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bucketofkay's review against another edition
challenging
dark
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
blodeuedd's review
3.0
I can totally see this happening, totally. I hope a certain president do not get ideas from it...
The world has gone to hell. And some people still doubt climate change. Yup, I can see that too. The East coast is plagued by super storms. The west coast and inland is a dust bowl. Further south, oh there is nothing there but death and starvation. And the people up north do not want to take care of storm trash and dusters. Yes they might be fellow Amercians but to take them all in, hell no! Not that rapist trash! I can totally see that happening, people looking out for nr 1. It is one thing to help a few, but when the half the country is unlivable...then that is another thing.
And in steps Holly who gets a new job. She is a delicado or as she would have been called now, a snowflake. Yes it is a derogatory term. She will help Senator Slaymaker win the presidential race, and honestly, I wish Holly had never met him. Holly changes and at the end I do not like her. Or any American for that matter. I can not tell you what happens, but, still at the same time. Looking out for nr 1 is human nature. I get it.
It does make you sad. Because this future is way too real. If we do not stop global warming (eh what warming, fake news!) then this is out future and the world burns.
It's one of those books that make you think, and fear the future too.
The world has gone to hell. And some people still doubt climate change. Yup, I can see that too. The East coast is plagued by super storms. The west coast and inland is a dust bowl. Further south, oh there is nothing there but death and starvation. And the people up north do not want to take care of storm trash and dusters. Yes they might be fellow Amercians but to take them all in, hell no! Not that rapist trash! I can totally see that happening, people looking out for nr 1. It is one thing to help a few, but when the half the country is unlivable...then that is another thing.
And in steps Holly who gets a new job. She is a delicado or as she would have been called now, a snowflake. Yes it is a derogatory term. She will help Senator Slaymaker win the presidential race, and honestly, I wish Holly had never met him. Holly changes and at the end I do not like her. Or any American for that matter. I can not tell you what happens, but, still at the same time. Looking out for nr 1 is human nature. I get it.
It does make you sad. Because this future is way too real. If we do not stop global warming (eh what warming, fake news!) then this is out future and the world burns.
It's one of those books that make you think, and fear the future too.
cernunnos's review
dark
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
rosiefrog's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
johndoe15's review against another edition
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
gerbilreads's review against another edition
5.0
Really, seriously good stuff here. Beckett made me think hard about quite a few things and made me quite uncomfortable, but not in the standard climate change distasteful kind of way. He manages to flip the machinations of the ordinary human onto its back so we can see their squirmy underbelly, riven with complications and inconsistencies. Enlightening, unnerving but sort of hopeful, too.
ghostmuppet's review against another edition
3.0
Some time in the near future, climate change is having an impact. Migration is happening more, land is dying and governments/countries are changing. The wall has also been built.
This is a political book set in the future. It deals the fallout of not doing anything to stop global warming until it was too late, and how people will cope and handle this. It concentrates on Holly, a young woman who helps a senator to build a program for internal migration.
It's fairly scary in some places, and some parts make you think - nah, that would never happen.
Fairly short read, and audible narration was fine.
This is a political book set in the future. It deals the fallout of not doing anything to stop global warming until it was too late, and how people will cope and handle this. It concentrates on Holly, a young woman who helps a senator to build a program for internal migration.
It's fairly scary in some places, and some parts make you think - nah, that would never happen.
Fairly short read, and audible narration was fine.
srreid's review
4.0
I received a free copy from readers first in exchange for an honest review.
Billed as sci-fi set 100 years in the future, it seems a little too real and close to home, it could almost be happening today. The USA is suffering from the effects of global warming, super storms batter the coasts and farmlands are drying up. The refugees from these are collectively labeled storm-trash and dust trash, and they are fleeing their homes to find a better place to live, but they aren't wanted.
There are talks of building walls to keep them in their own states (sound familiar with a certain president today). Then an up and coming senator called Slaymaker (a Dickens villain if ever i heard one) makes a run for president, on the platform of colonising Canada - so much unused green space that could fit all the refugees, and they end up creating three new super cities.
Obviously this doesn't go down well with the Canadians either, they are essentially being invaded, and they start to fight back, attacking the new cities.
Chapters alternate between character viewpoints, from the senators right hand woman to some of the refugees throughout their travels and their thoughts on the senator/future president. It is also a scary look into how people can be manipulated through social media, again something all to relevant today.
Billed as sci-fi set 100 years in the future, it seems a little too real and close to home, it could almost be happening today. The USA is suffering from the effects of global warming, super storms batter the coasts and farmlands are drying up. The refugees from these are collectively labeled storm-trash and dust trash, and they are fleeing their homes to find a better place to live, but they aren't wanted.
There are talks of building walls to keep them in their own states (sound familiar with a certain president today). Then an up and coming senator called Slaymaker (a Dickens villain if ever i heard one) makes a run for president, on the platform of colonising Canada - so much unused green space that could fit all the refugees, and they end up creating three new super cities.
Obviously this doesn't go down well with the Canadians either, they are essentially being invaded, and they start to fight back, attacking the new cities.
Chapters alternate between character viewpoints, from the senators right hand woman to some of the refugees throughout their travels and their thoughts on the senator/future president. It is also a scary look into how people can be manipulated through social media, again something all to relevant today.
sarahgibbons17's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
adrianhon's review
2.0
Blandly cynical, delighting in false dichotomies and strawman arguments. Too detailed to be a fable, and too manipulative to be enlightening.
It's all very well having an amoral protagonist, but it's quite another thing to create a cast of supporting "liberal" characters who are feckless and unwilling to make any personal sacrifices. This would be insulting if it weren't so plainly laughable.
I get it, this is fiction, it posits a chaotic climate-changed future America. But what it describes does not follow from where we are now, and does not seem to contain any actual humans whose reasoning and motivation that I would recognise.
It gets points because the plot is pacy and it's an interesting scenario, and under different circumstances I'd give it 3 stars, but I was so disappointed, I have to go lower.
--
SPOILERS:
Also, holy shit, the bit where Richard meets the Senator and suddenly realises that intellectual activity is masturbatory and that a real man wouldn't write books. W. T. F.?
It's all very well having an amoral protagonist, but it's quite another thing to create a cast of supporting "liberal" characters who are feckless and unwilling to make any personal sacrifices. This would be insulting if it weren't so plainly laughable.
I get it, this is fiction, it posits a chaotic climate-changed future America. But what it describes does not follow from where we are now, and does not seem to contain any actual humans whose reasoning and motivation that I would recognise.
It gets points because the plot is pacy and it's an interesting scenario, and under different circumstances I'd give it 3 stars, but I was so disappointed, I have to go lower.
--
SPOILERS:
Also, holy shit, the bit where Richard meets the Senator and suddenly realises that intellectual activity is masturbatory and that a real man wouldn't write books. W. T. F.?