September Reads -Back to school time!

[Procrastimancer]

I decided to read Alastair Reynolds' Slow Bullets after seeing the book brought up in several Hugo discussions. I enjoyed it, but it took me a while to get there. I'd complain about how thin the characters are, but the main character experience at least some growth by the end and I don't expect anything from supporting characters anymore. What bothered me was how familiar and overdone some parts of the story felt. There was a very distinct feeling that I had read or seen this stuff before and had a better time then. 

[Guinevere Seaworth]

I finished Circling the Sun by Paula McLain.  I felt I should've liked this book more.  I love reading about independent, strong willed women who defy societal constraints and pursue those dreams that they are passionate about.  The prose is lovely and the descriptions of Kenya are so beautiful that I feel I should book a safari.  What got to me was the fact I was not expecting so much relationship pain for virtually of the characters and I cringed at the thought of casually hunting animals for ivory or meat that are considered endangered today.

 

Now that the final book in the trilogy is complete, I'm going to start Blood Song by Anthony Ryan.

[Mauvka]

 

I don't think it's meant to be a comprehensive or pragmatic view of a post-apocalyptic world. It's a story about a group of people who have undergone loss and tragedy, who live lives that are fundamentally reduced to survival and pragmatic gains, who strive for something than mere survival because things like art and beauty and love are a requirement for them. "Survival is insufficient."

 

Her writing tone and world play into this feel -- in many ways the part in the post-apocalyptic world is a picaresque story not unlike Huck Finn -- limited in scope, moving from village to village, small lessons and movements. It's foggy and surreal at points; I don't think she's ever all that concerned with the level of realism that you allude to missing and I admit that I never expected it from the writing. This story was about characters, not plot.

 

I loved it (obviously), but it's not World War Z, which was a lot of fun in its own way. Or that one apocalyptic series I stopped because I had to read chapters about Wiccanism every few minutes.

 

Thanks for responding with what you liked about the book.  I'd agree that her depictions of Arthur Leander and Miranda were some of my favorite parts of the story.  In fact, that's probably why I enjoyed the middle portion, where it was set primarily in the preapocalyptic world and we get to see these characters grow up through the decades.  Kristen never stood out to me in though, and honestly I struggle to name any of the other characters from the theater troupe/postapocalypse. 

 

You mention the writing and tone as one of the highlights of the book, and I have seen that praised about Station Eleven before.  Language is not something I frequently notice in a narrative (unless it's jarringly bad), so it may just be that one of the better things about this novel is something I'm just not attuned to picking up on.

[polishgenius]

 

Thanks for responding with what you liked about the book.  I'd agree that her depictions of Arthur Leander and Miranda were some of my favorite parts of the story.  In fact, that's probably why I enjoyed the middle portion, where it was set primarily in the preapocalyptic world and we get to see these characters grow up through the decades.  Kristen never stood out to me in though, and honestly I struggle to name any of the other characters from the theater troupe/postapocalypse.

That was exactly my experience. The pre-apoc bits are far more memorable. It is fantastically written in places, the book, but I read it at the same time as Peter Heller's The Dog Stars (another post-apocalypse story, very different in style and plot but similar in theme in the end I found) and though my immediate enjoyment of Station Eleven was probably greater, largely thanks to that writing, it's not the one my mind goes back to out of the two.