Review of Beyond The Burn Line

Beyond the Burn Line by Paul McAuley

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I stumbled across this book via James Davis Nicoll's posts on Tor.com. It was one of the "Five SF Works About Ruined Civilizations." I bought it and found it very engrossing.

The book is divided into two parts. Part One is the story of Pilgrim Saltmire, a sentient raccoon who lives 200,000 years after humanity's extinction. It's also 600 years after the immediate successor to humanity, sentient bears, fell victim to a plague, which will be a key plot point. I found the story and worldbuilding of a society of sentient raccoons to be fascinating and informed by the author's PhD in biology. Also fascinating is that Saltmire is investigating what the late-lamented humans would call UFOs.

Part Two is set some 20 years later, when the immediate mystery of the UFOs has been revealed. However, Saltmire's original investigation proves still relevant. This part is a bit less engaging, being not from the raccoons' point of view, but still quite interesting.



View all my reviews