The Fire Sermon by Francesca Haig

The Fire Sermon

Francesca Haig

Although this post-apocalyptic dystopia has the familiar theme of privileged elites ruling an underclass of outcasts, the premise of their apartheid system is highly inventive. There is a biblical feel to the narrative which holds a mirror to our world’s history of social injustice, inequality and the nature of prejudice in all its forms. Aimed at young adult readers, it has all the ingredients of a future cult classic of the genre.



Extract
The blast shattered time. In an instant, it cleaved time irrevocably into Before and After. Now, hundreds of years later, in the After, no survivors remained, no testimonies. Only seers like me could glimpse it, momentarily, in the instant before waking, or when it ambushed us in the half-second of a blink: the flash, the horizon burning up like paper.
Parallels
  • The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
  • Red Rising by Pierce Brown