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40
From the award-winning author Alan Heathcock comes an American myth of the a vision of civil war, spectacle, and disaster of biblical proportions.
In a future America ravaged by natural disaster, pandemic, and political unrest, a fundamentalist faction emerges. As the Novae Terrae gain power, enticing civilians with bread and circuses, a civil war breaks out between its members and the US government.
Mazzy Goodwin, a young soldier, only wants to find her little sister, Ava Lynn. One day, she wakes in a bomb crater to find wings emerged from her back. Has she died? Been gifted wings by God? Undergone a military experiment?
The world sees a miracle. Mazzy is coaxed into seeing it as an to become the angel-like figurehead of the revolution, in return for being reunited with her sister. Her journey leads her to New Los Angeles, where the Novae have set up the headquarters for their propaganda machine––right in the ruins of Hollywood. Aided by friends old and new, she must navigate a web of deceit while staying true to herself.
Told in sharp, haunting prose, as cinematic as it is precise, Alan Heathcock’s 40 is a dizzyingly fantastical novel about the dangers of blind faith, the temptation of spectacle, and the love of family. In a tale by turns mythic and tragic, one heroine must come to terms with the consequences of her decisions––and face the challenges of building a new world.
In a future America ravaged by natural disaster, pandemic, and political unrest, a fundamentalist faction emerges. As the Novae Terrae gain power, enticing civilians with bread and circuses, a civil war breaks out between its members and the US government.
Mazzy Goodwin, a young soldier, only wants to find her little sister, Ava Lynn. One day, she wakes in a bomb crater to find wings emerged from her back. Has she died? Been gifted wings by God? Undergone a military experiment?
The world sees a miracle. Mazzy is coaxed into seeing it as an to become the angel-like figurehead of the revolution, in return for being reunited with her sister. Her journey leads her to New Los Angeles, where the Novae have set up the headquarters for their propaganda machine––right in the ruins of Hollywood. Aided by friends old and new, she must navigate a web of deceit while staying true to herself.
Told in sharp, haunting prose, as cinematic as it is precise, Alan Heathcock’s 40 is a dizzyingly fantastical novel about the dangers of blind faith, the temptation of spectacle, and the love of family. In a tale by turns mythic and tragic, one heroine must come to terms with the consequences of her decisions––and face the challenges of building a new world.
304 pages, Hardcover
Published August 2, 2022
32 people are currently reading
1075 people want to read
About the author
Alan Heathcock
8 books267 followersAlan Heathcock has won a Whiting Award, the GLCA New Writers Award, a National Magazine Award, has been awarded fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the Lannan Foundation, and the Idaho Commission on the Arts. His story collection, VOLT, was a 'Best Book of the Year' selection from numerous newspapers and magazines, including GQ, Publishers Weekly, Salon, and the Chicago Tribune, was named as a New York Times Editors’ Choice, and a finalist for the Barnes and Noble Discover Prize.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 71 reviews
March 4, 2022
This has to be in the top one or two books I've ever written.
August 3, 2022
Real Rating: 4.5* of five, rounded up for trenchance
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.
My Review: Regulars to this blog will recognize the name Alan Heathcock from my warbling my fool lungs out about his collection, Volt: Stories. One big reason for that is that Author Heathcock does not mess around when he makes his imagery work your brain:
I don't know how much clearer the man can be than that. I can feel these words, see the world through their gravity lens, perceive the distorted light that comes from every other direction than the original one to form the ghost of the initial thought behind them.
Which is why I, devout atheist and committed anti-religion crusader, read a whole novel about a post-apocalyptic world run by and for evangelical evil-doers with hearts colder than emptiest space. Which is why I'm here telling you to go and get one of these books, these beautifully designed books (that jacket design!), or to pre-order the Kindle version so you'll open the device tomorrow morning and join Mazzy and Ava Lynn in the hellscape that Jo Sam the evangelist of doom designed and brought forth.
Betrayal is only the beginning of Mazzy's journey. It's certainly true that she's not a trusting, sunny-hearted soul for a single second of her life. Her sister Ava Lynn calls out the only tenderness she allows herself to externalize. The child, whose fate is not ever easy, confounds Mazzy in her extremely self-possessed certainty. Mazzy being incapable of a single sustained good mood for more than the absolute minimum of time, she envies Ava Lynn and vows to protect her. Which, this being a novel, means that Mazzy is unable to do so.
The amount of manipulative chicanery Mazzy experiences after she (unexpectedly and without external stimulus) becomes winged is, of course, the bulk of the novel's action. Her bewingèd state makes her very valuable to the evildoers around Jo Sam the evangelist, unsurprisingly, and so they use Ava Lynn to extort obedience out of Mazzy. The sheer outrage I experienced over this...! It's an effective tool, of course, the safety of one's child (dead mother) being hard coded into our protective circle by evolution. That it is never a violent threat, "we will hurt her," made me able to continue to read the story. They keep Mazzy from being with Ava Lynn to keep her working for their vile controlling cause.
The day dawns, of course, when Mazzy is no longer suitable for their use; a series of things occurs that, in several moments, made me think I was being played by Author Heathcock. It's a pleasure to report that he played fair...but the ending of the story is still a major surprise. Yes, I saw the twist coming, but I think that's to be expected. A truly successful twist, in this case, means the expected event occurs but something you-the-reader would've dismissed as improbable happens after. Job done, Author Heathcock.
I'll say that, after reading many, many chosen-one narratives and even more post-apocalyptic religion-used-for-evil tales over the past seven decades, I'm not sorry I read this one. I think it's well-made and well-written, I suspect it's something the author has allowed to simmer for a very long time before committing to words for others to read, and I'm pleased with the results he has achieved.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.
