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His debut historical novel explores the events leading up to the Battle of Omdurman in Sudan through the lives of three people.
“The Sudan was no place for a white man,” readers are told early on in this book. And yet Sudan is where the celebrated English general and abolitionist Charles Gordon finds himself in the 1870s. He is attempting to protect the city of Khartoum from falling into the hands of the ambitious slaver king Zubehr Rahamna. After coming across the 17-year-old runaway slave Sindella, the 44-year-old Gordon marries her and fathers a child, the sapphire-eyed Syrah. On two other continents, two children are born around the same time. One is Kip McDuran, the son of a Scottish whaler in Monterey, California, destined to graduate from West Point and end up a captain in the Military Intelligence Division. The other is Winston Churchill, born in England to a powerful family that is desperately trying to help Britain hold onto her empire. Winston, too, receives a military education and goes on to distinguish himself as a soldier in India. As a child, Syrah saw her father’s head cut off by the soldiers of a religious leader called the Mahdi, Muhammad Ahmad, and soon becomes a slave like her mother and grandmother before her. The novel follows these three tenacious individuals as they attempt to rise above their surroundings and discover a way to make their worlds a fairer place. Kip and Winston meet while observing the brewing war of independence in Cuba, and neither thinks much of the other. When the U.S. government learns of a plot to have Winston assassinated by his father’s political enemies, Kip is ordered to Cairo to protect him. Syrah, now in the service of the Mahdi’s successor, the Khalifa Abdullah, is interested in avenging her father. So is the British army, which means that all three—Syrah, Winston, and Kip—are on a collision course with history on a battlefield called Kerreri. Walker reveals himself to be a great fan of history, deftly weaving as many world events into the book’s subplots as he can fit. The result leads to a lot of lines like “And if you couldn’t trust Charles Dickens’ newspaper, who could you trust, Disraeli wondered?”. Graphic depictions of sexual violence are also recurrent.
In Walker’s thriller, a natural catastrophe triggers worldwide chaos and the likelihood of mass deaths.
Axial Seamount, an underwater volcano, is located in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Oregon. One day, it suddenly erupts, and the explosion breaches the surface, rising to a thousand feet above sea level. The heavy ash and soot in the air become a widespread problem, but the greatest danger, for the U.S. as well as other countries, is the chemicals that the eruption released at the same time. They affect individuals genetically and cause mental illnesses, hitting people in unpredictable ways. This isn’t public knowledge, although Washington, D.C., investigative reporter Jake Holmes and scientist Sofia Villegas want to bring attention to what’s happening. But when their colleague dies under mysterious circumstances, the two fear they may know too much and go on the run. Meanwhile, the crew aboard an American aircraft carrier in the Pacific feels the devastating effects of the eruption. The admiral enlists Lieutenant Commander Alena Boyington, a pilot, to investigate disturbing behaviors on the ship. She’s later conflicted by an order coming from high above to launch a strike that will undoubtedly shake the entire world. The story also focuses on others enduring the chaos, including U.S. President Wilson Taylor, China’s and Russia’s leaders, a Georgetown homeowner arrested for killing his family, and a New York senator who stumbles onto a political opportunity. Somewhere in the mix is one person with diabolical motivations who may prove to be the most menacing of all.
Walker effectively tightens the screws in this apocalyptic tale. Standout moments include shifts in narrative perspective between people unknowingly suffering such chemically induced mental conditions as schizophrenia. The narrative gradually shifts into a military thriller mode as dissent within the U.S. prompts officials to take sides and make aggressive moves. There’s also the threat of countries attacking one another, which could very well lead to World War III. The characters are dynamic; Jake and Alena’s early scenes take place 15 years before the catastrophe, allowing readers to become invested in their fortunes before being plunged into the crisis (Jake helps out a fraternity brother in hot water with police; Alena’s lack of fear (“Fear. The word barely registered. Fear had no place in Alena’s life”) is so pronounced that the U.S. Naval Academy requires her to see a psychiatrist). Other characters are frighteningly volatile, and readers can’t be sure if they are “infected” or have always harbored erratic temperaments. In the final act, the story takes yet another turn; while this development is not as sharply defined or engaging as everything preceding it, the final pages convincingly wrap up the globe-spanning yarn. Along the way, the consistently brisk pacing (brief chapters and concise dialogue characterize the text) forestalls any lulls (“He leaned back in his chair, exhaling deeply. The pieces were moving into place. All that remained was to see who would emerge victoriously when the dust settled.” A bevy of stellar characters shine in this tale of potential global extinction.
-Kirkus Indie