The Relic Keeper

by N. David Anderson

In 1999 when he found out he was dying Mathew Lyal made plans for the future. Only he planned a little further ahead than most… In 2068 London is poverty-stricken, work is hard to come by, and social and religious tensions are bubbling just below the surface. Reiko has come to Europe to work with the poor before she starts her career at home in Japan. Philip is trying to make a living and forget his past. Deon is looking for a sign from God that will show him the answers he yearns for. Reluctantly working together they have to take on a powerful adversary and save one man’s life. But how will the relics from their past shape the future? “All the films we watched as kids showed the future as a glittering place where anything was possible.” “The whole weight of political and economic power that you people took for granted has now shifted. I’m sorry to disappoint, pal, but your future wasn’t Utopia, you’ve just woken up in the new Third World.” The Relic Keeper is a tense and unnerving drama, revealing how our present may be viewed in the future it creates. It is a story of the quest for redemption and understanding, amid the chaos of intolerance.

363 pages, Paperback

Published August 29, 2018

Reviews

[Eamon Walsh]

Good futurist thriller

Interesting take on the future by N David Anderson but no mention of climate change in this future world, where plausibly Asia has economic and political power by the 2060s. Slight quibble with Japan being an economically dominant country by the 2060s, as they have even more economic problems than the European countries, but these small issues aside it was a good read.

[Nicole]

A well written debut novel that was hard to put down. After being cryogenically frozen in the late 1990s, Mathew Lyal is awakened 70tears in the future to find himself in a a 3rd world Europe that failed to adapt to changes in technology. Thought provoking ideas about what it is we miss out on in life when we try to hold on too tightly, the role of religion and technology in global struggles, and ultimately redemption. Worth a read.