My Review: Regulars to this blog will recognize the name Alan Heathcock from my warbling my fool lungs out about his collection, Volt: Stories. One big reason for that is that Author Heathcock does not mess around when he makes his imagery work your brain:
"...I knew it'd come to this, you say. I knew I was right. The power of knowing the despair you ordered has finally come to pass makes you feel like a god. Let's be honest. It's what you want. You want this world to collapse. Want people to be every awful thing."
–and–
Grief was a demon of possession. When people talked of time healing wounds, they only meant that over time you become accustomed to that demon inside you, and what at first felt like an invasive presence, alien and nefarious, slowly became integrated into your being, the imp of sorrow crouched within you for the remainder of your days.
I don't know how much clearer the man can be than that. I can feel these words, see the world through their gravity lens, perceive the distorted light that comes from every other direction than the original one to form the ghost of the initial thought behind them.
Which is why I, devout atheist and committed anti-religion crusader, read a whole novel about a post-apocalyptic world run by and for evangelical evil-doers with hearts colder than emptiest space. Which is why I'm here telling you to go and get one of these books, these beautifully designed books (that jacket design!), or to pre-order the Kindle version so you'll open the device tomorrow morning and join Mazzy and Ava Lynn in the hellscape that Jo Sam the evangelist of doom designed and brought forth.
Betrayal is only the beginning of Mazzy's journey. It's certainly true that she's not a trusting, sunny-hearted soul for a single second of her life. Her sister Ava Lynn calls out the only tenderness she allows herself to externalize. The child, whose fate is not ever easy, confounds Mazzy in her extremely self-possessed certainty. Mazzy being incapable of a single sustained good mood for more than the absolute minimum of time, she envies Ava Lynn and vows to protect her. Which, this being a novel, means that Mazzy is unable to do so.
The amount of manipulative chicanery Mazzy experiences after she (unexpectedly and without external stimulus) becomes winged is, of course, the bulk of the novel's action. Her bewingèd state makes her very valuable to the evildoers around Jo Sam the evangelist, unsurprisingly, and so they use Ava Lynn to extort obedience out of Mazzy. The sheer outrage I experienced over this...! It's an effective tool, of course, the safety of one's child (dead mother) being hard coded into our protective circle by evolution. That it is never a violent threat, "we will hurt her," made me able to continue to read the story. They keep Mazzy from being with Ava Lynn to keep her working for their vile controlling cause.
The day dawns, of course, when Mazzy is no longer suitable for their use; a series of things occurs that, in several moments, made me think I was being played by Author Heathcock. It's a pleasure to report that he played fair...but the ending of the story is still a major surprise. Yes, I saw the twist coming, but I think that's to be expected. A truly successful twist, in this case, means the expected event occurs but something you-the-reader would've dismissed as improbable happens after. Job done, Author Heathcock.
I'll say that, after reading many, many chosen-one narratives and even more post-apocalyptic religion-used-for-evil tales over the past seven decades, I'm not sorry I read this one. I think it's well-made and well-written, I suspect it's something the author has allowed to simmer for a very long time before committing to words for others to read, and I'm pleased with the results he has achieved.
March 21, 2022
Heathcock's 40 is a book that is both biblically apocalyptic and dystopic in scope and breadth.
Mazzy is a solider who awakens in a bomb crater, stunned and unsteady, to find she has suddenly sprouted wings. Uncertain if she's been blessed by a miracle or the victim of experimentation, she's now on a mission to locate the people who killed her mother and kidnapped her little sister, Ava Lynn. The people of New Los Angeles, however, decide she's an angel and the leaders of the Revolution quickly escalate her to a status symbol on the WRONG side of the war. Mazzy must carefully navigate relationships, new and old, if she stands any chance of surviving, let alone being reunited with Ava.
This politically charged futuristic look at the destruction of mankind is wholly unlike Heathcock's previous work. It's breathtaking and beautiful. This is a side of him I wasn't aware existed!
Mazzy is a solider who awakens in a bomb crater, stunned and unsteady, to find she has suddenly sprouted wings. Uncertain if she's been blessed by a miracle or the victim of experimentation, she's now on a mission to locate the people who killed her mother and kidnapped her little sister, Ava Lynn. The people of New Los Angeles, however, decide she's an angel and the leaders of the Revolution quickly escalate her to a status symbol on the WRONG side of the war. Mazzy must carefully navigate relationships, new and old, if she stands any chance of surviving, let alone being reunited with Ava.
This politically charged futuristic look at the destruction of mankind is wholly unlike Heathcock's previous work. It's breathtaking and beautiful. This is a side of him I wasn't aware existed!
July 3, 2022
I was given a free copy in exchange for a review in the Idaho Press. Here is my soon-to-be-published review in full:
Alan Heathcock might have chosen not to pursue a career as a pastor, but God is never far from his mind.
Just like his highly acclaimed 2011 short story collection "Volt," Boise-based Heathcock's new novel "40" digs deep into questions about faith in a cruel world as his characters fight to hold onto their humanity. This time, instead of setting his stories in a small farming town, his first novel-length effort looks eighteen years in the future to an America ripped apart by mega-storms, famine and a civil war. At the center of the clashing sides is Army Private Mazzy Goodwin, the hunt for her missing younger sister and her mysterious pair of wings.
Mazzy joined the Army at an uneasy time. The United States is fraught with tension as Americans start to turn elsewhere after pandemics pummel the country, food is running short and a new charismatic leader is rising. The mysterious Jo Sam, who no one has seen, has risen to power and is gathering more and more followers of his fundamentalist faction by the day with promises of money, food and snazzy new uniforms.
