New Book Alert: Ark of the Apocalypse (The Magellan II Chronicles) by Tobin Marks; The Dark Somber Final Word on Earth's Destruction By Human Cruelty, Arrogance, Apathy, and Ignorance
By Julie Sara Porter
Bookworm Reviews
Spoilers:There are science fiction books that are so dark that you fall into a black hole of personal depression. Then there are those that cause you to just throw up your hands and go "No hope! We're doomed!"
If Court of The Grandchildren is a final warning for humanity to prevent climate change and to mind what we are doing before it's too late, then Ark of the Apocalypse The Magellan II Chronicles by Tobin Marks is the final message. It's the suicide note that Gaia will write as if saying "The Earth is dying because you weren't good to it. Now you are dying too."
Last year, I reviewed The Girl Who Found The Sun right when Missouri was in the process of shutting down because of the Covid pandemic. A Science Fiction novel in which the characters live in an underground world kept from the outside suddenly seemed more real when compared to a real life situation in which people were kept inside their homes because of the ravages of a pandemic and the arrogance of many people and a then Presidential Administration that chose not to follow simple common sense advice and allowed the virus to spread.
Once again a Science Fiction novel has become too real. With the Delta Strand variant of Covid creating another wave and many people around the world being unable to or choosing not to be vaccinated, with wildfires the size of New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles spreading throughout the United States, and above all billionaires like Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos engaging in a "measuring contest" to see who can spend less than 15 minutes in space in a private spaceship instead of using that wealth to pay taxes or to help the people on this planet. The Magic 8 Ball prediction for Ark of the Apocalypse switches from "Maybe possible" to "Absolutely certain."
Once the future hits in 2035, it really hits and it's written in a way that is extremely believable. Temperatures in Mexico have reached 120 on normal days (the last time it hit under 115 was in 2027). Rising global sea levels have made most coastal cities flooded and uninhabitable and many once thriving water regions, like the Sea of Cortez, have become dead zones. Also hurricanes no longer operate through seasons and form supercells on a regular basis. Snow no longer appears on mountain ranges like the Rockies and the Alps.The rivers in India and China have dried up and the Great Lakes are becoming smaller because the waters dumped into them have dried up.
Earth is no longer able to produce enough food to maintain its increasing population. With the scarcity of water, only 20% of the Earth's population of 12 billion can be adequately fed.
Countries, most notably Russia and the United States, are going to war over diminished resources. The U.S. President Abigail Moore is particularly eager to fire off her country's space orbital weapons system The Theater High Orbital Rover or THOR. (Typical USA in financial, environmental, and sociopolitical ruin but of course the government has the money to install and use a high tech brand new weapon for defense. I told you this book was spookily accurate.)
The war ends in less than four minutes but one of the Iranian missiles explodes over Russia causing more tension between nations. Of course nuclear blasts unleash disease, famine, and a depressed and angry populace (at least the ones that survive.) Moore and Russian President Yuri Volkov exchange accusations and blame until they come to an uneasy agreement.
This is the kind of world where at the International Convention on Climate Control, climatologist Dr. Randall Burt's speeches could be summarized as "We tried to warn you. Everyone is guilty including myself. So long, Suckers!" Before he goes home to attempt suicide. His only suggestion is to eliminate 90% of the population or watch as we all drop dead. The only chance for humanity's survival is for a small group to travel into the stars and live on another planet.
Two families are important to this mission. Their plan was centuries in the making. In the 1930's The Yanbeyevs, a Tatar family is ordered to be deported to Siberia. However, they have a secret up their sleeves which will help them get through the future struggles: A strange gift of prophecy shared by the seventh child of the family. This prophetic gift is passed through Anatoly's descendant Olga and her granddaughter, Nadya. Olga is determined that Nadya is to be one of the people on that space mission and she isn't above doing secretive underhanded things to ensure that future comes to pass and Nadya is able to survive to fill that destiny.
Another important family is that of Hikaru Mizushima's from Japan. After the bombing of Nagasaki, they have been holding onto a secret project contained within a metal box, a secret which will enable humanity to travel to the stars. Hikaru is able to use his ancestor's research to create spacecraft without rocket propulsion.
This possibility of interstellar travel saving humankind is on the surface optimistic but that optimism is tempered by many realities.
1) That only a select few people get to go so the majority of the population is left on Earth to die. In fact the cold attitude of many of the characters like The Yanbeyevs, Mizushimas, Moore, and Volkov is that "Everyone else can go f#$@ t&$#@(+-@_s," which is not the best way to make the Reader want to actually like these people and root for their mission to succeed.
2) Since the majority of the book is set on Earth, the focus isn't on space exploration or what this new planet is like. We do have some chapters where the characters encounter dragon-like beings and Nadya's dreams in the hyperspace sleep travel prove useful to the survival of the expatriate Earthlings. However, most of the book deals with the slow death march that Earth is on.
We are given pages and pages of war and environmental catastrophe which is slowly strangling the remaining population. While you can't blame characters like Burt for reminding people that this could have been avoided, the callous tunnel vision that many characters have for the interstellar mission is is like ripping open a bandaid on a gaping wound. The wound is still there.
Especially since they are also willing to leave their families behind including small children. Unless they are planning subsequent space missions, they leave knowing that they are essentially consigning loved ones to their deaths by allowing them to remain on Earth. Also the chapters where they are on that planet suggest that they haven't lost their warlike nature or the desire of control and domination.
3) Of course the realism in how Marks writes this future cannot be avoided nor can the comparisons to the world that surrounds this fictional universe. It gets to the point that it's no surprise that the final two leaders of Russia and the United States: Viktor Petrov (replacing Volkov who was assassinated after 66 years as Russian President) and Crissy Caryn (an attractive former media celebrity) still engage in threats of war even as the world is dying around them suggesting that with some people power, any power, is more important than protection and survival. Nor is it any surprise that when Burt delivers the bad news, the people blame him for it instead of accepting their own share of the guilt.
This scenario is all too real and in real life may only be a few short years away (if not already here). The impending destruction and the callousness of the people living within it is something that we all have experienced and may continue to experience.
Ark of the Apocalypse The Magellan II Chronicles is one of those types of Science Fiction novels where even the hopeful moments convey a sense of despair because of what is left behind. It's a nightmare that is all too true and while we can close this book and forget about its contents, we can't close the real world around it. The only thing that we can do is turn things around, before this nightmare fictional scenario becomes the complete inescapable truth.
