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ASCENDANCIES
In 1998, as people continue to Disappear at an alarming rate and insurance companies refuse to honor the policies of the Disappeared, Caroline Trenchard schemes to defraud the insurers of her wealthy, well-insured, and missing husband
- GenresScience FictionFiction
224 pages, Hardcover
First published November 14, 2011
25 people want to read
About the author
D.G. Compton
47 books36 followersDavid Guy Compton has published science fiction as D.G. Compton. He has also published crime novels as Guy Compton and Gothic fiction as Frances Lynch.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
March 27, 2023
Novels like this are gone. Lost. If one person on Earth seeks out and reads a book like this anymore, the book temporarily moves from '0' to '1', and then back to '0' for most of its afterlife. It slips again through one of the cracks in limbo. But I read it, I read perhaps THE forgotten novel by A forgotten SF writer.
And it was pretty darn good. 3.5 stars, rounded down. I was not expecting Double Indemnity meets Seconds meets Avengers: Infinity War - but that's what I got.
Written in 1980, the novel depicts a mid-1980s where people just randomly vanish, disappear out of existence. The harbinger is a weird choral singing, and a slightly "off" scent of not-quite-roses. And then, if that is what is going on in your area, you are suddenly playing a huge lottery you (probably) don't want to play. Rumour has it that the cities suffer Disappearances more than the country, but others say that's unproven. Stronger than rumour, but tough to say for sure, is that the vanishings link to that weird grey dust that now falls from the sky every now and then - it's called Moondrift, and it can be converted into one of the greatest boons of humankind.
Written in 1980, it's interesting to see where Compton has taken us as of 1986; electric cars and recharging points throughout the city. A three-day work week. So far, so good...but then we still have insurance companies dealing in paper cheques and receipts. Music on tape.
So I think I've hinted why Avengers: Infinity War came to mind, of all things (although that was just one "snap", reducing the population in an instant, as opposed to the periodic and frightening Singing that kicks in and takes someone out, in Ascendancies). But the Double Indemnity link occurred to me because this novel starts with a woman and an insurance agent getting together on an insurance fraud; heck, they even end up among supermarket shelves, just like Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck did. Add to that what I already alluded to - old-school cheques and receipts, plus house-calls - plus an awkward romance stemming from getting in too deep together, and it was hard not to see Edward G. Robinson as our Mr. Wallingford's boss! (But kind of in reverse, in terms of his priorities!...say no more, say no more).
My mind also went to the film Seconds, starring Rock Hudson - and also the novel which inspired it, because of the secret organization lurking in the background that helps with corpse acquirement, or disposal, all as it relates to desperate people who want a relative declared dead, not just Disappeared, so they don't have to wait seven years ("now we legally declare him/her dead - finally we will award you your money.") for any pay-offs. This blossoms into a very sinister aspect of the novel, just when Mrs. Trenchard and her duplicitous new ally, Mr. Wallingford of Accident and General, have barely learned to trust (desire?) each other. Secret organizations of this sort don't like ripples, leaks, or mind-changing...
And you're wondering, now, "what the eff does this have to do with Science Fiction?!!". Well, there's the question. I mean, there's the Moondrift angle...that crazy dust. The Disappearances, and maybe some new, underground tech that can save a person. But yah, my first thought is, "If it has to be Hard SF for you, run for the hills, leave this Dust in the dust.". If you like SF elements to be the focus, and to end up fully explained, you may also not lament this novel's own Disappearance.
On the other hand, this weird story got way under my skin way early. Yes, partly because the Double Indemnity feel sprouted almost immediately, and I love that movie. Then, as the Sinister Society practically out of Seconds got its hooks into things - well, that was an unexpected and creepy delight. All that said, things do end quietly at the finish, as Compton pulls the curtain down on our near-future (when it doesn't seem very 1940s noir, or 1960s paranoid) lovers who make better fraudsters in a dangerous time. I guess I have to flag it as barely SF, and hard to define once I take that step. But I enjoyed it. The last D. G. Compton novel I read was from much earlier in his career, and I would say his style had smoothed out, and lost some affectation I didn't adore. This odd, forgotten little novel of his invited me in, instead of trying to push me out with style overexertion. Distinctive style, still, but reined in.
Anyway, this is about the most I have enjoyed Compton, since A Usual Lunacy (which sits right beside it in the dark, down that same bloody crevasse in limbo).
And it was pretty darn good. 3.5 stars, rounded down. I was not expecting Double Indemnity meets Seconds meets Avengers: Infinity War - but that's what I got.
