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Light Over Liskeard
Sometimes we must look to the past to survive the future. An entertaining novel about what really matters in life from the bestselling author of Captain Corelli's MandolinQ wants a simpler and safer life. His work as a quantum cryptographer for the government has led him to believe a crisis is imminent for civilisation and he's looking for somewhere to ride out what's ahead. He buys a ruined farmhouse in Cornwall and begins to build his own self-sufficient haven. Over the course of this quest he meets the eccentric characters who already live on the moors nearby - including the park ranger in charge of the reintroduced lynxes and aurochs that roam the area; a holy man waiting for the second coming on top of a nearby hill; an Arthurian knight on horseback and the amorous ghost of an Edwardian woman who haunts the farmhouse. As life in the cities gets more complicated, and our systems of electronic control begin to fall apart, Q flourishes in the wild Cornish countryside. His new way of life brings him back in tune with his teenage children, his ex-wife, and his own sense of who he is. He also grows close to Eva, energetic and enchanting, who is committed to her own quest for love and meaning. In this entertaining and heart-warming novel Louis de Bernières pokes fun at modern mores, and makes us reconsider what is really precious in our short and precarious lives.
281 pages, Paperback
First published October 12, 2023
215 people are currently reading
1005 people want to read
About the author
Louis de Bernières
61 books2,158 followersLouis de Bernières is an English novelist. He is known for his 1994 historical war novel Captain Corelli's Mandolin. In 1993 de Bernières was selected as one of the "20 Best of Young British Novelists", part of a promotion in Granta magazine. Captain Corelli's Mandolin was published in the following year, winning the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best Book. It was also shortlisted for the 1994 Sunday Express Book of the Year. It has been translated into over 11 languages and is an international best-seller.
On 16 July 2008, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in the Arts by the De Montfort University in Leicester, which he had attended when it was Leicester Polytechnic.
Politically, he identifies himself as Eurosceptic and has voiced his support for the United Kingdom's exit from the European Union.
On 16 July 2008, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in the Arts by the De Montfort University in Leicester, which he had attended when it was Leicester Polytechnic.
Politically, he identifies himself as Eurosceptic and has voiced his support for the United Kingdom's exit from the European Union.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 194 reviews
January 13, 2024
DNF - I made it halfway but I can't face finishing it. This is a bit spoilery.
I have really enjoyed books which look into a dystopian future where human civilisation has been altered or is at risk from technology. I have also enjoyed books which take a humorous/cynical view of the current human condition. This book is neither thought-provoking, nor funny.
The world building parts read like an unimaginative right-leaning opinion piece. It feels like a very dated way of envisioning 'the future'. (e.g. The children! Always on social media! and using VR! A very boring chapter in which people need to order food at a restaurant via their 'devices' and it doesn't work. Robots doing menial household tasks).
The main character is meant to be a mathematical genius - apparently in this new future, those at the forefront of cybersecurity will be there because they are...good at doing sums in their heads? He is one of few people who is not blind to the many ways in which the end of civilisation may come about. He tries to warn people (the stupid prime minister, his vacant wife, his unbearable children) but he is stuck needing to move to the countryside and learn survival skills himself to make sure he and his family can make it through. One scene describes him driving around, having turned the autopilot in his car off, as an act of rebellion and independence. A true hero.
There are some other nods to tabloid staples - several mentions of 'eco-fascists', and a number of transphobic/gender binary tropes (He was raised by the wisdom of the time which dictated that a child needed a mother, a father, and a non-binary parental figure. So his nanny-bot was a mother on one day, telling him to be careful, a father on another day, telling him to go and take risks, and non-binary the day after, where it was too confused to tell him anything at all. There is also a mention of people choosing to identify as animals and getting surgery on the NHS to modify themselves.)
He's fallen out of love with his wife, but luckily she doesn't mind, and still thinks he's very very clever. He still likes her because of her wanting to 'bother with having REAL children and a REAL dog', and her other personality traits of enjoying the 'banter' of an office as opposed to working from home, and talking passionately about how much she likes commuting.
