Gar Petterson
I really liked Station Eleven, but unfortunately this novel was a disappointment.
Not terrible, but soft, dull, and annoyingly ecologically illiterate.
Some of the same themes are addressed much better in recent books that are also more “literary” science fiction:
William Gibson's ‘The peripheral'
Sequoia Nagamatsu's “How High We Go in the Dark”
John Kessel's “The Moon and the Other”
or even (for the simulation hypothesis)
Ken Mcleod's engaging but a incoherent “The Restoration Game”
Good points: well written, short and global. I learned bit about SE Asia.
Bad points: shallow. I would have appreciated more view of what connections meant for people & life. Presented as true, quite a few minor things that are contested.
How much someone enjoys may depend on how much world history they have read. Book is good for a quick introduction.
“It is conventional to picture such reunions as joyful moments of emotional release. But the emotions are too big, and too mixed with despair. Over the past few days, Hirouki had arrived at the belief that he had lost his parents, two daughters, son and wife. When he saw Hitomi, he adjusted his understanding: as it had turned out, he had lost his mother, father and three children. Hitomi said. ‘But we were so preoccupied with thoughts of the children. Until I found them, I couldn't feel any relief'”
Erik Larson is a good writer and weaves together a vivid set of diaries and letters.
Listening to Churchill's family and friends easily discuss their privilege of their lives (nannies, valets, cooks, large salaries from press barons) made me feel more socialist. It was not the authors intention at all, but the book makes it very clear how absent the lives of all the non-British of British empire were from their discussions and decisions - which made me reflect that maybe with a slightly different peace in 1917 - the brutal empires of Europe could have continued for far longer.
The is novel about the the rest of our lives.
It is a history of the next few decades, that focuses around a “the Ministry of the Future” an organization set up to implement the Paris climate agreement. The novel is based in Zurich, but shifts around the world from catastrophic heat wave, to revolutions, terrorism, strikes, to ‘carbon quantiative easing' and a transformation of central banking.
In reality, the global economy is eroding nature and destablizing the climate, pushing the world towards catastrophe. Humanity needs to change our civilization, substantially, to help us start building a liveable planet, for all.
KSR's novel sketches a possible transition towards such a society is therefore, pretty unique, well written, and essential. I didn't like some of the banking sections, which I didn't find convincing or engaging, but the overall goal of the book compensates for these flaws for me.
While I found the book too negative in parts, and widely optimistic in others, this type of near future novel is incredibly engaging, and provoking explores a possible pathways out of our current crisis.
