Series Synopsis:
The Interloper Trilogy follows Bear, the last scientist among his people, trying to decipher the mystery behind the nameless horror that broke Earth, and took his father from him. Set against him are the forces of an angry, corrupted Mother Gaia, and the Dreamers, a cult that would like to see the last safe zones fall to chaos. On his side are the few who live outside the walls, the veterans of the Interloper Initiative, people who have seen the horrors that Bear must face and lived to tell the tale. It is aboard their landship, the Icebreaker, that Bear can survive his journey through the old world and find the answers that might save both him, and what remains of humanity.
Under the Oak Synopsis:
A mixture of mystery, horror and science fiction, the Interloper Trilogy is about loss and redemption, the human will to survive, and the means by which we understand the strange world around us. It has DNA from detective novels, survivalist tales, psychological horror and shamanism.
Despite overcoming and revealing the secret horrors of the Coastal Union, the Interloper Initiative find themselves powerless to prevent the incoming apocalypse. Their last chance is the perilous journey into the south, a land where the dead speak and the phenomenon has consumed all. Worse still, their only guide is their worst enemy.
Whilst Bear and Bee travel to the old broken world to find a way of stopping the apocalypse, Glass and Dusty contend with the plans of a cult that has nestled at the very root of the Coastal Union. If either of them fail, the Union will fall, and the last light of humanity will fade out. Only the best efforts of the Icebreaker crew can stop what is coming, and even that may not be enough.
“Under The Oak” is the third and final entry in the Interloper Trilogy, a tale of love, loss, death and rebirth, that finally answers the questions that Bear has asked since his journey began.
Review:
Okay – why have I got the series synopsis? Because I read and reviewed the first two books before I joined FanFiAddict and they are superb. I mean it, and yes, this excerpt from the series description nails it:
A mixture of mystery, horror and science fiction, the Interloper Trilogy is about loss and redemption, the human will to survive, and the means by which we understand the strange world around us. It has DNA from detective novels, survivalist tales, psychological horror and shamanism.
Look up my Goodreads review of Icebreaker (Bk1) and The Hundredth Question (Bk2) to get an overview of my opinion of those books, and we’ll dig in to Under the Oak – but I will avoid ‘spoilers’.
Hannah has his own style, including the occasional use of formatting structures to keep you off-kilter– breaking up phrases to give a physical sense of events or thoughts that adds emotions and description without the need for words – you’ll see what I mean when you read it! His world is beautifully built; the shamanistic elements met in the first two books coming together in a jigsaw puzzle of realties and events to make the global scope of the cataclysm that is destroying the world almost an ‘aha’ moment, hinted at but only fully realised towards the end. Where mathematics, runes and shamanism meet, the story unfolds into a bloody and battle-laden ending that has you on the edge of your seat.
Did I forget to mention just how much you care about these characters? After three books they have a richness that draws you in, a need to know more and a drive to know their fate. And no, they’re not all likeable, at least not when you first meet them, but damn, they have a history that makes you believe in them. Three-dimensional (four or five dimensional for Bear by the end) people you can’t help but root for.
In essence, this book leads you to a final confrontation, both with Gaia and Messenger, and ticks off all those need-to-know questions Hannah rose in the first two books, while immersing you in, what is in essence, a fast-paced thriller that has you turning the pages desperate to know where it leads. Do I recommend it? Come on – read that description again:
A mixture of mystery, horror and science fiction, the Interloper Trilogy is about loss and redemption, the human will to survive, and the means by which we understand the strange world around us. It has DNA from detective novels, survivalist tales, psychological horror and shamanism.
You’ve read nothing like it. Superb.
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