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thebobsphere's review
4.0
One major theme in Cynan Jones’ books is how humankind interacts with nature, generally in a brutal uncompromising manner. Saying that with Stillicide he has taken this theme to new levels and nary any violence in sight.
We are presented with a London suffering from drought, the only solution is to create a trench push an iceberg in it and by the time it melts, London should be replenished. In the meantime water is supplied via a train.
The clever thing about this plot is that it is presented as a series of interconnected stories (actually it was originally a radio play), so we readers discover the plot gradually, rather like water dripping from an iceberg.
Since the book is structured this way, Jones is able to create a sizeable cast of characters and have them interact with each other in different stories ; There’s Branner, the marksman, whose wife is dying, who also happens to spot two brothers and their dog. Eventually these three have their own story. There’s professor who discovers the importance of dragonflies, the terrorist attack on the water train, which is first explained in the first story.
In order to talk about each character and explain how they are connected will 1) take forever and 2) ruin the story. However the main theme is how nature can drive a person into their natural state and dominate, no matter how many times we try to manage and suppress it.
For it’s brevity Stillicide is a rich, complex piece of work and may as well rank as Jones’ best work to date. Also as a fan of interconnected stories Stillicide also ranks as one of the collections one should definitely check out.
Many thanks to Granta for providing a copy of Stillicide in exchange for an honest review.
We are presented with a London suffering from drought, the only solution is to create a trench push an iceberg in it and by the time it melts, London should be replenished. In the meantime water is supplied via a train.
The clever thing about this plot is that it is presented as a series of interconnected stories (actually it was originally a radio play), so we readers discover the plot gradually, rather like water dripping from an iceberg.
Since the book is structured this way, Jones is able to create a sizeable cast of characters and have them interact with each other in different stories ; There’s Branner, the marksman, whose wife is dying, who also happens to spot two brothers and their dog. Eventually these three have their own story. There’s professor who discovers the importance of dragonflies, the terrorist attack on the water train, which is first explained in the first story.
In order to talk about each character and explain how they are connected will 1) take forever and 2) ruin the story. However the main theme is how nature can drive a person into their natural state and dominate, no matter how many times we try to manage and suppress it.
For it’s brevity Stillicide is a rich, complex piece of work and may as well rank as Jones’ best work to date. Also as a fan of interconnected stories Stillicide also ranks as one of the collections one should definitely check out.
Many thanks to Granta for providing a copy of Stillicide in exchange for an honest review.
expendablemudge's review
5.0
Real Rating: 4.75* of five
The review is live now on Expendable Mudge Muses Aloud. It is in Author Jones's wordless interstices that the reader is invited to exist inside the story. A long chain of change/loss/compromise extends into that past, our future; he says, "Is this the world you wish to see come for your family?"
It is *much* too long to post here and *much* too personal to hack into gobbets to fit the space here. If you're a click-a-phobe, well, I don't know what to tell you. Except that I want you to pre-order a copy of this beautiful book, and I don't think just me telling you to is likely to work, so I wrote some of my best stuff to talk you into it.
The review is live now on Expendable Mudge Muses Aloud. It is in Author Jones's wordless interstices that the reader is invited to exist inside the story. A long chain of change/loss/compromise extends into that past, our future; he says, "Is this the world you wish to see come for your family?"
It is *much* too long to post here and *much* too personal to hack into gobbets to fit the space here. If you're a click-a-phobe, well, I don't know what to tell you. Except that I want you to pre-order a copy of this beautiful book, and I don't think just me telling you to is likely to work, so I wrote some of my best stuff to talk you into it.
lnatal's review
3.0
From BBC radio 4:
Episode 1 of 12
Cynan Jones' electrifying series set in the very near future - a future a little, but not quite like our own.
Water is commodified and the Water Train that feeds the city is increasingly at risk of sabotage. And now icebergs are set to be towed to a huge ice dock outside the capital city - a huge megalopolis that is draining the country of its resources.
Against this, a lone marksman stands out in the field. His job is to protect the Water Train...
From one of the most celebrated writers of his generation, Stillicide is a moving story of love and loss and the will to survive, and a powerful glimpse of the tangible future.
Reader: Richard Goulding
Writer: Cynan Jones is an award-winning Welsh writer, who has has been longlisted and shortlisted for numerous prizes and won a Society of Authors Betty Trask Award 2007, a Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize 2014 and the Wales Book of the Year Fiction Prize 2015. He won the BBC National Short Story Award in 2017.
Producer: Justine Willett
Music: Original music by Kirsten Morrison
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0007kf7
Episode 1 of 12
Cynan Jones' electrifying series set in the very near future - a future a little, but not quite like our own.
Water is commodified and the Water Train that feeds the city is increasingly at risk of sabotage. And now icebergs are set to be towed to a huge ice dock outside the capital city - a huge megalopolis that is draining the country of its resources.
Against this, a lone marksman stands out in the field. His job is to protect the Water Train...
From one of the most celebrated writers of his generation, Stillicide is a moving story of love and loss and the will to survive, and a powerful glimpse of the tangible future.
Reader: Richard Goulding
Writer: Cynan Jones is an award-winning Welsh writer, who has has been longlisted and shortlisted for numerous prizes and won a Society of Authors Betty Trask Award 2007, a Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize 2014 and the Wales Book of the Year Fiction Prize 2015. He won the BBC National Short Story Award in 2017.
Producer: Justine Willett
Music: Original music by Kirsten Morrison
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0007kf7
armorcats's review
5.0
Is a story still dystopian if it could come true? A twist on what could be our fate. Calving glaciers to save a water starved country. At its heart, a love story. A chapter, Letter, cleaving me in two. Broken love, a broken man, keeping her voice alive.
Oh, how I loved this book.
Oh, how I loved this book.
halfmanhalfbook's review
4.0
It is the near future, not that far from where we are now, a place where water has become a scarce commodity
The city demands water, it is bought in on The Water Train and guarded by man and machine against sabotage.
Dry rivers mean that there is not enough water. Icebergs are calved and dragged south. A new Ice Dock is planned and then expanded, it will evict more people than was first thought. The city tenses as the protests start.
In this stark new world, people are trying to live; a marksman whose wife is dying, a woman meeting a lover. A man collecting limpets off the rocks, a boy looking for his brother who is searching for his dog.
All are uncertain about this bleak future.
This short dystopian novella is quite something. Jones writes with surgical precision, twelve short chapters fill in more detail about the harshness of this place through the eyes of his characters. He paints an outline sketch of a society that is on a knife-edge between surviving and failing, whilst still have very human and believable characters.
I thought it was a stunning book and I love the cover too. It has a sense of urgency in the writing. I think because it was conceived for radio first, and the limits of time in that medium, both constrain and liberate his writing.
The city demands water, it is bought in on The Water Train and guarded by man and machine against sabotage.
Dry rivers mean that there is not enough water. Icebergs are calved and dragged south. A new Ice Dock is planned and then expanded, it will evict more people than was first thought. The city tenses as the protests start.
In this stark new world, people are trying to live; a marksman whose wife is dying, a woman meeting a lover. A man collecting limpets off the rocks, a boy looking for his brother who is searching for his dog.
All are uncertain about this bleak future.
This short dystopian novella is quite something. Jones writes with surgical precision, twelve short chapters fill in more detail about the harshness of this place through the eyes of his characters. He paints an outline sketch of a society that is on a knife-edge between surviving and failing, whilst still have very human and believable characters.
I thought it was a stunning book and I love the cover too. It has a sense of urgency in the writing. I think because it was conceived for radio first, and the limits of time in that medium, both constrain and liberate his writing.
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