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meganium's review
adventurous
challenging
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
paulie616's review
adventurous
reflective
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
3.75
Comparable to Le Guin and Samantha Harvey’s Orbital. Aerth leads with feeling and reflects upon ecology, immigration and love.
vkce23's review
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- 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
What an amazing little book. Wonderful story, beautiful prose, challenges your thinking and questions a lot.
Both Aerth and Urth are flawed in their own way, one suffering an ice age but within an almost too utopian way of life; the other a heatwave and unpredictable weather with capitalism as king and a disconnected population (clearly based on a near future version of Earth). Magnus is stuck in the middle. Physically and occasionally mentally, although it’s obvious his homesickness is proving that Aerth probably has it right despite their challenging climate.
I loved this book. I was so invested in Magnus’ story. I wanted to visit Aerth. I was homesick and lovesick with him. I was heartbroken at times and despairing, as well as hopeful. If this book doesn’t make you want to look after the world we have, plant some flowers, listen to the birds and revel in the sunshine, I don’t know what will. This book is telling us it’s not too late and we can appreciate it all if we just stop and smell the Roses. 5*
Both Aerth and Urth are flawed in their own way, one suffering an ice age but within an almost too utopian way of life; the other a heatwave and unpredictable weather with capitalism as king and a disconnected population (clearly based on a near future version of Earth). Magnus is stuck in the middle. Physically and occasionally mentally, although it’s obvious his homesickness is proving that Aerth probably has it right despite their challenging climate.
I loved this book. I was so invested in Magnus’ story. I wanted to visit Aerth. I was homesick and lovesick with him. I was heartbroken at times and despairing, as well as hopeful. If this book doesn’t make you want to look after the world we have, plant some flowers, listen to the birds and revel in the sunshine, I don’t know what will. This book is telling us it’s not too late and we can appreciate it all if we just stop and smell the Roses. 5*
mandygollaher's review
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
I won't lie to you all, I bought this because the cover was beautiful and saying the title phonetically made me giggle. I read it in a day because it was simply that good of a book.
<i> Aerth </i> is equal parts tender, quaint, and introspective as it is frustrating, gloomy, and existential. I felt all of the emotions throughout my reading experience and I could write a killer set of discussion questions about all the contemporary themes that Deborah Tomkins was hinting at throughout the novella. This book is written as a series of flash-fiction excerpts and while a style like this normally feels a bit discombobulated and aimless to me, the writing felt perfectly suited for Magnus' story. Magnus is just a guy! and he doesn't really know what he wants until he's sure of what he hates and I think that the ambling pace is relatable to anyone who feels a bit of 'ants in the pants' energy when they are faced with staying in one place too long. Magnus is exceptional in that he seems to be one of the only people in his town who's eager to explore, but when faced with affronts to his values far from home where he is expected to be exceptional at every task at every moment, we really feel for this average guy who loves the world and the nature within it and who wanted to explore the diversity that the universe had to offer.
Each chapter of the book puts Magnus in a new place and while I think I preferred the earlier half to the latter half, that has more to do with the ways that Aerth's mirror planet (Urth) hits a bit too close to home. When you're forced to look at the way our media cycles, economy, and politics function from a completely alien point of view you're really forced to think about how crazy our world actually is. Never did I think I'd be yearning for a planet on the verge of an inhospitable Ice Age in the dead of January, but I guess that's just how hopeless I'm feeling about the world right now. Urth is a place where even the ones who witnessed Magnus descend from space begin to question his authenticity as an alien and where keeping an environmentalist explorer fed and housed becomes too much of a 'burden' on government when the secrets of Aerth don't appear to be giving the 'Urthers' anything economically or militarily useful. It's an extremely cynical look at our future and perhaps an overly charitable view of this parallel, capitalism-free mirror planet, but in times like this: i'll go for a commitment to 'do no harm' in the extreme > whatever the f*ck this capitalist hellscape has become.
