[UPDATE BELOW from April 2024] I realize that this book comes off as highly touted as the new generation of British sci-fi, but it left me wanting. I a[UPDATE BELOW from April 2024] I realize that this book comes off as highly touted as the new generation of British sci-fi, but it left me wanting. I agree that there is a voyeuristic and predatory aspect to planetary exploration which is exposed here, but there were several aspects of the plot that really put me off, (view spoiler)[ in particular, the insanity of Dr. Avrana Kern just seemed unrealistic and annoying and the transfer of her genetic modifications to the monkeys to the spiders on Kern's world was never explained - at least I looked for an explanation and never found it. (hide spoiler)] I admittedly am not a big fan of giant spiders and surely this made other readers uncomfortable, but it wasn't really that which bothered me as much as the somewhat predictable plot and the aforementioned seeming plot fails. I gave it three stars because the idea of the spider colony progressively improving was interesting, but then (view spoiler)[ their spaceweb defeating a starship (hide spoiler)] also felt so far-fetched that it was almost ridiculous. I don't think that I will continue my reading of this series.
--April 2024 Update-- I relented and read Children of Ruin and Children of Memory and re-evaluated my initial assessment. While I preferred the insectoid aliens of Oscar Scott Card (which probably clouded my judgement along with the spiders in Vernor Vinge's masterpiece A Deepness in the Sky), now that I see the wider tableau that Tchaikovsky is painting, I appreciate in retrospect his initial effort. What I am thinking now is how, rather than superior aliens wondering how humans were uplifted without a mentor species as in David Brin's brilliant Uplift trilogy (Sundiver, Startide Rising, The Uplift War), this author takes the opposite idea of humans being the uplift species to other planets. I appreciated the latter books a bit more because I liked the character development more.
Another thing that got me thinking was that there are two broad tendencies in science fiction as I see it: a scarcity universe as typified by The Three-Body Problem as well as this Children of Time series versus an abundance universe like those of Revelation Space, The Reality Dysfunction, Consider Phlebas and the Culture series, and the Alliance-Union Cherryh classic books. As a reader, it is interesting to see how authors attacked the Fermi paradox in wildly different ways. I think I prefer the innate optimism of the abundance school but I fear that we might be limited to the scarcity school in real-life. What do you think?...more
This was a great apocalyptic novel that really grabbed me from the beginning. The writing is really good and the characters are fascinating and realisThis was a great apocalyptic novel that really grabbed me from the beginning. The writing is really good and the characters are fascinating and realistic. The Georgia Virus has swept across the planet, annihilating 99% of the human race. We see the collapse of civilization and the 20 years following the disaster through the eyes of a group of characters centered around an actor, Arthur who dies about 24h before all hell breaks loose. The book takes us back and forth in time through the characters' lives (and deaths in many cases) and weaves a beautiful tale of horror and hope.
The language is descriptive and moving: The highway was miles of permanent gridlock, small trees growing now between cars and thousands of windshields reflecting the sky. There was a skeleton in the driver's seat of the nearest car. They slept under a tree near the overpass, side by side on top of August's plastic sheet. Kirsten slept fitfully, aware each time she woke of the animals and caravans around her. Hell is the absence of the people you long for. (p. 140) There is a bit of the bleakness of The Walking Dead here, of course, as this image conjures up that of the abandoned freeways in Atlanta, but there is also a deeper longer expressed here. Mantel's apocalypse is quieter in a sense than that of Kirkman. There is an interesting description of the banalities of Arthur's celebrity lifestyle (3 marriages, 3 divorces, innumerable mistresses but never truly happy) and Clark's realization of the emptiness of his own life before the disaster (p. 163)
Jeevan stays with his brother barricaded in their Toronto apartment building realizing also some of the misconceptions he held of modernity: We bemoaned the impersonality of the modern world, but that was a lie, it seemed to him; it had never been impersonal at all. There had always been a massive delicate infrastructure of people, all of them working unnoticed around us, and when people stop going to work, the entire operation grounds to a halt. (p. 178) That is one of the strengths of this book, to describe the apocalypse before, during and after but interspersed so that there is always a sense of mystery and an undercurrent of loss.
My favorite character was Miranda, Arthur's first wife who becomes a solitary executive who pours her soul into her lifework comic-book masterpiece Station Eleven which frames the entire book, itself a metaphor for life before and after (Undersea) the catastrophe. Two weeks before the end of commercial air travel, Miranda flew to Toronto from New York. It was late October, and she hadn't been back to Canada in some months. She'd always liked the descent into this city, the crowded towers by the lakeshore, the way an infinite ocean of suburbia rushed inward and came to a point at the apex of the CN Tower. She thought the CN Tower was ugly up close, but unexpectedly lovely when viewed from airplane windows. And as always, the sense of Toronto existing in layers (p. 205) These layers are, of course, stripped away by the catastrophe, and laid bare for the survivors.
