The First Thousand Trees by Premee Mohamed
Publisher – ECW Press
Published – Out Now
Price – £14.99 paperback £6.49 ebook
After making a grievous mistake that ended in death, Henryk Mandrusiak feels increasingly ostracised within his own community, and after the passing on of his parents and the departure of his best friend, Reid, there is little left to tie him to the place he calls home. Henryk does something he never expected: he sets out into the harsh wilds alone, in search of far-flung family. He finds his uncle's village, but making a life for himself in this unfriendly new place - rougher and more impoverished than the campus where he grew up - isn't easy. Henryk strives to carve out a place of his own but learns that some corners of his broken world are darker than he could have imagined.
NB this book completes three novellas in the same world and I recommend reading them in order The Annual Migration of Clouds by Premee Mohamed and We Speak Through The Mountain by Premee Mohamed
In science and fiction we are often fascinated by the journey through the stars or many strange lands. But deep down we are fascinated by the choices. How do our interactions with events and new people change us? Do we become heroes, villain or comedy sidekicks? Premee Mohamed surprised me with the direction that their new science fiction novella The First Thousand Trees took but I eventually saw this is a great way to bookend the series and remind us the choices we make are the key to the story not necessarily what we always do next after making them.
After devastating climate change and other events that wiped out much of humanity only a few fragments remain in a world where resources are scarce and life is hard. In what was once Alberta there was a community that lived by strict rules and Henryk messed up a hunting expedition that led to a death and severe injury. Their best friend Reid has gone to a secret but prestige university where knowledge will be gained but Henryk is now very alone and feels judged for his clumsiness. His solution is to leave and travel to Sprucedown where his sole surviving relative lives. He persuades an unwelcoming group of people he is genuine and soon finds himself starting from the bottom learning skills like building and hunting he never really had. But Sprucedown is a vulnerable community and Henryk is about to find out that in the wider world many dangerous things are looking for it.
Taking this story on its own then it’s a very engaging story watching a fish out of water continue to find he is a fish out of water. Henryk who we met in Annual Migration of clouds is very much second fiddle to Reid, best friend but doesn’t have her intelligence or passion to move and those events pushed him outwards. A more traditional story would have Henryk now find himself the right person in the right place and Mohamed pleasingly doesn’t do that. Henryk is a little street smart, determined but extremely non-practical and so in a rugged community clinging on for dear life in a hostile world he’s not what they need. However, despite that he is accepted or perhaps best tolerated. What this allows the readers of the series is a third way of living from the fairly static home of Reid and Henryk, the snobbish Howse university of the second book and now a place that is very much your more standard non-technology based dystopian society. There are pluses – people are very communal they work hard and grudgingly they accept they may need to help Henryk but we can’t help think this may not end well as Henryk just doesn’t seem to have the strength, skill or particular type of character to be accepted.
A key relationship for Henry is a new family member he meets named Dane. A surly and bossy young man begrudging Henryk entering his world. I really liked their dynamic in the story. Not quite enemies nor friends but slowly working out an orbit between them but one in danger of collision. Just when we think this will be key to the rest of the plot, we get very intriguingly bamboozled.
The final third of the book is violent, bloody and underlines how dangerous the wider world is. The previous books were very internal, but this story reminds us that the world outside is fractured and hostile. In a that tone shift we see what Sprucedown is afraid of come to pass and Henryk and Dane must survive it. What I found fascinating is we see how for Dane while unpleasant this a natural fit for his skillset even if he is unhappy, he must do it and Henryk gets pushed as far as he can. He’s not going to ever be the hero leading the charge, but he is pushed far out of his comfort zone as he has in effect no other choice he can live with. Mohamed makes us see that choice coming and we see all the consequences of it.
This leads to the book and series own ending. Henryk as does Reid all eventually return to the original home. We get the sense both want to move on, but the book ends prior to that. In standard fantasy there would be another book that shows that adventure, but it would be many tales worth, and I also think upon reflection it is not necessary to show us what happened next. What we have had though is a series exploring people making choices and importantly learning they were not quite what they were looking for in the first place. This series has shown its characters choose from the way a community always works to the not so glittering towers of academia to the more earthy blue collar working/farming world of this story and for both Reid and Henryk the choices aren’t fitting like gloves. We are so used in stories that we have a single choice and that’s is our destiny I quite like a book that says you can and will try many things and sometimes it will not work out and that’s ok what you can do is learn from those experiences and better find out your own path not the one everyone lays out for you. The future is at the end undecided, but I do think neither of our leads will let success or failure stop them forever trying new choices.
On its own The First Thousand Trees will be a fascinating look at a grittier way of post dystopian life but when gathered with its sibling novellas I found this a compelling look at people finding out what their world is, what they want from it and not just going in one direction for ever after. I strongly recommend this whole series for a slightly different spin on a hero’s journey.
