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The Girl in the Tomb
The Earth and humanity had finally begun to recover from the disastrous rule of the Metal Gods, nigh immortal machines that had pushed both the planet and all living things to the brink. The Ice Age was finally ending, and humanity was starting to spread its wings again into a new, yet familiar world.
But the strife that had preceded the Metal Gods rise had never completely gone away. The surviving enclaves of humanity again began to push on each other, promising to renew old conflicts and grudges. And in those tense times, a young revolutionary makes a potentially dangerous discovery.
That gods can be very hard to kill.
But the strife that had preceded the Metal Gods rise had never completely gone away. The surviving enclaves of humanity again began to push on each other, promising to renew old conflicts and grudges. And in those tense times, a young revolutionary makes a potentially dangerous discovery.
That gods can be very hard to kill.
- GenresScience Fiction
355 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 16, 2024
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May 10, 2026
I am one of the judges of team Space Girls for the SPSFC5 contest. This review is my personal opinion. Officially, it is still in the running for the contest, pending any official team announcements.
Status: Yes
Read: 100%
Ideally, I would have continued reading to the 31% because it is both the cutoff point and the end of a chapter. Doing so would not have changed my opinion about this book. It is indeed one of my longer reads during the scouting phase, and it wouldn't surprise me if the word count hovered around 120,000 words. That said, I only felt it momentarily slowing down and only needing to cut just a bit of word count.
Reading this book is a similar experience to the occasion I read Wixon's Day in 2023 and Proliferation in 2024. It seems like I end up with 1 of these more introspective longer Sci Fi reads with crumbling post apocalyptic societies once each SPSFC and end up loving them. While so far, I enjoyed those two books more than this one, I knew from the 5% of the novel it is the kind of heavier Sci Fi I tend to enjoy a lot. Whether other judges will vibe with its chunkier setting is a coin toss at this point. The only thing I know, it's a real thrilling book to read.
Our protagonist is named William, a middle aged (& famished) archeologist with an immense fascination towards an idealized lost civilization called the Trascendants. After seemingly creating an utopia, they vanished in part to a series of Ice Ages followed by devastating floods when the ice sheets melted. What few sites remaining have been ransacked by looters. William's luck finding what may become a discovery of a lifetime at a site in southwestern Indiana USA came with several strings attached. Namely, as society crumbled and reassmbled, ultra orthodox theocracies emerged and this region of the former US is ruled by the weird love child of Ultra Fundamentalist Evangelism meets East Orthodox Cristianity. There is a pope but otherwise their society seems a bit of a light The Handsmaids Tale after a couple of centuries of occasional tightening and relaxing social norms.
And the simpleton minder tasked with keeping William under his leash seems adamant to accompany William into the unknown...
I do not wish to spoil what happens next. Only that I am expecting lots of thriller elements, danger and some heinious people that really rule this theocratic nation working behind the scenes. In many ways, this book is very similar to Proliferation by Erik A. Otto, where dangerous dormant technology seems to be reawakening in what used to be some part of the US, a curious scholar living in a fundamentalist luddite society and yes, a very snarky femme fatale, cuse both books obviously need that extra dose of spunk. This book will cater to socially progressive and agnostic readers. I think the fact the enemy is a deeply conservative Christian theocracy that gets nonstop jibes aiming its way will alienate most religious Incensepunk readers.
Whether this book earns enough votes for the quarterfinals or not, I am DEFINITELY wanting to read it to the end. I enjoyed reading it very much.
---
New update!
I am now rested and can offer a better opinion of the remainder of this book. First off, the book ends with an inconclusive story that screams 'we need that sequel ASAP'. I don't know when a sequel is out, but I would definitely read it because I really need to know what will happen next.
Therefore, readers should be aware of the lack of sequel for the time being before getting invested in this book. I was able to successfully guess the mystery about the book, but for obvious reasons, I will not spoil them in the review. I will let readers discover things on their own.
While I usually get frustrated we never reach the aforementioned final destination in a road trip story due to a surprise last-minute detour, I found the chapter where our two antiheroes hitchhike a carriage trip with an Acelan nobleman to be hilarious. This book urgently needed some sprinkles of humor and this brief story detour offered that in spades. Even more so because it was a rare chance for William to troll Alyssa and survive to tell the tale.
Another thing that was fun for me is that the 2000-4000 year rest period of Alyssa is exerting damage to her circuits. Despite being at the first 3rd of the story in near mint condition, auto repair functions are starting to fail while she carries William first to Chicago, and later to the ruins of Denver. We also get to meet other trascendents in sorry states that reminded me of the delerict robots in the Artificial Robot film.
