Patricia Ainger

The year is 2045. It is a quarter of a century since the nations of the Earth successfully pulled together to fight climate change and reassess their use of the world’s resources and the planet is thriving. Plastics have been (mostly) replaced by the versatile plasglas and technology has taken over many of the laborious aspects of life. Ellie is at the height of her powers as a concert pianist and although her mother’s recent death deeply saddens her, life is good. Then disaster strikes. A stray meteor crashes in the northern hemisphere scattering an alien substance into the atmosphere – Fax Morbus – a dustlike, non-sentient material that disintegrates all the metal it touches. Carried on the wind, it slowly, relentlessly spreads its destructive power over the civilisations of the Earth, wreaking havoc and disaster. Overnight Ellie’s settled world becomes unrecognisable as chaos and anarchy take over. Joining forces with some of the large extended family she grew up with, Ellie has to find a way to survive as the society she knows crashes and burns around her. The last in The Villagers series, this story tells the tale of the next generation.