In his new country home, he is surrounded by eccentric older men, but luckily also some (much younger) women, who find him inexplicably attractive. This includes a sexy 19th century ghost, and the daughter of his friend, Eva. Eva likes fell running, and when he tells her he looks forward everyday to seeing her run past, and that he feels joy 'like that of seeing a wild animal', she actually tears up in happiness at his creepy behaviour. Despite being described as half his age, she is open about finding him handsome, forces him to let her cut his hair (and nose hair, and ear hair eugh). She manages to press her breasts up against him during this haircut, and enjoys doing laundry rather than letting a houseboat do it 'because dad says if we don't have things to do we'll get discontented and need to take mindmenders'. Thank god for the mental health wonder that is doing the laundry.
I was planning to finish it but after a few chapters where the main character describes Eva's "immaculate young body" and another old man watches her running and thinks about her "unblemished body", I decided I was done. Unless in the second half of the book, the vague apocalyptic event which is warned about happens, and kills all the characters, I am not interested in reading it. From reading other reviews this is not the case.
I don't know how a book managed to feel so Brexity despite not mentioning Europe, but it did.
I have really enjoyed books which look into a dystopian future where human civilisation has been altered or is at risk from technology. I have also enjoyed books which take a humorous/cynical view of the current human condition. This book is neither thought-provoking, nor funny.
The world building parts read like an unimaginative right-leaning opinion piece. It feels like a very dated way of envisioning 'the future'. (e.g. The children! Always on social media! and using VR! A very boring chapter in which people need to order food at a restaurant via their 'devices' and it doesn't work. Robots doing menial household tasks).
The main character is meant to be a mathematical genius - apparently in this new future, those at the forefront of cybersecurity will be there because they are...good at doing sums in their heads? He is one of few people who is not blind to the many ways in which the end of civilisation may come about. He tries to warn people (the stupid prime minister, his vacant wife, his unbearable children) but he is stuck needing to move to the countryside and learn survival skills himself to make sure he and his family can make it through. One scene describes him driving around, having turned the autopilot in his car off, as an act of rebellion and independence. A true hero.
There are some other nods to tabloid staples - several mentions of 'eco-fascists', and a number of transphobic/gender binary tropes (He was raised by the wisdom of the time which dictated that a child needed a mother, a father, and a non-binary parental figure. So his nanny-bot was a mother on one day, telling him to be careful, a father on another day, telling him to go and take risks, and non-binary the day after, where it was too confused to tell him anything at all. There is also a mention of people choosing to identify as animals and getting surgery on the NHS to modify themselves.)
He's fallen out of love with his wife, but luckily she doesn't mind, and still thinks he's very very clever. He still likes her because of her wanting to 'bother with having REAL children and a REAL dog', and her other personality traits of enjoying the 'banter' of an office as opposed to working from home, and talking passionately about how much she likes commuting.
In his new country home, he is surrounded by eccentric older men, but luckily also some (much younger) women, who find him inexplicably attractive. This includes a sexy 19th century ghost, and the daughter of his friend, Eva. Eva likes fell running, and when he tells her he looks forward everyday to seeing her run past, and that he feels joy 'like that of seeing a wild animal', she actually tears up in happiness at his creepy behaviour. Despite being described as half his age, she is open about finding him handsome, forces him to let her cut his hair (and nose hair, and ear hair eugh). She manages to press her breasts up against him during this haircut, and enjoys doing laundry rather than letting a houseboat do it 'because dad says if we don't have things to do we'll get discontented and need to take mindmenders'. Thank god for the mental health wonder that is doing the laundry.
I was planning to finish it but after a few chapters where the main character describes Eva's "immaculate young body" and another old man watches her running and thinks about her "unblemished body", I decided I was done. Unless in the second half of the book, the vague apocalyptic event which is warned about happens, and kills all the characters, I am not interested in reading it. From reading other reviews this is not the case.
I don't know how a book managed to feel so Brexity despite not mentioning Europe, but it did.
November 7, 2023
At first this seemed vaguely interesting. A near future where humans have been made redundant. Then, a bit silly. Then, ridiculous. Then, just nasty misanthropy as various unlikeable characters prepare for the end times. The secret, it seems, is guns and lots of ammunition.
City men with their soft bellies become real men again as they build their survival skills, taking on young lovers who have a penchant for giving them haircuts and makeovers in the process. Apparently, 'Inside every boy there's a warrior and a hunter'. Just with a neat short back and sides.
'I've got no great love for the human race. Most people are useless and pointless', proclaims the central protagonist, towards the end. It's hard to argue with that, if these characters are any indication of what the human race looks like when all the screens go blank.
