Where the Axe Is Buried

A Novel

336 pages

English language

Published 2025 by Farrar, Straus & Giroux.

ISBN:
978-0-374-61537-6
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(5 reviews)

In the authoritarian Federation, there is a plot to assassinate and replace the President, a man who has downloaded his mind to a succession of new bodies to maintain his grip on power. Meanwhile, on the fringes of a Western Europe that has renounced human governance in favor of ostensibly more efficient, objective, and peaceful AI Prime Ministers, an experimental artificial mind is malfunctioning, threatening to set off a chain of events that may spell the end of the Western world.

As the Federation and the West both start to crumble, Lilia, the brilliant scientist whose invention may be central to bringing down the seemingly immortal President, goes on the run, trying to break out from a near-impenetrable web of Federation surveillance. Her fate is bound up with a worldwide group of others fighting against the global status quo: Palmer, the man Lilia left behind in London, desperate to solve …

2 editions

My favorite contemporary sci-fi author

I love this cover so much; it’s like a riso print for a comic. Had to diagram characters, locations, and timelines to follow all of the jumping around. It’s Nayler’s usual fare of capitalism, consciousness, environmental collapse, and AI, but he always manages to write interesting stories about them in different combinations. It’s not all bleak, but what a mess we continue to make for ourselves.

Exceptional cyberpunk thriller

( em português: sol2070.in/2025/04/livro-where-the-axe-is-buried/ )

One of the few books I had marked on my calendar for its release: “Where The Axe is Buried” (2025, 336 pages), by one of the best contemporary science fiction authors, the American writer Ray Nayler.

In addition to being exemplary science fiction — with provocative speculation, memorable characters, and excellent writing — the author often expresses a critical view of the current direction of science and technology, which has been hijacked by multibillionaires. He explores how this trend dominates politics and also connects to environmental destruction.

Even among the titles I carefully choose, I constantly come across the same techno-optimism — almost cult-like — that now spreads from the big tech companies and their defenders. So it’s a relief to dive into a story of this kind that is not only free of that mindset but openly critical of it.

The novel …

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