Light Over Liskeard: From the Sunday Times bestselling author of Captain Corelli’s Mandolin Paperback – 12 October 2023

I absolutely adore Louis de Bernieres’ brilliant writing so I was primed to love, “Light Over Liskeard”, and I did! It’s a delight!Set in the future (or in a dream inside a dream?) it tells the story of Q, a quantum cryptographer, who lives in a world where humans no longer have to do any work, robots do all that, and everyone gets a basic income from the government. The population is shrinking because children are too much trouble, so humans have nothing to do but pursue pleasure, which they do with electronics, Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality, and fantasy worlds and games. Literally everything about this society relies on the electronic grid.It may seem like a Utopia, but it’s actually a Dystopia! De Bernieres’ descriptions of people glued to their screens, having sex with robots, dressing up as Gladiators, perfectly render this crazy world.Q knows that the grid will eventually fail and that civilization will come crashing down and savagery will ensue. He knows that humans have forgotten how to do anything useful or necessary to stay alive. He purchases a farm so that he and his family will be able to survive when (not if) the Apocalypse comes.Sounds pretty dark but it’s NOT! It’s wonderfully fun! We meet all sorts of fun and quirky characters, and there are even a few romances!Only de Bernieres’ signature “Brit Wit”, which never fails to charm and entertain, can make a story about the End Times so thoroughly entertaining.(And for fellow fans of de Bernieres’ Daniel Pitt Trilogy, one of the main characters is a descendant of our favorite Flying Ace, Daniel Pitt!)

Light Over Liskeard is set in the future, in a world where humans have made themselves redundant. Q or Artie is one of the few who still have a job. A brilliant quantum cryptographer, his expertise has allowed him to amass a fortune, but it has also given him a horrifying insight into the probability of societal collapse. In order to prepare for the inevitable demise of civilisation, he buys a dilapidated farmhouse on Bodmin Moor. With the help of his enigmatic neighbour Theo he restores the buildings and becomes a prepper, turning into a better version of himself in the process.It's an entertaining read, although you do have to suspend disbelief somewhat. Inexplicably Eva, Theo's twenty-something daughter finds forty-two year old Artie irresistible, as does the farmhouse's resident ghost. The imaginary future doesn't entirely make sense either - why on earth does everyone dress as historical characters? But the rewilded moorland setting is brilliantly evoked as are Artie's survivalist preparations, and there are some farcical scenes involving sexbots. All in all it's an enjoyable, if occasionally daft, story about a man reconnecting with himself, his environment and his family.

If you suspend credibility and let your mind wander along with the wonderful characters, you will be rewarded with a glimpse of the strength of the individual who lives life according to his own destiny. A wonderful read.

Not sure I enjoyed it that much, but well written of course. It's a vision of civilisations end and a brave little group preparing for it. Some lovely little glimpses of the society a few years from now that seems pretty accurate. The people though are deliberately weird and disturbing and seem unlikely.

There are so many post apocalyptic tales out there that this pre apocalyptic story came along as really refreshing. I loved the melding of science maths and spirituality. He skilfully wove in 're-wilding in a place where this could really happen. I could believe in the characters and their relationships as the norms of such were eroding with the ways we live today. Great scenarios were set up rather like acts in a play rather than bogging the story down with tiresome details. Very skilful and very enjoyable. He left the story ahead of things getting really messy and - post apocalyptic of course.