Synopsis:
For a thousand years, The Old Town has stood as humanity’s last bastion against the maalkonis, malignant black mists that reduced the rest of the world to ash. They are kept at bay by rusty machines on the town’s walls. In order to survive, the dwindling population depends on one another.
Since a young age, Justīne has embraced the harsh responsibilities that accompanied her apprenticeship on the last farm in existence. Her younger sister, Anna, is beginning her own apprenticeship as well. Learning engineering was not Anna’s first choice, but the town’s last mage fell to the maalkonis years prior, leaving nothing behind but confusing books and strange runes.
When food runs low during a particularly harsh winter, distrust spreads like a plague, and Justīne is blamed for it. As hunger leads to violence, she and her siblings are forced to flee The Old Town, embarking on a perilous journey into the very mists that had formed their cage. Their fight to survive in the dark develops into a hopeful mystery as they follow the breadcrumbs of a mage’s efforts to save the world. Meanwhile something pursues them through the maalkonis…
Review:
There’s something just very smooth about Adam Bassett’s writing. Last year I had the privilege of reading his works Digital Extremities, and its follow-up, Animus Paradox. I’m not here to review those books (you can find my review of them here: HERE!), but what I read in a few cyberpunk-esque short stories and novellas told me that I would like almost anything he published. With Copper Skin, Oaken Lungs, Bassett is back with a speculative fiction tale that hit a lot of great beats for me and had me hooked from the get-go.
When I was a kid, I took a field trip to see the musical Brigadoon at a local university. I was fascinated by the idea of a place completely separated from the rest of the world. Of course, Brigadoon turns out to be a story of love conquering the time-space continuum, but the crumb of that idea is here in Bassett’s Copper Skin, Oaken Lungs with Justīne, her family and friends stuck in the last bit of the world that seems to shrink more and more with each generation. The story builds with each of the four parts, culminating in Justīne and her siblings taking drastic steps to save their own lives, but steps that may lead to salvation for their entire town.
(And let me just say: the hero of the book is definitely Pūka, the cat. Bassett needs to make book 2 of the Copper & Ash series entirely focused on Pūka. More Pūka!!)
This may not sound like a compliment — but it is easy to read and follow Adam Bassett’s writing. This is by no means a cozy setting, but Bassett is able to write a story with ease. There are plenty of authors out there that make reading their books a chore, making the audience piece the narrative together with the same scraps of metal that Tony Stark used in a remote cave in the first Iron Man flick. There is a flow and pace to Copper Skin, Oaken Lungs that push the reader to the next page, then the next page, then the next.
I had a great time with Justīne and her family and look forward to the next thing Bassett gives us — even if it’s just the spectacular map he included of Old Town at the beginning of this book. I highly recommend Copper Skin, Oaken Lungs by Adam Bassett and hope the second installment in this series isn’t too far off (with more Pūka!)
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