Where the Axe is Buried

Happy Fall everyone! In this season of pumpkin spice and trench coats, I know you might be expecting a book to follow the vibe. Maybe you were hoping for The Pumpkin Spice Café by Laurie Gilmore. Sorry to disappoint, although it would have a been a great pick to dissect. I did really think about it, but there are so many cliché tropes and allusions to the famous Gilmore Girls TV show that I decided against it. And no horror novels either, sorry. Coraline was like my max. I know it’s spooky season and Halloween month, so in my own version of scariness, what better than a book on dystopia? It’s just as frightening and hits close to home. Plus I found a good one for you guys, so enjoy!

The novel is called Where the Axe is Buried. Published very recently in April 2025, Ray Nayler has written a quote “cybernetic novel of political intrigue” as described the GoodReads page of the book. This description is 100% accurate and makes sense. The author has worked all across Central Asia, Eastern Europe, and North America and this transcribes beautifully into his work in painting a wonderful setting for us readers.

In Where the Axe is Buried, we are introduced, as the author mentions in his interview with Brett Benner, to quote “two systems that are oppressive and failing”. We get to follow a variety of characters that are embedded in the systems in different ways and how they all consciously or not work toward a common goal. Readers can expect themes of authoritarianism, technology (especially AI), freedom, collaboration, identity, etc.

Safe to say, you will have enough to keep you properly entertained and educated, which is the best you can hope from a book.

Absolutely amazing novel. I recommend it on anyone. It is divided into 3 parts: The Observation Shadow, The Children of Sarez, and What the Wasps Know. Throughout all three, we follow Zoya, Lilia, Palmer, Nikolai, The President, Nurlan, Elmira, and Vitaly. What I loved about the characters was the fact we got to see their point of views. More specifically each character had an opposite they interacted with. I wouldn’t go as far as to say they had a foil because MasterClass defines a foil as quote “a character whose purpose is to accentuate or draw attention to the qualities of another character, most often the protagonist.”, I just don’t see that in this case. Each character is unique and has their own personality. The only foil I can see might be Palmer for Lilia. Palmer is her boyfriend and he serves as her testing subject for her creation of the dioramas. But more on that later. To help you understand what I mean about the foils, here are some examples: MasterClass lists Draco Malfoy as Harry Potter’s foil because he quote “reinforces Harry’s determination to use his powers for good.” They also mention Fortinbras as a foil for Hamlet in Shakespeare’s famous play. Another example is Watson, Sherlock Holmes’ famous sidekick. So in essence, a foil just highlights the traits of other characters. In Where the Axe is Buried, here are the different pairs I have identified:

- Zoya with Nikolai - Lilia with Palmer, her father, Vitaly, and the federation agent after them, Elmira - The President and his doctor, Nikolai

Nurlan, a parliament agent, was the only one to not directly interact with the other characters mentioned previously. Of course there is a lot to analyze about this choice and about the nature and dynamic of the other pairs. Safe to say, you will have enough to keep you properly entertained and educated, which is the best you can hope from a book. I also liked how we got bits of wisdom or reflection from secondary characters. For example, when Elmira goes to the university to look for Lilia and her dioramas (which are a sort of telepathic communication device), she engages in conversation with a colleague professor of Lilia’s. He answers Elmira’s questions and eventually brings up Einstein’s theory of entanglement which NASA defines as quote “if something happens to one particle, it affects all the others with which it’s entangled.” The professor explains further this disassociation with the macro world or the “outside world”. I can’t do it justice in this quick review, but you can find it on page 98 of the MCD first edition if you are interested.

But to me this is what true literature is about.

To wrap up the good parts, here are some quick other fascinating aspects the author explores in the novel:

1. An artist’s loss of belief in their work. What I mean by this is think of singers that get sick of their own songs, they don’t see the genius or appeal in them anymore.

2. The power genuine intellectual and emotional exchanges hold over us

3. The illusion of complete rationality in the system, of absence of biases

The only major reproach I have for this novel is the quick pace of jumping from POV to POV with each chapter. We’re exposed to a futuristic take on our current world and I think the author should have slowed down and have less switches between the characters at the beginning so that we can grasp the world-building better. Now this could have been intentional and symbolic, a way to immerse the reader in this destabilizing new world filling with AI interventions so make sure you give it a proper read and even re-read. I guess this is something that appeals to readers or not depending on the situation. Where the Axe is Buried requires lots of reflection, attention to detail, literary analysis and time to understand the various character interactions with each other and their environment. But to me this is what true literature is about. Ray Nayler is clearly talented and put in great effort into making this accurate despite it being fiction. It is a very political charged novel and leads to great reflections about the current political and social issues happening around the world.

On this note, we are at the end of the October episode. Thank you for listening until the end, I hope you give this book a trying and hopefully find it as stimulating as I did. I loved it so much I’m currently reading The Mountain in the Sea by the same author and it is as promising as Where the Axe is Buried. I want to do a fun novel for November so I’ll be doing a murder mystery review.

See you next month and keep exploring those pages!