City men with their soft bellies become real men again as they build their survival skills, taking on young lovers who have a penchant for giving them haircuts and makeovers in the process. Apparently, 'Inside every boy there's a warrior and a hunter'. Just with a neat short back and sides.
'I've got no great love for the human race. Most people are useless and pointless', proclaims the central protagonist, towards the end. It's hard to argue with that, if these characters are any indication of what the human race looks like when all the screens go blank.
October 31, 2024
I cast a vote of confidence by buying this book blindly, without reading the annotation, and boy was I punished for that. I used to love everything LdB would write, and I hated everything about this book. Such a disappointment.
January 7, 2024
Whilst the novel did a good job of questioning how people derive purpose in their lives and the shortfalls of a world so dependent on devices and data, I often found myself questioning how an established writer could so often miss the mark on writing female characters.
Despite the bleak impending doom of mankind throughout the novel, the tone remained funny and quirky, making it an easy read. However I often found myself rolling my eyes at descriptions surrounding the women, often sexualised and engaging in relationships that seemed to feed into the author’s desire to be with younger women. Whilst Eva and Q’s relationship was hard enough to stomach, it was Fergus’ relationship with a minor, with the blessing of multiple adults, that really served no purpose other than perhaps validating Q’s love affair.
This was paired with a dominant theme that ‘real’ men are only those that perform hard labour and can provide for those around them. Not to mention some questionable digs at gender identity and non-heteronormative relationships later in the novel. The final few pages further normalised contraceptive deception (Eva lying to Q about using protection) boiling this down to the feminine ‘urge’ to have children. Unsure what this added to the novel other than confirmation how utterly warped each character’s perception on healthy relationships is. This novel has a very interesting concept that would have been great to explore without the insertion of a middle-aged male desire to shoot guns and sleep with much younger (and ghost) women.
Despite the bleak impending doom of mankind throughout the novel, the tone remained funny and quirky, making it an easy read. However I often found myself rolling my eyes at descriptions surrounding the women, often sexualised and engaging in relationships that seemed to feed into the author’s desire to be with younger women. Whilst Eva and Q’s relationship was hard enough to stomach, it was Fergus’ relationship with a minor, with the blessing of multiple adults, that really served no purpose other than perhaps validating Q’s love affair.
This was paired with a dominant theme that ‘real’ men are only those that perform hard labour and can provide for those around them. Not to mention some questionable digs at gender identity and non-heteronormative relationships later in the novel. The final few pages further normalised contraceptive deception (Eva lying to Q about using protection) boiling this down to the feminine ‘urge’ to have children. Unsure what this added to the novel other than confirmation how utterly warped each character’s perception on healthy relationships is. This novel has a very interesting concept that would have been great to explore without the insertion of a middle-aged male desire to shoot guns and sleep with much younger (and ghost) women.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 3, 2024
interesting but this could have been so much more tbh. some bits were kind of atrocious
October 12, 2023
In the very near future, society is becoming even more strange, with electronic devices taking over and people become more...weird. So it's easy to see how someone may want to get away from it all, this odd electronic rat race where people dress as characters from the past as well as animals, believing that they are as they dress. It's all too confusing.
As I read the first chapter, I wondered what I had opted into. This strange world wasn't for me. But I read on and as I did I realised that this tale wasn't so far removed from my own, especially when the main character decided to buy a delipidated farmhouse in Bodmin Moor in Cornwall. He wants to get away from the AI that does all the physical tasks, such as housework, mowing the lawn, repairing the roof, waiting on tables and so on, that leave all the humans with huge bottoms because they sit down all day. There's a familiar ring to that.
One of the reasons he wants to get away from it all is that he believes that the world is ending. Here, philosophy mixes with farce. He acquires about half a dozen freezers to store food without considering the longevity of frozen food and the supply of electricity. He meets up with people who are religious and non-religious, folk who play at going back to nature without realising that there is no balance of nature to believe in, despite previously extinct animals being reintroduced, such as bears, bison and lynx. Everything is a little off kilter, but I wonder if this is what it will be like when the world ends.
The story is well written and told from two perspectives with a mix of first and third person narration. It considers existence, whether people and animals (with regard to extinction) continue to exist even after death in various forms. But mostly it is about reality versus fantasy and what is important in life.
