Reviews

Écotopia by Ernest Callenbach

ouroredux's review against another edition

informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

arireads456's review against another edition

challenging hopeful inspiring reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? No

5.0

This book is lovely and I wouldn't have it any other way. It lives in my brain. It is also one of the weirdest books I've ever read in my life. It is very much tied to the time in which it was written, but there are also ideas in it that are only just now getting covered by environmentalists and urbanists. It's also got a lot of things are straight-up unethical, but are given the most ethical justification possible. minor, MINOR spoiler.

The treatment of communities of color is particularly bizarre- they have their own cities to live in, but are not particularly villainized, and this opinion of equitable segregation was likely born out of the author's conversations with the Black Panthers of the time. There are other such cases in this book.

Additionally, the characters in the novel are not characters so much as they are very obvious literary representations of ideas. So though I love this novel, do proceed with some caution. 

philomenap's review against another edition

reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

monarchkisses's review against another edition

adventurous informative reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

i just really love reading about worlds that aren’t this one but are very possible. the world building is so detailed. it’s depressing in a way to see what could be and how far we are from that. but nonetheless i loved escaping america and residing in ecotopia for a minute. there were some problematic moments. the main character is quite gross in terms of how he thinks about women but i didn’t mind it that much because it showed how a typical american man would have been looked at and treated in ecotopia culture - he’s called out multiple times. he grows a little bit but still has a long way to go. i also found the racial segregation uncomfy but i guess that was consensual for each community in this universe. overall loved the world building and want this irl 

moonknitter's review against another edition

hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

The concept of the book and the details of Ecotopia were very interesting and I loved learning about the ways ecotopia functions. It felt like there were some very well-thought out aspects of their inventions and way of life. However, I really didn’t like the main character/narrator. Maybe he was meant to sort of suck as an American but I found him very chauvinistic and the details about women were often weird and overly sexual. The ending also was not good. It was a weirdly abrupt “happy ending.” And I didn’t like that there wasn’t really a plot it was just essays.

malinwalin's review against another edition

reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.0

samusiamus's review against another edition

2.0

I did not really enjoy this book although the premise was interesting to me. I read it for a "sci fi and nature/ecology" class. I liked the idea of the west side becoming this separate country that wanted to achieve amazing, earth-preserving accomplishments and save the world one upcycle at a time. But the narrator is not likable enough for me to put up with his strange musings that follow his editorial reports. The whole book is written in journal format interspersed with pages of what is a column for a newspaper in the rest of the USA.

There was nothing about the character that was redeeming, he was very self-important and kind of an asshole. Not that every book's main character needs to be perfect, but there has to be something there to make me want to keep reading. Even though I did find all the explanations of how Ecotopia conducted business, and recycled water, etc, it was just too much like a research journal to keep my attention. They could probably make a movie from it that sums everything up in a more dynamic way, but this book was a tough read. I am hesitant to say I read the whole thing, because in order to read enough of it to keep up with class discussions I ended up skipping a lot of pages--which didn't seem to harm my understanding of much of the book.

The ending was interesting, to say the least, and didn't quite go the way I expected which is good! I would not read it again though lol

schnoebs13's review against another edition

4.0

This took me a long time to finish for such a short book. I think it’s because I completely loved the articles within that broke down the different parts of the society. From the way the houses were built to how companies were run to what the inside of their public transportation system looked like, I loved every detail. I wanted to keep know more. But on the other side, I would get bored reading the diary entries. The actual concept of switching between the articles and his diary was so creative though it sucks that I would get frustrated by his character a lot of the time. I’ll definitely be recommending this book to friends because I desperately want someone to discuss these ideas with!

fa_biene's review against another edition

1.0

the world and ideas: 4 starts
writing: 1 star: awfully flat characters, no rhythm, very dry, overexplaining...
didn't enjoy this at all, though I hear that this is normal for utopian fiction.. I guess I'll stick with dystopias, then.

lunadgn's review against another edition

inspiring reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0