What do you think?
Rate this book
Where the Axe Is Buried
Not yet published
Expected 1 Apr 25All systems fail. All societies crumble. All worlds end.
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 the mystery of her disappearance; Zoya, a veteran activist imprisoned in the taiga, whose book has inspired a revolutionary movement; Nikolai, the President’s personal physician, who has been forced into more and more harrowing decisions as he navigates the Federation’s palace politics; and Nurlan, the hapless parliamentary staffer whose attempt to save his Republic goes terribly awry. And then there is Krotov, head of the Federation’s security services, whose plots, agents, and assassins are everywhere.
Following the success of his debut novel, The Mountain in the Sea, Ray Nayler launches readers into a thrilling near-future world of geopolitical espionage. A cybernetic novel of political intrigue, Where the Axe is Buried combines the story of a near-impossible revolutionary operation with a blistering indictment of the many forms of authoritarianism that suffocate human freedom.
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 the mystery of her disappearance; Zoya, a veteran activist imprisoned in the taiga, whose book has inspired a revolutionary movement; Nikolai, the President’s personal physician, who has been forced into more and more harrowing decisions as he navigates the Federation’s palace politics; and Nurlan, the hapless parliamentary staffer whose attempt to save his Republic goes terribly awry. And then there is Krotov, head of the Federation’s security services, whose plots, agents, and assassins are everywhere.
Following the success of his debut novel, The Mountain in the Sea, Ray Nayler launches readers into a thrilling near-future world of geopolitical espionage. A cybernetic novel of political intrigue, Where the Axe is Buried combines the story of a near-impossible revolutionary operation with a blistering indictment of the many forms of authoritarianism that suffocate human freedom.
- GenresScience Fiction
336 pages, Hardcover
Expected publication April 1, 2025
About the author
Ray Nayler
75 books735 followersCalled "One of the up-and-coming masters of SF short fiction" by Locus Online, Ray Nayler's critically acclaimed stories have seen print in Asimov's, Clarkesworld, Analog, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Lightspeed, and Nightmare, as well as in many "Best Of" anthologies, including The Very Best of the Best: 35 Years of The Year’s Best Science Fiction.
For nearly half his life, he has lived and worked outside the United States in the Foreign Service and the Peace Corps, including a stint as Environment, Science, Technology, and Health Officer at the U.S. consulate in Ho Chi Minh City. Beginning in September 2022, he will serve as the international advisor to the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
For nearly half his life, he has lived and worked outside the United States in the Foreign Service and the Peace Corps, including a stint as Environment, Science, Technology, and Health Officer at the U.S. consulate in Ho Chi Minh City. Beginning in September 2022, he will serve as the international advisor to the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
September 28, 2024
this book has left me reeling. in a good way.
the chapters are told from the perspectives of our main characters, which sometimes cross each other.
there’s two elements that i found the most interesting. disclaimer - i am not knowledgeable about all topics and geopolitical aspects that have served as inspiration for this novel, so i will speak of what i know. as a person with russian heritage and family that lives there in near poverty but still blindly and actively supports the regime, or shrugs in apathy, the tale of zoya hit close to home. as someone who has not seen that part of the family in years, lilia was relatable to me. nayler also touched upon the topic of refugees and their worth, depending on their home country. does a refugee from an agressor state deserve pity? in general, i felt like „where the axe is buried“ presented a pretty accurate account of the way russia has been functioning.
„In the years that followed, Zoya and her allies would come to understand that they would never win. Their resistance to power was purely symbolic.“
„And when the West makes their accusations,“ Krotov said, „we accuse them of lying. And we repeat our own lie to them again. Forever.“
these parts of the book reflected the feeling of helplessness that i see in russian speaking anti-authoritarian communities. what can be done against such a system? in „where the axe is buried“, the author describes an ending so not in tune with the bleak starting situation, it gave me whiplash. for that, i am deducting one star.
the second aspect i found interesting was the setup and fall of the PMs.
„We mystified the public with the idea that the machines were intelligent, maybe even conscious, when they really were nothing more than incredibly advanced statistical calculators, designed to give us the kinds of solutions we needed them to give.“
the next person that says „oh let me just ask chatgpt“ to my face will get slapped with this book. the gen ai craze is costing me my last nerve. that is all i will be saying on this matter thank you :)
one last thing - the book was well written, i really enjoyed naylers style. however, my knowledge of the russian language and folklore did help me out at multiple points. if this book is meant for people unfamiliar with russian, perhaps it would be smart to include a glossary. i feel like some small but interesting aspects of the story would be lost otherwise.
thank you to netgalley and farrar, straus and giroux for the arc provided in exchange for an honest review.
the chapters are told from the perspectives of our main characters, which sometimes cross each other.
there’s two elements that i found the most interesting. disclaimer - i am not knowledgeable about all topics and geopolitical aspects that have served as inspiration for this novel, so i will speak of what i know. as a person with russian heritage and family that lives there in near poverty but still blindly and actively supports the regime, or shrugs in apathy, the tale of zoya hit close to home. as someone who has not seen that part of the family in years, lilia was relatable to me. nayler also touched upon the topic of refugees and their worth, depending on their home country. does a refugee from an agressor state deserve pity? in general, i felt like „where the axe is buried“ presented a pretty accurate account of the way russia has been functioning.
