The Descent by Paul E Hardisty @Hardisty_Paul @OrendaBooks @RandomTTours

On my blog today, i’m sharing my thoughts on the new novel by Paul E Hardisty that The Descent. With thanks to Anne Cater from Random Things Tours for inviting me to take part in the blog tour.

BLURB

A young man and his young family set out on a perilous voyage across a devastated planet to uncover the origin of the events that set the world on its course to disaster … The prescient, deeply shocking prequel to the bestselling, critically acclaimed Climate Emergency thriller, The Forcing.

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.

MY THOUGHTS

The Descent is another powerful novel from Paul E Hardisty which needs to be on everyone’s TBR pile. Following on from the events recorded in the first book, The Forcing, we meet Kweku Ashworth whose stepfather recorded the events in the previous book. Now, Kweku is attempting to fill in the gaps in his stepfather’s work, by going on a dangerous mission across the world, and this isn’t the same world we are used to, but one that has been ravaged by climate change. There are only a handful of places left on Earth that remain habitable, and these areas have also gone through vast, radicle changes.

Paul E Hardisty’s description in this book, as it was in the last one is exceptional. He paints a vivid and a terrifying portrayal of what our world could become if we don’t take action now on climate change, and it has never been more important to make the changes to save our future. Our descendants will judge us for the decisions we make now.

What Paul shows us here in this book are the despicable and horrific actions the rich and powerful take to boost their profits. This is shown in scenes dating back to the 2020s when climate change statistics are being rubbished by those people, who are at the top of their game, and who could actually do something to help, but instead focus on themselves. You can quite clearly see how they do not care for human life and the planet as a whole. It was sickening reading these scenes and it would not surprise me in the slightest if something similar is actually happening in the world today. It makes me so angry when I think of these people described in Paul’s book, especially the man in charge known simply as ‘The Boss.’

The present day events in the book take place in the 2060s. These scenes are so vivid and so haunting. You can really see how society has broken down. Paul E Hardisty writes about a version of society that doesn’t seem too far from reality and this is what makes his books so scary. This version of what the world has become is the result of what takes place in the 2020s; it did seem to me, as I was reading, that this is a message to the reader saying that we need to take action now in this decade to prevent the worst effects of climate change.

Kweku’s journey throughout this book kept me hooked as the reader. I read The Descent really fast and finished it in just one day. I can’t recommend this book and the first book in this series highly enough.

Publisher: Orenda Books

Publication date: 29th February 2024

Print length: 399 pages

The Descent is available to buy:

Amazon UK Kobo Waterstones

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