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After the fall / Edward Ashton.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: New York : St. Martin's Press, 2026Edition: 1st edDescription: 277 pages ; 24 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9781250375650
  • 1250375657
Subject(s): Genre/Form: DDC classification:
  • 813.54 23
LOC classification:
  • PS3601.S567 A38 2026
Summary: "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"-- Provided by publisher.
List(s) this item appears in: Coming Soon
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Holdings
Item type Current library Collection Shelving location Call number Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Phillipsburg Free Public Library Adult Fiction New Books FIC ASHTON In-Process 36748002646042
Total holds: 1

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

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?

"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"-- Provided by publisher.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

It's been 120 years since the fall of humanity and 100 years since the alien grays arrived to save what was left. John, like all the other surviving humans, is bonded to the gray who bought his contract. Martok treats him like a friend, but John is actually enslaved in a system where breaking any rule brings instant death. Martok's latest venture seems doomed to fail, but this time John's contract is on the line. Martok really does trust John, but John can't trust him or the system they're in. It's unsafe to communicate across that divide, but if they don't, they are both going to end up dead. Combining two classic sci-fi tropes into one thoughtful, compelling story, Ashton's (The Fourth Consort) postapocalyptic alien invasion scenario tells a tale of survival and hope against the odds and against the society that surrounds them. Humanity's fate is hard and grim, but the story still manages to reach a hopeful, if somewhat constrained, ending. VERDICT Recommend to readers who enjoy alien invasion stories; fans of Adrian Tchaikovsky's "Terrible Worlds" series, particularly Ogres; and anyone who thought the ending of The Planet of the Apes just wasn't heartrending enough.--Marlene Harris
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