Review: After the Sky by Milo James Fowler

In [easyazon_link identifier="B083C2Q4PB" locale="US" tag="upstreamreviews-20"]After the Sky (Spirits of the Earth #1)[/easyazon_link], the world ended twenty years ago.

Now, the bunkers are opening and the survivors are looking forward to rebuilding.

Unfortunately, dealing with a nuclear wasteland is the least of their problems.

Deal alert: On the date of this review, the complete series, Spirits of the Earth, is only $0.99 on Kindle!

The story

Twenty years ago, the United World Government nuked the planet in order to save it from a biological attack launched by rebels. The population was divided up based on their skills and sent into bunkers to wait for the All-Clear.

Now, the signal has been given. The survivors are coming out of their bunkers to restart civilization. However, not everything is going according to plan. Not all of the bunkers survived. Some of them went crazy. Another came under the control of a madman who systematically murdered everyone. Others ran into trouble on the surface. They were also changed.

That is the set up for this post-apocalyptic tale by Milo James Fowler.

While it is unclear how and why it happens, the dust and ash that cover the earth changes everyone who comes in contact with it. Milton, the first character we meet discovers he has super-speed when the ground itself seems to rise up and attack him. Others have other gifts, claws, night vision, super-strength, even telekinesis.

As if that mystery and figuring out how to rebuild civilization from scratch were not bad enough, there is a seemingly endless number of cannibalistic marauders roaming the wastes that have to be dealt with. Like the Reavers of Firefly, these daemons are deformed, heavily armed, and eager to eat everyone they come across. Yet, as often happens in such stories, the real threat is the humans left behind, in this case, the Eden Guard. A group of unaltered engineers, Eden is determined to wipe out or enslave every mutation they can find.

As these different factions, the altered survivors, the Eden Guard, and the daemons, come into conflict, their fate and possibly that of the world may come down to the battle raging within Milton.

The characters

Milton is very much an everyman type of character. He is from a bunker where everyone was intended to be a simple laborer. Until he discovers his super-speed, he has no special skills to speak of. Nor is he possessed of an unusual degree of courage. In fact, we quickly learn that it is easy to manipulate him if it’s in the interest of his self-preservation. As I said, he’s an everyman, which is exactly why he is so important. He, like others in the book can sense and even hear spirits, the spirits that apparently are responsible for his powers, and also for strange phenomena like the earth attacking some people.

As the story progresses, we learn there are two spirits, one that is trying to help the survivors and another that is trying to finish off humanity. These two wage a battle for Milton’s soul, trying to convince him to join one side or the other. Because of his unique ability, which side he lands on will have profound implications for the world.

There are others of course. Luther and Samson are both from a breeder bunker, specifically chosen to help repopulate the earth thanks to their superior genetics. In order to regulate the food supply, the male and female breeders were kept separate during the 20 years underground. Luther and Samson and the rest of the men in their bunker are eager to get started of course. The Daiyna and the rest of the women breeders aren’t looking forward to fulfilling their purpose quite as much. It turns out that men and women are different and women just might resent existing for the sole purpose of breeding. The men are understandably fine with the arrangement. In defense of Daiyna and the women, the first men they come in contact with are the daemons who shot and ate some of them without bothering to say hello first.

For that reason, when the two groups to come together, they decide to wait to establish themselves more securely before getting to their…purpose. Luther, being a deeply religious man and the leader of the men does a good job of keeping the men’s spirits up, though Samson definitely has a one track mind when it comes to his purpose.

Daiyna has been traumatized by all that she’s seen since All-Clear. In addition to some of her friends being eaten in front of her she’s seen a friend have her skin eaten away by apparently living sand, and the leader of her bunker and several women trapping themselves underground where they would soon suffocate; so it’s understandable that she is more than a little untrusting. Still, she is happy to work with Luther and the others.

Then there is Willard, the leader of the Eden Guard. Willard is a hypocritical self-serving psychopath, though he may also be the reason there is currently anyone alive in the wasteland.

The world

The story is clearly set in the not terribly distant future. The USA is long gone, absorbed by the United World Government. Yet, there are still plenty of combustion engines in use, though the preference is clearly for solar powered vehicles. As one might expect after a nuclear apocalypse, there is nothing left alive on the surface, no one comes into contact with so much as a roach. Everyone is struggling to survive on left over rations from the bunkers and provisions stored for after the All-Clear is given.

It’s certainly a convincing world in that despite the work of the many experts who planned the retreat to the bunkers and the subsequent restart (Reset?) of civilization, not everything goes smoothly. After all, it wouldn’t be a nuclear wasteland without mutated cannibals running around the place. Or with a few of the best and brightest, like Willard losing their minds. The only thing that separates this world from how similar events might play out in ours is the spirits and the gifts they grant.

The politics

A key message of this book is definitely don’t trust the centralized planners. It was centralized planners who decided to nuke the surface, Willard is a centralized planner who institutes his own dystopia, and Jackson, the leader of Milton’s bunker took power to himself in order to murder everyone else over the years. The only group that is ever shown to be running well without murder and enslavement is the voluntary one that is made of the survivors of the two breeding groups, the only people with a diversity of skills and interests and the only ones not sterilized.

Content warning

There is one mild sex scene, plenty of suggestive language from Samson, medical experimentation that would make Mengele proud and, did I mention the mutant cannibals?

Who is it for?

Anyone who likes a good post-apocalypse story should enjoy this. Those who enjoy games like The Last of Us or series like the Walking Dead will appreciate the plight of the main characters struggling to find hope in the wasteland, only to find their fellow humans might be worse than anything they’ve faced.

Why read it?

Fowler manages to bring multiple genres together. We get a mix of post-apocalypse, superhero, and dystopian fiction with a side of mystery all rolled into one without it feeling wedged in. The end result is a good time that has me interested to read the next book in the series.