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3.51 AVERAGE
3.51 AVERAGE
It is the future and humans haven't been able to reproduce for about 25 years. The ability to procreate had been slowly decreasing without notice at first. (sociological reasons were given for the declining birthrate) Now there have been no babies for many years. Government (England) is being run by a council of 5. The cousin of the lead is a professor who has been just existing after he accidentally killed his daughter. Population centers keep getting smaller. Then a group contacts him to bring a message to his cousin. Do something about the penal colony, about the cheap labor being imported, and the compulsory tests for fertility most have to take. He is unimpressed by the demands but does find a connection with one of the group. This connection wakes him up to his world and what is going on.
Loved the set up but felt the end was off.
Loved the set up but felt the end was off.
I read this book several years before the movie came out. Didn't like it much, but it was still better than the movie.
Fantastic--very different from the film. An interesting emotional and thoughtful view of dystopian society, rather than what more often tends to be: very focused on action and disaster.
Distinctly British and akin to the country’s history of gloomy sci-fi, “The Children of Men” feels like an excellent step into the genre. Its willingness to avoid discussions of advanced technology and instead opting for a more grounded perspective, solidifies the story as one that feels almost timeless. At once it can feel like the past and another like the future, which would be confusing if it wasn’t for PD James making the lead a historian.
It’s a great book, at first pensive and then riveting in its tension. Definitely a worth while read.
It’s a great book, at first pensive and then riveting in its tension. Definitely a worth while read.
I loved the movie when it came out — that tracking shot is seared in my memory — and I always meant to read the book but never got around to it (so thanks, Backlisted).
And what a strange, unsettling, fascinating novel. It starts with the diary entries of academic Theo Faron. With the give-no-shits attitude of someone who's thrown in the towel, Theo tells us that the last child born 25 years ago has just died. He then fills us in on his dystopian world, one where sperm counts have dropped to zero, where there hasn’t been a new-born since 1996 (the book is set in 2021), where Britain is run by a Warden and his Council, where a private army (the Grenadiers) and a Secret Police keep order, where the elderly drown themselves in a ritual called the Quietus, where the Isle of Man has become a Darwinian prison and where the final generation, the Omegas, are utterly amoral.
Theo reluctantly gets involved with a resistance group called the Five Fishes, falling in love with one of the fishes — Julian. As a resistance group, they’re pretty hapless, sending out fliers to express their demands. But then Julian becomes pregnant (not to Theo), and suddenly, they are on the run from the Warden and his Grenadiers.
The novel is icy cold, switching between Theo’s matter-of-fact diary entries to a third-person narrative that’s no friendlier. There’s a very Christian bleakness to it all, of a God who has forsaken humanity. As such, there’s a cruelty to it, where people die violently, James never turning the camera away. It all leads to a brilliant ending. It's nothing like the tracking shot of the movie but an ending freighted with ambiguity that becomes less ambiguous and more disturbing the longer you think about it.
The temptation is to overlay James’s dystopia — written in 1992 — on the current moment. It’s not an easy fit; there’s little about the environment, and while sperm counts are down, it’s nothing like how it’s depicted here. But that sense of hopelessness and lack of purpose leading to apathy that allows an authoritarian regime to establish itself does resonate.
It’s not a perfect novel. There’s a density to the prose that’s maybe, at times, a little too oppressive. But I’m glad I read it. Like the movie, it’s left its mark on my consciousness.
And what a strange, unsettling, fascinating novel. It starts with the diary entries of academic Theo Faron. With the give-no-shits attitude of someone who's thrown in the towel, Theo tells us that the last child born 25 years ago has just died. He then fills us in on his dystopian world, one where sperm counts have dropped to zero, where there hasn’t been a new-born since 1996 (the book is set in 2021), where Britain is run by a Warden and his Council, where a private army (the Grenadiers) and a Secret Police keep order, where the elderly drown themselves in a ritual called the Quietus, where the Isle of Man has become a Darwinian prison and where the final generation, the Omegas, are utterly amoral.
Theo reluctantly gets involved with a resistance group called the Five Fishes, falling in love with one of the fishes — Julian. As a resistance group, they’re pretty hapless, sending out fliers to express their demands. But then Julian becomes pregnant (not to Theo), and suddenly, they are on the run from the Warden and his Grenadiers.
