The Map of Bones

by Francesca Haig

Overview

Book Two in the critically acclaimed The Fire Sermon trilogy—The Hunger Games meets Cormac McCarthy’s The Road in this richly imagined post-apocalyptic series by award-winning poet Francesca Haig.

Four hundred years in the future, the Earth has turned primitive following a nuclear fire that has laid waste to civilization and nature. Though the radiation fallout has ended, for some unknowable reason every person is born with a twin. Of each pair, one is an Alpha—physically perfect in every way; and the other an Omega—burdened with deformity, small or large. With the Council ruling an apartheid-like society, Omegas are branded and ostracized while the Alphas have gathered the world’s sparse resources for themselves. Though proclaiming their superiority, for all their effort, Alphas cannot escape one harsh fact: whenever one twin dies, so does the other.

Cass is a rare Omega, one burdened with psychic foresight. While her twin, Zach, gains power on the Alpha Council, she dares to dream the most dangerous dream of all: equality. For daring to envision a world in which Alphas and Omegas live side-by-side as equals, both the Council and the Resistance have her in their sights.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781476767192
Publisher:	Gallery Books
Publication date:	05/03/2016
Series:	The Fire Sermon , #2
Pages:	416
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Francesca Haig grew up in Tasmania, gained her PhD from the University of Melbourne, and was a senior lecturer at the University of Chester. Her poetry has been published in literary journals and anthologies in both Australia and England, and her first collection of poetry, Bodies of Water, was published in 2006. In 2010 she was awarded a Hawthornden Fellowship. She is also the author of the Fire Sermon series, which includesThe Fire Sermon, The Map of Bones, and The Forever Ship. She lives in London with her husband and son. Visit FrancescaHaig.com and follow her on Twitter @FrancescaHaig.

Editorial Reviews

04/04/2016
Haig’s second Fire Sermon novel continues the postapocalyptic saga in which humanity has survived in the form of pairs of genetically “perfect” Alphas and sterile, “deformed” Omegas. Each Alpha-Omega pair is psychically connected so that if one twin dies, so does the other. The Alphas have systematically oppressed their siblings and are moving ahead on an aggressive plan to place them in suspended animation using taboo technology. Omega and seer Cass is determined to thwart this, especially since her own twin, Zach, is its mastermind. But to save Omegas everywhere, she has to rekindle an all-but-destroyed rebellion and locate the fabled Ark, a last-ditch storehouse of information and technology predating the nuclear war that destroyed civilization. Haig fleshes out her radiation-scarred dystopian setting and its intrigues, as well as touching upon the last survivors of the old world. It’s a grim, atmospheric tale featuring unpleasant decisions and morally compromised characters, with very little brightness to balance it out, but Haig does interject the occasional positive note. Much is left unresolved, of course, setting up the final installment. Agent: Juliet Mushens, United Talent Agency. (May)

Publishers Weekly

"As an award-winning poet, Haig's prose is gorgeous and engaging, particularly when she describes the desolate landscape, now peppered with ruins from the Before. Fans of dystopias will appreciate this adventure-filled yet character-focused tale that offers hope and explores (in a refreshingly nuanced way) the moral complexities involved in defeating an oppressive and backward government structure."

starred review Booklist

"A beautiful, brutal story about what it means to be human, and what's worth fighting for."

Lauren DeStefano

"A potential heir to the Hunger Games.”

Vulture

Thrilling, emotionally engaging, booby-trapped with some incredibly inventive twists and turns and some excellent action sequences and, from beginning to end, it is intensely moving…Francesca Haig’s writing is exquisite, loaded with turns of phrase and lines of dialogue that are so perfect and so beautifully realized, it reminds us how powerful the written word can be…You have got to read these books, they are storytelling at its absolute finest.

Starburst Magazine on THE MAP OF BONES

"A hell of a ride. I would recommend it to anyone I can, regardless of age."

James Oswald

“The best post-apocalyptic novel I’ve read in years – it’s dark, deep, and doesn’t conform to the dystopian tropes we’ve all come to expect.

The Mary Sue

Fantasy and sci-fi fans finally have a book they can bond over. This is going to be a series to watch."

RT Book Reviews

"Set in a vividly realised world of elite Alphas and their ‘weaker’ Omega twins, [this series] holds a mirror up to our obsession with perfection.

Guardian

A beautifully written tale of a dark and often unforgiving post-apocalyptic world . . . a spectacular introduction to the series."

