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The Fall: Part 2
“A masterpiece of storytelling” – Goodreads.com
“Brilliantly conceived … taut and chilling” – A.W Baldwin
2040: The world is burning, and hope is almost lost…
As feuding trillionaires insulate themselves on sub-Antarctic islands and lobby for nation-state recognition, the eco terrorist known as Vidar pours fuel on the flames of social disintegration. Mega storms and heat wreak havoc, driving the greatest diaspora in history. America is broken. A new civil war threatens. The fate of civilization lies with the first independent president and a revolutionary AI, but then a mystery virus triggers a nuclear war.
Told from multiple perspectives, The Fall takes you from the halls of power to the unforgiving streets as the world we know unravels. This is how it REALLY ends…
Presented in three 80-000-word chronological parts, 'The Fall', is the first stunning installment of ‘The Anthropocene Series', a speculative vision of the fate of humanity.
The Anthropocene Series
For 3,000 centuries the blue planet blessed us with her riches. As our civilizations rose and fell, her bounteous resources were there to seed others. But now we have outgrown her, so imposed upon her complex systems that we have earned our own unit of geological the Anthropocene —an era which appears destined to be short-lived. We are a fiendishly intelligent species, capable of creative genius as well as mindless destruction, are we smart enough to save ourselves?
The Anthropocene Series grapples with this paradox in a speculative vision of mind-blowing scale. From feuding tech trillionaires to a teenager speaking truth to power, from a jaded FBI agent trying to regain faith in justice to a conviction politician navigating the shoals of compromise, these and other intersecting stories propel you into the near and distant future. Book 1, The Fall, tells the story of our post-truth plunge into climate disaster. Book 2, From Ashes, the long and bitter struggle for survival in a post-apocalyptic nightmare, while Book 3, Beyond, suggests that despite, or perhaps because of our selfish genes, humanity may yet endure in some form among the stars.
“Brilliantly conceived … taut and chilling” – A.W Baldwin
2040: The world is burning, and hope is almost lost…
As feuding trillionaires insulate themselves on sub-Antarctic islands and lobby for nation-state recognition, the eco terrorist known as Vidar pours fuel on the flames of social disintegration. Mega storms and heat wreak havoc, driving the greatest diaspora in history. America is broken. A new civil war threatens. The fate of civilization lies with the first independent president and a revolutionary AI, but then a mystery virus triggers a nuclear war.
Told from multiple perspectives, The Fall takes you from the halls of power to the unforgiving streets as the world we know unravels. This is how it REALLY ends…
Presented in three 80-000-word chronological parts, 'The Fall', is the first stunning installment of ‘The Anthropocene Series', a speculative vision of the fate of humanity.
The Anthropocene Series
For 3,000 centuries the blue planet blessed us with her riches. As our civilizations rose and fell, her bounteous resources were there to seed others. But now we have outgrown her, so imposed upon her complex systems that we have earned our own unit of geological the Anthropocene —an era which appears destined to be short-lived. We are a fiendishly intelligent species, capable of creative genius as well as mindless destruction, are we smart enough to save ourselves?
The Anthropocene Series grapples with this paradox in a speculative vision of mind-blowing scale. From feuding tech trillionaires to a teenager speaking truth to power, from a jaded FBI agent trying to regain faith in justice to a conviction politician navigating the shoals of compromise, these and other intersecting stories propel you into the near and distant future. Book 1, The Fall, tells the story of our post-truth plunge into climate disaster. Book 2, From Ashes, the long and bitter struggle for survival in a post-apocalyptic nightmare, while Book 3, Beyond, suggests that despite, or perhaps because of our selfish genes, humanity may yet endure in some form among the stars.
346 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 15, 2025
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November 15, 2025
Climb aboard for the second instalment of Jake Avila’s The Fall: Part 2 in his epic Anthropocene Series. This monumental work charts the breakdown of the socio-political order as we know it against the backdrop of catastrophic climate change on a global scale. I really enjoyed Part 1 and this new foray into Avila’s vision of a dysfunctional world got me ‘in’ from the beginning.
