Manda Scott is another author I first came across in the 1990s when I devoured her three book mystery series about Kellen Stewart, a doctor in Scotland. Since then she’s written many more books but the last book I finished was No Good Deed which I think was a standalone mystery and that was in 2001! I’ve started a few more of her books - I have a copy of Into The Fire that I was enjoying years back but got put aside for reasons I can’t remember that I ought to finish someday - but not finished any of them. So I started this with a determination to finish something this time!

And the book starts very strangely indeed with the death of the main protagonist, Lan, and her journey into the afterlife. There are times this would have immediately made me put the book down but I think I’m more amenable to this kind of thing in storytelling these days and besides I was determined to read this. There are basically three books here in one. The first is concerned with the interface between the afterlife and the dreams of the living - definitely not really my thing; the second is more or less a political thriller - more my thing; and the third is a manual for how to save the planet - also more up my street really. Combined they make for a blockbuster of a book that despite my initial misgivings I found pretty compelling.

The beyond-death aspect of the book and the ways in which Lan basically goes into a Monte Carlo simulation of all the ways we can screw up the planet and then goes back to try to help her descendants find the ways that don’t end in disaster is a necessary framing for either of the latter two aspects of the book to work. In the end I really enjoyed the book and the characters and I’m glad I read it. Informative and entertaining.