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The Triangle Age
Earth is adrift. Its mass is spent, the moon ditched, and the sun is not even a memory. Five thousand humans live in its last city, Thule. None know where they started or where they are going, least of all Lowell.
Lowell scrubs the pipes beneath Thule. He knows where to push silt and how to break down a beluga carcass. For everything else he listens to Renth. Renth is a foot taller than anyone else in Thule and yet has never fallen in the reservoir, never been locked in a smoker. She knows the pipes matter. She listens to Lowell, and Lowell talks to no one else. He doesn't need Thule, only Renth, height and all, until she pushes him down the deepest hole in the pipes.
To return to Thule, he will brave incineration, muskoxen, the vacuum of space and a giant fan. He seeks Renth, her embrace or her death, and to deliver a message he does not understand.
Lowell scrubs the pipes beneath Thule. He knows where to push silt and how to break down a beluga carcass. For everything else he listens to Renth. Renth is a foot taller than anyone else in Thule and yet has never fallen in the reservoir, never been locked in a smoker. She knows the pipes matter. She listens to Lowell, and Lowell talks to no one else. He doesn't need Thule, only Renth, height and all, until she pushes him down the deepest hole in the pipes.
To return to Thule, he will brave incineration, muskoxen, the vacuum of space and a giant fan. He seeks Renth, her embrace or her death, and to deliver a message he does not understand.
192 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 18, 2023
11 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
December 29, 2023
Absolutely Fantastic
The Triangle Age, by David Aumelas, came out of nowhere at the last minute to join my top reads of this year.
In the book, our MC carves a message on to a corpse and throws it down a pipe - his only way of sending a message. Since I can't find a way to contact Aumelas, I hope this serves a similar purpose and finds its way to him.
My Interloper Trilogy is a weird apocalypse tale, and so I love finding other writers who do weird apocalypse tales. Eli Wilde, Yuval Kordov, and Paul Jameson to name but a few. Aumelas joins these masters with his Inuit mythology wandering earth story, wherein the last 5k humans endure a 100k year journey across the stars after the sun dies.
The story felt like watching somebody on life support slowly slip away. Everything is absolutely desperate, and told with dry wit in a fantastic first person voice. Ancient machines are the old gods of this world, and it has a deeply mythological bent.
It's efficiently written, every line counts and it wastes no time. It's truly impressive what a massive journey Aumelas fits into a relatively short book. It's oppressive, harrowing, and surprisingly funny.
It kept me on mystery-hooks the whole way through, and I was very satisfied with the answers to said mysteries. All questions are answered, all loose ends tied, and to put a cherry on top, Aumelas absolutely nailed an unexpectedly sweet ending.
The characters are bizarre and wonderful, with complex relationships and meaningful development. Our MC is literally unrecognisable by the ending. It feels like a fairytale written by Cormac McCarthy.
If you like my books, or those by the authors mentioned, then please check this out. It has a single review on Amazon, two after I post this one, and it deserves to stand shoulder to shoulder with my other favourites.
Top class writing, wildly imaginative, unique, and gripping till the last words. I'll be reading Aumelas other work and keeping an eye out for anything else he writes.
10/10
The Triangle Age, by David Aumelas, came out of nowhere at the last minute to join my top reads of this year.
In the book, our MC carves a message on to a corpse and throws it down a pipe - his only way of sending a message. Since I can't find a way to contact Aumelas, I hope this serves a similar purpose and finds its way to him.
My Interloper Trilogy is a weird apocalypse tale, and so I love finding other writers who do weird apocalypse tales. Eli Wilde, Yuval Kordov, and Paul Jameson to name but a few. Aumelas joins these masters with his Inuit mythology wandering earth story, wherein the last 5k humans endure a 100k year journey across the stars after the sun dies.
The story felt like watching somebody on life support slowly slip away. Everything is absolutely desperate, and told with dry wit in a fantastic first person voice. Ancient machines are the old gods of this world, and it has a deeply mythological bent.
It's efficiently written, every line counts and it wastes no time. It's truly impressive what a massive journey Aumelas fits into a relatively short book. It's oppressive, harrowing, and surprisingly funny.