Satirical, rambling, absurd but always entertaining, a book that really gives you something to think about
As I read the first chapter, I wondered what I had opted into. This strange world wasn't for me. But I read on and as I did I realised that this tale wasn't so far removed from my own, especially when the main character decided to buy a delipidated farmhouse in Bodmin Moor in Cornwall. He wants to get away from the AI that does all the physical tasks, such as housework, mowing the lawn, repairing the roof, waiting on tables and so on, that leave all the humans with huge bottoms because they sit down all day. There's a familiar ring to that.
One of the reasons he wants to get away from it all is that he believes that the world is ending. Here, philosophy mixes with farce. He acquires about half a dozen freezers to store food without considering the longevity of frozen food and the supply of electricity. He meets up with people who are religious and non-religious, folk who play at going back to nature without realising that there is no balance of nature to believe in, despite previously extinct animals being reintroduced, such as bears, bison and lynx. Everything is a little off kilter, but I wonder if this is what it will be like when the world ends.
The story is well written and told from two perspectives with a mix of first and third person narration. It considers existence, whether people and animals (with regard to extinction) continue to exist even after death in various forms. But mostly it is about reality versus fantasy and what is important in life.
Satirical, rambling, absurd but always entertaining, a book that really gives you something to think about
November 10, 2023
“What if being awake is really a dream, and dreaming is just a dream inside another dream?”
I absolutely adore Louis de Bernieres’ brilliant writing so I was primed to love, “Light Over Liskeard”, and I did! It’s a delight!
Set in the future (or in a dream inside a dream?) it tells the story of Q, a quantum cryptographer, who lives in a world where humans no longer have to do any work, robots do all that, and everyone gets a basic income from the government. The population is shrinking because children are too much trouble, so humans have nothing to do but pursue pleasure, which they do with electronics, Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality, and fantasy worlds and games. Literally everything about this society relies on the electronic grid.
It may seem like a Utopia, but it’s actually a Dystopia! De Bernieres’ descriptions of people glued to their screens, having sex with robots, dressing up as Gladiators, perfectly render this crazy world.
Q knows that the grid will eventually fail and that civilization will come crashing down and savagery will ensue. He knows that humans have forgotten how to do anything useful or necessary to stay alive. He purchases a farm so that he and his family will be able to survive when (not if) the Apocalypse comes.
Sounds pretty dark but it’s NOT! It’s wonderfully fun! We meet all sorts of fun and quirky characters, and there are even a few romances!
Only de Bernieres’ signature “Brit Wit”, which never fails to charm and entertain, can make a story about the End Times so thoroughly entertaining.
(And for fellow fans of de Bernieres’ Daniel Pitt Trilogy, one of the main characters is a descendant of our favorite Flying Ace, Daniel Pitt!)
I absolutely adore Louis de Bernieres’ brilliant writing so I was primed to love, “Light Over Liskeard”, and I did! It’s a delight!
Set in the future (or in a dream inside a dream?) it tells the story of Q, a quantum cryptographer, who lives in a world where humans no longer have to do any work, robots do all that, and everyone gets a basic income from the government. The population is shrinking because children are too much trouble, so humans have nothing to do but pursue pleasure, which they do with electronics, Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality, and fantasy worlds and games. Literally everything about this society relies on the electronic grid.
It may seem like a Utopia, but it’s actually a Dystopia! De Bernieres’ descriptions of people glued to their screens, having sex with robots, dressing up as Gladiators, perfectly render this crazy world.
Q knows that the grid will eventually fail and that civilization will come crashing down and savagery will ensue. He knows that humans have forgotten how to do anything useful or necessary to stay alive. He purchases a farm so that he and his family will be able to survive when (not if) the Apocalypse comes.
Sounds pretty dark but it’s NOT! It’s wonderfully fun! We meet all sorts of fun and quirky characters, and there are even a few romances!
Only de Bernieres’ signature “Brit Wit”, which never fails to charm and entertain, can make a story about the End Times so thoroughly entertaining.
(And for fellow fans of de Bernieres’ Daniel Pitt Trilogy, one of the main characters is a descendant of our favorite Flying Ace, Daniel Pitt!)
