After the Fall
by Edward Ashton

Reviewed by Galen Strickland
Posted February 22, 2026

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I received a free digital review copy of this book from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review. After the Fall publishes Tuesday. It is Ashton's seventh novel, but the first of his work I have read. If I wasn't behind on reading I had planned to get to a previous novel before this. Mickey 7 was adapted to film by Bong Joon Ho last year, with the title changed to Mickey 17. I have seen it, didn't like it as much as I had expected, but won't judge the book by that, and may eventually read it.

It is possible Ashton did not have final say on the cover image, because that doesn't look like how he described the Grays, or at least not the way I visualized the alien species that now rules Earth. If it is our Earth that is. Details are sparse, but some think humanity had already suffered through The Fall before the Gray's arrival about 100 years prior to the start of the book. It is written in third-person, but mostly from the perspective of John, a "human" in his late 20s I believe. I'll explain the quotes later. John had been raised in a Gray crèche until he was about 15, when he was adopted/bought/bartered-for (take your pick) by a Gray named Martok Barden née Black Hand. The children chosen are then known as bondsmen, obligated to do whatever work their owner requires of them. To hear Martok speak of it John is his friend, even family, although another bondsman Martok acquires later says John is a pet. For most of the book, John only knows the other as Six, although we learn her name toward the end. Any child that ages out before being bonded is killed, with the typical execution being their head is squashed by the big, heavy foot of a Gray. That is also how any bondsman is dealt with if they displease their master.

I have a few nits to pick about the story. If it has only been ~100 years since the Gray's arrival, I don't think that would have given them the time to have reshaped our species to the way John, Six, and other bondsmen are described. At one point Six disabuses John of the notion that they are human. The fact they are much smaller than previous generations of humans begs the question of how much useful work they can do for the Grays. Based on his own reckoning, John is about 27, having been with Martok some 12 years. When he eventually meets a real adult human later he is only a little more than half as tall as them. The Grays are bigger still, so it is also puzzling why they couldn't employ other Grays of lower status, as prisoners/slaves, to do most of the work. Martok was not wealthy, existing on menial jobs, and I gather he did a lot of the work himself, with John doing even less. On numerous occasions he didn't have enough money to rent a room, so they spent nights in cold parks instead. Maybe John was just a pet, something Martok needed for companionship, to feel his life wasn't a total disappointment.

In order for all of it to make more sense the book cries out for a sequel. Mickey 7 already has one, and Ashton says there might be more. Even if he follows up on After the Fall it doesn't mean I will read it. I am not saying I don't recommend this, but I am also not saying I do. It is a relatively short book, less than 300 pages, and was an easy read, even while I felt too many parts were rambling, circling around the point. It has some humor, as I suspect is the case with Mickey 7 too, but not enough to be a truly comical story, à la Douglas Adams. The publisher's blurb is, "Part alien invasion story, part buddy comedy, and part workplace satire." If it is supposed to be satire I was not able to figure out his point. I won't go into detail about the how and why, but Martok does prove to be a sympathetic character, and so does John eventually, but Six was mostly aggravating, very arrogant and condescending towards John. She was younger, but had some previous experience living with feral humans before she was in a crèche. If this is on our Earth, the only place name used that might confirm it is Owasco, a town in the Finger Lake region of New York. If so, it is in a future ice age, with lakes and rivers mostly frozen, and the other lake referred to could be Ontario or Erie. Supposedly only a small portion of Earth is habitable now, for humans or Grays, but that might prove to be false. Most human infrastructure has been lost, and even Gray cities are small. If this is Earth, then where is Lake Town? Buffalo, maybe Rochester? And which human town is now Farhome? I won't worry about that now, as I am anxious to move on to another book.

 

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