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Part alien invasion story, part buddy comedy, and part workplace satire, After The Fall by Edward Ashton, author of Mickey7 (inspiration for the film Mickey 17), asks an important question: would humans really make great pets?
Humans must be silent. Humans must be obedient. Humans must be good.
All his life, John has tried to live by those rules. Most days, it's not too difficult. A hundred and twenty years after The Fall, and a hundred years after the grays swept in to pick the last dregs of humanity out of the wreckage of a ruined world, John has found himself bonded to Martok Barden nee Black Hand, one of the "good" grays. Sure, Martok is broke, homeless, and borderline manic, but he's always treated John like an actual person, and sometimes like a friend. It's a better deal than most humans get.
But when Martok puts John's bond up as collateral against an abandoned house in the woods that he hopes to turn into a wilderness retreat for wealthy grays, John learns that there are limits to Martok's friendship. Soon he finds himself caught between an underworld boss who thinks Martok is something that he very much is not, a girl who was raised by feral humans and has nothing but contempt for pets like John, and Martok himself, whose delusions of grandeur seem to be finally catching up with him.
Also, not for nothing, something in the woods has been killing people.
John has sixty days before Martok's loan comes due to unravel the mystery of how humans wound up holding the wrong end of the domestication stick and find a way to turn Martok's half-baked plans into profit enough to buy back his life, all while avoiding getting butchered by feral humans or having his head crushed by an angry gray. Easy peasy, right?
"Combining two classic sci-fi tropes into one thoughtful, compelling story, Ashton's postapocalyptic alien invasion scenario tells a tale of survival and hope against all odds." —Library Journal
"Ashton's world-building is flawless, and his characters are delightful... With its unique take on the post-apocalyptic, alien-invasion themes and the unusual, sometimes buddy-comedy style relationship between its lead characters, the book will have Ashton's regular readers cheering, and it'll send newcomers looking for more books by this one-of-a-kind storyteller." —Booklist
"If John Steinbeck had written a novel of a post-alien invasion, it might very well look like Edward Ashton's After The Fall. It is a story of struggling to survive by wit, luck, and dogged determination. It is also equally as harrowing as it is hilarious―a balancing act that few dare try and even fewer can pull off. I didn't want the book to end. I would've happily followed John and Martok anywhere. I miss them already." ―James Rollins, #1 New York Times bestseller of the Moonfall Saga
"The best buddy road trip dramedy about a guy and his bumbling alien overlord you'll read all year. Bad decisions and deep existential questions co-exist on this thoroughly enjoyable quest to build a true found family—and maybe even a new sort of civilization." ―Tina Connolly, Hugo-nominated author of Ironskin
This information about After The Fall was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Edward Ashton (he/him) is the author of the novels Three Days in April, The End of Ordinary, Mickey7, Antimatter Blues, and Mal Goes to War, as well as of short stories which have appeared in venues ranging from the newsletter of an Italian sausage company to Escape Pod, Analog, and Fireside Fiction. He lives in a cabin on the shore of an inland sea, where he enjoys cancer research, teaching quantum physics to sullen graduate students, and whittling.
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