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dayseraph's review against another edition
4.0
I've read a lot of dystopian fiction. It's a genre that I like, so The Child Garden seemed like it might be for me, even though I wasn't into the other book I've read by Ryman (Was). However, when you read a lot of books within a specific genre, there are themes and tropes that start to feel old. The Child Garden was not like that at all for me.
First published in 1989, the imagined London and circumstances and lives of its future inhabitants felt fresh and strange and fascinating. The basic premise driving the plot - Milena is immune to the "viruses" that are ever-present in society and does not fit in - does not adequately describe what this book is like. The first section is relatively straight forward, but then the narrative goes non-linear with little or no warning. It was well-imagined, surprisingly readable, and unexpectedly philosophical.
My only real complaint is related to this particular edition (Small Beer Press 2011) which is strangely filled with typos - many misspelled words and unfinished quotation marks.
First published in 1989, the imagined London and circumstances and lives of its future inhabitants felt fresh and strange and fascinating. The basic premise driving the plot - Milena is immune to the "viruses" that are ever-present in society and does not fit in - does not adequately describe what this book is like. The first section is relatively straight forward, but then the narrative goes non-linear with little or no warning. It was well-imagined, surprisingly readable, and unexpectedly philosophical.
My only real complaint is related to this particular edition (Small Beer Press 2011) which is strangely filled with typos - many misspelled words and unfinished quotation marks.
scheu's review against another edition
5.0
To think that I could have read this book at the height of my genetics-love, when I was choosing a career... Ryman created something rich and layered and magical that I will surely read again in order to completely understand everything that happened. Milena, the protagonist, is a fully-realised and real character. I very much enjoyed her love story. The entire novel is at its root a love story, in fact - a love story with polar bears, viruses and an alien world called London.
mrswythe89's review against another edition
3.0
I liked this less than Air, but that might be because Air was my first encounter with Geoff Ryman. I think this suffered a bit from the fact that it was a third Ryman book in a row; one starts wondering what his thing is about floods, weird pregnancies and khatulistiwa climes ... equatorial is the word! Right. As I said, one starts wondering, which is okay if one is a literary critic, but slightly less so if one is merely a reader who wishes to be engrossed.
I am still a bit puzzled about the khatulistiwa thing. Why make London all tropical/equatorial? His description of London here is v. similar to his descriptions of Cambodia in The King's Last Song, and there's that communist/socialist political influence that I imagine prevails in Indochina as well (less so down south, I guess because of the British and all that). So why bother placing the story in London at all? Why not a SEAsian country? My current hypothesis is that he wanted the setting (though really, what is so desirable about chickens in the street; I admit to some suspicion of exoticism-chasing) but a European tradition of thought -- Wagner, Shakespeare, the classics etc. etc. I don't think that's a super good reason, though. Hmm. Still thinking about it.
I am still a bit puzzled about the khatulistiwa thing. Why make London all tropical/equatorial? His description of London here is v. similar to his descriptions of Cambodia in The King's Last Song, and there's that communist/socialist political influence that I imagine prevails in Indochina as well (less so down south, I guess because of the British and all that). So why bother placing the story in London at all? Why not a SEAsian country? My current hypothesis is that he wanted the setting (though really, what is so desirable about chickens in the street; I admit to some suspicion of exoticism-chasing) but a European tradition of thought -- Wagner, Shakespeare, the classics etc. etc. I don't think that's a super good reason, though. Hmm. Still thinking about it.
shane_tiernan's review against another edition
1.0
I gave this book 39 pages and then gave up. I felt like I was reading random words on a page. None of it made any sense to me or my wife. It's not like I'm new to sci-fi or reading. I really wanted to like this because it sounded really original and interesting. I'm just too old to spend my limited reading time reading books I'm not enjoying.
ginnikin's review against another edition
Meh. Didn't work for me.
I did like "bad grammar" as a euphemism, but didn't love it was a euphemism for (homosexuality).
Also, in a world where people are purple, they're still obsessed with pallor? hmph!
I did like "bad grammar" as a euphemism, but didn't love it was a euphemism for (homosexuality).
Also, in a world where people are purple, they're still obsessed with pallor? hmph!
zeljana's review against another edition
This is a really, really strange piece of fiction. It puts all the other strange books I've read to shame.
But... I just couldn't get into it. It was just too weird, like a bad bad trip and I couldn't care less about the characters or the world (which is incredibly original). I wanted to go on just to see where the whole thing was going, but in the end I realized it is not worth my time. The story wasn't coming together, and the moment I started wanting to read the book just to finish it came way too early on.