Who could resist joining the Novae Terrae and their call to end suffering and start a new nation, and by extension, a new world? Even once the organization starts taking children up into the clouds, the movement's growth doesn't slow down. How much will people give to a charismatic leader in a time of immense national pain? These questions seem especially prescient now when our country is at its most divided and militia groups are regularly cited marching in the streets of American cities from coast to coast.
Everything changes for Mazzy when she joins her unit on what seemed like a routine mission to intercept a Novae food truck in a tunnel when tragedy strikes the operation. She wakes up in a bomb crater to find her whole unit wiped out from a bomb the others didn't see coming and wings growing out from her back. She takes flight home in her confusion, only to find her younger sister has been taken by the Novae and her mother dead. Through a chance meeting, she gets connected to the Novae organization and finds herself as the unwitting symbol of Jo Sam and his new nation of 40 based in Los Angeles.
Not unlike Katniss Everdeen in "The Hunger Games" series, Mazzy then struggles to play her part as a symbol for a political movement while caring only to find her sister and return back to their home on the side of a mountain in California. She's promised over and over again that if she does her bit for Jo Sam, they'll give her sister back. And all the while, she has to pretend to hold up the movement, the country and stand around at glitzy parties promoting the cause she isn't even close to believing in.
This premise might sound like a YA speculative fiction story, but Heathcock demands much more from the reader. The story asks complex questions about the power of blind faith in charismatic leaders, the cycle of political unrest tied to physical suffering, the desire for political leaders on all sides to co-opt powerless people to further their own ends and the love of family. I had to read some passages a few times to try and decipher the meaning, and even then sometimes I had to plow ahead accepting there are no easy answers here. This book will challenge you, which in many ways feels like just what the doctor ordered in a challenging time.
If you approach this book looking for a Hunger Games knock-off or a fast-paced action story, you will probably be disappointed. There are action scenes, big set pieces and political struggle, but "40" is less about what happens and more about what it means, and where we could be going. This makes for a thoughtful read, but there were many times when I wished the reader could get emotionally closer to Mazzy. She often seemed distant from the events around her, despite cut-ins sometimes telling us how she was feeling. I wanted to know her, instead of just what happened to her, and I don't know how successful the book was at achieving that.
I spoke to Heathcock in 2019 for the Idaho Press' annual issue of Cavalcade magazine, while he was deep in editing this book. But, reading the final version years later makes me wonder how much the story changed after he spent a year at home watching the country do battle with COVID-19 and all of the resulting political fallout. Like so many of us, it appears Heathcock looked deep into himself, and his country, in the past two years.
"40" is a thoroughly unique book from a thoroughly unique Boisean. It's sparse, challenging and interesting all at once.
Alan Heathcock might have chosen not to pursue a career as a pastor, but God is never far from his mind.
Just like his highly acclaimed 2011 short story collection "Volt," Boise-based Heathcock's new novel "40" digs deep into questions about faith in a cruel world as his characters fight to hold onto their humanity. This time, instead of setting his stories in a small farming town, his first novel-length effort looks eighteen years in the future to an America ripped apart by mega-storms, famine and a civil war. At the center of the clashing sides is Army Private Mazzy Goodwin, the hunt for her missing younger sister and her mysterious pair of wings.
Mazzy joined the Army at an uneasy time. The United States is fraught with tension as Americans start to turn elsewhere after pandemics pummel the country, food is running short and a new charismatic leader is rising. The mysterious Jo Sam, who no one has seen, has risen to power and is gathering more and more followers of his fundamentalist faction by the day with promises of money, food and snazzy new uniforms.
Who could resist joining the Novae Terrae and their call to end suffering and start a new nation, and by extension, a new world? Even once the organization starts taking children up into the clouds, the movement's growth doesn't slow down. How much will people give to a charismatic leader in a time of immense national pain? These questions seem especially prescient now when our country is at its most divided and militia groups are regularly cited marching in the streets of American cities from coast to coast.
Everything changes for Mazzy when she joins her unit on what seemed like a routine mission to intercept a Novae food truck in a tunnel when tragedy strikes the operation. She wakes up in a bomb crater to find her whole unit wiped out from a bomb the others didn't see coming and wings growing out from her back. She takes flight home in her confusion, only to find her younger sister has been taken by the Novae and her mother dead. Through a chance meeting, she gets connected to the Novae organization and finds herself as the unwitting symbol of Jo Sam and his new nation of 40 based in Los Angeles.
Not unlike Katniss Everdeen in "The Hunger Games" series, Mazzy then struggles to play her part as a symbol for a political movement while caring only to find her sister and return back to their home on the side of a mountain in California. She's promised over and over again that if she does her bit for Jo Sam, they'll give her sister back. And all the while, she has to pretend to hold up the movement, the country and stand around at glitzy parties promoting the cause she isn't even close to believing in.
This premise might sound like a YA speculative fiction story, but Heathcock demands much more from the reader. The story asks complex questions about the power of blind faith in charismatic leaders, the cycle of political unrest tied to physical suffering, the desire for political leaders on all sides to co-opt powerless people to further their own ends and the love of family. I had to read some passages a few times to try and decipher the meaning, and even then sometimes I had to plow ahead accepting there are no easy answers here. This book will challenge you, which in many ways feels like just what the doctor ordered in a challenging time.
If you approach this book looking for a Hunger Games knock-off or a fast-paced action story, you will probably be disappointed. There are action scenes, big set pieces and political struggle, but "40" is less about what happens and more about what it means, and where we could be going. This makes for a thoughtful read, but there were many times when I wished the reader could get emotionally closer to Mazzy. She often seemed distant from the events around her, despite cut-ins sometimes telling us how she was feeling. I wanted to know her, instead of just what happened to her, and I don't know how successful the book was at achieving that.