„In the years that followed, Zoya and her allies would come to understand that they would never win. Their resistance to power was purely symbolic.“
„And when the West makes their accusations,“ Krotov said, „we accuse them of lying. And we repeat our own lie to them again. Forever.“
these parts of the book reflected the feeling of helplessness that i see in russian speaking anti-authoritarian communities. what can be done against such a system? in „where the axe is buried“, the author describes an ending so not in tune with the bleak starting situation, it gave me whiplash. for that, i am deducting one star.
the second aspect i found interesting was the setup and fall of the PMs.
„We mystified the public with the idea that the machines were intelligent, maybe even conscious, when they really were nothing more than incredibly advanced statistical calculators, designed to give us the kinds of solutions we needed them to give.“
the next person that says „oh let me just ask chatgpt“ to my face will get slapped with this book. the gen ai craze is costing me my last nerve. that is all i will be saying on this matter thank you :)
one last thing - the book was well written, i really enjoyed naylers style. however, my knowledge of the russian language and folklore did help me out at multiple points. if this book is meant for people unfamiliar with russian, perhaps it would be smart to include a glossary. i feel like some small but interesting aspects of the story would be lost otherwise.
thank you to netgalley and farrar, straus and giroux for the arc provided in exchange for an honest review.
October 13, 2024
Thanks to the editors at Farrar, Straus and Giroux for letting me read an advanced reader's copy through Netgalley.
I am very happy to have the chance to read the book before it's out!
This is a timely science fiction novel that deals with themes of AI and politics in Russia. To say more would be a spoiler, but I can say it is very much worth reading and listening to what the author hast to say.
Ray Nayler is a relatively new author, I started following him after reading some of his short stories in Asimov's. He has a background in foreign relations and knows the world beyond the USA. This shows in his writing which has a sensibility for different cultures.
I suffered with his characters in their impossible situations, trying to do the right thing more often than not.
This is not light reading. There are more questions than answers.
Like in Nayler's previous novel The Mountain in the Sea, I hoped the main point of view characters would interact more towards the end. But this is a minor point, the novel has many interesting ideas that will stay with me and I definitely recommend it.
I am very happy to have the chance to read the book before it's out!
This is a timely science fiction novel that deals with themes of AI and politics in Russia. To say more would be a spoiler, but I can say it is very much worth reading and listening to what the author hast to say.
Ray Nayler is a relatively new author, I started following him after reading some of his short stories in Asimov's. He has a background in foreign relations and knows the world beyond the USA. This shows in his writing which has a sensibility for different cultures.
I suffered with his characters in their impossible situations, trying to do the right thing more often than not.
This is not light reading. There are more questions than answers.
Like in Nayler's previous novel The Mountain in the Sea, I hoped the main point of view characters would interact more towards the end. But this is a minor point, the novel has many interesting ideas that will stay with me and I definitely recommend it.
October 19, 2024
This ended up being a hell of a ride. There's a lot going on here, to the point of there almost being too many POVs to track across all the intersecting threads, but at its core it's a story of change and what people are willing to do to enact it. It just also happens to feature using dioramas to implant thoughts in a subject's head, AI Prime Ministers and hellish social credit implementation, a President who's been reimplanting his consciousness in successive bodies, and the woman he exiled decades ago for the book she wrote about the world as it is now. Masterful plot work, and absolutely one of the books to read this coming spring.
November 7, 2024
Thanks to Netgalley for an ARC.
So this book is a lot like the movie Glass Onion where the main character quickly realizes that everything is very dumb. This book is meant to be a deep discussion between the totalitarian surveillance state (a la the USSR) vs a technological surveillance state (a la the US/Five Eyes). But once you make all the connections between the allegories and realize the characters act on rails it's a very boring and dumb book. The main 'villain' does a whole Blofield reveal and then we're left wondering what happens to some characters. Hell one character literally is described as a blank canvas and quickly dies once his plot armor is gone.
Not very good. I'm disappointed.
So this book is a lot like the movie Glass Onion where the main character quickly realizes that everything is very dumb. This book is meant to be a deep discussion between the totalitarian surveillance state (a la the USSR) vs a technological surveillance state (a la the US/Five Eyes). But once you make all the connections between the allegories and realize the characters act on rails it's a very boring and dumb book. The main 'villain' does a whole Blofield reveal and then we're left wondering what happens to some characters. Hell one character literally is described as a blank canvas and quickly dies once his plot armor is gone.
Not very good. I'm disappointed.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 4, 2024
Pretty good book! It took a while to get me invested, and I personally felt that it was a little heavyhanded with the amount of POVs, especially for such a short book. That being said, after it got me invested and the main story kicked off, it was really gripping throughout and was overall well written. I must also mention the prose, which I felt was exceptional. Everything was so vivid and real. It's overall an excellent first impression of the author, and I plan to start on his other books as soon as possible.
Thanks to the editors and Netgalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Thanks to the editors and Netgalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
November 13, 2024
I enjoyed this book. I think Nayler is finding his voice and his sophomore novel is really proving it! I docked because the multiple POVs were very difficult to keep straight (this is very common with Nayler). I love the concept of the dioramas and the plot was really engrossing. I look forward to reading Nayler’s next work.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!
Want to read
November 11, 2024After The Mountain in the Sea, I'll read anything Ray Nayler writes. so excited for this one!!!
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews