littlealk7's review
4.0
I had a love/hate relationship with this book. It took me awhile to get through the first three chapters in which each time and character is introduced. I didn’t love the excess of semi-colons. I had to look up vocabulary in reading the first few sentences! (And my vocabulary is not terrible).
But once I got used to the writing style and understood the characters, I couldn’t put the book down, and read it in just a few days.
This book tells three stories. The first is of the faun, half goat half man, Chapman. He and his brother plant Apple orchards in the Ohio Territory of the late 1700s, before settlers swarmed through. The author uses colonial language on purpose.
The second story is set 50 years into the future, and is told from the perspective of John, one of the last to remember what wilderness looked like before climate change wreaked the world.
The last story begins with C-432, a being living 1000 years into the future. This being is alone, living in a glacial expanse of ice and treacherous crevasses.
As each story unfolds, mythology twines them together.
If you like Cli-fi (as much as anyone can like it), and you’re interested in a really interesting, surprising story, and you can manage all the semicolons, this book is for you!
But once I got used to the writing style and understood the characters, I couldn’t put the book down, and read it in just a few days.
This book tells three stories. The first is of the faun, half goat half man, Chapman. He and his brother plant Apple orchards in the Ohio Territory of the late 1700s, before settlers swarmed through. The author uses colonial language on purpose.
The second story is set 50 years into the future, and is told from the perspective of John, one of the last to remember what wilderness looked like before climate change wreaked the world.
The last story begins with C-432, a being living 1000 years into the future. This being is alone, living in a glacial expanse of ice and treacherous crevasses.
As each story unfolds, mythology twines them together.
If you like Cli-fi (as much as anyone can like it), and you’re interested in a really interesting, surprising story, and you can manage all the semicolons, this book is for you!
lucialater's review
adventurous
mysterious
tense
4.0
WHAT. one of the most creative sci fi fantasy novels ive read in a while. when everything clicked in my mind i almost screamed
jgeter's review
adventurous
dark
reflective
sad
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? Yes
3.5
vrop's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
0.75
theaudioauditor's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
minionmalist's review
4.0
At first I was not sure if I would enjoy this book but as the story unfolds rich with metaphor and insight weaving different timelines, I really began to enjoy this story. I always find I relate more to fictional tales than nonfiction and this is a great tale about what could be our future. Some things about it are far from real and magical but so much of it seems so real and current. I think this could truly be one of the great dystopian novels up there with 1984 and Brave New World, but with a future that seems much more plausible than those do now.
areuliz's review
5.0
18th century, 50 years from today, 1000 years in the future. All connected through apples.
This book was like nothing I've read. I'm not even really sure how to do a review. The symbolism, connections, characters were all so well thought out. Like I said previously, I don't think I'm smart enough to figure it out on my own. I wish i had an English/Lit class to talk it through with.
I'd love to read this again with a group and talk through it together. Even tho I know that i missed so much, this book was incredible. Reminded me of Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood.
This book was like nothing I've read. I'm not even really sure how to do a review. The symbolism, connections, characters were all so well thought out. Like I said previously, I don't think I'm smart enough to figure it out on my own. I wish i had an English/Lit class to talk it through with.
I'd love to read this again with a group and talk through it together. Even tho I know that i missed so much, this book was incredible. Reminded me of Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood.
mtaylor270's review
adventurous
challenging
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
sarcasticnerdette's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
jobatkin's review
3.0
Not just one but three complex, fantastical and wandering plotlines make up this unusual dystopian novel. Nathaniel and Chapman are brothers in America's earliest colonial days, travelling through frontier country planting small apple orchards as a way to tame the wilderness, but Chapman struggles to tame the wild parts of himself, being a faun. John and Eury are high-tech scientists trying to save the modern-day world from climate change with the same goal but vastly different ways of accomplishing it. C-433 lives in a far-future world overtaken by glaciers and ice after the climate has rapidly cooled (thanks to John and Eury's efforts) trying to understand his past and purpose as one of the sole surviving descendants of humanity. Enough magic is present in the story that the standard rules don't apply, but exactly what the new rules are is never explained and feels very loose, with anything possible and little of it making complete sense. A very imaginative and unique tale where you're never sure what will happen next.