THE DARK COURT

The second installment of Evans’ Songs of the Sage series continues its narrative of a future society divided by IQ scores.

This genre-blending story—equal parts apocalyptic SF, arcane mystery, and mainstream thriller—is set in the early 22nd century, when the world’s population is separated into social classes based on intellect, with the lowest labeled the “Unskills.” A great many people fall into this category, and they’re “uncertified for work”; in an increasingly automated world run by artificial intelligence, some feel that Unskills are “useless eaters” holding humankind back from a glorious destiny. When a global pandemic quickly afflicts more than a billion people—all of them Unskilled—High Commissioner Lilith King, Interpol’s Special Representative to the United Nations, is brought in to investigate. King, whose own family line is murky, has unexplained powers that allow her to detect powerful beings—and she uses them to begin to unravel a nefarious conspiracy that, if successful, could lead to “the single greatest act of genocide in the history of the world.” Accompanied by Dr. Kace Westwood—whose Unskilled brother was murdered by radicals—she embarks on an investigation that leads them from the catacombs underneath Paris to the rainforests of South America to enclaves in the Swiss Alps. What they uncover is unimaginable, involving Doomsday cults, interdimensional rifts, and alien invasion. Grand-scale storytelling of this type is immensely difficult to do well, but Evans masterfully twists together multiple storylines with ease. The pacing is relentless throughout, as is the action, with jaw-dropping set-pieces that rival any in a Mission: Impossible movie. But the two elements that make this novel stand out are its deep character development and thematic profundity. Evans portrays Lilith so insightfully—especially her brutal backstory—that readers will feel a close connection to her, and the novel’s not-so-subtle commentary on the dangers of blind faith in technology and authority is powerful indeed.

A truly extraordinary SF saga of epic scope.