Toward the end, Miranda is in Malaysia looking at her fleet of container ships, stranded off-shore:Miranda opened her eyes in time to see the sunrise. A wash of violet color, pink and streaks of brilliant orange, the container ships on the horizon suspended between the blaze of the sky and the water aflame, the seascape bleeding into confused visions of Station Eleven, its extravagant sunsets and its indigo sea. The lights of the fleet fading into morning, the ocean burning into sky. (p. 222) I did enjoy the poetry of Mandel's prose quite a lot and found images such as these very visual and appealing.
The other protagonist is Clark who at the end of the book enjoys a moment of reflection and hope after twenty years of calamity and loss: If there are again towns with streetlights if there are symphonies and newspapers, then what else might this awakening world contain? Perhaps vessels are setting out even now traveling toward or away from him, steered by sailors armed with maps and knowledge of the stars, driven by the need or perhaps simply by curiosity: whatever became of the countries on the other side? If nothing else, it's pleasant to consider the possibility. He likes the thought of ships moving over the water, toward another world just out of sight. (p. 332-3)
Overall, the book is pleasant if thought-provoking read (the coronavirus in China (at the time I wrote this article, 30M people were quarantined for exposure to corona)...could this scenario truly happen someday?) and well-written. I am looking forward to reading more from Emily St John Mandel. As the coronavirus continues to spread, this book seems more and more relevant......more
I found this crime novel to be quite interesting and engaging. It deals with a city split down cultural lines (more or less Christian vs Muslim) but wI found this crime novel to be quite interesting and engaging. It deals with a city split down cultural lines (more or less Christian vs Muslim) but with significant overlap ("cross-hatching" in the novel) between them. It is unclear, at least to me, at what period the story takes place but it is likely to be somewhat contemporary to the 2020s. The curious aspect of the split is that the two sides are in such rejection of one another that even looking at the other side is illegal and so, in an Orwellian twist, folks must unsee things day in and day out if their glance crosses the line. And this is actually hard to avoid because the line between them cuts neighborhoods and, as we learn later, even buildings in two. There is also a shadow organization, a pseudo-state with incredible power over this no man's land. I'll leave the intrigue there hoping that this superficial sketch will entire the read of thrillers and crime novels to give this interesting story a chance. ...more
The Underground Railroad is an intense ride. I had not taken "railroad" to be a literal thing before reading the book. Like Cora, the protagonist, I tThe Underground Railroad is an intense ride. I had not taken "railroad" to be a literal thing before reading the book. Like Cora, the protagonist, I thought it was just an informal way of smuggling escaped slaves up north. Now, I am curious to visit some of the stations should they still exist. The book itself is one of courage, brutality, and hope. It is a condemnation of the despicable crime against humanity that was slavery (and I have ancestors that were guilty of that unforgivable iniquity) with vivid, terrifying depictions of the violence that kept the institution going. It was also sad to see that the white hate of black skin went as far north as Indiana - but then, no, is was unsurprising at the same time. It made me reflect on the current rehabilitation of racism in Drumpf's America and how little so much of the white population has really learned from this shameful past.
I am not sure that this book is on the level of other Pulitzers: despite the vivid characters and fast-paced action, I felt the pace was uneven and the descriptions a little lacking. Nonetheless, it was an important read and a moving one. I just wonder if we will ever have an accounting of the number of horrible deaths that transpired, the number that got away like Cora, and the ones that didn't....more
Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale is a tale of terror as well as a warning. The dystopian future she describes in "Gilead" which appears to be cenMargaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale is a tale of terror as well as a warning. The dystopian future she describes in "Gilead" which appears to be centered in Boston (due to the reference to Mass Ave and the town of Salem) is chillingly misogynistic where women are reduced to strict categories: Martha for housework and cooking, Jezebels (easy to guess, right?), Eyes, Angels (soldiers for the state), infertile Wives and potentially fertile Handmaids. It is beautifully written with lots of flashbacks of "Offred", the protagonist's name, of how things devolved into the horrors of her present. It is disturbing because it exposes the politics of reproduction and male sexuality taken to extremes of violence that are shocking and, yet, probably seemed one possible future during the Reaganite 80s when she wrote the book and now feel like the world of which Michael Pence in particular and perhaps Paul Ryan but most definitely Steve Bannon must dream. Could things so change as quickly as she describes in the book? Let us hope not. #resist
It is certainly the most explicitly feminist dystopian book I have ever read. It was thought-provoking cover to cover.
All in all, a very well-written feminist text that should serve as a clarion call for defending women's rights to maintain control over their own bodies and lives now and forever.
Drumpf's sexist, violent tweet against Morning Joe and the escalating attacks against reproductive freedom are moving the American experiment dangerously towards Atwood's Gilead. #resist
Apparently, there are also changes at the CIA that bring the spectre of Gilead a little closer. In another note, I just got Mona Eltahawy's Headscarves and Hymens which is also on subject.
Any of my review readers want to tell me whether the Hulu show about this book is worth my time or not? [UPDATE] I have watched the first two seasons of the Hulu series and am hooked. That being said, I have watched 5 episodes of S03 and been disappointed. For those who may not know, only S01 is based on the book. The other two seasons are new writing (but with Margaret Atwood supervising the writer's room).
I am quite interested to know if anyone has already read the sequel that was just published in September 2019? [UPDATE] The sequel The Testaments was pretty good. My review here....more
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