The Map of Bones

Preview

Failed to add items

Sorry, we are unable to add the item because your shopping cart is already at capacity.

Add to basket failed.

Please try again later

Add to wishlist failed.

Please try again later

Remove from wishlist failed.

Please try again later

Adding to library failed

Please try again

Follow podcast failed

Unfollow podcast failed

Audible Standard 30-day free trial

Try Standard free

Select 1 audiobook a month from our entire collection.

Listen to your selected audiobooks as long as you're a member.

Get unlimited access to bingeable podcasts.

Standard auto renews for £5.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

The Map of Bones

By: Francesca Haig

Narrated by: Yolanda Kettle

Try Standard free

£5.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for £16.36

About this listen

The second book in Francesca Haig’s incredible Fire Sermon series.

‘Set in a vividly realised world of elite Alphas and their ‘weaker’ Omega twins, it holds a mirror up to our obsession with perfection’ – The Guardian

The Omega resistance has been brutally attacked, its members dead or in hiding.

The Alpha Council’s plan for permanently containing the Omegas has begun.

But all is not entirely lost: the Council’s seer, The Confessor, is dead, killed by her twin’s sacrifice.

Cass is left haunted by visions of the past, while her brother Zach’s cruelty and obsession pushes her to the edge, and threatens to destroy everything she hopes for.

As the country moves closer to all-out civil war, Cass will learn that to change the future she will need to uncover the past. But nothing can prepare her for what she discovers: a deeply buried secret that raises the stakes higher than ever before.

Francesca HaigYolanda KettleHarperCollinsThe Fire Sermon

Dark Fantasy

Epic

Fantasy

Fiction

Genre Fiction

Military

War & Military

Dark Fantasy Epic Fantasy Fiction Genre Fiction Military War & Military

Critic reviews

PRAISE FOR THE FIRE SERMON:
‘This book is a thought-provoking whirlwind of a story, with a fab lead character, grisly politics and brave adventure. I loved it!’ Jessie Burton

'A hell of a ride. I would recommend it to anyone I can, regardless of age' James Oswald

‘Set in a vividly realised world of elite Alphas and their ‘weaker’ Omega twins, it holds a mirror up to our obsession with perfection’ Guardian

‘Words like ‘masterpiece’ and ‘instant classic’ are cliché, but in the case of Francesca Haig’s astounding THE FIRE SERMON, they’re the only words to use’ Starburst Magazine

‘This terrific set-up spools out into a high tension tale of mistrust and dependency, injustice and optimism, told with poetic intensity’ Daily Mail

‘Haig’s post-apocalyptic world is colorfully fleshed out, and the conclusion ask us to consider who, really, is the Other’ Washington Post

‘With its well-built world, vivid characters and suspenseful plot, this book… is poised to become the next must-read hit.’ Kirkus

Most relevant

The author writes poetically and beautifully, telling the 2nd part of this story of a post-apocalyptic primitive world in which residual radiation damage causes every family to give birth to twins - one normal, one deformed. The normal twins are the ruling "Alphas", the deformed ones the rejected "Omegas". The twins are linked so strongly that if one dies, both die. Many Alphas are on the ruling Council, and the Council members are fighting among themselves. The danger of attack or assassination by killing their twin to get rid of them leads many Alphas to lock up their twins to keep them safe. Then they discover old technology from before the nuclear destruction. This allows them to develop "holding tanks" full of viscous liquid to hold people in suspended animation, tubes attached to wrist and mouth. In this story, the Omega resistance tries to fight against the Council's plan to "tank" every single Omega.

Cass, the main character, is an Omega Seer, her difference being not physical but mental. Her visions tell her what the Council is up to, feel the way, and predict the future. Her twin, Zach, is a ruling figure on the Council who is the most over-zealous in implementing the tanking plan.

This story charts the progress of the resistance as they try to stop the relentless tanking and the Alphas' deadly agenda before it's too late. Their secret haven, the Island, their mission to discover life beyond their continent, and what they discover from before the nuclear holocaust are all they have to save them, but at every turn the ruling Council thwarts them. They manage to sabotage the Council's plans but this only slows the Alphas down. Their ultimate aim is the destruction of the Omegas by tanking them all.

Then the Council discovers an underground Ark which contains much of the knowledge of life before the nuclear blast. What they find will enable them to destroy even life beyond their own country (where the people from "Elsewhere" have discovered how to end the twinning by allowing everyone to carry a mutation). Can Cass and Zach stop them in time? Can they reach out to Elsewhere before it's too late?

The narrator is good enough, with a measured, calm, pleasant voice, but apart from twins Zoe and Piper having the same accent, she doesn't have different voices for different characters (even the ancient old lady Sally has only a slightly gravelly tone, and the stranger Paloma's excessively outlandish accent deacribed in the test is produced only as a faintly Irish burr). And sometimes she misses cues and places emphasis on the wrong word or a pronunciation is slightly askew (eg "the sentries' view" becomes "the sentrices view"). But although this doesn't detract from the excellent story, it just doesn't especially add to it.