The novel is icy cold, switching between Theo’s matter-of-fact diary entries to a third-person narrative that’s no friendlier. There’s a very Christian bleakness to it all, of a God who has forsaken humanity. As such, there’s a cruelty to it, where people die violently, James never turning the camera away. It all leads to a brilliant ending. It's nothing like the tracking shot of the movie but an ending freighted with ambiguity that becomes less ambiguous and more disturbing the longer you think about it.
The temptation is to overlay James’s dystopia — written in 1992 — on the current moment. It’s not an easy fit; there’s little about the environment, and while sperm counts are down, it’s nothing like how it’s depicted here. But that sense of hopelessness and lack of purpose leading to apathy that allows an authoritarian regime to establish itself does resonate.
It’s not a perfect novel. There’s a density to the prose that’s maybe, at times, a little too oppressive. But I’m glad I read it. Like the movie, it’s left its mark on my consciousness.
Although I was already familiar with this story, this book brought new perspective and dept to the tragedy of the world within the pages.
The story behind the pages, shows a world that is falling apart. Women can no longer get pregnant, and as the population ages, there are no younger people to take their place. Schools are closed and the youngest people are in their twenties.
When one woman comes up pregnant, she knows if she is found out, the government will turn her into a science experiment and take her child from her. There are people who wish to keep her safe, but they are few and far between and its hard to know who to trust.
The truth behind the words in this book, are far more impactful than I think the author knew at the time they wrote them. To think about a mother fearing for the life of her child, or having her child taken from her. These fears live in the real world.
This was a great book. A definite must.
Sara | Book Confessions of an ExBallerina
The story behind the pages, shows a world that is falling apart. Women can no longer get pregnant, and as the population ages, there are no younger people to take their place. Schools are closed and the youngest people are in their twenties.
When one woman comes up pregnant, she knows if she is found out, the government will turn her into a science experiment and take her child from her. There are people who wish to keep her safe, but they are few and far between and its hard to know who to trust.
The truth behind the words in this book, are far more impactful than I think the author knew at the time they wrote them. To think about a mother fearing for the life of her child, or having her child taken from her. These fears live in the real world.
This was a great book. A definite must.
Sara | Book Confessions of an ExBallerina
This book is kind of a companion volume to 'The Handmaid's Tale', but written from a more conservative mindset. It's excellent but interestingly unlike the much more liberal but equally wonderful film adaptation.
In the real world, at around the time this book and Atwood's were written, a marked decline in human fertility had been noted. Both authors chose to explore this possibility and took it in similar but different directions. Both envisaged the emergence of oppressive regimes in response. Both are very bleak. However, whereas Atwood depicted a religiously fundamentalist theocracy, James expected nihilism. There is also a religious element in the possibility of a final baby being born, who would be venerated like the Christ child, and in fact I can easily imagine this would be so.
As time goes by, the scenario becomes less plausible and it's not particularly easy to get on board with James's idea that we would throw open our borders and welcome all and sundry, and that this would be a bad thing, so to that extent the film is more convincing to me than the book. In a way, for me there is hope in this story, not so much because of the single final baby as that if the human race did die out, the rest of the planet could recover, and for me that's the hope for the future.
Oh, and the monarchy seems to be gone as well, presumably because they died without heirs, although the time scale seems wrong for this.
In the real world, at around the time this book and Atwood's were written, a marked decline in human fertility had been noted. Both authors chose to explore this possibility and took it in similar but different directions. Both envisaged the emergence of oppressive regimes in response. Both are very bleak. However, whereas Atwood depicted a religiously fundamentalist theocracy, James expected nihilism. There is also a religious element in the possibility of a final baby being born, who would be venerated like the Christ child, and in fact I can easily imagine this would be so.
As time goes by, the scenario becomes less plausible and it's not particularly easy to get on board with James's idea that we would throw open our borders and welcome all and sundry, and that this would be a bad thing, so to that extent the film is more convincing to me than the book. In a way, for me there is hope in this story, not so much because of the single final baby as that if the human race did die out, the rest of the planet could recover, and for me that's the hope for the future.
Oh, and the monarchy seems to be gone as well, presumably because they died without heirs, although the time scale seems wrong for this.
My biggest complaint is that the font is way too small. Holy moly! I had to use a magnifying sheet.
While I preferred the film, I still enjoyed the book. The story differs a little, but I enjoyed the world building and complex characters in both. This has a good pace and a wonderful range of ideas to consider. It maintains a balanced tone, presenting characters with different world views respectfully.