Written in 1980, the novel depicts a mid-1980s where people just randomly vanish, disappear out of existence. The harbinger is a weird choral singing, and a slightly "off" scent of not-quite-roses. And then, if that is what is going on in your area, you are suddenly playing a huge lottery you (probably) don't want to play. Rumour has it that the cities suffer Disappearances more than the country, but others say that's unproven. Stronger than rumour, but tough to say for sure, is that the vanishings link to that weird grey dust that now falls from the sky every now and then - it's called Moondrift, and it can be converted into one of the greatest boons of humankind.
Written in 1980, it's interesting to see where Compton has taken us as of 1986; electric cars and recharging points throughout the city. A three-day work week. So far, so good...but then we still have insurance companies dealing in paper cheques and receipts. Music on tape.
So I think I've hinted why Avengers: Infinity War came to mind, of all things (although that was just one "snap", reducing the population in an instant, as opposed to the periodic and frightening Singing that kicks in and takes someone out, in Ascendancies). But the Double Indemnity link occurred to me because this novel starts with a woman and an insurance agent getting together on an insurance fraud; heck, they even end up among supermarket shelves, just like Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck did. Add to that what I already alluded to - old-school cheques and receipts, plus house-calls - plus an awkward romance stemming from getting in too deep together, and it was hard not to see Edward G. Robinson as our Mr. Wallingford's boss! (But kind of in reverse, in terms of his priorities!...say no more, say no more).
My mind also went to the film Seconds, starring Rock Hudson - and also the novel which inspired it, because of the secret organization lurking in the background that helps with corpse acquirement, or disposal, all as it relates to desperate people who want a relative declared dead, not just Disappeared, so they don't have to wait seven years ("now we legally declare him/her dead - finally we will award you your money.") for any pay-offs. This blossoms into a very sinister aspect of the novel, just when Mrs. Trenchard and her duplicitous new ally, Mr. Wallingford of Accident and General, have barely learned to trust (desire?) each other. Secret organizations of this sort don't like ripples, leaks, or mind-changing...
And you're wondering, now, "what the eff does this have to do with Science Fiction?!!". Well, there's the question. I mean, there's the Moondrift angle...that crazy dust. The Disappearances, and maybe some new, underground tech that can save a person. But yah, my first thought is, "If it has to be Hard SF for you, run for the hills, leave this Dust in the dust.". If you like SF elements to be the focus, and to end up fully explained, you may also not lament this novel's own Disappearance.
On the other hand, this weird story got way under my skin way early. Yes, partly because the Double Indemnity feel sprouted almost immediately, and I love that movie. Then, as the Sinister Society practically out of Seconds got its hooks into things - well, that was an unexpected and creepy delight. All that said, things do end quietly at the finish, as Compton pulls the curtain down on our near-future (when it doesn't seem very 1940s noir, or 1960s paranoid) lovers who make better fraudsters in a dangerous time. I guess I have to flag it as barely SF, and hard to define once I take that step. But I enjoyed it. The last D. G. Compton novel I read was from much earlier in his career, and I would say his style had smoothed out, and lost some affectation I didn't adore. This odd, forgotten little novel of his invited me in, instead of trying to push me out with style overexertion. Distinctive style, still, but reined in.
Anyway, this is about the most I have enjoyed Compton, since A Usual Lunacy (which sits right beside it in the dark, down that same bloody crevasse in limbo).
October 8, 2025
Compton is one of the finest UK SF writers from 1967 - 1977, but this novel comes in at the end of his peak and prowess, and it drags a dull blade across what should have been an interesting genre remix - speculative catastrophe novel with cozy crime elements, heightened with a dose of extraterrestrial dread as a celestial moondust blankets England, a substance that has entirely revolutionized the global energy market from above.
However, 'the big premise' doesn't carry the book -- it belittles it, actually. And once the insurance scam fraud is cemented (cue in Body Snatchers of a gothic mold), the reader is left with one easy conversation after yet another easy conversation about money, future plans in the country (doesn't everybody want to work at a pheasant farm), and where the next power station is to juice up their electric cars. So much potential is wasted, especially 'the singing' that occurs to happen at random: a choir of angelic white noise, lulling citizens and re-wiring their resolve while an artificial rose odour permeates the air. But instead of playing with possibilities of this spectral invasion or government takeover, we are simply treated to a posh London take on James Cain's 'Double Indemnity' and 'Postman Always Rings Twice', complete with desperate cut-outs pretending to be characters, each fueled with an empty greed and nonsensical criminal intent that belittles any climax whatsoever. And there's nothing randy about it either. It's clinical and clean, and even worse, easy. So 'easy' it doesn't leave a mark, not even a blemish. Nobody seems to suffer here, and reading a crime novel without any suffering is just potential and veneer, a hollow man forgotten.