It kept me on mystery-hooks the whole way through, and I was very satisfied with the answers to said mysteries. All questions are answered, all loose ends tied, and to put a cherry on top, Aumelas absolutely nailed an unexpectedly sweet ending.
The characters are bizarre and wonderful, with complex relationships and meaningful development. Our MC is literally unrecognisable by the ending. It feels like a fairytale written by Cormac McCarthy.
If you like my books, or those by the authors mentioned, then please check this out. It has a single review on Amazon, two after I post this one, and it deserves to stand shoulder to shoulder with my other favourites.
Top class writing, wildly imaginative, unique, and gripping till the last words. I'll be reading Aumelas other work and keeping an eye out for anything else he writes.
10/10
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April 7, 2024Disclaimer: I read this as a judge for SPSFC#3, as part of the Wayward Stars team. However, the following is my own personal review and does not reflect on the team's score.
To be incredibly blunt, The Triangle Age is.... odd. I don't mind odd. Odd and Sci-fi can, and regularly do, go well together. This is odd in the way that New Weird is odd but coming at it from a sci-fi angle, which is a bit more rare in my view. This makes it quite refreshing but still odd. The story revolves around a wandering Earth, which survives (just) without the Sun or a stable position in space. Humanity is much depleted, with less than 5000 souls surviving in the last city. Lowell is one of the 5000. He finds a secret which leads him to be pushed down one of the deepest pipes. What follows is Lowell's attempt to survive and try to get back to Thule to exact revenge for his thwarted murder. It starts off low key odd, descends into really weird and ends with "that's.... not what I thought was going to happen" territory. And for a short book, roughly 190 pages, that's pretty impressive.
Due to the barking mad escapades of the characters, I felt it was a bit difficult to get a bead on them. For most of the book, I didn't particularly like Lowell or any of the other characters. At the end, I felt bad for not liking them but still couldn't rustle up any warm feelings for them. Some of the decision making is a bit suspect but, in what feels like a space fever dream, I suppose that is to be expected.
I probably should have known that things were going to be a bit different just from the cover. I loved the cover and wish the SPSFC#3 had a cover contest this year just for this one. How many Sci-fi books can you name with an ox on the front? Just an ox done in stylised cave art. That should have been a bit of a clue that this was not our average fare. And I think we have to salute the author for producing something a bit left-field. Sci-fi would soon stagnate without these different types on books. I think there are definitely readers for this book out there. If you are into New weird or any of the weird lit genres, this may be something you never knew you needed. Although, it left me baffled at times and a bit bemused at the end, this was well written and I don't think you can get a more intriguing synopsis. It may have been a bit too left-field for me all in all but I would recommend anyone who likes weird to give it a try.
To be incredibly blunt, The Triangle Age is.... odd. I don't mind odd. Odd and Sci-fi can, and regularly do, go well together. This is odd in the way that New Weird is odd but coming at it from a sci-fi angle, which is a bit more rare in my view. This makes it quite refreshing but still odd. The story revolves around a wandering Earth, which survives (just) without the Sun or a stable position in space. Humanity is much depleted, with less than 5000 souls surviving in the last city. Lowell is one of the 5000. He finds a secret which leads him to be pushed down one of the deepest pipes. What follows is Lowell's attempt to survive and try to get back to Thule to exact revenge for his thwarted murder. It starts off low key odd, descends into really weird and ends with "that's.... not what I thought was going to happen" territory. And for a short book, roughly 190 pages, that's pretty impressive.
Due to the barking mad escapades of the characters, I felt it was a bit difficult to get a bead on them. For most of the book, I didn't particularly like Lowell or any of the other characters. At the end, I felt bad for not liking them but still couldn't rustle up any warm feelings for them. Some of the decision making is a bit suspect but, in what feels like a space fever dream, I suppose that is to be expected.
I probably should have known that things were going to be a bit different just from the cover. I loved the cover and wish the SPSFC#3 had a cover contest this year just for this one. How many Sci-fi books can you name with an ox on the front? Just an ox done in stylised cave art. That should have been a bit of a clue that this was not our average fare. And I think we have to salute the author for producing something a bit left-field. Sci-fi would soon stagnate without these different types on books. I think there are definitely readers for this book out there. If you are into New weird or any of the weird lit genres, this may be something you never knew you needed. Although, it left me baffled at times and a bit bemused at the end, this was well written and I don't think you can get a more intriguing synopsis. It may have been a bit too left-field for me all in all but I would recommend anyone who likes weird to give it a try.
November 22, 2023
Aumelas' far future world of Thule is built on a framework of Inuit mythology, specifically the story of the sea goddess Sedna. The first half of the book felt like an arctic fever dream, while the second half had the vibe of a 1980's BBC sci fi series--the kind that's shot all on video, the kind that, years later, you're not sure if you actually saw or if you dreamt it. This book is OUT THERE. There were a few times during the first half that I thought, "No, too weird." Then there'd be a twist, and I'd have to keep going. The people of Thule are not like us: "What mattered in Thule was fragility. We had no notion of heaven. But if we had, the single rule for getting in would have been to die carefully. If you were drowning, then you swam away from any nearby pump intakes. If you'd been locked in a smoker, then you didn't knock over the fish racks. And if you'd been dropped down an evaporation shaft, then you didn't damage the walls." As the main character Lowell's odyssey continues, we learn just how fragile the Thuleans (my word) are. In fact, during the second half, quite a few characters were introduced only a page or so before their violent demises. I could have done with a little less bloodshed and a few more conversations. There's horror here, but there's also humor, often at the same time: "We failed to kill him. He liked to talk. He oozed resin. And now it seemed we needed him." Lowell is a complex little guy (actually, he's a qalupalik). Sometimes I wanted to root for him, like I did for Jamake Highwater's Anpao; a lot of the time I hated him. Imagine Gollum and Frodo rolled into one. I will not soon forget Lowell, that's for sure. A familiarity with Inuit material culture and mythology will enhance your experience but isn't essential. (Have fun googling!) Favorite character: Amarok.
January 20, 2025
This is a very original Science Fiction novel, styled in a surrealistic setting based on Inuit legends. It is characterized by a minimalistic dearth of setting details, with only the immediate vicinity of the character even mentioned, and never the overall setting, which seems to be inside some sort of space station. In a strange way this mimics the Arctic in winter, with most of the world an even white, and only a few details standing out in stark contrast.
The result of this is that the whole of our attention is focused on the thoughts and actions of the main character, Luyten, who has a strangely stoic approach to his life. In the first few pages he commits an execution with the same amount of emotion as he would scrape a flake of rust off the tunnel wall. His only comment: “That was my other job.”
The disadvantage is that the emotional content of the tale is likewise flattened. He forces his way through the incredible trials and hardships he is subjected to with the same stoicism an Inuit fights through a blizzard.
Fortunately, the inside of Luyten’s head is a more fertile and varied space. We share his thoughts and questions as he navigates a tortuous path through the uncertainties of the mythical and real environment, and the history and present reality of a quest he does not understand. The draw of the story is for us (and him) to figure out what is really going on.
What we find out draws us further and further from the ancient myths and closer to the Science Fiction reality of his situation, which is hardly less surrealistic. The reader follows the character trying to understand incomprehensible and macabre technology, looking for forgiveness for actions he thought at the time were unavoidable.
The climax is likewise less emotional than it could have been, because the character has become well-nigh indestructible, lessening the effects of the battle and thus undercutting the suspense.
The ending winds down rather slowly, leaving us in a two-thousand-year hiatus where little happens to Luyten, but other things happen elsewhere which bring final meaning to his existence. We don’t know exactly what occurs, but the package is neatly wrapped up in an ironic twist.
A fascinating blend of ancient legend and Science Fiction.
The result of this is that the whole of our attention is focused on the thoughts and actions of the main character, Luyten, who has a strangely stoic approach to his life. In the first few pages he commits an execution with the same amount of emotion as he would scrape a flake of rust off the tunnel wall. His only comment: “That was my other job.”
The disadvantage is that the emotional content of the tale is likewise flattened. He forces his way through the incredible trials and hardships he is subjected to with the same stoicism an Inuit fights through a blizzard.
Fortunately, the inside of Luyten’s head is a more fertile and varied space. We share his thoughts and questions as he navigates a tortuous path through the uncertainties of the mythical and real environment, and the history and present reality of a quest he does not understand. The draw of the story is for us (and him) to figure out what is really going on.
What we find out draws us further and further from the ancient myths and closer to the Science Fiction reality of his situation, which is hardly less surrealistic. The reader follows the character trying to understand incomprehensible and macabre technology, looking for forgiveness for actions he thought at the time were unavoidable.
The climax is likewise less emotional than it could have been, because the character has become well-nigh indestructible, lessening the effects of the battle and thus undercutting the suspense.
The ending winds down rather slowly, leaving us in a two-thousand-year hiatus where little happens to Luyten, but other things happen elsewhere which bring final meaning to his existence. We don’t know exactly what occurs, but the package is neatly wrapped up in an ironic twist.
A fascinating blend of ancient legend and Science Fiction.
April 9, 2024
This was so strange!
I was thinking of Priest's Inverted World and Banks' Feersum Endjinn while reading. And I really feared it was going to let me down by the end, but it didn't, so even though I have many conflicting feelings about the novella, I gotta say, it was very enjoyable.
We're in the last city of the Earth, Thule. Here lives Lowell, whose job is to scrub the pipes under the city, and also to kill people when his boss/lover Renth tells him to. He's pushing them down a shaft into the sun (yes, roll with me here). He's not really questioning anything until one day, he talks to a weird bowl who tells him her name is Sedna, then when told that Thule has only five thousand inhabitants and the sun is in the shaft, gets kinda panicky and sends Lowell to an incomprehensible quest. Lowell doesn't understand, so he doesn't go, and then Renth pushes him down the shaft too, the next day.
Starts out kinda like a fever dream, doesn't it? For a long while, we don't really understand a lot. There are vague allusions, and the reader suspects what's up, sort of, but the logic of the events is weird, and none of the characters are really interested or thinking about it enough. I felt like we only get juuuust as much information so that we can go on, understand (sort of) the next step, and it was frustrating, but also very interesting. (The explanation of everything is nothing we haven't seen in sci-fi before, but it's presented very, very well. I really liked how it all came together.)
The other thing is, the whole sci-fi plot is blanketed under inuit folklore - fascinating, although I'm not really familiar with it. Some things are explained and some tales are told, but maybe if one is more knowledgeable the mythology, then it can give the events another interesting layer. Anyway, the world is strangely drenched in myth, and it makes Lowell's character and story to feel kind of like a myth too. It's hard to be with Lowell, although his journey is very interesting. It's hard to understand him and many of the characters - they are simple, single-minded, sometimes, but it does make sense. It does come together by the end, and I think I understand what the author wanted with the main character. Very interesting arc and end. My fave is still Amarok!
A confusing, epic but at the same time very personal myth of the last city of the Earth with a strange protagonist in the center. An alien but very familiar place in the far past and/or future at the same time, like reading lore that half lost its meaning. I really liked it.
I was thinking of Priest's Inverted World and Banks' Feersum Endjinn while reading. And I really feared it was going to let me down by the end, but it didn't, so even though I have many conflicting feelings about the novella, I gotta say, it was very enjoyable.
We're in the last city of the Earth, Thule. Here lives Lowell, whose job is to scrub the pipes under the city, and also to kill people when his boss/lover Renth tells him to. He's pushing them down a shaft into the sun (yes, roll with me here). He's not really questioning anything until one day, he talks to a weird bowl who tells him her name is Sedna, then when told that Thule has only five thousand inhabitants and the sun is in the shaft, gets kinda panicky and sends Lowell to an incomprehensible quest. Lowell doesn't understand, so he doesn't go, and then Renth pushes him down the shaft too, the next day.
Starts out kinda like a fever dream, doesn't it? For a long while, we don't really understand a lot. There are vague allusions, and the reader suspects what's up, sort of, but the logic of the events is weird, and none of the characters are really interested or thinking about it enough. I felt like we only get juuuust as much information so that we can go on, understand (sort of) the next step, and it was frustrating, but also very interesting. (The explanation of everything is nothing we haven't seen in sci-fi before, but it's presented very, very well. I really liked how it all came together.)