I spoke to Heathcock in 2019 for the Idaho Press' annual issue of Cavalcade magazine, while he was deep in editing this book. But, reading the final version years later makes me wonder how much the story changed after he spent a year at home watching the country do battle with COVID-19 and all of the resulting political fallout. Like so many of us, it appears Heathcock looked deep into himself, and his country, in the past two years.
"40" is a thoroughly unique book from a thoroughly unique Boisean. It's sparse, challenging and interesting all at once.
December 30, 2022
Oof this one had all the dystopian, fantastical almost biblical elements that I usually like in a book. But I just could not get into it. I'm not sure whether it was the uneven pace of world building or the unlikable characters but it took me weeks to read what I think is a relatively short book. The first half was confusing and then the second half when things started to come together, I just wasn't invested in Mazzy enough. The very end, I did like but it was like too little too late for me.
October 13, 2022
This book was so wild - it took me about 50% (eek, I know) to get fully into it BUT once I did I was like hooooooly shit.
The first half of the book develops a society in a future just ahead of us. The people have lived through wars and pandemics and now they just want hope. Mysteriously children start disappearing, just as our main character Mazzy awakens with wings. A militarized religious faction called “The 40” begins to bring hope for the return of the children, and they rise to leadership with Mazzie as a representative of the pure future.
I don’t want to tell too much more because there are so many twists and turns, characters come and go, and finally a new world is developed. There is such innocuous foreshadowing that basically slaps you in the face later on. This is science fiction, dystopian, climate fiction, and also somewhat of a thriller.
Reminiscent of:
A CHILDREN’S BIBLE
PARABLE OF THE SOWER
CHILDREN OF MAN
APPLESEED
THE EVERY
part 3 of TO PARADISE
*OMG !! it’s a grown uP MAXIMUM RIDE !!
The first half of the book develops a society in a future just ahead of us. The people have lived through wars and pandemics and now they just want hope. Mysteriously children start disappearing, just as our main character Mazzy awakens with wings. A militarized religious faction called “The 40” begins to bring hope for the return of the children, and they rise to leadership with Mazzie as a representative of the pure future.
I don’t want to tell too much more because there are so many twists and turns, characters come and go, and finally a new world is developed. There is such innocuous foreshadowing that basically slaps you in the face later on. This is science fiction, dystopian, climate fiction, and also somewhat of a thriller.
Reminiscent of:
A CHILDREN’S BIBLE
PARABLE OF THE SOWER
CHILDREN OF MAN
APPLESEED
THE EVERY
part 3 of TO PARADISE
*OMG !! it’s a grown uP MAXIMUM RIDE !!
December 11, 2023
This was a solid read. I had just finished The City Inside, so it was kind of a trip switching from a social media dystopia set in India to a religious fundamentalist dystopia set here in the good ol US of A. This book isn't your average run of the mill dystopia book, though, but neither was the City Inside. I really appreciated the pacing. You wake up with the character in a WTF moment, then start getting some back story, and even before you catch up with the present you can feel the stakes and tension ratcheting up as each chapter goes by. Good world building. The main character was really good, but the side characters and other characters, could have been built out a little more, but the focus is on one woman's journey through an extreme societal change and the role she plays in it, all while dealing with some extreme physical changes, so I'll forgive the fact that some side characters were a little flat.
July 31, 2022
Opens with an immediate scene of visceral significance and rapid succession of things occurring, fire, bombshell, blood and war.
This will be a first person narrative with main protagonist Mazzy Goodwin, it’s all in here, love and hope, war and peace, righteous and unrighteous, belief and unbelief, truth and deception, these aspects of humanity a fete to tackle but he does well in communicating them with the main protagonist in her metamorphosis hand in hand reader and Mazzy on a journey through many aspects ones we fight for and ruminate in our souls.
The author has you reading on succumbed into this strange world in his grasp, there is no swaying from the tales immersion, no unnecessary sentences in this inner and outer conflict and the search for answers and safety in all the world gone topsy turvy.
There is the bond and love for a sister in this tale, Mazzy is in search for her sister at all costs and sacrifice.
There is a personal and world struggle for the Mazzy with war and belief and trying to understand who leads what and the policies people follow. She is a spirited soul full of grit and courage but also naive and swayed by others, actors on the stage with lies and deception, all calling to different ways, light and darkness, she is caught in the web of wars and policy and religious conflict big questions being tackled in this moral tale that has the reader try to maybe answer the questions and doesn’t give one answer but let’s all play in this stage of life on a chessboard of decision making and fates, good or bad.
Aspects of religion and politics, the ways denizens of this earth follow others and chosen ones, with the moral and ethic questioning of a Flannery O'Connor, in this apocalyptic tale the author is shining a light with peoples role in an alternate American future with a powerful force of love driving through the novel amidst all the darkness.
Review with great Excerpts @ my webpage
https://www.more2read.com/review/40-by-alan-heathcock/
This will be a first person narrative with main protagonist Mazzy Goodwin, it’s all in here, love and hope, war and peace, righteous and unrighteous, belief and unbelief, truth and deception, these aspects of humanity a fete to tackle but he does well in communicating them with the main protagonist in her metamorphosis hand in hand reader and Mazzy on a journey through many aspects ones we fight for and ruminate in our souls.
The author has you reading on succumbed into this strange world in his grasp, there is no swaying from the tales immersion, no unnecessary sentences in this inner and outer conflict and the search for answers and safety in all the world gone topsy turvy.
There is the bond and love for a sister in this tale, Mazzy is in search for her sister at all costs and sacrifice.
