This time last year I reviewed The Forcing by Paul E. Hardisty. The Descent, publishing this month, is a companion novel, continuing where The Forcing left off, but whilst filling in some more of the historical backstory. Combined, the novels form a gloriously whole, arguably greater than its parts, giving us a haunting eco-thriller that lingers in the memory.
To get the most out of The Descent, you should definitely start by reading The Forcing first. I promise you won’t regret starting out on this journey.
What Is The Descent?
The novel follows Kweku Ashworth, stepson of “Teacher,” the narrator of The Forcing. Teacher is long dead. His story is kept alive by his manuscript; the recollections of a man escaping the climate crisis. The text of The Forcing also has a physical presence in The Descent. It’s the book left by Teacher for future generations. It’s not a religious text, but it forms a powerful connection for Kweku’s to the recent past, and is his main window into how the world was destroyed.
One day, on his radio receiver, he hears another narrator; somebody else with a story from before The Forcing. Somebody close to the center of power. Just as he is drawn into the narrative, Kweku’s peaceful life is destroyed, first when old family secrets bubble to the surface and then when armed invaders kill members of his family and kidnap his niece.
With little alternative, Kewku sets out with his wife and son, to try to see if he can recapture his brother’s daughter. With little more than hope and a prayer, the Providence sets sail again.
Why Read The Descent?
As a pair of novels, The Forcing and The Descent make for sobering reading about the perils that face us. Hardisty’s credentials to write such a polemic are unimpeachable, with an over 25-year-long career as a hydrologist and environmental scientist.
This is not a sensational over-hyped eco-thriller. This is a science-backed depiction of the inexorable disintegration of the harmonies that balance the planet. This makes the story all the more chilling.
Yet, for me, the most affecting parts of the book were not about climate change. I would imagine that most people who define themselves as “geek parents” are probably aware of the science underpinning the rise in global temperatures and the sorts of actions that will make the situation worse. There are lots of those moments in this book and it does serve as a wake-up call to humanity as we sleepwalk off the cliff made by rising temperatures (Note: It’s not a cliff; those temperatures are going keep soaring upwards) but The Descent looks at other susceptibilities too.
What I found to be the biggest wake-up call of all, draws attention to the big shift in the attitudes of global actors. From reading The Forcing you’ll know that the climate calamity was accelerated by a wealthy fraternity acting with only their best interests at heart. The Descent digs a little deeper into this.
It seems to me that across the globe “bad actors” are taking a bigger and bigger role in shaping society. Throughout most of my lifetime, politicians and business leaders have come and gone, and, whilst I might not agree with their policies, politicians in particular, tended to behave with honorable intentions. In the main, they did what they did for what they perceived to be the common good.
Looking at the litter of recent political history, this no longer feels the case (there is a thinly veiled President Trump in the book). Much is made in the UK of its unwritten constitution, a system that worked because everybody adhered to an unwritten code of how to comport oneself in a political setting. In recent years this seems to have gone out of the window. Trashing the system, and laying it bare for the rich and unscrupulous to pick us clean, seems to be the new way forward.
The Descent highlights this phenomenon with chilling dispassion and hammers home the point, by focusing on what a disaster this will be when applied to climate policy. I’m not going to lie, as a pair of novels they do not leave me very hopeful. They bring home the point that the citizens of the world tend to assume that somebody will save them; that something will be done in the nick of time. More likely, Hardisty’s novels contend, those people we look to are stealing the family silver and hiding it all behind bulletproof walls.
Woven through all this, is an excellent story of bravery, duplicity, and fledgling political systems; of humans trying to exist in the most difficult circumstances. Underpinned by the base created in The Forcing, I found The Descent to be a deeply absorbing read. The thrills are lo-octane (as befits a post-fossil fuel world) but no less impactful for that. Hardisty treats us to characters we want to root for, who have to make tough decisions in terrible conditions. Every page tugs at the reader, and makes us consider the precipice on which we now stand.
I have no idea whether Hardisty plans to expand his story; there is definitely scope to do so, bringing other voices from the global disaster. Whatever he decides to do next, I shall await with interest.
If you would like to pick up a copy of The Descent you can do so here, in the US, and here, in the UK. (Affiliate Links)
If you enjoyed this review, check out my other book reviews, here.
I received a copy of this book in order to write this review.
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