The Ark of the Apocalypse by Tobin Marks

 

“Our planet is terminal and the disease is mankind.”

The Ark of the Apocalypse by Tobin Marks maybe a fictional Post-apocalyptic fantasy but the message it rings in is loud and clear. We have reached the end of the road.

To all those who might have denied that climate change is a problem expedited by the human race, proof might have appeared when they started breathing the clean air and seeing lakes and rivers rejuvenate themselves during the Covid 19 human all-stop.

We either rectify our mistakes now or we are doomed to extinction.

So what will happen when we see extinction in our face?

Will we learn and try to rectify our mistakes and work together as one to save our planet?

Or do we take a short-cut and find a different place to live and pollute again, leaving billions of innocents to their death for the greater good?

Do we Fight or do we Flee?

In The Ark of the Apocalypse, Marks explores both these options simultaneously.

The book traverses history from WWII till a little into our future. The world is ending and yet humanity cannot work together to save our planet. Petty wars and skirmishes to be the powerful ones still reign supreme. It is up to the sane to try to bring about a solution.

Herein lies the twist in the book from the reality around us. The ‘sane’ people are a physicist and a businessman; which is to be expected, but it also includes a family of, for want of a better word – Witches. I would probably actually call them superheroes, as their main objective is to save the earth and humanity by ‘any’ means possible.

In order to save humanity, the world works as one (for a brief time) and tasks ten thousand colonists to board the world’s first interstellar ship, the Magellan II and sail away to a distant planet to set up a new Earth. Reminiscent of Noah’s Ark, this ship too carries all the genetic strains of all the species, flora and fauna of earth albeit microscopically.

As plan B, the ‘witches’ also prepare to hunker down on earth for generations in bunkers till the earth heals itself again.

Will the Magellan II find a new world that can sustain life?

Or will humanity be able to wait it out?

Lab created dragons, reptiles, aliens, interstellar travel and astral projections, along with history, make this book a reader’s delight. Marks has created worlds and stories that remind us of J R R Tolkein as well as Michael Crichton. We are left wanting more, much, much more.

Which it turns out we are lucky to get. The Ark of the Apocalypse is a prequel to Marks trilogy of books called The Hope Prophecy and he has started writing the next trilogy called The Hope Progression. I cannot wait to sink my teeth into these.

So glad I got this RC, it was an enthralling read that had me wanting more of it. Hope you liked my fair and honest review.

Happy Reading☺