There is a personal and world struggle for the Mazzy with war and belief and trying to understand who leads what and the policies people follow. She is a spirited soul full of grit and courage but also naive and swayed by others, actors on the stage with lies and deception, all calling to different ways, light and darkness, she is caught in the web of wars and policy and religious conflict big questions being tackled in this moral tale that has the reader try to maybe answer the questions and doesn’t give one answer but let’s all play in this stage of life on a chessboard of decision making and fates, good or bad.
Aspects of religion and politics, the ways denizens of this earth follow others and chosen ones, with the moral and ethic questioning of a Flannery O'Connor, in this apocalyptic tale the author is shining a light with peoples role in an alternate American future with a powerful force of love driving through the novel amidst all the darkness.
Review with great Excerpts @ my webpage
https://www.more2read.com/review/40-by-alan-heathcock/
August 29, 2022
Propulsive and challenging. I had the good fortune of hearing some of 40 long before the book came out, read by Heathcock. I couldn't wait for the book and my hopes were fulfilled. I listened to it as I now have a commute, and, I intend to buy a copy and attend one of AH's readings when he gets to my neck of the woods. I will read it as soon as that happens. While I like listening to books, sometimes the listen is so damn good, I need to see the words for those sentences that when spoken made me swoon at the artistry. Heathcock is a master at raising the stakes, as we authors say. Your hero is a young woman named Mazzie in a dystopian future, not so far away, who awakens one day in a bomb crater finding herself winged. (It happens very, very early in book -- not a spoiler.) She will be pulled into followers of a blind faith in order to save her sister. Though this novel is a debut, if you've read AH's short story collection, Volt, you already know you're in the hands of a master. Mazzie's experiences will get you thinking about family, civil war, climatastrophe, disasters that feel biblical, young technology-whizzes, power, love and hope in the midst of despair..... You won't want to put this one down.
February 4, 2024
“I’d give you a zero but since I can’t, I give you a one”
thank god this is over…
The first third of the book was super confusing, it was all over the place. Then it turns out everything was a cult, this was way too biblical and the takes were absurd? It was so bad, she randomly got wings and hacen a messiah? What the hell? This was awful. Don’t waste your time reading this. Todo ese show de que God le dio las alas y al final fue que supuestamente she was born with them? Que clase de porquería…
thank god this is over…
The first third of the book was super confusing, it was all over the place. Then it turns out everything was a cult, this was way too biblical and the takes were absurd? It was so bad, she randomly got wings and hacen a messiah? What the hell? This was awful. Don’t waste your time reading this. Todo ese show de que God le dio las alas y al final fue que supuestamente she was born with them? Que clase de porquería…
February 22, 2024
I think this book was fine for me, but I can see how others would get a lot out of it. Felt a little hunger games esque, but with a main character who could’ve taken more action rather than reacting.
January 12, 2023
Alan Heathcock’s novel 40 is a novel with a huge, sweeping story. The novel starts with Mazzy, an American soldier who wakes up in a bomb crater with wings on her back. She is seen as an angel and becomes a symbol of the movement to Novae Terrae, a religious extremist group who is also working to destroy the government and become the New America. Mazzy gets deep into their organization for one simple reason, they have kidnapped her sister and she wants her back. 40 is filled with climate disaster and a dystopian setting which reminds me a great deal of many of Margaret Atwood’s novels, particularly The Heart Goes Last. Heathcock brings his own spin to this subgenre and it is definitely a great addition.
There are so many elements of 40 that I can focus on and explore. The biblical plot. The dystopian world. The fight between the government and the people. The way that Mazzy as a soldier reacts differently to scenarios because she has a history as a soldier. The way that sometimes Mazzy has to be trusting of whatever people are telling her because she has no other choice, even if the people that surround her have their own agendas and are not the most trustworthy individuals. There are so many different angles that can be discussed and explored. One of the most interesting things to me is not one of the main themes but part of the setup of Novae Terrae against the government. There are not many pages strictly dedicate to this, but it is the major motivation of the entire movement. When Jo Sam and the Novae were cutting off food supplies, using drones to fight the military, and eventually being too clever for the military. These moments make me think about how someone with a little bit of strategy and a great deal of support like Jo Sam can crumble an already weakened structure. This America is not built like the current America. This America has been ravaged by plagues, floods, earthquakes, and other climate change disasters that help the Novae Terrae take advantage. They step in and offer a utopian escape for many who have lost everything already. By being the problem for the government and then being the solution for the citizens, this group has been able to get an upper hand on the entire situation.
I enjoyed 40 and Alan Heathcock’s writing. This novel is fast paced and magnificent, and it can be in a class with all of the other great dystopian novels. It is much different than his story collection Volt, but it is a direction that I am ready to take with him.
I received this as an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
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There are so many elements of 40 that I can focus on and explore. The biblical plot. The dystopian world. The fight between the government and the people. The way that Mazzy as a soldier reacts differently to scenarios because she has a history as a soldier. The way that sometimes Mazzy has to be trusting of whatever people are telling her because she has no other choice, even if the people that surround her have their own agendas and are not the most trustworthy individuals. There are so many different angles that can be discussed and explored. One of the most interesting things to me is not one of the main themes but part of the setup of Novae Terrae against the government. There are not many pages strictly dedicate to this, but it is the major motivation of the entire movement. When Jo Sam and the Novae were cutting off food supplies, using drones to fight the military, and eventually being too clever for the military. These moments make me think about how someone with a little bit of strategy and a great deal of support like Jo Sam can crumble an already weakened structure. This America is not built like the current America. This America has been ravaged by plagues, floods, earthquakes, and other climate change disasters that help the Novae Terrae take advantage. They step in and offer a utopian escape for many who have lost everything already. By being the problem for the government and then being the solution for the citizens, this group has been able to get an upper hand on the entire situation.
