Where the Axe Is Buried - by Ray Nayler

Book Synopsis

All systems fail. All societies crumble. All worlds end.

In the authoritarian Federation, there is a plot to assassinate and replace the President, a man who has downloaded his mind to a succession of new bodies to maintain his grip on power. Meanwhile, on the fringes of a Western Europe that has renounced human governance in favor of ostensibly more efficient, objective, and peaceful AI Prime Ministers, an experimental artificial mind is malfunctioning, threatening to set off a chain of events that may spell the end of the Western world.

As the Federation and the West both start to crumble, Lilia, the brilliant scientist whose invention may be central to bringing down the seemingly immortal President, goes on the run, trying to break out from a near-impenetrable web of Federation surveillance. Her fate is bound up with a worldwide group of others fighting against the global status quo: Palmer, the man Lilia left behind in London, desperate to solve the mystery of her disappearance; Zoya, a veteran activist imprisoned in the taiga, whose book has inspired a revolutionary movement; Nikolai, the President's personal physician, who has been forced into more and more harrowing decisions as he navigates the Federation's palace politics; and Nurlan, the hapless parliamentary staffer whose attempt to save his Republic goes terribly awry. And then there is Krotov, head of the Federation's security services, whose plots, agents, and assassins are everywhere.

Following the success of his debut novel, The Mountain in the Sea, Ray Nayler launches readers into a thrilling near-future world of geopolitical espionage. A cybernetic novel of political intrigue, Where the Axe is Buried combines the story of a near-impossible revolutionary operation with a blistering indictment of the many forms of authoritarianism that suffocate human freedom.

Review Quotes

"[Where the Axe is Buried] boldly imagines how we might escape authoritarianism . . . Deserves to be read and discussed for its futuristic, philosophical exploration of our era's problems. The questions [Nayler] asks could not be more timely or better formed."
--Jacob Brogan, The Washington Post

"Where the Axe is Buried shows how the embers of hope smolder long after they should have been extinguished, and how they are always ready to be kindled into a roaring, system-consuming wildfire"
--Cory Doctorow, author of Picks and Shovels

"Roll over, George Orwell: This post-apocalyptic dystopia makes Airstrip One look like a summer camp. . . A richly detailed evocation of a grim future that is, sadly, absolutely believable."
--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"Nayler's twisting, turning political thriller has spectacular surprises, grounded by realistic, complex characters who are determined to change their world, however hopeless it may seem. A bold, epic sf story and an inspiring tale about taking down all forms of authoritarianism."
--Booklist (starred review)

"Nayler blends quantum theory and gulag history . . . The scene-setting is on point . . . Nayler's writerly bravado impresses."
--Publishers Weekly

"An engrossing exploration of consciousness, autocracy and global politics . . . A cybernetically enhanced thriller with the pacing of a literary novel. . . Where the Axe Is Buried successfully strikes a balance between creating a global narrative and a deeply personal one."
--Bookpage

"Thought-provoking in the extreme . . . will trap fans of technothrillers in its web."
--Library Journal

About the Author

Ray Nayler is the author of the novel The Mountain in the Sea, which won the Locus Award for "Best First Novel," and the novella The Tusks of Extinction. Called "one of the up-and-coming masters of SF short fiction" by Locus, Nayler's stories have been published in Asimov's Science Fiction, Clarkesworld, Analog Science Fiction & Fact, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Lightspeed, Vice, and Nightmare, as well as in many "Best Of" anthologies. His stories have won the Clarkesworld Readers' Poll and the Asimov's Readers' Award, and his novelette "Sarcophagus" was a finalist for the Theodore Sturgeon Award.

Born in Quebec and raised in California, Nayler lived and worked for two decades in Russia, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Vietnam, and Kosovo. He holds an MA in global diplomacy from the Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy at SOAS University of London. He lives in Washington, DC.