This book was so hard to rate. On the one hand, the basic premise was interesting, the voice engaging, and the storytelling excellent. On the other hand--and I know suspending one's disbelief is kind of a crucial point of fiction--I just couldn't buy the idea that only two hundred years in the future, England has descended into the Dark Ages, complete with a controlling church, witch hunts, suspicion of anything "ghostly," and Viking-esque raids, while the rest of the world, as far as the reader can tell, is civilized (we at least get a sense of Scotland being a more refined, relatively advanced society). Even considering flooding from global warming (a reasonable assertion), I found the world of this novel to be a bit too much of a stretch.

That said, I did enjoy the story. It's a sci-fi that reads like a fantasy, which is pretty cool, and there was a lot there to hold my interest to the gripping end. I just wasn't into it enough to pick up the sequel.