"Children of Men" by P.D. James
"Children of Men" by P.D. James
First read: 11.2009
Comments: I was really surprised to discover James is a woman (I knew she wrote mystery) because the main character is an extremely Rational man in his fifties, skeptic and desilutioned with everything, not without reason since he lives in a childless world but one can tell he wasn't a very happy individual before the crisis of worldwide sterility.
The novel feels as if it's a constant exposition, it combines chapters that are Theo's journal with others that might as well be except they are written in the 3rd person (but still focalized through Theo), and you get the feeling that it's going somewhere with all the flashbacks and details but it turns out they were just random introspection. Atmospheric but not very interesting plot-wise. Character motivations don't make much more sense to me, even without getting into the whole "most women go nuts when they realize they can't get pregnant anymore" nonsense. Or into the mentioning same-sex sexual attraction in passing and then having a world that's completely lost interest in sex and has to be given porn by the government because they can't reproduce.
Even if the idea had worked the slow decay of humanity doesn't have the same rush to it than survivying other post-apocalyptic events do (sorry, but the zombies are more exciting!)
Didn't finish, I've an hour or something left out of ten and I already know the ending thanks o the bookclub, but most importantly, I don' care what happens.
2009, 2009: novel in english, book-2009, -science-fiction, *author: female, @read in english, -apocalyptic, -audiobook
First read: 11.2009
Comments: I was really surprised to discover James is a woman (I knew she wrote mystery) because the main character is an extremely Rational man in his fifties, skeptic and desilutioned with everything, not without reason since he lives in a childless world but one can tell he wasn't a very happy individual before the crisis of worldwide sterility.
The novel feels as if it's a constant exposition, it combines chapters that are Theo's journal with others that might as well be except they are written in the 3rd person (but still focalized through Theo), and you get the feeling that it's going somewhere with all the flashbacks and details but it turns out they were just random introspection. Atmospheric but not very interesting plot-wise. Character motivations don't make much more sense to me, even without getting into the whole "most women go nuts when they realize they can't get pregnant anymore" nonsense. Or into the mentioning same-sex sexual attraction in passing and then having a world that's completely lost interest in sex and has to be given porn by the government because they can't reproduce.
Even if the idea had worked the slow decay of humanity doesn't have the same rush to it than survivying other post-apocalyptic events do (sorry, but the zombies are more exciting!)
Didn't finish, I've an hour or something left out of ten and I already know the ending thanks o the bookclub, but most importantly, I don' care what happens.
2009, 2009: novel in english, book-2009, -science-fiction, *author: female, @read in english, -apocalyptic, -audiobook