I enjoyed 40 and Alan Heathcock’s writing. This novel is fast paced and magnificent, and it can be in a class with all of the other great dystopian novels. It is much different than his story collection Volt, but it is a direction that I am ready to take with him.
I received this as an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
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September 22, 2022
This, delightfully, will require a second listen. There's A LOT going on here.
May 11, 2023
Alan Heathcock's speculative, post-apocalyptic novel "40" combines the poetic language of Cormac McCarthy with the fierce page-turning pace of Margaret Atwood. Heading into these warmer months, it would make a superb beach book or one for a long flight. I read it cover to cover in 4 days, so even though it sits at 304 pages, you'll likely read that extra chapter to see what happens next (and then you might read the chapter after that one too).
March 13, 2023
There's a difference between a storyteller and a writer, and Alan Heathcock is a writer. As such, "40" is less a story than a feeling, less a plot and more a storm of disaster and, perhaps, redemption. (Writers are not as definitive as storytellers.)
"40" is about a young woman, a soldier covered with blood, near death in a trench filled with water. She has a vision of her mother, and slowly, inevitably, sprouts wings. Those wings partially transform her into what we would think of as an angel. She can fly, though she can't do miracles; she is beautiful, but sexless (despite her close relationship with several men, there is not a hint of sexuality in "40.")
She is transfigured in a deeply dystopian United States, riven with war and religious revival. Her angelic identity -- though she is still very human on the inside -- makes her a valuable symbol for the factions vying for power in a broken world, though her primary concern is to find her lost sister, Ava Lynn.
"40" is a dark tale, full of death and blood and betrayal, but Heathcock is a wonderful writer, and somehow dances above the disaster he portrays, keeping a kind of distance between the reader and the brutal world he describes.
There are hints of redemption scattered throughout "40," but they are usually erased by cruelty, stupidity or simply human nature. And yet, Heathcock does apparently shine a ray of hope as the book moves on, though it's also possible to read that hope as just as another beginning of what could turn out to be the same old story, told, perhaps, by a different writer.
"40" is about a young woman, a soldier covered with blood, near death in a trench filled with water. She has a vision of her mother, and slowly, inevitably, sprouts wings. Those wings partially transform her into what we would think of as an angel. She can fly, though she can't do miracles; she is beautiful, but sexless (despite her close relationship with several men, there is not a hint of sexuality in "40.")
She is transfigured in a deeply dystopian United States, riven with war and religious revival. Her angelic identity -- though she is still very human on the inside -- makes her a valuable symbol for the factions vying for power in a broken world, though her primary concern is to find her lost sister, Ava Lynn.
"40" is a dark tale, full of death and blood and betrayal, but Heathcock is a wonderful writer, and somehow dances above the disaster he portrays, keeping a kind of distance between the reader and the brutal world he describes.
There are hints of redemption scattered throughout "40," but they are usually erased by cruelty, stupidity or simply human nature. And yet, Heathcock does apparently shine a ray of hope as the book moves on, though it's also possible to read that hope as just as another beginning of what could turn out to be the same old story, told, perhaps, by a different writer.
June 21, 2022
40 offers an unlikely pairing between massive, believable sci-fi/fantasy world-building and classic literary Americana. While many speculative novels meander in order to explore as much of the author's carefully prepared world as possible, 40 speeds along like a freight train; even the sentences rumble and shake ever-forward in Heathcock's signature prose, deceptively simple yet loaded with poetic device—fans of his collected stories might be surprised to see the same instrument used to such a different effect in his second book. We've been blessed with great literature in genre spaces recently—Jeff VanderMeer and Emily St. John Mandel come to mind—and I hope 40 finds its way into those mainstream conversations.
The cover blurb sets up the story well, so I won't go into detail about the plot, except to agree with others that there is an extended epilogue of sorts that some might find confusing and others transcendent. It worked for me, to say the least.
Recommended for genre-curious readers of literary fiction, or genre stalwarts who love an expertly-written sentence.
The cover blurb sets up the story well, so I won't go into detail about the plot, except to agree with others that there is an extended epilogue of sorts that some might find confusing and others transcendent. It worked for me, to say the least.
Recommended for genre-curious readers of literary fiction, or genre stalwarts who love an expertly-written sentence.
June 6, 2023
A futuristic America has been plagued with civil unrest, a pandemic, and natural disasters. Out of all this chaos a government faction rises from the ashes, the Novae Terrae. This faction emerges because the people’s desperation for survival and hope. Mazzy is a solider who is in search of her sister and answers to what has happened to her. She awakens one day and finds that has wings. She doesn’t understand why or how this happened. The Novae Terrae uses Mazzy as a propaganda tool to boost their cause, with promises that they will help her find her sister. Mazzy has to find a way to survive this situation. A fascinating dystopian story about faith and the people who are willing to do anything to exploit it.
Disclaimer: Thank you to NetGalley and MCD for this review copy, I received this review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Disclaimer: Thank you to NetGalley and MCD for this review copy, I received this review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
August 26, 2022
Alan Heathcock’s “40” is a bold, ambitious, terrifying accomplishment. It synergizes (which should be a word) technological and sociological armageddon with Biblical Armageddon, forcing the question of exactly who’s in charge of the universe anyhow, and why would they have us as their equal in authority by gifting us the ambition, intelligence and resources to annihilate ourselves. It was about halfway through the book when I thought “is he really about to attempt … ?” and yes, he does attempt, sticks the landing I was hoping for, then expands the scope of the story beyond encore, somewhere into the domain of allegory. There are some brilliant moments of insight as well, where the author comments freely on the modern American politic as well as the overall human condition - the particular one about grief is one of the best ever set to page. Slow clap; Such a read.
