Reviews - World Without End

147 reviews for:

World Without End

Jean-Marc Jancovici, Christophe Blain

4.31 AVERAGE

roshreviews's review against another edition

3.5

informative reflective tense slow-paced

A graphic novel dealing with the highly relevant topic of climate change and what we can do about it. However, the implementation could have been better.

No matter what our age, gender, race, religion or nationality, we cannot escape from the consequences of our actions. As the heat wave in Europe soars to unimaginable levels and flash floods and intense rains are becoming a common occurrence every year during the Indian monsoon, it is high time we reflect on our habits and how we can be more eco-friendly. This is where the book comes in.

Christophe Blain, the artist, meets with Jean-Marc Jancovici of Carbone 4 and The Shift Project to bring to us this bande desinée focussing on the topic that binds all our fates. Why and how we use energy, why we shifted from renewable energy to fossil fuels, to what extent have renewable and clean energy sources replaced the fossil fuels, should we go back to renewables resources – all these questions and many more are answered. The solutions provided are not so extreme that would sound impossible but easy-to-implement changes in our lifestyle. Most of which we already know, but don’t follow. The most important thing this book does is show you ‘perspective’. The energy problem isn’t so distant in the future, and your role isn’t as tiny as you would imagine.

The illustrations are outstanding and balance the serious content with an ample dose of humour. However, I wish the content had been more simplified. It becomes too statistical or economics-intensive at times. The idea of the book is to make the common person aware of their environmental responsibilities. But if the lay reader doesn’t even understand the data, how will they realise the extent of the problem? The approach should have been less like a lecture and more like a chat.

I can honestly say that this is one of the scariest books I have read. 😟 It almost feels like it is too late to save the planet and our children have unimaginably dreary futures ahead. But as Jancovici says in one of the panels, “We can’t wait for science to provide minutely detailed observations of every danger before getting our asses in gear.” All of us must start thinking green ASAP!

You can take this book as a depressing novel, or as an exaggeration, or as a clarion call to change your routine habits. The choice is in your hands, as is the planet’s future.

Recommended for sure, but be prepared for a data-intensive read.

3.5 stars, rounding up for the intent.

My thanks to Europe Comics and NetGalley for the DRC of “World Without End”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

museumgrack's review

4.5

challenging hopeful informative medium-paced

Wow. This French graphic novel packed one hell of a punch. Created in partnership with Engineer and expert Jean-Marc Janovici and artist Christophe Blain and recently released in English for the first time this June, World Without End is a detailed look at Energy (and it’s systems) and how these forces impact our economy, population growth, and our environment presented in a clear, easy to digest format.

While this was a very comprehensible read, the content is dense and I found the need to take breaks to process some of the content to ensure I absorbed it properly. It was also refreshing, as an American reader, to take in more non English based content from experts in the field.

The creators did try to leave readers on a positive “we can still adjust our path of humanity as a whole is willing to make some compromises” vibe. Unfortunately for me, the last few years have so severely eroded my faith in the collective humanity of the world that I ended this book feeling pretty helpless honestly. THAT SAID I absolutely recommend this book to anyone wanting to dig into these subject and looking for a well researched and easily understood place to start.