I could have written this in Dutch and/or French, but after having read 862 pages, I'm not really in the mood for a bilingual review. :P

So, my first Bordage! The man has been around for many years, has tens of books on his CV, and is known as one of the (!) French SF-authors. When I chose this book, I was completely unfamiliar with his repertoire, but the blurb seemed very interesting, so... Having the chance to meet the man at Les Imaginales in Épinal made it even more worthwhile, certainly after having heard and seem him talk about his other works (in the context of the conferences and debates).

As is written on Wikipedia: "Les ouvrages de Pierre Bordage ont une orientation humaniste, axée sur la découverte de la spiritualité, la lutte contre le fanatisme, ou encore le détournement du pouvoir politico-religieux au profit de quelques-uns." Roughly translated: Bordage's works have a humanistic orientation, focused on the discovery of spirituality, the fight against fanaticism, or even the corruption of political-religious powers that favour a few.

In any case, about Chroniques des Ombres (The Shadows' Chronicles): It's thick. 862 divided over 36 chapters, each of those divided into two parts: one taking place in the Cités Unifiées, the other in the Pays horcite (outside of the cities). Of course, this book also counts a large number of characters, so you have to keep your mind to it. But the central cast can be counted on both of your hands, especially later on in the book.

As you can read in the blurb, there's a nuclear war going on at the end of the 21st century. But that war is used to install a new kind of humanity. A large part of the earth is closed off via a lid. The core is NyLoPa (short for New York, London, Paris), which rules the western world. You can also read about the mayors fighting battles over who can or should have the most power. There are other such Cités Unifiées, like BarPer, ShaBej, and more.

The people inside the CU's are thus protected from the particles and other dangerous consequences from the war, like genetic modifications, diseases, etc. However, they do all have a biochip inside their brains. These were implanted with the excuse of more security and lifting mankind to a new level: mental access to a large database and network. The Internet on a very large scale, always available. No need to think anymore, just consult the database. But this chip was just the next step in controlling the people more.

Those outside of the CU's were considered dangerous to the new society and were to be eradicated through any means necessary. For that purpose, drones and a special kind of soldiers were created. Then again, even inside the CU's, people were dying in large numbers. The Fouineurs (inspectors with more possibilities and privileges than the regular police force) were tasked to seek the culprit, the ones who were behind the mass killings, which continued at a steady rate. These Fouineurs also had a biochip, but a different one, to be able to properly do their work. Through that chip they could consult various databases, scan environments, make estimations by asking mental questions, ...

One character, Ghanesh, a new fouineur, was given a new kind of biochip. He was also used as a test-case. But all didn't go well, as the chip got so grown into his brain, it formed a symbiosis that was more advantageous for him than for his superiors, or even the Ombres (the ones behind the mass killings and the desire for a New World Order, so to speak). The chip could take over when he was in danger. As a result, he could fight his way out of a situation as if someone took over his body and mind. But using this biochip had an impact on the fouineurs' lives: they were reduced by at least 15 years.

The biochip also acted as means of contact between those in power and the fouineurs. It also meant that everyone with a chip was known, was being supervised, tracked and more. Big Brother to a whole new level. Which is why this story reminded me of a mixture of '1984' (George Orwell), 'Brave New World' (Aldous Huxley), the Wool-trilogy (Hugh Howey), and similar/related works.

Bordage is known for focusing on the characters and this is (also) the case here. Of course there's the background, the basis about creating a new world, using certain means to achieve the goals, but this isn't your typical hard Sci-Fi novel, not at all. The characters, their doings, their behaviour, their interactions, their thoughts, their feelings, ... that's what's key in this story. Of course, all's well that ends well, otherwise it wouldn't be a good story, would it? ;-) It's dystopian, but one that does make you think about today's world, about being human, and related issues.

You can clearly read not only how dangerous it is to have an elite control the world and fooling the people (and those people blindly obeying), but also how humanity could easily go from civilized to animal in no time, especially once modern society is no more or you no longer have access to the privileges and comforts of today's world. One would have to relearn to hunt, find ways to clothe yourself, to build a shelter, to survive. There c/would be clans and tribes again, too. There would be slavery. Or in short: we c/would be thrown many centuries back in time. But above all, how our current society is evolving towards more Big Brother situations: camera's in the streets, dash-cams in the car, privacy issues on the Internet, ...

You could also interpret this story as: we are humans, we have feelings, emotions, ... these things can't be replaced by artificial intelligence (despite the efforts of the Ombres to use AI to do just that). Are we going to let this kind of evolution take place, take away our "self", our dignity?

'Chroniques des Ombres' is thick (862 pages for this edition), your French has to be a very decent level to better understand and imagine what's going on, even if Bordage tried to keep it readable. In addition, he applied a more accessible form of French, to make it more lively, more realistic. So some sentences or dialogues aren't following the grammatical rules 100%. I don't mind, because I asked him about it. Had I not known, then I would have minded, yes.

In any case, this was one profound reading experience and an interesting entrance into the world of Pierre Bordage. I will certainly read more of his books, in due time.

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A few examples of the (many) philosophical quotes that appear at the beginning of each chapter:

"La biopuce est le premier signe d'appartenance à la Cité Unifiée; elle est aussi et surtout le collier qui nous transforme en chiens, et nous devons apprendre à nous en délier si nous voulons regagner la liberté qu'elle nous a confiscée, nous devons apprendre à redevenir errants et faméliques."

"Notre Cité, corrompue jusqu'à la moelle, s'effondrera comme les autres cités avant elles, comme les anciennes nations orgueilleuses qui défièrent les cieux et en furent très durement punies."

"Derrière le sourire se cache parfois une lame empoisonnée, derrière la lame se tient l'intention, derrière l'intention se tapit le félon."

"Nous nous prétendons civilisés. Mais laissez aux citadins la possibilité de libérer leus instincts, et vous verrez à quelle vitesse craque le vernis de la civilisation. En réalité, nous n'avons jamais réussi à dompter l'animal en nous. Je dirais même que plus on essaie de rétrécir sa cage, et plus l'animal devient féroce." ( )