I get the feeling The Book of Joan is going to be a Marmite book, there were definitely parts I liked more than others and some things I felt I needed better knowledge to really get. If you have an interest in gender identity an body art, you'll probably get different things out of this, at times surreal, book.

I only knew the basics about Joan of Arc, although since I have read up a bit more on her, for instance her trial for heresy was based on her cross-dressing in male clothes in order to deter rape in prison. Later, when she was pardoned, the Catholic Church said that's a totally acceptable reason to cross-dress. Anyway, this fact felt relevant to the contents of this book.

The human race is dying. A geocataclysm has wiped out plant life and destroyed the reproductive organs of people, they are now effectively genderless, despite remembering what it was once like to be otherwise. Orbiting Earth is CIEL, a group of the privileged few who are permitted to live until the age of 50. Christine is one of them, a specialist in grafting, burning stories into skin. It's pretty much the only sensory experience they have left.

I was a bit thrown off by it being set in 2049. I know humanity's set on a course of destruction but it all seems a bit too quick and it wasn't necessary to state the date. It's a very short shelf-life for a science fiction novel.

Where does Joan fit in? Christine is burning her story onto her body, the Book of Joan. She was on the side against CIEL in the never-ending wars. She starting seeing visions as a girl, seeing a future where there was nothing but suffering, nothing but war. And she had the power to stop it.

Once captured, CIEL sentences Joan to burning at the stake, a symbolic exceution to send a message and make a spectacele. As the books goes on, whate appears to be a bit random and weird turns out to all be connected. Christines burns as Joan burnt.

I enjoyed the parts that followed Joan, back on Earth, a lot more. There's a lot about environmental damage but also about how life goes on. Perhaps not humans, but other life will evolve and take our place. Whilst it felt hopeless for a while, the ending isn't without hope. There are some excellent passages and themes, but sometimes it was just a bit on the weird side for me.