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traceyvj's review
4.0
I've really enjoyed Phillip Mann's writing in the past - "Pioneers" is an old favourite, but I wasn't expecting to like this one for some reason (despite the fabulous cover ;). Phew! I was wrong! I wanted more when it finished, and you can't really get a better recommendation than that. The only bone I really have to pick was the foreshadowing - very early on, you knew how it was going to end, but the journey there was great.
ianbanks's review
4.0
Phillip Mann is an Englishman living in New Zealand. His previous novels have been excellent, though not always entirely to my taste. He does, however, always give the reader plenty of thoughtful material to work with. His latest novel, The Disestablishment Of Paradise, is billed as an ecological thriller in the vein of Avatar and Silent Running but is really a piece that finds its own way. The comparisons are inevitable, I guess: like Avatar, it tells the story of humans on a near-sentient planet with an amazingly alien ecology; like Silent Running there are large parts of the book where the main character spends an awful lot of time on her own in a strange yet familiar place. But really, comparisons such as this are only going to give you a glimpse as to what the story is about, because this book is similar to those movies… but quite, quite different.
It is about the evacuation of a planet, Paradise, which has been decreed as being unsuitable for further human usage. It is told through the voice of a narrator, Olivia, who is retelling the story of Hera Melhuish, the last human to leave Paradise. Olivia accompanies the story with a ton of appendices which stretch out further the story of Paradise and its human history. She refers to these quite often during the novel which only adds to the verisimilitude of the story. Unfortunately, she also has a rather annoying authorial voice that – thankfully – disappears as the novel progresses.
But it is not her story: Hera and her lover Mack walk, sail and fly across Paradise, exploring its ecology, discovering in the process that the planet is exhuming rubbish, bodies, anything that is alien to its surface, as though it is cleansing itself of impurities. And the extent of this is being felt even in space where Hera and Mack’s transport offworld are waiting for them…
But it is primarily the story of Hera’s journey across Paradise. Which is where Mann really goes to town: this is a book about journeys and destinations, metaphorical and actual. While the planet returns to its natural condition, so too does Hera. Already widely knowledgeable about Paradise she discovers things that she never realised she knew amidst its astonishing variety of life.
Mann has really created a believable milieu for his story here. He has taken great pains to immerse the reader in the environment of the story and does it effortlessly. Thanks to the structure of the story you find yourself investing belief rather than suspending your disbelief (which is a discussion for another day) and the result is a story where you are beside the characters feeling their joys and pains, their failures and successes and living their lives with them
Recommended.
(Review also published at http://stuffianlikes.aussieblogs.com.au/2013/04/02/review-the-disestablishment-of-paradise-by-phillip-mann/)
It is about the evacuation of a planet, Paradise, which has been decreed as being unsuitable for further human usage. It is told through the voice of a narrator, Olivia, who is retelling the story of Hera Melhuish, the last human to leave Paradise. Olivia accompanies the story with a ton of appendices which stretch out further the story of Paradise and its human history. She refers to these quite often during the novel which only adds to the verisimilitude of the story. Unfortunately, she also has a rather annoying authorial voice that – thankfully – disappears as the novel progresses.
But it is not her story: Hera and her lover Mack walk, sail and fly across Paradise, exploring its ecology, discovering in the process that the planet is exhuming rubbish, bodies, anything that is alien to its surface, as though it is cleansing itself of impurities. And the extent of this is being felt even in space where Hera and Mack’s transport offworld are waiting for them…
But it is primarily the story of Hera’s journey across Paradise. Which is where Mann really goes to town: this is a book about journeys and destinations, metaphorical and actual. While the planet returns to its natural condition, so too does Hera. Already widely knowledgeable about Paradise she discovers things that she never realised she knew amidst its astonishing variety of life.
Mann has really created a believable milieu for his story here. He has taken great pains to immerse the reader in the environment of the story and does it effortlessly. Thanks to the structure of the story you find yourself investing belief rather than suspending your disbelief (which is a discussion for another day) and the result is a story where you are beside the characters feeling their joys and pains, their failures and successes and living their lives with them
Recommended.
(Review also published at http://stuffianlikes.aussieblogs.com.au/2013/04/02/review-the-disestablishment-of-paradise-by-phillip-mann/)
mw2k's review
3.0
One of the knottier books I've read. It's quite a struggle in many places then all of a sudden it picks up, only to mire itself in narrative lulls again. It's written in a strange mixed-up present tense/recounting style where half of the time it's a retelling by an interviewer and other times, it's from the viewpoint of the characters themselves, i.e Hera, Mack and so on. In other words, there's places where you can't figure out who is actually telling the story.
Superficially, the book is a cross between something like Lem's Solaris and an environmentalist's diary.
Intriguing, hard-going and marginally rewarding. More of a 2½ out of 5 book.
Superficially, the book is a cross between something like Lem's Solaris and an environmentalist's diary.
Intriguing, hard-going and marginally rewarding. More of a 2½ out of 5 book.
jameseckman's review
1.0
I couldn't finish this one, the biased documentary style writing combined with the mystical planet and space happenings just failed to interest me. It was painful reading the first part, maybe it gets better, but I'm not up to finding out.
I still may try other books by this author, but if the next one leaves me as cold as this one, then in the future I will pass.
I still may try other books by this author, but if the next one leaves me as cold as this one, then in the future I will pass.
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