Miles intrigued me. At first, I spent his insanely long chapter not quite sure who he was. This isn't necessarily the book's fault. Since I had a nearly 6 month lapse between reading the first 30% to the remaining 60%, some book scenes that aren't pivotal to the initial plot ended up forgotten. We learn some darker aspects of the Republic that ties very well with long-lasting racism in the United States. Lost to time, we get hints hidden in the text racial minorities were either driven away to the Gulf or exterminated. Miles ended up being adopted by William's parents who treated him like their own child. Despite joining the militia and now working as a homicide detective, Miles is treated like an outcast the entire book. This shapes his cynical worldview and I have a hunch he will play a bigger role in book 2. The only person within the army that treats him like an equal is a fellow outcast Freelander named Captain Drake.
Similar to how the ancient Roman Empire held a weak grasp of farflung territories, large chunks of the Midwest and Rockies have lawless enclaves that seem reminiscent of Mad Max films. The book describes very well how this culture and resulting outsider status shapes Drake's worldview. The political focus of the book ups several notches in the final arc and I suspect book 2 will become more political intrigue meets dystopia. Which, given the verbose writing style, will suit my expectations very much.
While we know from the start, Alyssa is no saint and she's quite an intolerable person, I have a hunch William is hiding something about Cascadia's true agenda. I keep on getting these vibes. He's clumsy and a bit dopey at times, but that whole scene when Alyssa gets extracted is proof he's hiding something.
Now, here comes the bad news. Some chapters felt like they went a tad bit too far in the word filler department. I am not referring to excessive glue words. More like a bit too much scenes where Miles looks at each and every single crook & cranny of the Republic's capitol building. While some of this cemented his disgust with their display of wealth and him teetering on the edge of getting executed, it did slow down an already long book and ensured it is only a thriller during brief moments. Some readers will love Alyssa's history lessons, other readers will feel the speeches run too long and yearn for more action.
While I feel the prime reader is a bit niche, readers that like their Sci Fi to be chonks filled with political backstabbing intrigue intermixed with long description will find this book to be up their alley.
4.5 stars!
Status: Yes
Read: 100%
Ideally, I would have continued reading to the 31% because it is both the cutoff point and the end of a chapter. Doing so would not have changed my opinion about this book. It is indeed one of my longer reads during the scouting phase, and it wouldn't surprise me if the word count hovered around 120,000 words. That said, I only felt it momentarily slowing down and only needing to cut just a bit of word count.
Reading this book is a similar experience to the occasion I read Wixon's Day in 2023 and Proliferation in 2024. It seems like I end up with 1 of these more introspective longer Sci Fi reads with crumbling post apocalyptic societies once each SPSFC and end up loving them. While so far, I enjoyed those two books more than this one, I knew from the 5% of the novel it is the kind of heavier Sci Fi I tend to enjoy a lot. Whether other judges will vibe with its chunkier setting is a coin toss at this point. The only thing I know, it's a real thrilling book to read.
Our protagonist is named William, a middle aged (& famished) archeologist with an immense fascination towards an idealized lost civilization called the Trascendants. After seemingly creating an utopia, they vanished in part to a series of Ice Ages followed by devastating floods when the ice sheets melted. What few sites remaining have been ransacked by looters. William's luck finding what may become a discovery of a lifetime at a site in southwestern Indiana USA came with several strings attached. Namely, as society crumbled and reassmbled, ultra orthodox theocracies emerged and this region of the former US is ruled by the weird love child of Ultra Fundamentalist Evangelism meets East Orthodox Cristianity. There is a pope but otherwise their society seems a bit of a light The Handsmaids Tale after a couple of centuries of occasional tightening and relaxing social norms.
And the simpleton minder tasked with keeping William under his leash seems adamant to accompany William into the unknown...
I do not wish to spoil what happens next. Only that I am expecting lots of thriller elements, danger and some heinious people that really rule this theocratic nation working behind the scenes. In many ways, this book is very similar to Proliferation by Erik A. Otto, where dangerous dormant technology seems to be reawakening in what used to be some part of the US, a curious scholar living in a fundamentalist luddite society and yes, a very snarky femme fatale, cuse both books obviously need that extra dose of spunk. This book will cater to socially progressive and agnostic readers. I think the fact the enemy is a deeply conservative Christian theocracy that gets nonstop jibes aiming its way will alienate most religious Incensepunk readers.
Whether this book earns enough votes for the quarterfinals or not, I am DEFINITELY wanting to read it to the end. I enjoyed reading it very much.
---
New update!
I am now rested and can offer a better opinion of the remainder of this book. First off, the book ends with an inconclusive story that screams 'we need that sequel ASAP'. I don't know when a sequel is out, but I would definitely read it because I really need to know what will happen next.
Therefore, readers should be aware of the lack of sequel for the time being before getting invested in this book. I was able to successfully guess the mystery about the book, but for obvious reasons, I will not spoil them in the review. I will let readers discover things on their own.
