A dystopian/sci-fi/action adventure coming of age tale with a difference. The inventive slang-derived language creates a fresh and dynamic style to create a truly compelling world.
In NotSoGreatBritAlbion there is hunger. Agros have cut supplies and children are going missing. Only one girl with a unique power can save them - Adara, Catcher of Birds.
When her brother, Deogol is snatched, 17-year-old Citydweller, Adara, embarks on a dangerous quest to find him. During her journey, Adara is kidnapped by lustful Woodsmales, befriends a Nearlyman, is attacked by ravenous wolfies, falls for a Clonie, and is helped by a S.A.N.T.He takes her to the Monastery in the clouds where she discovers her true potential as a Bringer and powerful weapon.
Whilst in the Monastery, Adara is schooled by Brother Jude to perfect her vocal techniques, but there is something wrong. The Abbot is missing, folk move around in a dream-like trance, and monks and nuns harbour dark secrets. When Adara realisies that she is being kept from her mission, she tries to escape. But there are powers greater than hers, and she must use all her courage and skill to battle against evil forces to save herself and those she loves from being slaughtered by Agro spies.
Excerpt
An unruly hairshambles of a plant high enough for me to squat behind became my hideout whilst I rummaged through my Synthbag and took out a bar of Sterichoc and a killpainpill. Crouched and aching in the prickly vegetation, I swallowed down the tab, scoffed the confec and waited for the goodliness to take effect. I shuffled position and wedged myself deeper into the fronds. It was a robust shrub and I quite believed that I was safe, until the ground began to tremble.
I looked through the leaves and saw a whole flock of legs of the male kind coming my way.
I felt a calloused hand grab onto my wrist and haul me into the relative light. His grip was strong but not as much as the pong that drifted from the cluster of raggedy youths that I was surrounded by. I turned my head upwind and pulled myself free of the dirt-faced juve. He jumped in front of me, eyeballed my choc and tried to snatch it from my hand.
I punched him in the face and he staggered back.
No one takes my sweetie things, no one. Especially when I’m going through the rediness. I figured that was what attracted them to me. Santy said that they sniff us out like wolfies. Can’t but help themselves, living apart from women-folk the way they do.
Professional Reviews
Dystopian done right
5.0 out of 5 stars Dystopian done right., 8 Feb 2014
By Andrea Houtsch (Hazleton, Pa United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Echoes from the Lost Ones: 1 (Song of Forgetfulness) (Paperback)
Echoes from the Lost Ones: Song of Forgetfulness is dystopian done right. Although dystopian fiction is not my go-to, must-read genre I do appreciate a masterpiece when it comes across my desk. This story is one such masterpiece, reminiscent of an Escher painting that ever draws the eye as the brain searches and seeks to map out the complexities of his art.
Ms. McDonagh tells a fast-paced, action-packed tale set in a future so mangled and changed by time and human intervention and war that it is scarce recognizable called NotSoGreatBritAlbion. Through the main character Adara’s point of view we are introduced to a world of Citydwellers whose existence is dependent upon rationed supplies provided by a militant governing faction of people known only as the Agros. Adara is a Citydweller, having fled the Cityplace of her home in search of her brother Deogol whom has been kidnapped by the Agros. As she sets out on her quest to find him she encounters a lively and growing cast of compatriots, starting with Wirt the Nearlyman, a member of an outcast tribe of teenage boys and adult men, all of whom are Wooddwellers. It is with them that we learn of Adara’s unique abilities, and that she is not the only one with seemingly supernatural abilities.
After a violent encounter with the Nearlymen and Manlymen Adara and Wirt flee to the Ladies whom are more than they appear to be. Aided by the Ladies Adara and Wirt are sent on a quest that takes them into the Beyondness that in description harkens to thousands of years of warfare, death and desolation. In the Beyondness, where no souls go for fear of mutant Clonies of all sorts or catching the virus that decimated the population and caused such mutations, Adara and Wirth meet a S.A.N.T. named Eadgard, a Backpacker whom has been sent to escort them and provide security. Confused but willing to accept his expertise on the dangers of the Beyondness Adara and Wirt accompany him through the dark and foreboding landscape where they are soon waylaid by a snarling pack of mutant wolfies under the control of a duo of Clonies. Much mystery and rumor surrounds the Clonies including cannibalism.