Fresh Fiction

"With captivating storytelling and an equally captivating heroine in Cass, Haig’s latest in her Fire Sermon trilogy truly excites. An intricately crafted plot with intense conflict and distinctive, flawed characters make this story hard to put down."

RT book reviews on MAP OF BONES

Words like 'masterpiece' and 'instant classic' are cliché, but in the case of Francesca Haig's astounding The Fire Sermon, they're the only words to use. It's a breath-taking, passionate, absolutely sensational work of imagination, perfectly structured, beautifully written, populated with fabulous characters and packed with intrigue, violence, compassion and underlined by a very important human message that is always present without ever becoming homily. The Fire Sermon is completely without equal – it leaves Hunger Games, Divergence, Twilight blah blah-yawn twitching in the dust.

Starburst Magazine

05/15/2016
In Haig's The Fire Sermon, 400 years after a nuclear blast decimated the world, the surviving population developed into two factions—the downtrodden Omegas and the privileged Alphas. In this sequel Cass, an Omega and a Seer, is on the run with former Resistance leader Piper and his twin, Zoe. The three must try to fix the broken sections of the Resistance and stop the progression of the horror machines known as "the tanks." Cass thinks there could be new hope in stolen papers from "the before" that mention a life-saving vessel, the Ark, but she will have to betray her people and partner with an Alpha council member if she wants to find it. Magnifying the bleak conditions and desperation that Cass and her companions have to grapple with, Haig's prose is both heartbreaking and beautifully rendered. VERDICT Readers who relish dystopian literature such as Suzanne Collins's "The Hunger Games" trilogy or Ryan Winfield's "The Park Service" books will appreciate the original aspects of Haig's series.—Jennifer Funk, McKendree Univ. Lib., Lebanon, IL

Library Journal

★ 2016-03-03
This sequel to The Fire Sermon (2015) extends and deepens its story of a post-apocalyptic world riven by war. Cass lives in a world divided in two by the nuclear blast that destroyed the old, technological world and created the twinning phenomenon that makes every pregnancy result in a twin birth: one child is always an Alpha, perfect and whole, and one an infertile, mutated Omega. Despite their differences, twins are bound together for life—when one dies, the other dies, too. In the first book, Cass, whose mutation is that she can see the future, escaped her twin, Zach, a powerful player on the ruling Alpha Council. She rescued a boy called Kip from a kind of living death, floating unconscious in a tank built by the Alphas to imprison their Omega twins to keep them away from harm. But even her visions couldn't keep the council from slaughtering hundreds of Omegas on the island that had been their only refuge —or stop Kip from sacrificing his life to end that of his twin, who was working with the council. Now, along with Piper, a resistance leader, and his sympathetic Alpha twin, Zoe, Cass must prevent Zach and the rest of the council from trapping all Omegas in these horrifying tanks. Haig isn't afraid to take readers into dark places, letting her characters struggle with grief and tough moral choices. Suspense comes as much from uncovering the secrets of the past as from moving inexorably toward the uncertain future. A powerful post-apocalyptic story with unusual emotional depth and clear, often beautiful language, this is one genre fans won't want to miss.

Kirkus Reviews

"With captivating storytelling and an equally captivating heroine in Cass, Haig’s latest in her Fire Sermon trilogy truly excites. An intricately crafted plot with intense conflict and distinctive, flawed characters make this story hard to put down."

RT Book Reviews on THE MAP OF BONES

"As an award-winning poet, Haig's prose is gorgeous and engaging, particularly when she describes the desolate landscape, now peppered with ruins from the Before. Fans of dystopias will appreciate this adventure filled yet character-focused tale that offers hope and explores (in a refreshingly nuanced way) the moral complexities involved in defeating an oppressive and backward government structure."

starred review of THE FIRE SERMON Booklist

Incredibly unique premise… a juicy tale in which to spend a couple of hours…looking forward to book 3.

Geeks of Doom on THE MAP OF BONES

"The Fire Sermon is an undeniable page-turner... At the heart of Haig's worldbuilding is a precious love story between Cass and a fellow Omega on the run named Kip. The writing surrounding these two beautifully demonstrates Haig's craft. If you thought Peeta Mellark had a big fan club, just you wait. There will be copious amounts of kissy fan art and montage videos. You can count on it."

Bookshots (LitReactor)

“The best post-apocalyptic novel I’ve read in years – it’s dark, deep, and doesn’t conform to the dystopian tropes we’ve all come to expect.

The Mary Sue on THE FIRE SERMON

A beautifully written tale of a dark and often unforgiving post-apocalyptic world . . . a spectacular introduction to the series."

Fresh Fiction on THE FIRE SERMON