Notes from the Burning Age

Notes from the Burning Age (2021) by Claire North is set in a future Europe that has rebuilt itself after a catastrophic climate collapse known as the Burning. A new civilization is constructed around ecological principles enforced by a faith institution called the Temple. The Temple controls access to pre-Burning records and technologies, treating industrial-era knowledge as heresy capable of triggering another catastrophe. Ven, a Temple archivist and inquisitor, is recruited by Temple intelligence to infiltrate the Brotherhood, a revolutionary network seeking to recover and weaponize the knowledge the Temple has suppressed. The novel draws an obvious comparison to A Canticle for Leibowitz in its concern with the preservation and suppression of dangerous knowledge across a post-catastrophic civilization, though North's focus is more on the political and espionage dimensions than the theological. Claire North is the pen name of British writer Catherine Webb.

Signed copy. Signed by North on the title page.

Hardcover. First Edition, First Printing. Octavo, off-white cloth. New York: Orbit, 2021. ISBN: 9780356514758. #11120.
Fine in fine dust jacket.