The story continues on as such with the adventures of Adara and Wirt increasing in importance and reveals itself to be, like the Ladies, more than it appears to be.
What really drew me in was the surprisingly eloquence of the language both used as the first person narrative and spoken by the Adara and growing cast of characters. While truncated and often reduced to rudimentary there is a wonderful fluidity and shocking presence of vocabulary even in the characters one would assume have the least amount of formal education, if any. To some this may prove a detractor but for this reader it added an element of plausibility. I enjoyed how McDonagh has broken down and restructured the system of spoken language to illuminate thousands of years of evolutionary changes while still being able to communicate the basic elements of humanity – civility and good-will.
I have only one note to the negative (and this may be due solely to my having converted the digital document from a pdf to an e-pub for greater reading ease): but the text was continually interrupted by what appeared to be a header with the book’s title, author and page number. The first few times I ran into this it was a detractor and pulled me out of the story when I was deeply engrossed in it. Eventually I just trained my eye to see it and skip past it but there were quite a few sentences that dead-ended in the header and then continued on after a few lines. I recommend some formatting tweaks to make the reading experience flawless.
New to McDonagh’s works this story has me craving more. Echoes from the Lost Ones: Song of Forgetfulness is a delicious appetizer, serving only to whet the appetite while the entrée cooks.
A great story full of fun wordplay, great imagery, and an underlying commentary about the frailties of mankind
5.0 out of 5 stars
A great story full of fun wordplay, great imagery, and an underlying commentary about the frailties of mankind., August 20, 2013
By
G. Bowdish "GBowdish" (Sarasota, FL) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Echoes from the Lost Ones (Song of Forgetfulness) (Kindle Edition)
"Echoes from the Lost Ones" is set in a dystopian future where tremendous stress is being put upon the characters in the book by the "Agros" who control both the creation and distribution of food. In the world of the novel, humanity is divided into geographically (and genetically) segregated groups that often view one other with distrust and prejudice, a situation which is aggravated by the scarcity of food. Wildlife has been nearly wiped out and only birds have any degree of abundance due to their ability to evade human predation. But the main character of the book, Adara, has a special and highly sought after skill: she can lure birds from the sky with her voice. She has left her home in "Cityplace" to search for her lost brother who has been taken by the Agros for an unknown purpose.
While there are sometimes grim landscapes peppered with the burnt and rusted wreckage of the past, the novel is not post-apocalyptic: whatever calamities brought civilization to this point seem to have been gradual and due to the foolishness of mankind. I think this is an important point and hints at some interesting commentary coming up in the series about the state of mankind today. I am excited to see what Nicola McDonagh has in store for us.
For me, though, the thing I liked best about the book are the various dialects of the characters in the book, and most specifically that of the narrator, Adara. The story takes place hundreds of years in the future and it would have been an easy out for the author to just give us plain old English. But McDonagh goes the extra mile and creates specific jargons for the distinct groups of people in the novel. For me this gave the story a deeper authenticity and helped to accentuate the prejudices between the characters - a seemingly important theme in the upcoming series. The dialects were not only very understandable, but often very clever and humorous, and Adara's narration was like a mixture of Stanley Unwin, Alex from "A Clockwork Orange", and the voice of Lewis Carroll's poem "Jabberwocky",
As a reader I felt myself caught between the sometimes silly naivete of the characters and the frightening reality of the world they occupy. This created a degree of anxiety that really pulled me into the story and, coupled with the subtle hints about the current state of mankind, gave "Echos of the Lost Ones" great depth and humanity. All in all a great read. I eagerly await the next book in the series!
Wonderful, inspiring entertainment - something different, something that touches you.,
5.0 out of 5.0 stars
Wonderful, inspiring entertainment - something different, something that touches you., December 1, 2013
By Katharina Livia Harer (Los Angeles, CALIFORNIA, US) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Echoes from the Lost Ones (Song of Forgetfulness) (Volume 1) (Paperback)
Highly original, inspiring fiction. Love it!!
Just look at the cover and description, and it will speak for itself. Lovely book!
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