bring back science and technology way beyond even that of the Users. The other wants to leave earth alone. Benzamir Mahmood comes to earth, to insure there is no interference from his tribe. He meets Va and Eleyna, and realizes the urgency of possessing the books before they are employed with catastrophic results like probably destroying the world. Although the target audience is young teens, adults will appreciate this bleak post apocalyptic science fiction thriller. The three lead protagonists and several key secondary characters agree on the outcome objective, but radically differ on the means to achieve the end state they desire. That concept is the prime underlying theme to this strong quest thriller as each individual (and readers) asks themselves whether any method is acceptable to accomplish the mission. Although the ending seems wrong for what happened prior; as if talented Simon Morden suddenly had to dumb down an intelligent well written story line to fit his prime readers, highs school students and older fans will enjoy the journey. Harriet Klausner