fqwatkins's review
2.0
Good/interesting concept, but the writing could really could have been stronger. None of the stories felt fully imagined, I never felt any sort of strong emotion linking the characters, and had to continually remind myselfto look for the love that the stories purported to imagine. Cliches and just straight-out bad writing abounded--i would have thought that any editor's pen would have caught "The sky was the blue of a royal blue crayon", especially as the introductory line of a story.
Finally, the theoretical framework was hobbled by the fact that the author seems never to have considered any alternative perspectives to the enlightenment-era conceptualization of "nature" as inherently separate from humanity. This view might be useful as a cultural marker/calling sign, but it breaks down at the first full-on glance, especially in light of contemporary scientific knowledge which indicates that one of the distinctive characteristics of humans is our tendency to alter our habitat to fit our needs (I.e. we have never existed in harmony with a "pure" or unaltered natural world, and "nature" is really just a theoretical construct), and on top of that, the anthropocene is far from the first time that life has contributed to a fundamental alteration of Earth's climate and geography (what is distinctive is our awareness of the change and its relative pace). In all, disappointingly realized.
Finally, the theoretical framework was hobbled by the fact that the author seems never to have considered any alternative perspectives to the enlightenment-era conceptualization of "nature" as inherently separate from humanity. This view might be useful as a cultural marker/calling sign, but it breaks down at the first full-on glance, especially in light of contemporary scientific knowledge which indicates that one of the distinctive characteristics of humans is our tendency to alter our habitat to fit our needs (I.e. we have never existed in harmony with a "pure" or unaltered natural world, and "nature" is really just a theoretical construct), and on top of that, the anthropocene is far from the first time that life has contributed to a fundamental alteration of Earth's climate and geography (what is distinctive is our awareness of the change and its relative pace). In all, disappointingly realized.
lmdo's review
4.0
I liked this much more than I expected to. It was a nice combination of meditations on love, our human conceptualisation of nature and what that all might mean in light of climate change. It also had a sci-fi element to it as well, with nothing being particularly blown out and very much just where we could end up in a few other steps down the "wrong" path. The short story format works well to not create any attachments to characters or scenarios, but it does paint a picture of what the world looked like.
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