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uhambe_nami's review against another edition
3.0
The story of Raff Cody starts off nice enough, but to find the treasure of this novel one has to dig deep within the Anthill until reaching the part called The Anthill Chronicles (Part IV of the book). This is where the real action takes place: Ant-sex, soldiers, queens and maidens, battles, conquests, even a siege and some ant cannibalism. I was secretly hoping for an ant slave raid such as the one observed by Thoreau near his Walden cabin (and commented on by Wilson in [b:The Future of Life|183829|The Future Of Life|Edward O. Wilson|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348406814s/183829.jpg|1757283]), and indeed, I was rewarded in the end. With skill and wit, Wilson shows us that ant societies are not that different from human ones, and that the ant equivalents of colonialism, slavery and even genocide (he calls it myrmicide) can be found in and around the anthills in our very backyard.
tulscip's review against another edition
1.0
THIS BOOK IS THE WORST BOOK I HAVE EVER READ. DO NOT READ THIS BOOK.
horthhill's review against another edition
1.0
Anthill by E.O. Wilson was a disappointing story. Wilson is a great naturalist but a poor writer of fiction. The novel seems to have six disconnected sections. The first sections revolves around the adolescent naturalist Raff Cody and his cousin. But the novel jumps to a second section which details the back story of Cody's parents. We never hear about the cousin again. The third section sees an older Cody at university studying biology. From the second section onwards, the narrative is often taken over by a professor who sees himself as mentor to Cody. Oddly enough we never get to see Cody's point of view of this relationship. How the professor should know so much about Cody is inexplicable. Why Wilson didn't stick with Cody's view point becomes apparent in the fourth section. This is called the Anthill Chronicles and is a seventy page digression about ants written as a sort of ant-sized fable. Acccording to the narrative, the professor wrote the Anthill Chronicles from Cody's undergraduate thesis. Very bizarre inclusion of this digression that has no obvious place in the narrative. At the conclusion of the ant story, a fifth section follows with a flowery description of life at Harvard as Cody enters law school. An awkwardly written romance occurs but like the cousin in section one, the girlfriend all but disappears from the story as the section ends. Then the final sixth section begins which is over-the-top in its strangeness. For some reason which is never explained and seems to happen without motivation, Cody is kidnapped and will be murdered. He does escape death during the massacre of his kidnappers. The story then ends happily ever after. If nothing else, Anthill could prove useful as an exemplar of how-not-to-tell-a-story.
kynan's review against another edition
4.0
This is, mostly, the story of Raphael Semmes Cody (aka Raff), an Alabama boy, following him from age 15 through to 30. It was well written and the ending actually caught me by surprise. I felt that there was an obvious setup very early on in the book and I kept waiting for it to all fall into place, and it didn't.
For the most part the story follows the trials and tribulations of Raff, told mostly in limited third-person (although I feel that it may have strayed into omniscient territory towards the end of the book), narrated (perhaps) by "Uncle" Fred - a close friend and eventual mentor of Raff. It does however veer temporarily, but quite sharply, into a related story. I'm somewhat tempted to classify this as "hard-fiction", in the style of "hard-science-fiction". The related story a technically unstinting novella embedded as part 3 (I think) of this book and it very much put me in mind of [b:Fiasco|28766|Fiasco|Stanisław Lem|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1287614689s/28766.jpg|1762117] by [a:Stanisław Lem|10991|Stanisław Lem|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1246185166p2/10991.jpg]. Specifically, and somewhat obviously, the chapter about the giant, unrelenting, anthills. It's not just the subject matter though, but the style in which it is written. I greatly enjoyed the lavish detail with which factual knowledge, as well as entertainment, was imparted.
I listened to the Audible version of this book and the narrator (Kevin T. Collins) did a spectacular job on the Deep Southern accents and credibly voiced both the narration and the speech of the characters. Again, my only complaint is the bloody music that gets tacked onto the beginning and the end. Especially the end in this case. It starts playing about three sentences from the end of the book in an extremely annoying fashion.
For the most part the story follows the trials and tribulations of Raff, told mostly in limited third-person (although I feel that it may have strayed into omniscient territory towards the end of the book), narrated (perhaps) by "Uncle" Fred - a close friend and eventual mentor of Raff. It does however veer temporarily, but quite sharply, into a related story. I'm somewhat tempted to classify this as "hard-fiction", in the style of "hard-science-fiction". The related story a technically unstinting novella embedded as part 3 (I think) of this book and it very much put me in mind of [b:Fiasco|28766|Fiasco|Stanisław Lem|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1287614689s/28766.jpg|1762117] by [a:Stanisław Lem|10991|Stanisław Lem|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1246185166p2/10991.jpg]. Specifically, and somewhat obviously, the chapter about the giant, unrelenting, anthills. It's not just the subject matter though, but the style in which it is written. I greatly enjoyed the lavish detail with which factual knowledge, as well as entertainment, was imparted.
I listened to the Audible version of this book and the narrator (Kevin T. Collins) did a spectacular job on the Deep Southern accents and credibly voiced both the narration and the speech of the characters. Again, my only complaint is the bloody music that gets tacked onto the beginning and the end. Especially the end in this case. It starts playing about three sentences from the end of the book in an extremely annoying fashion.
juliana_aldous's review against another edition
3.0
Uneven writing sandwiches a wonderful piece of naturalist narrative.
saralynnburnett's review against another edition
5.0
I LOVED this book. Great story and amazing subject matter. I'll never look at ants the same way again. What amazing creatures! The middle part of the book, the Anthill Chronicles was by far the best bit. I suggest everyone read it!
randybo5's review against another edition
3.0
An interesting novel about the relationship between our modern society and nature.
christiek's review against another edition
4.0
I am surprised by how much I liked this. This middle section about ants is riveting! Really, ants are riveting. The first section is a bit slow and Wilson shows that he is not an experienced fiction writer. It's a little slow, I am only so so connected to young Raff and often Wilson's writing is overly descriptive. Then I started the ant section. So cool, compelling and edge of my seat! Mid section the library wanted the book back. I sent it back and decided I wanted to find out what happens to the ant colony, so I put it back on hold. A couple of months later, it comes back to me, and whew, I find out the resolution of the ant colony. I didn't expect to like the last section returning to Raff's narrative, but I did. It flows much better than the first section and I felt more connected to Raff. It also manages to surprise.
apetruce's review against another edition
3.0
I read this because E.O. Wilson is such a notable and Pulitzer winning natural scientist. I heard the NPR interview with him that described that he thought there was so much in the natural world for writer's to turn into fiction (This is his fist attempt at fiction.)and I had thought the same thing myself. The book is ok-to-good. Parts are really good and other parts are so slow...too non-fiction-like for my tastes. But I learned a lot. I guess my main criticism is that passages are either all fiction or all fact...and Wilson doesn't do a good job of blending them together. It's on the NYT bestseller list though, so what do I know?
nickie1776's review against another edition
5.0
Finished this amazing story in 2018. I'm shocked how much I like it, as the middle goes into great detail about anthills from an ant's perspective. That section reminds me a little of a tactical book we read in ROTC about the Boer war... (Defence of Duffers Drift) fascinating read. And the enduring storyline through the book is of a boy who grew up wandering in the woods and later goes to Harvard law in order to learn how to protect his beloved woods.
If you revere nature at all, this is a book that you'll love.
If you revere nature at all, this is a book that you'll love.