Palaces of the Crow

Ray Nayler is the author of the novels Where the Axe Is Buried and The Mountain in the Sea, which won the Locus Award for Best First Novel, and the novella The Tusks of Extinction, which won a Hugo Award. Born in Quebec and raised in California, Nayler lived and worked abroad for two decades in Russia, Central Asia, the Caucasus and the Balkans. He most recently served as international adviser to the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and was a visiting scholar at the George Washington University's Institute for International Science and Technology Policy. He lives in Washington, DC.

Roll over, George Orwell: This post-apocalyptic dystopia makes Airstrip One look like a summer camp. Nayler's sophomore novel is set in a familiar future world in which totalitarian orders rule, with recognisably Putinesque touches in what's called the (né Russian) Federation, not least an autocratic ruler who's been running the show for decades . . . A richly detailed evocation of a grim future that is, sadly, absolutely believable