This book sat on my shelf for quite a while and I was planning on letting it sit. My aunt gave it to me and I figured it was a book that was more suited to a 60-year-old woman. I thought it was some kind of spiritual journey biography or some kind of allegory for the ills of modern capitalism. I don't know why I thought this and I was very wrong. It is one of the most engaging fantasies I have ever read. It was a surprise to find out that it takes place in a fictional future where the earth has turned on its inhabitants by way of violent tectonic activities. Volcanoes, lava flows, earthquakes, and tsunamis are the real enemies to humanity and can take out an entire city with hundred's of thousands of inhabitants in a moment and every once in a while the earth becomes completely covered in ash forcing humans to hide and survive in the ancient ways outlined by rules called stonelore.