Ashes of the Old World

Location:

United States

Genres:

Networks:

Description:

This audiobook is narrated by a digital voice. The morning sun cast long shadows across the skeletal remains of what had once been downtown Portland. Elena Vasquez picked her way carefully through the rubble-strewn streets, her worn boots crunching on glass and debris that had been accumulating for the better part of a decade. The Great Collapse, as the survivors called it, had ended the world as they knew it in 2035, when the cascading failures of climate change, economic inequality, and social unrest had finally reached their breaking point. Elena paused at what had once been Pioneer Courthouse Square, now a crater filled with twisted metal and concrete chunks the size of automobiles. She pulled out a small notebook, its pages yellowed and edges frayed from constant use, and sketched the scene before her. As one of the few remaining urban planners who had survived the Collapse, she had taken it upon herself to document not just what remained, but what could be rebuilt. The silence was almost complete, broken only by the distant call of ravens and the whisper of wind through broken windows. It was hard to believe that just ten years ago, this square had been filled with food trucks, street musicians, and thousands of people going about their daily lives. Now, the population of the entire Pacific Northwest had dwindled to perhaps fifty thousand souls, scattered across hundreds of small settlements and communes. Elena's settlement, New Haven, was one of the larger ones, home to nearly three hundred people who had banded together in the ruins of a small college town thirty miles south of Portland. They had managed to establish a functioning community with sustainable agriculture, basic manufacturing, and a democratic council system that actually worked. But Elena knew that their success was fragile, dependent on cooperation and shared purpose that could easily fracture under pressure. Duration - 48m. Author - Céleste Moreau-Blanchefleurz. Narrator - Digital Voice Archie G. Published Date - Sunday, 19 January 2025.

Language:

English