Where the Axe Is Buried

( em português: sol2070.in/2025/04/livro-where-the-axe-is-buried/)

One of the few books I had marked on my calendar for its release: “Where The Axe is Buried” (2025, 336 pages), by one of the best contemporary science fiction authors, the American writer Ray Nayler.

In addition to being exemplary science fiction — with provocative speculation, memorable characters, and excellent writing — the author often expresses a critical view of the current direction of science and technology, which has been hijacked by multibillionaires. He explores how this trend dominates politics and also connects to environmental destruction.

Even among the titles I carefully choose, I constantly come across the same techno-optimism — almost cult-like — that now spreads from the big tech companies and their defenders. So it’s a relief to dive into a story of this kind that is not only free of that mindset but openly critical of it.

The novel is a breathtaking cyberpunk thriller. In a distant future, Europe is divided between countries that have handed their governments over to AIs and a tyranny — expanding out of Russia — that puts all previous dictatorships to shame due to the extremely granular surveillance and control of individuals made possible by information technology.

There’s a handful of key characters spread across various countries, and the chapters alternate between them during a crisis that seems to be affecting both blocs — involving hacking, popular subversion, an unprecedented new technology, and political conspiracy.

It’s as if William Gibson had written “1984”, with, however, a strong emphasis on the human element. This is what makes the novel emotionally engaging as well, despite the thorny sociopolitical themes that reflect our present reality.

The countries entirely dominated by AIs — that have even surrendered their governments to algorithms — are referred to as "rationalized." One character reflects:

"If everything was better now, why did it feel as if nothing had changed—as if the system that existed before rationalization hadn’t gone away? As if, instead, it had been cemented into place? Made more comfortable for the people at the bottom—but also made permanent, so that they would always be at the bottom?"

Meanwhile, in the bloc of overwhelming techno-totalitarianism, the same dictator has ruled for over a century, having his memories transplanted into new bodies from time to time. A programmer escapes from there to a rationalized London and ends up creating a key technology for change. At the same time, a genuinely revolutionary singularity begins to stir among the AIs. All of this then interweaves with social germs of insurgency, which finally reach maturity.

It was one of the best science fiction stories I’ve read in years — perhaps since Ray Nayler’s debut novel: “The Mountain in the Sea” (2022).