A review by theomnivorescientist
The Second Sleep by Robert Harris

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective fast-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

5.0

My first Robert Harris novel. Consider it a medieval English Handmaid's Tale where a young priest Christopher Fairfax makes an arduous horseback journey to settle matters of his recently deceased predecessor. But as soon as he comes to the quiet village and looks through the dead priest's things he finds curious artefacts from the long lost "technical civilization" that existed 800 years ago when people built huge machines, flew in the air, and communicated via curious blocks made of glass and plastic. By this time I was laughing out loud by the ingenuity of the plot. Yes, this is the Dark Ages, not our historical middle ages, but fast-forward 800 years after technology and electricity and internet destroyed our present world. A perfect pandemic-timed novel laced with the cons of institutional oppression, religious vacuum, the value of futurism and progress, community values, and every other strand of lofty civic rules that binds this world together. A real page-turner and a blast.