July 22, 2023
This was a very strange book indeed. It seems to take elements from several of de Bernieres early novels and weaves them into the landscape of Devon and Cornwall, where he sets a novel that looks at the end times from the point of view mostly of a man who is a genius at quantum mechanics. Q or Artie as he later becomes, lives in London, working for the government as he attempts to fend off cyber attacks on the electronic systems that now monopolise the lives of humans. People are so bored they spend their days dressed as characters from history and employing bots as stand ins for real human contact. Artie escapes to Devon where he befriends a park ranger and his daughter and goes about an elaborate doomsday prep that takes the rest of the book and introduces many characters along the way. From mystics waiting for the rapture to crusty anti government anarchists to ghosts and tame lynxes, there is a lot here. In fact, too much I think. I really enjoyed parts of the book but other parts seemed so daft they were distracting. Also, some of the gender and sex based material seemed a little tasteless and at times much along the lines of the 'Ooh, I identify as a pot plant' brigade and I found myself getting a bit wearied. This reminded me of the initial Latin American trilogy, indeed it steals chunks from it, but here the idea is stretched to a ridiculous degree and shoehorned into something else. I felt like it couldn't make its mind up.
July 16, 2024
I felt this book didn’t really flow well and the inevitable ending was a bit weakly done. It was also odd and weird in places. It was recommended to me by a friend but I’m not sure if I would recommend it.
January 15, 2024
A sort of soulful fantasy sci-fi novel about the end of the world as we know it and getting back to nature, with a tocuh of the supernatural which is reminiscent of the South American novels that introduced me to Mr. de Bernieres. It was a pleasant and heartfelt read.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 23, 2024
Not sure what to make of this book. It’s probably likened to an episode of Black Mirror.
The book takes a poke at today’s living and reliance of electronic devices, which is funny. And makes you realise most of it is true. People buying robots as friends, and staring into ‘devices’ as part of everyday life. Does make you think.
There are also appearances of ghosts and wild animals running around in a destroying world.
The main character Q moves out to Cornwall and goes back to basics, as he works as a quantum cryptography and knows the world as we know it is coming to an end.
There is of course the everyday life situations: marriage break up; raising teenage children; new life; new love; new friends; strange neighbours. This was entertaining. I didn’t really know where the book was going, but there are interesting points for thought.
The book takes a poke at today’s living and reliance of electronic devices, which is funny. And makes you realise most of it is true. People buying robots as friends, and staring into ‘devices’ as part of everyday life. Does make you think.
There are also appearances of ghosts and wild animals running around in a destroying world.
The main character Q moves out to Cornwall and goes back to basics, as he works as a quantum cryptography and knows the world as we know it is coming to an end.
There is of course the everyday life situations: marriage break up; raising teenage children; new life; new love; new friends; strange neighbours. This was entertaining. I didn’t really know where the book was going, but there are interesting points for thought.
June 1, 2025
I really enjoyed the dystopian vibe alongside the setting in Cornwall. The dystopian elements with the over reliance on tech and software was very believable and I could imagine this happening in the future. The imagery was good and I felt like I was there a lot of the time. I liked the transition of a man whose life is reliant on technology return to traditional skills like building and hunting. It is good to reflect on the consequences of the overreliance on tech in the future and its potential to make humans obsolete.
However, I do agree with other reviews that the writing of the women was questionable - I find it hard to believe that a main character with few notable desirable characteristics would have a relationship with a much younger albeit over-glamourised woman, even in an end of the world scenario. It’s not like he was funny or had an exquisite personality. I initially thought that Q and Eva would have more of a father-daughter relationship and there were some references to this so when this changed it was quite off putting. Some parts really did feel like a middle aged man’s fantasy which is understandable but also left a bitter taste as a woman in her 20s.
I found both Q and Theo to be unrealistic fathers as I can’t conceive of a loving and responsible father encouraging older (Q/Artie) and prospect-less (Fergus) men to be involved with their daughters. Even in an end-of-the-world scenario. So I lost a bit of respect for them and I do find it hard to root for characters I don’t respect. Maybe I am overly critical regarding this. I would have preferred if the characters (particularly the female ones) had more dimension and were less ogled at in their descriptions.
However, I do agree with other reviews that the writing of the women was questionable - I find it hard to believe that a main character with few notable desirable characteristics would have a relationship with a much younger albeit over-glamourised woman, even in an end of the world scenario. It’s not like he was funny or had an exquisite personality. I initially thought that Q and Eva would have more of a father-daughter relationship and there were some references to this so when this changed it was quite off putting. Some parts really did feel like a middle aged man’s fantasy which is understandable but also left a bitter taste as a woman in her 20s.