While I usually get frustrated we never reach the aforementioned final destination in a road trip story due to a surprise last-minute detour, I found the chapter where our two antiheroes hitchhike a carriage trip with an Acelan nobleman to be hilarious. This book urgently needed some sprinkles of humor and this brief story detour offered that in spades. Even more so because it was a rare chance for William to troll Alyssa and survive to tell the tale.
Another thing that was fun for me is that the 2000-4000 year rest period of Alyssa is exerting damage to her circuits. Despite being at the first 3rd of the story in near mint condition, auto repair functions are starting to fail while she carries William first to Chicago, and later to the ruins of Denver. We also get to meet other trascendents in sorry states that reminded me of the delerict robots in the Artificial Robot film.
Miles intrigued me. At first, I spent his insanely long chapter not quite sure who he was. This isn't necessarily the book's fault. Since I had a nearly 6 month lapse between reading the first 30% to the remaining 60%, some book scenes that aren't pivotal to the initial plot ended up forgotten. We learn some darker aspects of the Republic that ties very well with long-lasting racism in the United States. Lost to time, we get hints hidden in the text racial minorities were either driven away to the Gulf or exterminated. Miles ended up being adopted by William's parents who treated him like their own child. Despite joining the militia and now working as a homicide detective, Miles is treated like an outcast the entire book. This shapes his cynical worldview and I have a hunch he will play a bigger role in book 2. The only person within the army that treats him like an equal is a fellow outcast Freelander named Captain Drake.
Similar to how the ancient Roman Empire held a weak grasp of farflung territories, large chunks of the Midwest and Rockies have lawless enclaves that seem reminiscent of Mad Max films. The book describes very well how this culture and resulting outsider status shapes Drake's worldview. The political focus of the book ups several notches in the final arc and I suspect book 2 will become more political intrigue meets dystopia. Which, given the verbose writing style, will suit my expectations very much.
While we know from the start, Alyssa is no saint and she's quite an intolerable person, I have a hunch William is hiding something about Cascadia's true agenda. I keep on getting these vibes. He's clumsy and a bit dopey at times, but that whole scene when Alyssa gets extracted is proof he's hiding something.
Now, here comes the bad news. Some chapters felt like they went a tad bit too far in the word filler department. I am not referring to excessive glue words. More like a bit too much scenes where Miles looks at each and every single crook & cranny of the Republic's capitol building. While some of this cemented his disgust with their display of wealth and him teetering on the edge of getting executed, it did slow down an already long book and ensured it is only a thriller during brief moments. Some readers will love Alyssa's history lessons, other readers will feel the speeches run too long and yearn for more action.
While I feel the prime reader is a bit niche, readers that like their Sci Fi to be chonks filled with political backstabbing intrigue intermixed with long description will find this book to be up their alley.
4.5 stars!
Read
May 10, 2026I read this novel for The Self-Published Science Fiction Competition, SPSFC. The following review is my own personal opinion as a judge in Team Space Girls and does not reflect the views of the team as a whole.
The Girl in the Tomb started out slightly whimsical for me, mostly because of the character of William, a clumsy scientist type from a country called Cascadia on a research mission to dig up a so-called Transcendent tomb, an ancient facility built by the enigmatic, android-type rulers of Earth several thousands of years ago who lifted up, then managed to completely destroy human civilization. After the destruction, humanity is just now climbing out of the effects of that fall and a following ice age, gaining more stability and more knowledge to turn to discovery and restoration. William’s job is not easy: to be successful in revealing more about the Transcendent age, he needs to collaborate with agents from the Holy American Republic, a very conservative state, led by a Pope and heavily biased against any kind of technology for its citizens, and even more so if that is derivative of any kind of Transcendent tech. By the end of the first chapter, however, we realize William isn’t so vulnerable and innocent as we first thought. Still, releasing the titular “Girl in the Tomb”, Alyssia, a Metal God of ancient times, forces him (and Alyssia) into a chase with agents of the Republic, and the strange road trip (or hike, I suppose) leads us into several more intriguing Transcendent ruins, more than one confrontation with expected and unexpected enemies, and to discover a strange, hidden conspiracy that might once again lead humanity into catastrophe.
The book’s structure and pace are unique. Its chapters are labeled as “episodes” and are quite long, almost as if I was truly watching a mini-series or something. The writing takes its time introducing us to the world and certainly can be called “wordy”, however, the voice and the topic of the narration is usually so intriguing that I found myself not really minding any of this. The dynamic between Alyssia and William is also really entertaining. Alyssia is, undoubtedly, a god: even with less resources and the lack of upkeep on her immortal body, her capabilities, both physical and mental, far surpass any of the humans around her, and she’s truly haughty and mean about it sometimes. To her, humans are tools, or like animals of burden. At the same time, she has lived with them, around them, her whole life, and was, is connected to them and their world with thousands of surprising little threads. As the understanding between her and William deepens, it was just really nice to see her unfold and become more and more honest and vulnerable. I really liked her character. And she’s got a lot to say, too: a whole lost history of the rise and fall of the Transcendents, their bonkers technological advances, and some really peculiar discussions about the universe, all of which I loved to discover. There was a very peculiar mood to the entire setting that reminded me of the world of Horizon Zero Dawn a bit, weirdly. And of course, I love hidden lore and lost history in books so it was just the perfect topic for me.
