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notallwhowanderarelost's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Nothing revolutionary in the narrative or the prose to be found here, it's pretty formulaic in how it pans out but it's still a good ride.
The world is interesting, nice to read something set outside of North America and offering a different part of the world even if we don't get to understand it from the POV of someone indigenous to the region.
Because of it's length, you can read this in a day or two so definitely a good one for a cold or rainy day.
The world is interesting, nice to read something set outside of North America and offering a different part of the world even if we don't get to understand it from the POV of someone indigenous to the region.
Because of it's length, you can read this in a day or two so definitely a good one for a cold or rainy day.
marareads25's review against another edition
4.0
I liked "Far North" because its so very human. Its full of surprising twists and develops at the same time a very plausible version of a near future. Definitely good for reading at any time plus makes you think!
jessfitting's review against another edition
4.0
I read this hungrily, and felt the cold and awfulness of the setting while doing so! A story set in a kind of dystopian/alternate future Siberia mixed with lots of Wild West tropes, which chronicled the depressing path of a fierce woman's life that she refuses to give up. I loved some of the scenes created, and connected to the main character. Her gender was hidden for a time but also crucial to her characterization and I was surprised how integral it was to each beat in the plot. Her life was pretty horrid, and she knew it, and tried to find truth in living at the end of things. It was a good read despite having nearly no hope in it, I promise!
bethwidcapo's review against another edition
4.0
Beautifully written. Among the best post-apocalpytic dystopias I've read.
fictionfan's review against another edition
3.0
The end of civilisation...
Makepeace Hatfield lives alone – the last resident of the town of Evangeline in Siberia. Some unexplained catastrophe has destroyed civilisation and decimated humanity. But one day Makepeace sees something that makes her think that somewhere remnants of civilisation may still exist and she sets off to find out...
This is a pretty standard post-apocalypse story, and I might as well start by saying I found it rather dull and pointless. We never know what caused the catastrophe – possibly climate change, though if so it doesn’t seem to have had much impact on the snowy wastes of Siberia. And, while we see humanity’s struggle to survive, there’s nothing terribly insightful about it. Scenes of horror and misery abound, there’s the usual cult religious aspects that are always included as part of apocalyptic dystopian fiction, man’s inhumanity to man is given full play, and we see that those who had stuck to their old traditional ways of life are better suited to survival than those who had lived in cities, far removed from nature and with skills that are useless in this new/old society. It has been compared (probably by the marketing people) to The Road, but it has none of the profundity or bleak beauty of that book – this is simply a kind of adventure story that quite frankly doesn’t have enough adventure in it.
While there are lots of descriptions of the wildlife and mentions of the local indigenous tribespeople, I never found the setting came to life for me. I can’t quite put my finger on why. I think it may be because I felt that survival in the Arctic region should have been much tougher, oddly, than it’s portrayed. