Lamentation is Ken Scholes’ first novel, and it’s a doozy. The setting is, at first glance somewhat familiar: it’s a post-post-apocalypse novel. Some centuries previous to the action, a technologically and magically advanced civilization collapses in a horrendous war, leading to the time of Laughing Madness. Since then, a new civilization has risen from the ashes of the old, a rise mediated and protected by the brothers of the Androfrancine Order. The new world has not yet risen to the level of the old, and the glories of the past remain refresh in men’s minds.

As such, the backstory is simply a fantasy retelling of the rise of Europe in the wake of the fall of Rome, with the Androfrancine Order playing the part of the Catholic Church: with one significant difference: the Androfrancine Order isn’t a religious order. In Scholes’ own words, the Androfrancines “worship the ‘light’ of human knowledge and accomplishment. Secular humanists and behaviorists start a religion among a small band of survivors to try and protect what’s left of humanity from itself and save what can be saved of its past.” I have doubts about how effective that would be, as I’ve written elsewhere, but it’s a nifty concept for a tale.

In most tales of this post-post-apocalyptic sort, the heroes must fight to prevent civilization from falling again. Ken Scholes has gone one further: the book begins with a fantastic catastrophe in which the entire city of Windwir is destroyed. Windwir is the home of the Order, and of its Great Library, the repository of all of the knowledge the Order has preserved through the centuries—including that which they judged too dangerous to make public. It is the home of most members of the Order, save those who are out on archaeological expeditions, seeking yet more lost knowledge of the ancients. It is the largest city in the land. It is as though, Rome, Athens, Alexandria, and all of the Benedictine monasteries with their libraries were snuffed out in one ghastly moment. Hence the book’s title: Lamentation.

Scholes’ book is not merely post-post-apocalyptic; it’s post-apocalyptic post-post-apocalyptic, which is a move I don’t believe I’ve seen before. It’s like the mystery novel With Malice Aforethought (if I remember the title correctly) that reveals whodunnit in the opening pages. Certainly, I’ve not seen it done with such gusto.

Unlike a typical apocalypse, the lands around Windwir are untouched. The catastrophe is not primarily physical; rather it is political and spiritual. The Order has been the center and organizing principle of the known world for centuries; and now that principle is gone.

On top of this, the civilization that the Order has fostered is fascinating in its own right. There are many different realms in the lands of the Order, each with its own ways, but all tied together by a system of laws and customs and honor called “kin-clave”. The ways of kin-clave are obscure but compelling; I’m curious to know if they are based on any actual culture.

And then there are the characters: Rudolfo the Gypsy-King, bred and shaped to rule, who leads a nomadic life on the Prairie Sea, travelling from one to another of his Nine-fold Houses; Petronus the fisher-man, once Pope of the Order and long thought dead; Jin Li Tam, fair daughter of Vlad Li Tam, steeped in intrigue and her father’s machinations; mad Sethbert, Overseer of of the Entrolusian City States; Neb, Orphan of P’Andro Whym and ward of the devastated Order; the Marsh King; and Vlad Li Tam himself, merchant and puppet-master. Oh, and a talking metal men who might preserve the Order’s most devastating secrets.

From that description, you might expect a novel of ruthless political intrigue, like George R.R. Martin’s The Game of Thrones; but with all due respect to Martin, Scholes’ book is far less tedious. I’m looking forward to the next book in the series.

I’ve written about the Androfrancine Order itself as part of my False Religions series.