Meanwhile, the road trip goes on and it leads us into unexpected directions. A lot of this book is composed of someone telling a story or the characters strolling about weird settings as we hear Alyssia talk about them, but we do have action as well, especially towards the end. We also get to know much more about the Republic and the Pope, a society that is truly uncomfortable to read about especially in our Current Times, from the POV of another cool character. This part, I felt, received less time than I wished for it, and although I was almost certain the book would end in an open way, for me, the ending petered out a bit, too. I wasn’t sure why that was the point we decided to stop. Line-level typos, grammatical mistakes and such things also started to become more frequent after a while; nothing that a thorough proofread wouldn’t solve, but even though I liked the prose which was skillful and complex, these things jarred me out of immersion sometimes.
Nevertheless, if I had the sequel in my hands, I would definitely immediately continue. This is a slow, contemplative, “thinking” sci-fi that is based on a huge amount of layered worldbuilding and has a lot to say about humanity and technology, but also has a couple of unique characters to root for.
The Girl in the Tomb started out slightly whimsical for me, mostly because of the character of William, a clumsy scientist type from a country called Cascadia on a research mission to dig up a so-called Transcendent tomb, an ancient facility built by the enigmatic, android-type rulers of Earth several thousands of years ago who lifted up, then managed to completely destroy human civilization. After the destruction, humanity is just now climbing out of the effects of that fall and a following ice age, gaining more stability and more knowledge to turn to discovery and restoration. William’s job is not easy: to be successful in revealing more about the Transcendent age, he needs to collaborate with agents from the Holy American Republic, a very conservative state, led by a Pope and heavily biased against any kind of technology for its citizens, and even more so if that is derivative of any kind of Transcendent tech. By the end of the first chapter, however, we realize William isn’t so vulnerable and innocent as we first thought. Still, releasing the titular “Girl in the Tomb”, Alyssia, a Metal God of ancient times, forces him (and Alyssia) into a chase with agents of the Republic, and the strange road trip (or hike, I suppose) leads us into several more intriguing Transcendent ruins, more than one confrontation with expected and unexpected enemies, and to discover a strange, hidden conspiracy that might once again lead humanity into catastrophe.
The book’s structure and pace are unique. Its chapters are labeled as “episodes” and are quite long, almost as if I was truly watching a mini-series or something. The writing takes its time introducing us to the world and certainly can be called “wordy”, however, the voice and the topic of the narration is usually so intriguing that I found myself not really minding any of this. The dynamic between Alyssia and William is also really entertaining. Alyssia is, undoubtedly, a god: even with less resources and the lack of upkeep on her immortal body, her capabilities, both physical and mental, far surpass any of the humans around her, and she’s truly haughty and mean about it sometimes. To her, humans are tools, or like animals of burden. At the same time, she has lived with them, around them, her whole life, and was, is connected to them and their world with thousands of surprising little threads. As the understanding between her and William deepens, it was just really nice to see her unfold and become more and more honest and vulnerable. I really liked her character. And she’s got a lot to say, too: a whole lost history of the rise and fall of the Transcendents, their bonkers technological advances, and some really peculiar discussions about the universe, all of which I loved to discover. There was a very peculiar mood to the entire setting that reminded me of the world of Horizon Zero Dawn a bit, weirdly. And of course, I love hidden lore and lost history in books so it was just the perfect topic for me.
Meanwhile, the road trip goes on and it leads us into unexpected directions. A lot of this book is composed of someone telling a story or the characters strolling about weird settings as we hear Alyssia talk about them, but we do have action as well, especially towards the end. We also get to know much more about the Republic and the Pope, a society that is truly uncomfortable to read about especially in our Current Times, from the POV of another cool character. This part, I felt, received less time than I wished for it, and although I was almost certain the book would end in an open way, for me, the ending petered out a bit, too. I wasn’t sure why that was the point we decided to stop. Line-level typos, grammatical mistakes and such things also started to become more frequent after a while; nothing that a thorough proofread wouldn’t solve, but even though I liked the prose which was skillful and complex, these things jarred me out of immersion sometimes.
Nevertheless, if I had the sequel in my hands, I would definitely immediately continue. This is a slow, contemplative, “thinking” sci-fi that is based on a huge amount of layered worldbuilding and has a lot to say about humanity and technology, but also has a couple of unique characters to root for.
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