Only for the most bold of Compton completists.
However, 'the big premise' doesn't carry the book -- it belittles it, actually. And once the insurance scam fraud is cemented (cue in Body Snatchers of a gothic mold), the reader is left with one easy conversation after yet another easy conversation about money, future plans in the country (doesn't everybody want to work at a pheasant farm), and where the next power station is to juice up their electric cars. So much potential is wasted, especially 'the singing' that occurs to happen at random: a choir of angelic white noise, lulling citizens and re-wiring their resolve while an artificial rose odour permeates the air. But instead of playing with possibilities of this spectral invasion or government takeover, we are simply treated to a posh London take on James Cain's 'Double Indemnity' and 'Postman Always Rings Twice', complete with desperate cut-outs pretending to be characters, each fueled with an empty greed and nonsensical criminal intent that belittles any climax whatsoever. And there's nothing randy about it either. It's clinical and clean, and even worse, easy. So 'easy' it doesn't leave a mark, not even a blemish. Nobody seems to suffer here, and reading a crime novel without any suffering is just potential and veneer, a hollow man forgotten.
Only for the most bold of Compton completists.
December 15, 2023
English author DG Compton channels Philip K. Dick in this bizarre tale of insurance fraud in the far future of 1998.
September 7, 2024
Very strange book. The initial premise is an interesting one, but the story never really goes anywhere, and the reader is left somewhat baffled at the end.
September 11, 2020
It's hanky twister woman's fiction, NOT Sci-Fi.
The teaser text has nothing to do with the title or main subject of this novel, and the last line of the teaser text is flat out false. It is NOT "... the story of one who disappeared."
The main subject is about the not-quite romance between a rich, entitled widow, and an insurance man. The title refers to social "ascendancies" in this woman's life.
This novel's target audience are middle-aged women. Why it incorporated any sci-fi or supernatural aspects is beyond me. They don't belong in this type of novel. The mysteries of the sci-fi aspects are never resolved, which frustrates any reader who was attracted to the novel by the sci-fi teaser text.
I inherited a print edition of this book from my father. I have no idea why he kept it, since he didn't like hanky-twisters any more than I do. I certainly won't keep the thing.
The teaser text has nothing to do with the title or main subject of this novel, and the last line of the teaser text is flat out false. It is NOT "... the story of one who disappeared."
The main subject is about the not-quite romance between a rich, entitled widow, and an insurance man. The title refers to social "ascendancies" in this woman's life.
This novel's target audience are middle-aged women. Why it incorporated any sci-fi or supernatural aspects is beyond me. They don't belong in this type of novel. The mysteries of the sci-fi aspects are never resolved, which frustrates any reader who was attracted to the novel by the sci-fi teaser text.
I inherited a print edition of this book from my father. I have no idea why he kept it, since he didn't like hanky-twisters any more than I do. I certainly won't keep the thing.
March 4, 2025
The book is 1% science fiction and 99% boring account of two obnoxious people deciding whether they want to get romantically involved or not. The blurb is also totally false: neither of the main characters disappears from the alien(?) phenomenon. The author has style, and it's well written, but there's just no story where there could have been one.
Read
October 23, 2025In 1998, as people continue to Disappear at an alarming rate and insurance companies refuse to honor the policies of the Disappeared, Caroline Trenchard schemes to defraud the insurers of her wealthy, well-insured, and missing husband
May 2, 2025
8/10
March 12, 2024
Mysteriously, dust keeps falling from the sky, called Moondrift. It can serve both as a source of energy and as fertiliser. This soon brings mankind more prosperity. But then comes another mysterious phenomenon: After a singing noise and a smell of roses in the air people disappear without a trace.
Compton manages to develop a rather trivial plot against this bizarre (but intriguing) background: an insurance fraud and a relationship between the insurance agent and the fraudster. And this is told in a lengthy and boring way.
So unfortunately I have to agree with the poor assessment by other readers. I gave up after 80 of 280 pages.
Compton manages to develop a rather trivial plot against this bizarre (but intriguing) background: an insurance fraud and a relationship between the insurance agent and the fraudster. And this is told in a lengthy and boring way.
So unfortunately I have to agree with the poor assessment by other readers. I gave up after 80 of 280 pages.
May 23, 2025
DG Compton is great. Lots of interesting and nuanced relationship stuff in here, however, I wasn’t sure what exactly was the goal with this book. I didn’t really understand how some of the sci fi elements factored into it all in a thematic or symbolic sense. It was interesting and well written but it didn’t necessarily click all the way with me.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews