It took a few chapters for me to get into it (I was jarred by the sudden time shift), but as the back story filled in, I really liked this one. I feltIt took a few chapters for me to get into it (I was jarred by the sudden time shift), but as the back story filled in, I really liked this one. I felt like we just scratched the surface on the characters and their development - I like that it left me wanting more. I would have enjoyed more about Miranda and her work on "Station Eleven". At first the chapters centered around Arthur seemed extraneous, but pieced together, it was a tapestry or interwoven lives pre-and post "apocalypse".
I really liked the post-apocalyptic setting and the overarching analogy as it related to the graphic novel. I also liked the sociology of the community-building after the fall: The Traveling Symphony, the wanderers, the cults.
Reminiscent of Atwood and McCarthy for both apocalyptic setting, but also overall tone. I read Mitchell's "Bone Clocks" recently, and there are many similarities here as well. Worthy of the time!...more
For a play-by-play review of the book, I enjoyed reading (and largely agreed with) Ron Charles' Washington Post piece on David Mitchell's newest book:For a play-by-play review of the book, I enjoyed reading (and largely agreed with) Ron Charles' Washington Post piece on David Mitchell's newest book: http://www.washingtonpost.com/enterta...
The first 2/3 of the book were very enjoyable, I enjoyed the spiraling stories shifting in time and location, with the common thread of a girl/woman (Holly Sykes). My favorite narrative follows Crispin Hershey, an aging British writer, and his travels around the globe and chance encounters with Holly Sykes. Crispin's voice was humorous, caustic, but at the same time sympathetic, as he tried to set things straight, and atone, after years of disorder.
While the last 3rd of the book was still very readable, it's turns were so fast that it left me with (a mild case) of whiplash. I did, however, appreciate Mitchell's approach of adding in genre (specifically science fiction and fantasy, and even some dystopian young adult-flavor of the decade- kinds of tropes) into this literary tale. It worked well.
I am also a fan of Easter eggs, so I enjoy the references to characters and locations from other works, and there are several here. The most notable, the appearance of Marinus, who was also a character in Mitchell's _A Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet_. ...more
The first two books of this series were probably the best works of fiction I have read in the last decade, so needless to say, the stakes were pretty The first two books of this series were probably the best works of fiction I have read in the last decade, so needless to say, the stakes were pretty high for this 3rd book of the MaddAddam trilogy.
Highlights: -Really liked Zeb and Adam's back story. This was my favorite part of the book. -Blackbeard the Craker -The "humanity" of the pigoons
Lowlights: -Ummm... how/why did Toby turn from this amazingly strong woman to a lovesick teenager? -Other than Zeb, Toby, and Blackbeard (and a small part of action from Snowman-the-Jimmy), all of the other characters were just props. They did very little in this book (minor spoiler: other than get pregnant and fight)
In the end, this book itself probably is more a 3-star rating, but since I love Atwood and this series so much, I bumped it up.
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