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thepucegoose's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
I know I'm a Quaker who likes sci-fi so I was always going to like this book, but there are many books which I should like on paper that I don't. This was not one of them though; I feel like my whole relationship with everything has been reordered.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Rape
m_is_for_awesome's review against another edition
2.0
Molly Gloss knows what she is doing. She takes a handful of elements - Quakers, the environmental crisis, interstellar travel - and forges an authentic world with just a few pages.
The fruit is a book for readers looking for deeply thoughtful character study and a certain amount of philosophy.
It is not for the seeker of space based science fiction challenge. Warning to readers: death both current and remembered of children and adults; also marital rape.
The world is well thought out and three dimensional, the prose rhythmic and immediate, and at the end of the day just not for me.
The characters are introspective to the point of being unlikable. The action of the story mostly takes place offscreen while the actual focus of the tale is the mundane and sometimes off putting inner worlds of the rotating POV characters. There is also a rape scene between a married couple which was treated more like a faux pas than a crime. All in all, I was left feeling like I had dipped my thoughts in slime after coming up from the story.
But it may be exactly what you are looking for! The unpleasant aspects are not prurient or pornographic, and serve the overall message of the book.
Just not for me.
The fruit is a book for readers looking for deeply thoughtful character study and a certain amount of philosophy.
It is not for the seeker of space based science fiction challenge. Warning to readers: death both current and remembered of children and adults; also marital rape.
The world is well thought out and three dimensional, the prose rhythmic and immediate, and at the end of the day just not for me.
The characters are introspective to the point of being unlikable. The action of the story mostly takes place offscreen while the actual focus of the tale is the mundane and sometimes off putting inner worlds of the rotating POV characters. There is also a rape scene between a married couple which was treated more like a faux pas than a crime. All in all, I was left feeling like I had dipped my thoughts in slime after coming up from the story.
But it may be exactly what you are looking for! The unpleasant aspects are not prurient or pornographic, and serve the overall message of the book.
Just not for me.
stiricide's review against another edition
DNF, don't remember why. Just realized that I checked it out from the library (ebook) and never picked it back up. Moving on.
lasbooks's review
challenging
emotional
inspiring
reflective
slow-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
Beautiful, but tedious. Evocative prose that sinks you into a liminal space, like you're the only one awake to view the twilight world. Phrasing and sentences that feel they could only come from callused hands that labored for decades in this familiar but strange world. Turns mundane, corporeality into pages-long plot in a way that honors what it means to be alive. Yet - each story turns on such small insights, such minor realizations that barely any "plot" happens. Such that I was eager to be done with each story and the book as a whole, ready to move on, even as I admired the craft of the writing, even as I thought I should definitely re-read this book again some day.
divadiane's review
5.0
This was a remarkably beautiful book. The framework was SF, but the painting was of interpersonal relationships and the inner workings of the several POV characters. Especially striking was the description of one character experiencing a stroke. It was fascinating how these characters would go from happy, joyful or quietly content to experiencing conflict, sadness, frustration just like in real life. The relationships and how people interacted seemed really on pointe.
There isn’t much of a plot that can’t be related in less than 10 words, so if you are looking for an exciting, plot-driven story, this isn’t for you! The world and society Gloss has created is so rich and satisfying, though, so if that is your sort of thing and you appreciate beautiful, languorous prose and 3D characters, I can’t recommend this highly enough.
There isn’t much of a plot that can’t be related in less than 10 words, so if you are looking for an exciting, plot-driven story, this isn’t for you! The world and society Gloss has created is so rich and satisfying, though, so if that is your sort of thing and you appreciate beautiful, languorous prose and 3D characters, I can’t recommend this highly enough.
tsoutham's review against another edition
5.0
Another ecofeminist science fiction that teaches us about alternate worlds, dismissing the "we can't have this" in a thousand beautiful ways.
ideath's review
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
octavia_cade's review against another edition
5.0
A thoughtful, interesting novel. Quite slow, but I don't mean that negatively - there's a sort of dreamy pacing that goes well with the temporary nature of migration, the doomed setting of the life that's made on the ship. It's a good life too, but it can't last - though I can't help wondering how the Quaker settlers, so steeped in ecological holism, justify what must be the wholesale slaughter of the lives they've nurtured - the ecosystem aboard the Dusty Miller surely won't survive the new frigidity of life planet-side. They discuss everything else in an attempt to reach consensus, but never this. I kept waiting for it...
archergal's review against another edition
4.0
The framing story is about a sub-light speed generation ship that is finally about to arrive at its destination star. Once there, the ship's colonists have to decide what to do: stay with their aging vehicle, or take their chances on a cold and inhospitable new world.
But it's really and truly the story of the people on the ship, who've lived there for generations and built a society and an ecosystem that works for them. The society is Quaker. They spend time sitting quietly and letting answers come to them as a group.
This is no a linear tale; and though it takes place on a generation ship, the mechanics of it all are not part of the story. There's a bit at the beginning where they're doing maintenance on the sails that have brought the ship to its new "harbor," but that's about it. Honestly, tha[b:Aurora|23197269|Aurora|Kim Stanley Robinson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1436300570l/23197269._SX50_.jpg|42742263]t was kind of a relief, because I'm the sort of person who always wonders about the how the plumbing works and who maintains the reactors and stuff like that. I could just let that worry go and assume it all just works. (Cf [b:Aurora|23197269|Aurora|Kim Stanley Robinson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1436300570l/23197269._SX50_.jpg|42742263]) No worries about incompatible proteins here.
The writing here is very fine and a little dense. It's quietly intelligent. The characters are complex and interesting. The story is ultimately hopeful. It takes a little work to read, but I'm glad I read it.
But it's really and truly the story of the people on the ship, who've lived there for generations and built a society and an ecosystem that works for them. The society is Quaker. They spend time sitting quietly and letting answers come to them as a group.
This is no a linear tale; and though it takes place on a generation ship, the mechanics of it all are not part of the story. There's a bit at the beginning where they're doing maintenance on the sails that have brought the ship to its new "harbor," but that's about it. Honestly, tha[b:Aurora|23197269|Aurora|Kim Stanley Robinson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1436300570l/23197269._SX50_.jpg|42742263]t was kind of a relief, because I'm the sort of person who always wonders about the how the plumbing works and who maintains the reactors and stuff like that. I could just let that worry go and assume it all just works. (Cf [b:Aurora|23197269|Aurora|Kim Stanley Robinson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1436300570l/23197269._SX50_.jpg|42742263]) No worries about incompatible proteins here.
The writing here is very fine and a little dense. It's quietly intelligent. The characters are complex and interesting. The story is ultimately hopeful. It takes a little work to read, but I'm glad I read it.