Beyond the Burn Line by Paul McAuley
It's the end of the world as we know it... Of men and bears... and racoons.
Beyond the Burn Line (first published in 2022) is a strange beast. The first part (the first 221 pages in the UK paperback edition) reads like proper fantasy fare. It is only in part two (another 320 pages) that the book turns into a “real” science fiction novel. And while there is a hard break between both parts (with a gap that could fill another volume), the combination of the two stories (and the hints dropped in part 1) makes for an entertaining story set 200,000 years in earth’s future.
In part 1, the storyline focuses on Pilgrim, secretary to Master Able a recently decesased scholar. After the death of his boss and mentor, Pilgrim tries to complete Master Able’s work investigating repoted appearances of strange “visitors” to an earth very different from today’s.
In Pilgrim’s world, intelligent racoons are the dominant species only threatened by wild bears. Bears used to run this world (and had enslaved the racoons) until they fell to a mysterious plague that destroyed their civilization and turned intelligent bears into feral predators similar to today’s bears. Humans in this world are a distant memory whose remains are only occassionaly found “beyond the burn line” under layers of coal and ash - bearing witness to the demise of human civilization.
Yet, Pilgrim’s world feels familiar: The racoons live quasi human lives (just a lot less violent) and appear to be on the verge of their own industrial revolution helped by technology seemingly salvaged from destroyed bear cities.
When Pilgrim discovers (and subsequently loses) a map that suggests that strange visitors have been to earth centuries ago and might have been communicating with the bears before their fall to insanity, he is drawn into a much larger story and risks getting crushed between competing factions of scientists and self-acclaimed prophets while trying to live a good life and honoring the legacy of his former mentor, Master Able.
Much of this reads like a typical fantasy story and you frequently forget that all the characters in the book are racoons - with their personal traits and their society they could be humans, hobbits or anything in between. And while their society is a very peaceful one based on a strict code of non-violence, it is also one that feels very familiar, with religion and superstition, governmental institutions, libraries, and agricultural life. And although the racoons appear to have (largely) eliminated violence, they still live a woefully patriarchic society (as Pilgrim realizes when he meets representatives of the Invisible College, run by women working towards their emancipation).
Paul McAuley uses Pilgrim’s travels as a way to expose the reader to this strangely familar world. As Pilgrim travels both slow (on maras in lieu of horses and on sailing ships) and fast (the racoons appear to have recently re-discovered electricity and have begun operating battery-powered trains) we appear to move across large parts of the American continent and visit agricultural and fishing villages, mining towns, and larger cities.
Throughout this story, we only get small hints of something more to come. Are the visitors real? What about the mysterious lights people are reporting? What really happened to humans (it seems like we managed to ultimately self-destruct) and what happened to the bears?
It is only in part 2, that we get some answers - and unfortunately, there is quite a gap between part 1 and part 2. After we have become thoroughly familiar with Pilgrim and his world in part 1, the book now jumps forward 40 years and Pilgrim is a distant memory only in this second storyline.
Without giving too much away, the main characters in part 2 continue to search for Pilgrim’s lost map as a key piece of evidence into earth’s past and throughout their journey stumble across major revelations about the history of the human race and into major conflict about earth’s future.
Where part 1 was a story of racoons, part 2 is a story set after first contact at a time when racoons and the visitors, humans returning to earth, have found a fragile peace. While humans have brought important technology to the world helping improve the racoons’ life and appear to be treading lightly within a clear set of rules aiming to balance racoon life with human life, there is clearly a tension between a technologically superior species - humans - returning to an earth they have lost and that is now the home of another sentient species. This also throws the reader’s loyalties into doubt: On the one hand there are the endearing racoons who clearly have been trying to build a good society and should deserve to shape their own destiny. On the other hand, these humans are us - trying to re-establish life on earth.
While this second part of the book follows a trajectory somewhat similar to part 1 - the key characters travel the world in search for clues - it is this part that really brings the story together as we discover more about the history of earth, the evolution of bears and racoons, and the story of the visitors. However, where in part 1 the reader clearly feels drawn towards Pilgrim, part 2 doesn’t elicit the same level of identification with any character: Part of this may be because of conflicting loyalties to racoons and humans - but more importantly, it feels like the characters in part 2 are all pawns in a larger game with too many pieces on the board. This makes it hard to really feel with and for any of the characters involved.
Paul McAuley nicely brings together two fascinating stories of discovery into one overarching narrative and a set of surprising revelations. Where the story falls short is in first contact - this first interaction between two intelligent species is skipped entirely and the book only covers a before and an after. This is a lost opportunity both for the overall story line (this could have been a nice trilogy rather than just a book with two parts) but also a lost opportunity to further follow Pilgrim - he simply disappears with first contact. As it is, we have two big quests connected into one larger story line with what feels like a bit of a hole in the middle.
Still: Worth reading.