The other thing is, the whole sci-fi plot is blanketed under inuit folklore - fascinating, although I'm not really familiar with it. Some things are explained and some tales are told, but maybe if one is more knowledgeable the mythology, then it can give the events another interesting layer. Anyway, the world is strangely drenched in myth, and it makes Lowell's character and story to feel kind of like a myth too. It's hard to be with Lowell, although his journey is very interesting. It's hard to understand him and many of the characters - they are simple, single-minded, sometimes, but it does make sense. It does come together by the end, and I think I understand what the author wanted with the main character. Very interesting arc and end. My fave is still Amarok!
A confusing, epic but at the same time very personal myth of the last city of the Earth with a strange protagonist in the center. An alien but very familiar place in the far past and/or future at the same time, like reading lore that half lost its meaning. I really liked it.
May 26, 2024
A mind bending tale.
The Triangle Age by David Aumelas (it's a pseudonym) is one of the most intriguing books I have ever read. Inuit mythology weaves through the book, I believe all of the myths are centered around myths of the sea and bodies of water. The first half of the book is quite ambiguous, most of the time as a reader, you are not quite sure what is happening. Despite the ambiguity, I couldn't help myself but to read on, the writing is exquisite and the setting fascinating.
The main protagonist of Lowell scrubs the pipes underneath the city of Thule, he devotedly listens to his love, Renth. The Earth is spent, and the last surviving city is enduring a journey lasting thousands of years to another, hopefully hospitable planet. Lowell listens to Renth's instructions and kills many of the citizens who are no longer useful or a danger to the survival of Thule.
What happens in this piece of superb fiction will bend your mind and you'll wonder what the hell is going on, but this superb journey is worth reading to the end!
I will be looking out for more works by David.
5/5*
The Triangle Age by David Aumelas (it's a pseudonym) is one of the most intriguing books I have ever read. Inuit mythology weaves through the book, I believe all of the myths are centered around myths of the sea and bodies of water. The first half of the book is quite ambiguous, most of the time as a reader, you are not quite sure what is happening. Despite the ambiguity, I couldn't help myself but to read on, the writing is exquisite and the setting fascinating.
The main protagonist of Lowell scrubs the pipes underneath the city of Thule, he devotedly listens to his love, Renth. The Earth is spent, and the last surviving city is enduring a journey lasting thousands of years to another, hopefully hospitable planet. Lowell listens to Renth's instructions and kills many of the citizens who are no longer useful or a danger to the survival of Thule.
What happens in this piece of superb fiction will bend your mind and you'll wonder what the hell is going on, but this superb journey is worth reading to the end!
I will be looking out for more works by David.
5/5*
January 17, 2025
Well dang, that was pretty good.
The best part to me was the exploration of the world, the way that Lowell explores things that are familiar to him and strange to us or familiar to us and strange to Lowell. I really liked the way that the protagonist describes things and, especially when the stuff is familiar to the reader, in a way that makes it sound really alien until you piece together what the character is seeing.
And I found the use of Inuit mythology to describe the setting really fascinating, checking what the names referred to lent an interesting layer to the story.
Between the descriptions of the setting and the use of Inuit myth, this whole book was a joy to read.
I found in the latter half the plot got weird. Not necessarily in a confusing way, the plot was straightforward enough but I found several of the characters' motivations did get strange. I think my enjoyment dimmed a bit then because the book got away from an exploration of the world for a fairly straightforward plot.
But that didn't affect my overall enjoyment of the story. I found the exploration of the world and the gradual reveal of what was going on to be thoroughly enjoyable to read.
The best part to me was the exploration of the world, the way that Lowell explores things that are familiar to him and strange to us or familiar to us and strange to Lowell. I really liked the way that the protagonist describes things and, especially when the stuff is familiar to the reader, in a way that makes it sound really alien until you piece together what the character is seeing.
And I found the use of Inuit mythology to describe the setting really fascinating, checking what the names referred to lent an interesting layer to the story.
Between the descriptions of the setting and the use of Inuit myth, this whole book was a joy to read.
I found in the latter half the plot got weird. Not necessarily in a confusing way, the plot was straightforward enough but I found several of the characters' motivations did get strange. I think my enjoyment dimmed a bit then because the book got away from an exploration of the world for a fairly straightforward plot.
But that didn't affect my overall enjoyment of the story. I found the exploration of the world and the gradual reveal of what was going on to be thoroughly enjoyable to read.
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