September 1, 2022
I would give this a solid 3.5. I really liked the majority of this story and the religious parallels within it. There were some really cool ideas that the author explored, but the last 100 pages or so fell a little flat for me. So much was happening, very quickly, and it lost me towards the end. Overall though I enjoyed this book and would like to read more from this author.
August 1, 2022
This book will hook and hold you from the very beginning. Mazzy is a character that we can identify with and struggle with. Her story will have you asking all the hard questions of yourself. The story is beautifully written. Don't miss this one.
January 23, 2022
one of the best books i’ve ever read! beautifully done writing and amazing characters
October 19, 2022
This book gets the award for WT actual F is going on. Who is this book for? For people who are behind on their Goodreads challenge and need a soft under hand pitch to knock out of the park. seriously, this can be read in under a day if you woke up early and decided to eat mushrooms for breakfast.
Mazzy Goodwin wakes up in a crater with a pair of wings on page one, then proceeds to float through the plot like a log down a river on the way to the Sawmill, the End. All kidding aside, this is definitely worth a read. Even though I would have given it 3 stars if not for the ending. It takes you so far into Crazy Town that you bridge the gap of insanity to The land of brilliance.
This is an easy read as well as a good read. That's probably this books saving grace. I feel that the way the book is structured, it wouldn't work as well if it couldn't be consumed in one sitting. Heathcock's prose is easily digested, you may find that you've been at it for an hour, yet 60 pages melted away. That's not to say that his writing isn't complex, the beginning and end is filled with wonderful metaphor and colourful descriptive language. In one of My favorite paragraphs, he described Mazzy's thoughts as Scorpions slapped together in a tub, alone and marching through a freezing desert.
I enjoyed all the biblical allegory sprinkled throughout. He constantly adds snippets of text that pay off down the line. You get as many questions eventually answered as frustratingly skipped. This reminds me of the Indie movies I used to rent from blockbuster that would unscrew your skull, smack you in the brain pan and make you think about it long after.
Minor to Major Spoilers: I feel they are needed to explain the 3 Star rating until the end. Mazzy is a Soldier, I feel that as soon she got her wings, she just floated through the plot as it happened to her and she never really used that skill set. Every Antagonist she met along the way was secretly a protagonist. Somebody has to be the villain along the way. I will say, that when he dose show up eventually, the villain speech he gives explained a lot of doubts and questions about how the Novae Terrae were able to pull stuff off. And then that Ending!! .... Makes me question everything I read and left me dazed, like being hit with shock treatment in a mental ward. It was awesome. I want to reread it again to see exactly where it went of the rails. I almost think it was a social commentary on the Bible. About the dual nature of taking the text seriously vs Metaphorically and how many meanings can be derived from the text. There is a lot to mentally unpack.
Mazzy Goodwin wakes up in a crater with a pair of wings on page one, then proceeds to float through the plot like a log down a river on the way to the Sawmill, the End. All kidding aside, this is definitely worth a read. Even though I would have given it 3 stars if not for the ending. It takes you so far into Crazy Town that you bridge the gap of insanity to The land of brilliance.
This is an easy read as well as a good read. That's probably this books saving grace. I feel that the way the book is structured, it wouldn't work as well if it couldn't be consumed in one sitting. Heathcock's prose is easily digested, you may find that you've been at it for an hour, yet 60 pages melted away. That's not to say that his writing isn't complex, the beginning and end is filled with wonderful metaphor and colourful descriptive language. In one of My favorite paragraphs, he described Mazzy's thoughts as Scorpions slapped together in a tub, alone and marching through a freezing desert.
I enjoyed all the biblical allegory sprinkled throughout. He constantly adds snippets of text that pay off down the line. You get as many questions eventually answered as frustratingly skipped. This reminds me of the Indie movies I used to rent from blockbuster that would unscrew your skull, smack you in the brain pan and make you think about it long after.
Minor to Major Spoilers: I feel they are needed to explain the 3 Star rating until the end. Mazzy is a Soldier, I feel that as soon she got her wings, she just floated through the plot as it happened to her and she never really used that skill set. Every Antagonist she met along the way was secretly a protagonist. Somebody has to be the villain along the way. I will say, that when he dose show up eventually, the villain speech he gives explained a lot of doubts and questions about how the Novae Terrae were able to pull stuff off. And then that Ending!! .... Makes me question everything I read and left me dazed, like being hit with shock treatment in a mental ward. It was awesome. I want to reread it again to see exactly where it went of the rails. I almost think it was a social commentary on the Bible. About the dual nature of taking the text seriously vs Metaphorically and how many meanings can be derived from the text. There is a lot to mentally unpack.
August 15, 2022
Thanks to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for the advanced reader copy.
This week’s headline? “Wings on a woman does not make her a bird.”
Why this book? That cover though. And cults.
Which book format? ARC
Primary reading environment? In a state of delirium on the train.
Any preconceived notions? I’ll probably like it.
Identify most with? Mazzy? Maybe? I’m finding it difficult to connect with characters lately. (I don’t think it’s the author’s fault. I’m just very analytical and overthink this question. 😂)
Three little words? “cold indifferent stars”
Goes well with? Breakfast food, fresh produce
Recommend this to? People who live for hypothetical worlds.
Other cultural accompaniments: https://ourworldindata.org/environmen...
Grade: 4/5
I leave you with this: “Grief was a demon of possession. When people talked of time healing wounds, they only meant that overtime you become accustomed to that demon inside you, and what at first felt like an invasive presence, alien and nefarious, slowly became integrated into your being, the imp of sorrow crouched within you for the remainder of your days.”