I found both Q and Theo to be unrealistic fathers as I can’t conceive of a loving and responsible father encouraging older (Q/Artie) and prospect-less (Fergus) men to be involved with their daughters. Even in an end-of-the-world scenario. So I lost a bit of respect for them and I do find it hard to root for characters I don’t respect. Maybe I am overly critical regarding this. I would have preferred if the characters (particularly the female ones) had more dimension and were less ogled at in their descriptions.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 1, 2024
After reading about a quarter of this book I decided that I could not enjoy it. I was just too irritated by the pseudoscience. It appears that LdB has come across a few facts about cryptography and quantum computing, misunderstood them, and built a story around the result. Some particular points follow, for anyone sufficiently interested:
January 3, 2025
This is a prime example of a novel just living in the moment and being nothing other than unapologetically whatever it wants to be. This was a strange little tale, very character led, with some amazing, quirky, intriguing players that came to life off the pages and made this story so interesting. Coupled with a moral message about the ‘evils’ of technology and a modern world it explores the importance of sometimes going back to our roots, to our land, face to face with people and truly discovering who you are!
December 9, 2024
I quite enjoyed this futuristic tale of societal collapse. The lead character is a super geek, doing the survivalist thing on Bodmin moor, alongside a collection of weirdos, and a ghost. It is really a collection of disaster tropes, with assorted philosophical musings on the meaning of life, the morality of hunting, etc., and serves as a satirical take on modern life and dependency on devices, projected into the near future. Theo, the Latino park ranger, doesn’t really sound very Latin, despite a spattering of Spanish . Fergie, the Scottish traveller, is also rather inconsistent, hating mess but being one himself. The ghost element is nicely written but sits rather uncomfortably with the rest of the story. I didn’t really believe in the women, but perhaps that misses what it is about.
The very short chapters carry you along with their digs at dependency, and there is the odd memorable quote e.g. “ There’s no algorithm that would decipher a woman”. The basic plot is very similar to “And don’t forget the whale”, but with an ambiguous ending. I think I preferred that .
My wife’s choice, a light read for our book group in a windy autumn giving plenty of demonstrations of systemic failure.
The very short chapters carry you along with their digs at dependency, and there is the odd memorable quote e.g. “ There’s no algorithm that would decipher a woman”. The basic plot is very similar to “And don’t forget the whale”, but with an ambiguous ending. I think I preferred that .
My wife’s choice, a light read for our book group in a windy autumn giving plenty of demonstrations of systemic failure.
August 24, 2024
Light Over Liskeard is set in the future, in a world where humans have made themselves redundant. Q or Artie is one of the few who still have a job. A brilliant quantum cryptographer, his expertise has allowed him to amass a fortune, but it has also given him a horrifying insight into the probability of societal collapse. In order to prepare for the inevitable demise of civilisation, he buys a dilapidated farmhouse on Bodmin Moor. With the help of his enigmatic neighbour Theo he restores the buildings and becomes a prepper, turning into a better version of himself in the process.
It's an entertaining read, although you do have to suspend disbelief somewhat. Inexplicably Eva, Theo's twenty-something daughter finds forty-two year old Artie irresistible, as does the farmhouse's resident ghost. The imaginary future doesn't entirely make sense either - why on earth does everyone dress as historical characters? But the rewilded moorland setting is brilliantly evoked as are Artie's survivalist preparations, and there are some farcical scenes involving sexbots. All in all it's an enjoyable, if occasionally daft, story about a man reconnecting with himself, his environment and his family.
It's an entertaining read, although you do have to suspend disbelief somewhat. Inexplicably Eva, Theo's twenty-something daughter finds forty-two year old Artie irresistible, as does the farmhouse's resident ghost. The imaginary future doesn't entirely make sense either - why on earth does everyone dress as historical characters? But the rewilded moorland setting is brilliantly evoked as are Artie's survivalist preparations, and there are some farcical scenes involving sexbots. All in all it's an enjoyable, if occasionally daft, story about a man reconnecting with himself, his environment and his family.
December 16, 2025
Competently written in the sense it is readable.
There are genre elements of magical realism, near future dystopia/warning from the future and romance. I reckon that's fine. Novels don't have to be easily pigeonholed.
I have two problems with the novel. it seems sort of surfacy for want of a better made up word. And while obsessing about a society obsessed with screens and fake friends, pets and lovers it does not mention AI.
Bernières main character is the high powered code writer that gets the UK and large companies out of malware blackmail attacks and sheer malicious techno- vandalism. He works on a system so complex that barely anyone knows how it works. The apocalypse will be brought about by a bad actor rather than the inherent dangers of AI.
