Birch and Jay by Allister Thompson is a post-apocalyptic novel framed in a future present in which a new group of Seekers is graduating in the community of Norbay decades after a climate crisis has left the world in ruins.
“The world building in this novel is fantastic.”
Jay and his partner Birch, elders of the community, tell the tale of his first mission to the graduates as a parting lesson. This framing returns periodically in the narrative to reassure the reader that despite the fraught events of Jay’s journey, he survived, but the events of the novel keep the reader turning pages to discover how that survival was earned.
A young Jay is sent to the ruins of Queen’s University to recover whatever knowledge he can. He encounters Granite and then Elm, expats of the Norbay community, who each help him on his journey. But as Jay and Elm enter the outskirts of Great Toronto—a newly-risen fascist state ruled by The Six—Jay is captured by militia.
He is brought before The Six, interrogated, and when he refuses to become a citizen of Great Toronto, is sent to a work camp to reconsider his position. When he later attempts to foment rebellion and escape, Jay is tried as a spy and sentenced to be executed.
Birch, though not a Seeker, follows Jay several days after his departure, in search not only of Jay, but also of adventure. Not long after Birch starts out, she is captured by a group of young men, intent on using her as a sexual slave … if they can settle their dispute over which one of them gets to claim their prize.
Ning rescues Birch and helps her back on the road, where she soon encounters Elm, desperately pedalling for Norbay, to get help in liberating Jay. Together, Elm and Birch enact a risky plan to infiltrate Great Toronto and rescue Jay.
The world building in this novel is fantastic. Norbay (North Bay) was founded by women and like-minded men who wanted to learn from the mistakes of the past and rebuild human society in a sustainable way. But they need information to do that. Hence the Seekers, who go out into the ravaged world, by bicycle, and travel to former cities and universities in search of knowledge.
The Norbay inhabitants have all taken their names from nature (you may have noticed) and they have cordial relationships with nearby First Nations, who applaud their efforts to rebuild a society that lives in harmony with the natural world. They are pacifists and vegetarians, the Seekers not even carrying weapons on their missions.
Though secondary characters, the elder women of the novel, Cedar, an elder of Norbay, Elm, a rogue Seeker, and Ning, the toughened lone survivor who saves Birch, are the real stars of the novel.
While she doesn’t get a lot of time on the page, Cedar’s lessons resound in both Jay and Birch’s memories. When they encounter difficulties, which is often, they ask themselves, what would Cedar do (WWCD)?
Elm is a force to be reckoned with. Still on the road in her senior years, she has resilience to spare. She teaches Jay and Birch hard-earned lessons from her experience. Though she has abandoned her duties as Seeker, her ties to Norbay and its mission remain strong.
Ning, unlike the pacifist residents of Norbay, doesn’t hesitate to hunt and kill. She provides Birch with a stark contrast to the life and people she has grown up among. Ning shows Birch what it means to survive outside of community.
Collectively, it’s their hard-won wisdom and tenacity that help Birch save Jay from Great Toronto.
Birch and Jay is a propulsive read that still offers a vision of the society we could build if we break the shackles of capitalism, patriarchy, and colonialism.
About the Author
Allister Thompson was born in the UK and spent his childhood in Mississauga, Ontario, where he got his first part-time job in a small bookstore at the mall at age sixteen. He has spent the rest of his life working in the publishing and bookselling industries. He worked for small and mid-sized publishers in Toronto for fifteen years before striking out on his own as a freelance editor. This freedom eventually led him to North Bay, Ontario, where he has lived and worked with dozens of authors for the past ten years.
About the Reviewer
Melanie Marttila (she/her) is an #ActuallyAutistic SFF author-in-progress, writing poetry and tales of hope in the face of adversity. Her poetry has appeared in The /tƐmz/ Review, Polar Starlight, Sulphur, and her debut poetry collection, The Art of Floating, was published in 2024 by Latitude 46. Her short fiction has appeared in Through the Portal, Pulp Literature, and On Spec. She is a settler writing in Sudbury, or ‘N’Swakamok, on Robinson-Huron Treaty territory, home of the Atikameksheng Anishnawbek and the Wahnapitae First Nation, in the house where three generations of her family have lived, on the street that bears her surname, with her spouse and their dog.
Book Details
Publisher : Latitude 46
Publication date : June 6 2025
Language : English
Print length : 230 pages
ISBN-10 : 1988989922
ISBN-13 : 978-1988989921
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