The disintegration of the natural order is laid out, offering a compelling vision of just what might occur if the warning signs of climate disaster are not heeded in order to prevent it. The road trip across America depicts in stark detail the result of this, where the author clearly demonstrates he learnt the lesson of ‘show, don’t tell,’ when he was earning his 'writer's stripes.' It is already too late to reverse the events set in motion within the world Avila envisages in The Fall, but there is always hope - which is demonstrated by the characters caught up in a chain of events they seemingly have no control over.
The bleak portrayal of this world is mirrored by the accompanying breakdown of society as civilization falters in the face of overwhelming odds. The author describes it as such:
“Millions of people … displaced with virtually no resources, except of course, a huge stockpile of guns and ammunition. When supply chains collapse there will be a bloodbath.”
A massive tsunami, which is described as “beyond comprehension,” is triggered, which only increases the peril where everyone is out for themselves and none of the old rules apply. As the pace of the narrative picks up, the reader is swept up in the intertwining stories of the major characters. It is a compelling read, but also a sobering one.
The future may indeed be bleak, but human resilience is a tangible reality, demonstrated in each of the point-of-view characters within the story. The novel’s achievement is that within the sheer scale of the narrative, each of the characters resonates with a realism and truth that is both believable and, at times, poignant. The resilience of the characters, regardless of whether or not they prevail in the narrative, shines through and I was totally invested in their respective plights. Avila renders a sensitivity when depicting characterisation, which counterbalances the action and, at times, the horror. Not every author can successfully master this, but Avila has.
The Anthropocene age refers to the current geological age, where humankind is the dominant force on the environment and the climate. Given that the clock is ticking in terms of the impacts resulting from this dominance on the world’s ecosystems, the novel poses the idea, “Perhaps there is still time to save us all.” But again, perhaps not.
The Fall: Part 2, picks up seamlessly from Part one and develops the interconnecting stories cleverly and without confusion, which, given the scale of the work, is an achievement in itself. The novel delivers both in terms of storytelling as well as a cautionary tale.
I rate this book five out of five and would gladly recommend it to anybody who is looking for a layered, action-paced story. Whether you are a speculative fiction aficionado or not, this book delivers on a number of levels and is well worth reading.
The disintegration of the natural order is laid out, offering a compelling vision of just what might occur if the warning signs of climate disaster are not heeded in order to prevent it. The road trip across America depicts in stark detail the result of this, where the author clearly demonstrates he learnt the lesson of ‘show, don’t tell,’ when he was earning his 'writer's stripes.' It is already too late to reverse the events set in motion within the world Avila envisages in The Fall, but there is always hope - which is demonstrated by the characters caught up in a chain of events they seemingly have no control over.
The bleak portrayal of this world is mirrored by the accompanying breakdown of society as civilization falters in the face of overwhelming odds. The author describes it as such:
“Millions of people … displaced with virtually no resources, except of course, a huge stockpile of guns and ammunition. When supply chains collapse there will be a bloodbath.”
A massive tsunami, which is described as “beyond comprehension,” is triggered, which only increases the peril where everyone is out for themselves and none of the old rules apply. As the pace of the narrative picks up, the reader is swept up in the intertwining stories of the major characters. It is a compelling read, but also a sobering one.
The future may indeed be bleak, but human resilience is a tangible reality, demonstrated in each of the point-of-view characters within the story. The novel’s achievement is that within the sheer scale of the narrative, each of the characters resonates with a realism and truth that is both believable and, at times, poignant. The resilience of the characters, regardless of whether or not they prevail in the narrative, shines through and I was totally invested in their respective plights. Avila renders a sensitivity when depicting characterisation, which counterbalances the action and, at times, the horror. Not every author can successfully master this, but Avila has.
The Anthropocene age refers to the current geological age, where humankind is the dominant force on the environment and the climate. Given that the clock is ticking in terms of the impacts resulting from this dominance on the world’s ecosystems, the novel poses the idea, “Perhaps there is still time to save us all.” But again, perhaps not.
The Fall: Part 2, picks up seamlessly from Part one and develops the interconnecting stories cleverly and without confusion, which, given the scale of the work, is an achievement in itself. The novel delivers both in terms of storytelling as well as a cautionary tale.
I rate this book five out of five and would gladly recommend it to anybody who is looking for a layered, action-paced story. Whether you are a speculative fiction aficionado or not, this book delivers on a number of levels and is well worth reading.
Displaying 1 of 1 review