The New World by Shirley Bigelow Dekelver
Climate of Fire, Book Three
Publisher: BWL Publishing Inc.
Genre: Young Adult (14 – 18 y.o.), Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Romance
Rating: 4 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

It is 2047, two years since Vancouver was devastated by an earthquake and tsunami. Taylor West, Carlie Fleming, and Mai-Li Wong, and two children, Eddie Coleman, and Debbie Ross, fear retaliation from Willie Arbuckle who they banned from their group for stealing food and threatening Carlie. They leave their winter sanctuary and continue their journey to the Interior and arrive at Blackfoot and are welcomed by the Chinese and the Similkameen Band.

Chief Pete Johnson and Mai-Li, now ruler of the Chinese, tell Carlie she must exonerate Willie, as there’s no room in Blackfoot for resentment and malevolence. Taylor tells Carlie he loves her, but before they can be together, she must confront Willie. Without informing her, he leaves with Pete on an expedition. Unable to forgive Willie, Carlie is banned from Blackfoot. She returns to the cabin and Lance, Pete’s grandson, goes with her. He talks about the culture and traditions of the Similkameen people and confesses he has feelings for her.

Taylor and Pete arrive at the cabin; Lance must return to Blackfoot to undertake leadership of the Band. Carlie refuses to return and is left on her own. She discovers an interest in wildfires and while exploring one day, is captured by Lars, a violent man from Taylor’s past who has a grudge against him. She escapes and is injured when she falls from an embankment. Will help arrive in time, will she find the strength to absolve Willie, and find peace and contentment with the man she loves?

Letting go of the old ways is the only way to survive.

The foreshadowing was handled nicely. While Carlie continued to make some decisions that she really should have thought twice about given everything that had already happened to her, I liked the way Ms. Bigelow Dekelver used those lapses in judgement to push the storyline forward. Everyone makes mistakes, after all, and there is something to be said for seeing what happens when someone had advanced warning that certain choices aren’t the best ones but insists on taking that route anyway.

Just as I mentioned in my review of the second instalment, Treachery, I once again found myself wishing that the romantic subplot had either been given more space to grow or left out of the tale entirely. I was happy to see a little more attention paid to it this time around, but it still didn’t have enough development for this reader’s tastes. This was especially true due to how many other conflicts Carlie was juggling simultaneously. She had such limited free time even before romance came into play. Of course I wanted her to find true love and live happily ever after, but at this point in her life she didn’t seem to have much energy to devote to a longterm relationship.

One of the things I’ve consistently appreciated about this series is how much effort it puts into describing what life would be like if society as we knew it disappeared. That is to say, Carlie and every other survivor had to adapt to a world where there were no stores left to buy essential things like medicine, food, or clothing. The social safety net that still existed in this universe relied upon small groups of people taking care of each other and sharing what little they had which meant that something as ordinary as falling off of a horse could have much more serious consequences than it would in the before times when doctors and hospitals still existed.

This is the third book in the Climate of Fire series that should be read in chronological order for plot and character development reasons.

The New World made me hope that we’ll someday have a fourth instalment!

Treachery by Shirley Bigelow Dekelver
Climate of Fire Book 2
Publisher: BWL Publishing Inc.
Genre: Young Adult (14 – 18 y.o.), Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Romance
Rating: 4 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

It is 2046, a year since Vancouver was devastated by an earthquake and tsunami. Taylor West, Carlie Fleming, Mai-Li Wong, and Willie Arbuckle, four young adults, and three children, twin brothers Rusty and Eddie Coleman, and Debbie, who has Downs Syndrome, lived in constant fear of the violent gangs. Making a life-saving decision they leave Little Mountain and walk to the Interior, hoping to find a better life.

The journey is fraught with unimaginable hardship and danger. Surviving a firestorm in the Wastelands, they clash with the Desert Rats, and lose one of their own. Heartbroken they continue their trek, finding an old, abandoned cabin near Mount Davis. Winter is rapidly approaching, and they decide to delay their journey until Spring. Taylor admits to Carlie he has feelings for her, but she rejects his advances, as she is unable to accept Rusty’s death. Willie is caught stealing food and is banished from the group. Realizing he might seek revenge; Taylor decides they cannot stay in the cabin, they must leave immediately.

Their progress is slow, the snow is deep and the steep mountain trails take their toll on the younger children. They arrive at Blakeburn, a deserted mining town, and meet Pete Johnson, a trapper and prospector. Pete is the Chief of the Similkameen band, who live in harmony with the Chinese people in Blackfoot, their destination. Relationships are tested time and again. Will they remain strong and what will shatter?

Love is stronger than fear.

I appreciated the character development in this book. Yes, the characters still sometimes made impulsive and illogical decisions, but they also showed signs of accepting the dangerous new world they lived in and of thinking ahead at times in order to have access to the food, shelter, and supplies they’d need to survive in it. Practice leads to progress, so I was pleased with how they’d matured since I first met them.

It would have been helpful to either have more attention paid to the romantic subplot or to not include it at all. It’s not something I thought the main storyline needed, at least at this point, and I was surprised the characters involved in it went in that direction due to the much more pressing conflicts and basic human needs they were struggling with. I would have liked to have stronger reasons to root for those two individuals to end up together. They were both interesting people on their own, I simply needed more information about why they’d be a good romantic match and why this particular moment in the timeline was the best time to go there instead of taking care of more urgent matters like having enough food and a warm, safe place to live first.

With that being said, I did enjoy seeing the characters become a found family and work together for the common good. It takes a lot of effort to look after children and people with intellectual disabilities in a setting like this, so I appreciated the descriptions of how everyone was kept (more or less) clean and fed under such difficult circumstances. That’s not something that’s always covered in this genre, but it’s one of those things I always hope to find in post-apocalyptic fiction as it would be such an important matter if something similar were ever to happen in real life.

This is the second instalment in a series that should be read in order for plot and character development reasons.

Treachery: Climate of Fire Book 2 was full of intrigue.