Looking back on Aerth (because I have a lot to say about it and this review is going to be extremely long as a result, #sorrynotsorry) I loved that there are clear problems on the planet and in Magnus' life pre-Urth that aren't skimmed over in the first chapter of the story that gain a rose-colored glow in Magnus' eye once he realizes how much he misses home. This is a book about nostalgia and impatience and grief and regret and anger and so many other relatable, pertinent feelings that I think everyone can relate to at least on some level. As a person who needs a tree in her sightline in order to feel truly calm but who also gets restless and antsy when she's not close enough to a major city, Magnus was extremely relatable to me. (he also has some bubbling, suppressed anger management issues that might have also been a little bit/a lot relatable except I go kickboxing now so I'm totally fine, actually!) There's one 'reveal' in the third act that I felt was a little bit unnecessary that's meant to make us look at Aerth in a different more critical way that just didn't seem to have any confirmation or resolution to justify its existence, but other than that, I really loved this little book!
To conclude, this is a book for people who both long to explore and see themselves as homebodies at heart: the ones that want everything a big city has to offer but also feel an insatiable need to plant a vegetable garden. Highly recommend!
4.5/5 stars
<i> Aerth </i> is equal parts tender, quaint, and introspective as it is frustrating, gloomy, and existential. I felt all of the emotions throughout my reading experience and I could write a killer set of discussion questions about all the contemporary themes that Deborah Tomkins was hinting at throughout the novella. This book is written as a series of flash-fiction excerpts and while a style like this normally feels a bit discombobulated and aimless to me, the writing felt perfectly suited for Magnus' story. Magnus is just a guy! and he doesn't really know what he wants until he's sure of what he hates and I think that the ambling pace is relatable to anyone who feels a bit of 'ants in the pants' energy when they are faced with staying in one place too long. Magnus is exceptional in that he seems to be one of the only people in his town who's eager to explore, but when faced with affronts to his values far from home where he is expected to be exceptional at every task at every moment, we really feel for this average guy who loves the world and the nature within it and who wanted to explore the diversity that the universe had to offer.
Each chapter of the book puts Magnus in a new place and while I think I preferred the earlier half to the latter half, that has more to do with the ways that Aerth's mirror planet (Urth) hits a bit too close to home. When you're forced to look at the way our media cycles, economy, and politics function from a completely alien point of view you're really forced to think about how crazy our world actually is. Never did I think I'd be yearning for a planet on the verge of an inhospitable Ice Age in the dead of January, but I guess that's just how hopeless I'm feeling about the world right now. Urth is a place where even the ones who witnessed Magnus descend from space begin to question his authenticity as an alien and where keeping an environmentalist explorer fed and housed becomes too much of a 'burden' on government when the secrets of Aerth don't appear to be giving the 'Urthers' anything economically or militarily useful. It's an extremely cynical look at our future and perhaps an overly charitable view of this parallel, capitalism-free mirror planet, but in times like this: i'll go for a commitment to 'do no harm' in the extreme > whatever the f*ck this capitalist hellscape has become.
Looking back on Aerth (because I have a lot to say about it and this review is going to be extremely long as a result, #sorrynotsorry) I loved that there are clear problems on the planet and in Magnus' life pre-Urth that aren't skimmed over in the first chapter of the story that gain a rose-colored glow in Magnus' eye once he realizes how much he misses home. This is a book about nostalgia and impatience and grief and regret and anger and so many other relatable, pertinent feelings that I think everyone can relate to at least on some level. As a person who needs a tree in her sightline in order to feel truly calm but who also gets restless and antsy when she's not close enough to a major city, Magnus was extremely relatable to me. (he also has some bubbling, suppressed anger management issues that might have also been a little bit/a lot relatable except I go kickboxing now so I'm totally fine, actually!) There's one 'reveal' in the third act that I felt was a little bit unnecessary that's meant to make us look at Aerth in a different more critical way that just didn't seem to have any confirmation or resolution to justify its existence, but other than that, I really loved this little book!
To conclude, this is a book for people who both long to explore and see themselves as homebodies at heart: the ones that want everything a big city has to offer but also feel an insatiable need to plant a vegetable garden. Highly recommend!
4.5/5 stars
gareth_beniston's review
challenging
emotional
hopeful
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0