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jeffknerr's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
kendall_leigh's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
tomstbr's review against another edition
3.0
Decent, quick read about the end of the world. Australian perspective told in stages that skip through time and through generations. Aside from the exposition dump at the start (pretty awful and boring really) and 1 or 2 weak segments this was a good and entertaining read. Also quite realistic but never went into too much detail. End of the world due to climate change and collapse was done more intestingly in The Book of Strange New Things, and the narrative shape of the novel was done better in Things We Didn't See Coming by Steven Amsterdam.
kleonard's review against another edition
An astonishing and compelling novel of climate change and the effects--physical, emotional, practical--it will have on human life. Set in Australia, Clade is an outstanding companion to Nevil Shute's classic On the Beach, which is about the end of human life on earth. Clade, with its survivors and vision of the future, addresses many of the same responses and feelings, couched in an entirely modern and well-researched manner. By following a single family line through the 2020s and forward, Bradley creates unique characters who clearly learn from and are influenced by their progenitors and their actions. I'd love to teach this novel in conjunction with Atwood's MaddAddam trilogy and On the Beach, as they all offer distinct and endlessly fascinating ideas of what will come.
thomguttridge's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
sam_reads1's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
informative
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
stefhyena's review against another edition
challenging
dark
hopeful
reflective
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? It's complicated
3.5
This is an ambitious and necessary sort of a thing, a book about climate disasters and the human transformations that go with it. It is not as dark or as hopeless as some I have read but does end up kind of making light of the suffering (perhaps inadvertantly) of a future where the privileged are more likely to survive than the un(der) privileged and we see an unchanged humanity at the end (which I do think it impossible) neither traumatised (just a bit sad but philosophical) nor having changed any core values.
I liked it better than Wrack it made a better attempt to portray female characters in a not sexist way.
I found it difficult to connect to characters that kept shifting. I think Adam was meant to be the centrepoint of the book and he was just not someone I could connect with (and that is perhaps partly my bias). Also based on the cover and the blurb I was expecting the bees to play a more central part in the whole.
It was interesting to read about something similar to COVID (arguably worse) written before COVID happened. I dunno I am not completely sold on this one but am glad people are writing futures.
I liked it better than Wrack it made a better attempt to portray female characters in a not sexist way.
I found it difficult to connect to characters that kept shifting. I think Adam was meant to be the centrepoint of the book and he was just not someone I could connect with (and that is perhaps partly my bias). Also based on the cover and the blurb I was expecting the bees to play a more central part in the whole.
It was interesting to read about something similar to COVID (arguably worse) written before COVID happened. I dunno I am not completely sold on this one but am glad people are writing futures.
drillvoice's review against another edition
3.0
worth reading if you are interested in cli fi. Otherwise generally weak execution and too much going on, too many ideas that don't hang together greatly.
mllocy's review against another edition
3.0
This book is more a series of vignettes than a cohesive whole. The narrative jumps quickly between characters as they deal with the increasingly dire consequences of global warming gone unmitigated.
The author never lingers too long on any one character and only hints at the emotional depth they contain. This is both good and bad, on one hand, it serves the sprawling story well, because you need to be in different places, seeing from different eyes, all the myriad ways we've messed up the planet and how misfortune can aggravate those mistakes. But, it's just hard to care about any one character when they all get so little screen time, personal tragedies mix with the global tragedies, and mistakes compound misfortune, but it's difficult to really feel it.
Perhaps this is the author's intent, as caring about the right things (global warming, your family, your fellow humans) is a theme of the book, and some characters do better than others. And most of the problems stem from this source. But, as a reader, I also found it difficult to care, and if that was the point, it was well-made, if not engaging.
The author never lingers too long on any one character and only hints at the emotional depth they contain. This is both good and bad, on one hand, it serves the sprawling story well, because you need to be in different places, seeing from different eyes, all the myriad ways we've messed up the planet and how misfortune can aggravate those mistakes. But, it's just hard to care about any one character when they all get so little screen time, personal tragedies mix with the global tragedies, and mistakes compound misfortune, but it's difficult to really feel it.
Perhaps this is the author's intent, as caring about the right things (global warming, your family, your fellow humans) is a theme of the book, and some characters do better than others. And most of the problems stem from this source. But, as a reader, I also found it difficult to care, and if that was the point, it was well-made, if not engaging.