markcummings's review
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
thepucegoose's review
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
I know I'm a Quaker who likes sci-fi so I was always going to like this book, but there are many books which I should like on paper that I don't. This was not one of them though; I feel like my whole relationship with everything has been reordered.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Rape
m_is_for_awesome's review against another edition
2.0
Molly Gloss knows what she is doing. She takes a handful of elements - Quakers, the environmental crisis, interstellar travel - and forges an authentic world with just a few pages.
The fruit is a book for readers looking for deeply thoughtful character study and a certain amount of philosophy.
It is not for the seeker of space based science fiction challenge. Warning to readers: death both current and remembered of children and adults; also marital rape.
The world is well thought out and three dimensional, the prose rhythmic and immediate, and at the end of the day just not for me.
The characters are introspective to the point of being unlikable. The action of the story mostly takes place offscreen while the actual focus of the tale is the mundane and sometimes off putting inner worlds of the rotating POV characters. There is also a rape scene between a married couple which was treated more like a faux pas than a crime. All in all, I was left feeling like I had dipped my thoughts in slime after coming up from the story.
But it may be exactly what you are looking for! The unpleasant aspects are not prurient or pornographic, and serve the overall message of the book.
Just not for me.
The fruit is a book for readers looking for deeply thoughtful character study and a certain amount of philosophy.
It is not for the seeker of space based science fiction challenge. Warning to readers: death both current and remembered of children and adults; also marital rape.
The world is well thought out and three dimensional, the prose rhythmic and immediate, and at the end of the day just not for me.
The characters are introspective to the point of being unlikable. The action of the story mostly takes place offscreen while the actual focus of the tale is the mundane and sometimes off putting inner worlds of the rotating POV characters. There is also a rape scene between a married couple which was treated more like a faux pas than a crime. All in all, I was left feeling like I had dipped my thoughts in slime after coming up from the story.
But it may be exactly what you are looking for! The unpleasant aspects are not prurient or pornographic, and serve the overall message of the book.
Just not for me.
stiricide's review against another edition
DNF, don't remember why. Just realized that I checked it out from the library (ebook) and never picked it back up. Moving on.
lasbooks's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Beautiful, but tedious. Evocative prose that sinks you into a liminal space, like you're the only one awake to view the twilight world. Phrasing and sentences that feel they could only come from callused hands that labored for decades in this familiar but strange world. Turns mundane, corporeality into pages-long plot in a way that honors what it means to be alive. Yet - each story turns on such small insights, such minor realizations that barely any "plot" happens. Such that I was eager to be done with each story and the book as a whole, ready to move on, even as I admired the craft of the writing, even as I thought I should definitely re-read this book again some day.
divadiane's review against another edition
5.0
This was a remarkably beautiful book. The framework was SF, but the painting was of interpersonal relationships and the inner workings of the several POV characters. Especially striking was the description of one character experiencing a stroke. It was fascinating how these characters would go from happy, joyful or quietly content to experiencing conflict, sadness, frustration just like in real life. The relationships and how people interacted seemed really on pointe.
There isn’t much of a plot that can’t be related in less than 10 words, so if you are looking for an exciting, plot-driven story, this isn’t for you! The world and society Gloss has created is so rich and satisfying, though, so if that is your sort of thing and you appreciate beautiful, languorous prose and 3D characters, I can’t recommend this highly enough.
There isn’t much of a plot that can’t be related in less than 10 words, so if you are looking for an exciting, plot-driven story, this isn’t for you! The world and society Gloss has created is so rich and satisfying, though, so if that is your sort of thing and you appreciate beautiful, languorous prose and 3D characters, I can’t recommend this highly enough.
tsoutham's review
5.0
Another ecofeminist science fiction that teaches us about alternate worlds, dismissing the "we can't have this" in a thousand beautiful ways.
ideath's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0