Any Human Power

How do you help the people you love create a future you’re proud to leave behind? 

From bestselling author Manda Scott comes a visionary thriller of a lifetime.

‘Instantly immersive and compelling, rich and strange, human and humane, and most of all inspiring … an extraordinary story. ’

Lee Child

From a bestselling storyteller who brings together myths and speculative futures with a radical compassion, comes the story of a family at the heart of a political crisis and the ensuing uprising of a disenfranchised generation. A family that harnesses the skills and stories needed for real change, if they can choose the right path, before it is too late …

As Lan lies dying, she makes a promise that binds her long into the Beyond. Fifteen years later, her teenage granddaughter, Kaitlyn, triggers an international storm of outrage that unleashes the rage of a whole betrayed generation. For one shining fragment of time, the world is with her. But then the backlash begins and soon she and those closest to her find themselves facing the wrath of the old establishment, who will use every dirty trick in the book to fight them off.

Watching over the growing chaos is Lan, who taught them all to think independently, approach power sceptically and dream with clear intent. She knows more than one generation’s hopes are on the line. Nothing less than the future of humanity stands in the balance.

Grand in scope, rich in courageous characters who breathe new life into ancient wisdom, here is a dream of a better future: a world we’d be proud to leave to our children and their children and on, generations down the line.

‘A polemical thriller like no other, an absorbing manifesto to change the world. It constantly surprises. Manda Scott’s characters play havoc with your emotions, her narrative keeps you turning the pages, and her ideas might just change your life.’

Andrew Taylor, author of The Shadows of London

 

‘Manda Scott is an unmissable, visionary author and has created a compelling political thriller that inspires belief in the possibility of a better future. Born of dreams, Any Human Power is a dream read.’

Adam Hamdy, author of The Other Side of Night

 

‘An astonishing novel, at once powerfully contemporary and mythopoeic. Of its many achievements, the greatest is giving a sense that there is a way forward from our current predicament: the creative gift of hope.’

Oliver Harris, author of The Shame Archive

 

‘Any Human Power is an extraordinary, ground-breaking, high-wire act of a novel, which vividly evokes not just why our world is at breaking-point, but how a single nation could be quickly and radically transformed in a way that scales up to encompass the globe. I wasn’t just gripped all the way through, but moved, uplifted and energised by Scott’s wild, vast, brave and tangible vision of the possible. If you care about the future of life on Earth, this is the novel for you.’

Liz Jensen, author of Your Wild and Precious Life

 

‘I loved the mix of fantasy and myth … A hugely entertaining read with compelling characters, elegant prose and a story where we really want to find out what happens.’

Fantasy Hive

 

‘Any Human Power has the feel of a book that’s landed at just the right moment … Scott’s imagination has brought forth a radical manifesto, a holistic ideal in which seeing oneself in relation to eternity matters just as much as housing or transport policies, and she’s done it in a way that makes it seem as though it’s only five minutes in the future.’

Herald

 

‘A taut political eco-thriller … I would recommend this to anyone who is a fan of Ursula Le Guin, speculative fiction in general or concerned about the current global situation.’

British Fantasy Society

 

‘In this long, very readable and often engaging novel she writes of a revolt against the power of the political, economic and media establishments which are, it seems, in danger of destroying the world … this is not a novel for old fogies like me.’

Allan Massie, Scotsman

 

‘It’s wonderful. One of the many amazing things about it is the way Scott writes from both right and left brain at once. Super-high-tech and ancient, intuitive wisdom seamlessly interwoven. The spiritual and political as one.’

Dr Jenny Goodman, author of Getting Healthy in Toxic Times

 

‘Hopeful, engaging, heartfelt, imaginative …’

Rozie Apps, editor of Permaculture Magazine

Read an extract.

Also available in ebook and audio.