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The Ancients

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The Ancients

By: John Larison
Narrated by: Kate Handford
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About this listen

A young boy and his older sisters find themselves suddenly and utterly alone, orphaned in an abandoned fishing village. Their food supplies dwindling, they set out across a breathtaking yet treacherous wilderness in search of the last of their people.

Down the coast, raiders deliver the children's mother, along with the rest of their human cargo, to the last port city of a waning empire. Determined to reunite with her family, she plots her escape—while her fellow captives plan open revolt.

At the center of power in this crumbling city, a young scholar inherits his father's business and position of privilege, along with the burden of his debts. As the empire's elite prepare to flee to new utopia across the sea, he must decide where his allegiance lies.

With a rapidly changing climate shifting the sands beneath their feet, these three paths converge in a struggle for the future of humanity—who will inherit what remains and who gets to tell its story. At once a sweeping survival story; an epic of the distance future; and a post-apocalyptic vision of hope and optimism, THE ANCIENTS weaves a multilayered narrative about human resilience, hope, and stewardship of our world for future generations.

©2025 John Larison (P)2025 W. F. Howes Ltd Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction
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That was hard work. It's not badly written, it's just.... dull. The blurb of this book suggested it would be everything that I enjoy in a book - an enticing premise centred around a character-drive journey with a deeper lesson to be told. But it just never really delivered and it felt an incredibly slow listen depsite not being an especially long book. Sadly, very disappointing and I doubt I'll remember anything about it in a few weeks' time.

Needlessly tedious

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