But... I just couldn't get into it. It was just too weird, like a bad bad trip and I couldn't care less about the characters or the world (which is incredibly original). I wanted to go on just to see where the whole thing was going, but in the end I realized it is not worth my time. The story wasn't coming together, and the moment I started wanting to read the book just to finish it came way too early on.
mariocomputer's review against another edition
2.0
I read the whole thing more out of a sense of just wanting to finish the damn thing, than out of enjoyment. There are some interesting ideas in this book, but it is far too meandering. It could have been edited down a lot.
trevorjameszaple's review against another edition
4.0
The Child Garden is easily one of the more out-there SF books I've ever read, a sort of post-apoc bio-tech cyberpunk novel, complete with illicit black-market tech getting out of control, futuristic operas write large across the world, mutations, creations, a sly take on the concept of collectivization, cancer, and The Revolution. The ending is pretty gonzo as well, although I soured a little on the whole "Jesus Christ dying to save us from the sins of Communism" theme that turned out to be the key bit to the whole book.
megapolisomancy's review against another edition
2.0
That rare combination of great writing and truly imaginative worldbuilding, and yet... The Child Garden takes place at some unspecified point in the future, when the Earth has warmed to the point that London has become a subtropical area protected from the sea by a human-made Barrier Reef, and 100 years after a worldwide communist revolution (and also the failure of electricity) has ushered in a new era of Foucauldian discipline, as we are repeatedly told that this is a population so conditioned not to break the law that a police force is no longer necessary. Did I mention that everyone has been flooded with viruses that inform their knowledge and actions, and make them purple so they photosynthesize, and other people have been genetically engineered into "Polar Bears" who live in the Antarctic to mine the world's last iron? I was never sure how seriously I was supposed to take this book, but I have a sinking feeling that the answer is "very seriously."
So we have this great evocative writing in this (mostly, if somewhat ridiculous) great world, and the plot is that... the main character is a Unique Individual, and she wants to, well... stage an opera? Based on Dante's Comedy. In space. Furthermore everyone else wants her to do this too, so the only real conflict is when she fires her lighting person and the latter goes insane and tries to kill her or drive her to suicide or commit suicide herself, because she wants to be a part of this opera. I know, it sounds like a joke.
Further, this is all put to use in order to beat the reader over the head repeatedly with the message that socialism is like, a terrible virus of laziness that crushes the creative spirit, and that it's up to those few gifted Creative Individuals to teach everyone else the error of their ways, which is a really important and meaningful message that we all need to zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
So we have this great evocative writing in this (mostly, if somewhat ridiculous) great world, and the plot is that... the main character is a Unique Individual, and she wants to, well... stage an opera? Based on Dante's Comedy. In space. Furthermore everyone else wants her to do this too, so the only real conflict is when she fires her lighting person and the latter goes insane and tries to kill her or drive her to suicide or commit suicide herself, because she wants to be a part of this opera. I know, it sounds like a joke.
Further, this is all put to use in order to beat the reader over the head repeatedly with the message that socialism is like, a terrible virus of laziness that crushes the creative spirit, and that it's up to those few gifted Creative Individuals to teach everyone else the error of their ways, which is a really important and meaningful message that we all need to zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
franklywrites's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
I wasn't quite sure what I had got into at first. We had a world full of viruses and a woman (understandably) scared of catching them who then fell in love with a genetically engineered polar bear. On the face of it, that sounds rather wild, but it was such an unusually moving story.
This is a world with dazzling depth and variety. Cancer is gone, and people die too young because of it. Viruses have been engineered to teach people what they need to know, so there is no learning anymore, as such, and children act as adults. People are a bit like plants. Men bear children. There's so much that unfolds in such a way that the setting really is like a living thing revealed in a thousand different facets throughout.
It's one of those books that makes me feel quite stupid to review, because I'm not clever enough to comment on the meaning of it all. I think I feel the meaning, but I can't put it into words. But a lot of the story is about love and freedom, and the pursuit of both in a society that sees them as 'bad grammar' to be cured through the application of viruses.
I adored the way the society/humanity evolved throughout the course of the story, too. I won't spoil it, even by pinning a vague description on it. A significant portion of the book became non-linear, but as a kind of intentional collage of a life that was easy enough to take in as a whole.
There were a few bits of punctuation/formatting missing here and there, but nothing major – I think they're just the artefacts you get when automatically creating ebooks from scans of physical copies. All in all, a great read.
This is a world with dazzling depth and variety. Cancer is gone, and people die too young because of it. Viruses have been engineered to teach people what they need to know, so there is no learning anymore, as such, and children act as adults. People are a bit like plants. Men bear children. There's so much that unfolds in such a way that the setting really is like a living thing revealed in a thousand different facets throughout.
It's one of those books that makes me feel quite stupid to review, because I'm not clever enough to comment on the meaning of it all. I think I feel the meaning, but I can't put it into words. But a lot of the story is about love and freedom, and the pursuit of both in a society that sees them as 'bad grammar' to be cured through the application of viruses.
I adored the way the society/humanity evolved throughout the course of the story, too. I won't spoil it, even by pinning a vague description on it. A significant portion of the book became non-linear, but as a kind of intentional collage of a life that was easy enough to take in as a whole.
There were a few bits of punctuation/formatting missing here and there, but nothing major – I think they're just the artefacts you get when automatically creating ebooks from scans of physical copies. All in all, a great read.