For a book that was only written 2 or 3 years ago it seems curiously out of date.
There are genre elements of magical realism, near future dystopia/warning from the future and romance. I reckon that's fine. Novels don't have to be easily pigeonholed.
I have two problems with the novel. it seems sort of surfacy for want of a better made up word. And while obsessing about a society obsessed with screens and fake friends, pets and lovers it does not mention AI.
Bernières main character is the high powered code writer that gets the UK and large companies out of malware blackmail attacks and sheer malicious techno- vandalism. He works on a system so complex that barely anyone knows how it works. The apocalypse will be brought about by a bad actor rather than the inherent dangers of AI.
For a book that was only written 2 or 3 years ago it seems curiously out of date.
January 25, 2025
The premise of the book felt quite nice enough but it wasn’t a new idea at all. Set in the Cornish area of Liskaerd we follow a clever man as he prepares for the inevitable collapse of the digital world leading to living off grid. He tries convincing everyone he loves but just sets about getting set up in a country life in preparation.
The positives are the characters - you can’t help but like them, they are interesting from wide areas of life.
Also the setting is wonderful, the description of the Moors and the wild land is great.
The negatives - what happens to the plot. It feels fairly on track to the half way mark but then it just walks off all over the place with wandering plot threads that ultimately don’t seem to end up going anywhere. Also the ending was weak.
The positives are the characters - you can’t help but like them, they are interesting from wide areas of life.
Also the setting is wonderful, the description of the Moors and the wild land is great.
The negatives - what happens to the plot. It feels fairly on track to the half way mark but then it just walks off all over the place with wandering plot threads that ultimately don’t seem to end up going anywhere. Also the ending was weak.
October 28, 2024
Gripping futuristic story of the world on the brink of an impending apocalypse. The main protagonist tries to prepare for this by embracing a simpler life whilst also assisting the government in warding off cyber attacks. In the midst of doing this he falls in love and learns to cope in this new world without technology or modern conveniences. I struggle with books which have no definitive ending and whilst the story is believable I am left with more questions than answers.
July 2, 2024
Certainly didn't live up to the blurb. Just inconsequential!
September 17, 2024
A slow start, quirky and quite brilliant. Visually evocative and clearly from an imaginative mind.
December 17, 2024
Unsure of how I feel about this. I think it’s probably a more accurate description of our futures than we would like to imagine? Didn’t love it, didn’t hate it. Good writing.
August 12, 2025
A strange, dystopian yet breezy read...
November 21, 2025
Bizarre, but deffo stayed in my mind in between reading
December 13, 2023
I wanted to like this book more because of how much I liked the cover, and the way the author’s name looked and sounded. What is with these British born male authors with French names? Louis de Bernières, Alain de Botton, John Le Carré…(and incidentally I just found out I read this book exactly three years after Le Carré’s death…)
September 9, 2025
Overall, I enjoyed this book.
Definitely gave you things to think about but it was very disjointed.
The first half was good and then went off into WTF am I reading territory and then into little stories in chapters that didn't flow...
Not sure if I'd recommend it to anyone though.
Definitely gave you things to think about but it was very disjointed.
The first half was good and then went off into WTF am I reading territory and then into little stories in chapters that didn't flow...
Not sure if I'd recommend it to anyone though.
January 25, 2024
3 stars! ⭐️🤖 This is a book I probably never would’ve picked up if it weren’t for a book club but wow! Very thought provoking and funny at times as it describes a dystopian future not far off of what could become! Although the age gap romances r crazy.
August 11, 2024
There was a lot to take in in this novel as it is set in a dystopian world where people totally rely on technology to live their lives. There are housebots, sexbots, driver free cars. No one seems to work.
The central character, Q, is a genius level quantum cryptographer who believes the world is going to fail soon. So he buys a remote farmhouse on Bodmin Moor and starts to set it up for survival.
There are various creatures roaming the moor, bears, wolves, lynxes and even aurochs. All part of a reintroduction process that seems out of hand.
The main characters are well written and engaging. I was soon involved in their lives. But there were some parts, sciency, mathematicy, that I skimmed as they were too much for my feeble brain.
Almost 5 star but it ended abruptly and with unanswered questions, for me at least. But worth reading.
I read a proof copy provided by NetGalley and the publishers.
