wistfulspirit's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
jeremlee's review
adventurous
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
danilanglie's review against another edition
4.0
This is such a weird book and I found it kind of difficult to read at some parts, and when I finished it this morning I wasn't sure what to make of so much of what it was trying to say... but honestly, I have to give it high marks. This is such a richly explored concept, all the characters and their parallels and their foils were so expertly rendered. The future sections in 3012 were maybe my favorite for how weird and sci-fi they were. I don't know that I've ever seen an imagined future quite like this one in a book at all. The way space travel was mentioned as an option but not explored, the way climate change broke down the entire concept of a nation state until what was left was a MUCH smaller human population living in a fundamentally altered way...
But then there's the fact that we're seeing this society on the brink of yet another shift, with a lot of the rules already breaking down and adjusting and morphing? So fascinating, so expertly discussed! I always love that narrative trick of talking about the present day through the lens of a distant future: turning our current moment into a history to be examined. Through that lens, the characters from 3012 look back on 2012 and speak of the horrors of resource hoarding, the utter grotesqueness of a society where resources are not available to people who need them.
Upon finishing this book, I found myself wanting to live in the world more. Not necessarily continue to follow these characters, but see more of the thousand year path that connects our current moment, to the one imagined in the future of this novel. The way a certain faith predominates the culture, but how sociological and environmental factors are actually the real drivers of culture. Very similar to our world today! There was so much about the futuristic systems that sounded... well, not utopian, as this book points out, but wonderful. But the creeping wrongness of the constant wandering, never being permitted to connect more than fleetingly with anybody else... it pervaded the text in such interesting ways. We were getting the narration from characters who had been in the pot of water for so long they didn't realize it was boiling.
All in all, I found the stuff about self-cutting in this book kind of hard to stomach. Some of the sections in 1012 dragged on a little long, especially after it was clear what the twins' fates were going to be and we were just trying to get there. But despite these things, I found this novel to be thought-provoking and strange in a lot of really cool ways.
But then there's the fact that we're seeing this society on the brink of yet another shift, with a lot of the rules already breaking down and adjusting and morphing? So fascinating, so expertly discussed! I always love that narrative trick of talking about the present day through the lens of a distant future: turning our current moment into a history to be examined. Through that lens, the characters from 3012 look back on 2012 and speak of the horrors of resource hoarding, the utter grotesqueness of a society where resources are not available to people who need them.
Upon finishing this book, I found myself wanting to live in the world more. Not necessarily continue to follow these characters, but see more of the thousand year path that connects our current moment, to the one imagined in the future of this novel. The way a certain faith predominates the culture, but how sociological and environmental factors are actually the real drivers of culture. Very similar to our world today! There was so much about the futuristic systems that sounded... well, not utopian, as this book points out, but wonderful. But the creeping wrongness of the constant wandering, never being permitted to connect more than fleetingly with anybody else... it pervaded the text in such interesting ways. We were getting the narration from characters who had been in the pot of water for so long they didn't realize it was boiling.
All in all, I found the stuff about self-cutting in this book kind of hard to stomach. Some of the sections in 1012 dragged on a little long, especially after it was clear what the twins' fates were going to be and we were just trying to get there. But despite these things, I found this novel to be thought-provoking and strange in a lot of really cool ways.
tonythep's review against another edition
5.0
A breathtaking speculative novel split into three stories taking place thousands of years apart: the past, the present, the future. Byrne has created a narrative world of riches that tackles so many ideas about our society as well as the nature of perception and existence itself.
jordynkw's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Death, Gore, Blood, and Incest
nickiw's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
2.25
leighwilliams's review against another edition
challenging
informative
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Blood, Self harm, Sexual content, Death, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder
colinmeldrum's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
4.0
Intriguing!
I couldn’t give this a full 5 stars just because of the messiness mentioned in other reviews. For example, why is the Spanish word “actual” used as if it has the same meaning as the English word?
I couldn’t give this a full 5 stars just because of the messiness mentioned in other reviews. For example, why is the Spanish word “actual” used as if it has the same meaning as the English word?