📚📚📚
In a post-apocalyptic future where a cult has taken over Los Angeles, Mazzy Goodwin is looking for her younger sister, Ava Lynn. One day she wakes up in a bomb crater with a pair of wings, not knowing how they got there. She then becomes this figurehead for a revolution.
Beyond the main storyline, 40 is here to ask the big questions about religion and politics amongst ones of self-reflection. The writing is raw and honest, visceral even. I wasn’t expecting to like this as much as I did due to it starting off somewhat disjointed but on further reflection it made sense with Mazzy’s journey to find her sister.
40 is available now.
tw: violence
This week’s headline? “Wings on a woman does not make her a bird.”
Why this book? That cover though. And cults.
Which book format? ARC
Primary reading environment? In a state of delirium on the train.
Any preconceived notions? I’ll probably like it.
Identify most with? Mazzy? Maybe? I’m finding it difficult to connect with characters lately. (I don’t think it’s the author’s fault. I’m just very analytical and overthink this question. 😂)
Three little words? “cold indifferent stars”
Goes well with? Breakfast food, fresh produce
Recommend this to? People who live for hypothetical worlds.
Other cultural accompaniments: https://ourworldindata.org/environmen...
Grade: 4/5
I leave you with this: “Grief was a demon of possession. When people talked of time healing wounds, they only meant that overtime you become accustomed to that demon inside you, and what at first felt like an invasive presence, alien and nefarious, slowly became integrated into your being, the imp of sorrow crouched within you for the remainder of your days.”
📚📚📚
In a post-apocalyptic future where a cult has taken over Los Angeles, Mazzy Goodwin is looking for her younger sister, Ava Lynn. One day she wakes up in a bomb crater with a pair of wings, not knowing how they got there. She then becomes this figurehead for a revolution.
Beyond the main storyline, 40 is here to ask the big questions about religion and politics amongst ones of self-reflection. The writing is raw and honest, visceral even. I wasn’t expecting to like this as much as I did due to it starting off somewhat disjointed but on further reflection it made sense with Mazzy’s journey to find her sister.
40 is available now.
tw: violence
September 24, 2022
I started this 2 days ago and it is slow going, even with a day off work and rain.
It’s a post-apocalyptic tale of a young soldier whose world has been taken over by a pseudo religious group that seeks to control food production and distribution in a time of rising seas and climate chaos. Totally my thing, yeah!!
Mazzy wakes from an explosion with wings sprouting from her back. Real wings! Functional flying wings! Wowza! This could be so cool.
So far, at page 65, it’s A LOT of religious talk. Angels, miracles, roving preachers. I’m going to push through to 100, but I’m just not sure there’s anything here for me.
So, p 200, and I have unanswered questions. Why are they called the 40? What’s their philosophy? What’s their objective, other than to control people? If everyone’s so poor, with food production and manufacturing disrupted, where do ALL the gold and white clothes come from? How is everything clean? Such lack of world building, no purpose to this story but bullying.
Read one review that accused Heathcock of just lifting the plot of Mockingjay and it is now impossible not to see that.
Finishing it because I’m out and about and don’t have another book.
It’s a post-apocalyptic tale of a young soldier whose world has been taken over by a pseudo religious group that seeks to control food production and distribution in a time of rising seas and climate chaos. Totally my thing, yeah!!
Mazzy wakes from an explosion with wings sprouting from her back. Real wings! Functional flying wings! Wowza! This could be so cool.
So far, at page 65, it’s A LOT of religious talk. Angels, miracles, roving preachers. I’m going to push through to 100, but I’m just not sure there’s anything here for me.
So, p 200, and I have unanswered questions. Why are they called the 40? What’s their philosophy? What’s their objective, other than to control people? If everyone’s so poor, with food production and manufacturing disrupted, where do ALL the gold and white clothes come from? How is everything clean? Such lack of world building, no purpose to this story but bullying.
Read one review that accused Heathcock of just lifting the plot of Mockingjay and it is now impossible not to see that.
Finishing it because I’m out and about and don’t have another book.
March 4, 2022
Are you hungry? Are you warm? Do you know that I love you?
This really exceeded my expectations. A political dystopian tale that is frighteningly believable, with a compelling and nuanced protagonist. The whole time reading this, it felt like a story I already knew in my heart, and I often thought to myself, “this is a story I would write, if I could.”
It was great. I have no complaints or criticisms. I wouldn’t want anything changed. A wonderful little gift of literature.
*thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the ARC!*
This really exceeded my expectations. A political dystopian tale that is frighteningly believable, with a compelling and nuanced protagonist. The whole time reading this, it felt like a story I already knew in my heart, and I often thought to myself, “this is a story I would write, if I could.”
It was great. I have no complaints or criticisms. I wouldn’t want anything changed. A wonderful little gift of literature.
*thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the ARC!*
August 21, 2022
This is a beautifully written novel. The prose was almost poetic at times. It effectively poses several philosophical questions in a relatively short novel but I also felt a deep emotional connection to the story itself and the main character. What struck me most was the power of love and the lengths we will go to or what we sacrifice for it. There were so many passages I found myself rereading or highlighting. I feel like this is the kind of story you could reread and continue to find new things to think about.
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November 2, 2025Very mockingjay adjacent except the MC doesn’t really do anything? Stuff just happens but it feels like the plot would’ve carried on with or without her. The cult group also didn’t have a clear enough manifesto to be believable. They mention that the cult has spread to other countries, but it’s clearly based on American evangelism/13 colonies imagery, so why would other countries buy into it?
June 14, 2024
A dark and evocative cli-fi/sci-fi tale of near future America that felt like it had a little bit of The Stand sprinkled in from time to time. I'm not certain that I fully understood the messages in the final chapters of the book, but it was a page-turner much of the way through.
July 25, 2022
review to come!
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