The central character, Q, is a genius level quantum cryptographer who believes the world is going to fail soon. So he buys a remote farmhouse on Bodmin Moor and starts to set it up for survival.
There are various creatures roaming the moor, bears, wolves, lynxes and even aurochs. All part of a reintroduction process that seems out of hand.
The main characters are well written and engaging. I was soon involved in their lives. But there were some parts, sciency, mathematicy, that I skimmed as they were too much for my feeble brain.
Almost 5 star but it ended abruptly and with unanswered questions, for me at least. But worth reading.
I read a proof copy provided by NetGalley and the publishers.
September 28, 2023
To be honest when I chose to read Light Over Liskeard I did not read any of the blurb, choosing it just on the author.
I thought it sounded and looked like a second world war novel, hence my surprise when it turned out to be a futuristic, end of the world scenario! If I had know that I might not have chosen it, as there is so much nihilistic future gazing at the moment and I want comfort!
Having said that, the novel was very well realised and had some interesting things to say about doom preppers and that pervading nihilism: "This is just to remind you that even if you survive the end of civilisation, one day you’re still going to die. So live today and don’t be always getting ready for tomorrow."
It also echoes much of the green philosophy about how humans have adapted all around us but not adapted themselves, so when something catastrophic happens to what we have created, we will be unprepared to cope. "Creatures so maladapted that instead of living in the world as it was, they had to change the world to suit themselves"
I felt personally there was a bit of a misstep at times where de Bernieres was having a jibe at gender fluidity and LGBTQ issues - being spat at for being a heterosexual couple holding hands or stopping dating a tree because the woman was a lesbian and discovered it was a male tree.
The group of characters living together on Bodmin and finding a way to live back to basics with nature, preparing for a future catastrophe was the main story and this worked well.
My favourite quote is "If you are a great reader of books, you will have lived hundreds of lives before you die." Amen to that!
I thought it sounded and looked like a second world war novel, hence my surprise when it turned out to be a futuristic, end of the world scenario! If I had know that I might not have chosen it, as there is so much nihilistic future gazing at the moment and I want comfort!
Having said that, the novel was very well realised and had some interesting things to say about doom preppers and that pervading nihilism: "This is just to remind you that even if you survive the end of civilisation, one day you’re still going to die. So live today and don’t be always getting ready for tomorrow."
It also echoes much of the green philosophy about how humans have adapted all around us but not adapted themselves, so when something catastrophic happens to what we have created, we will be unprepared to cope. "Creatures so maladapted that instead of living in the world as it was, they had to change the world to suit themselves"
I felt personally there was a bit of a misstep at times where de Bernieres was having a jibe at gender fluidity and LGBTQ issues - being spat at for being a heterosexual couple holding hands or stopping dating a tree because the woman was a lesbian and discovered it was a male tree.
The group of characters living together on Bodmin and finding a way to live back to basics with nature, preparing for a future catastrophe was the main story and this worked well.
My favourite quote is "If you are a great reader of books, you will have lived hundreds of lives before you die." Amen to that!
January 27, 2024
I had so much hope in this book. I really enjoyed the first half and was excited to see how the story progressed… but basically the plot stopped half way through the book. The second half was almost just a running commentary on the characters every day lives once they had settled in Bodmin Moor, which is not a plot style I enjoy at all. It reminded me of when I read Beautiful World, Where Are You? - boring plot but mildly entertaining commentary on every day life. It was a weird mix of that style along with dystopian fiction (a genre I love!), which confused the hell out of me.
There were elements of the story that I felt were left intentionally mysterious and unexplained, for example the connection between Eva and Maidie - what the heck was all that about?! I don’t feel like that unexplained connection provided anything interesting to the plot, other than I was looking forward to understanding the connection later in the book, which clearly never happened.
While still an enjoyable read a nice easy to read writing style, this book is clearly not for me. I would like to have the basis of this book (digital end of the world etc) written in a different style by a different author as the base plot is very interesting!
There were elements of the story that I felt were left intentionally mysterious and unexplained, for example the connection between Eva and Maidie - what the heck was all that about?! I don’t feel like that unexplained connection provided anything interesting to the plot, other than I was looking forward to understanding the connection later in the book, which clearly never happened.
While still an enjoyable read a nice easy to read writing style, this book is clearly not for me. I would like to have the basis of this book (digital end of the world etc) written in a different style by a different author as the base plot is very interesting!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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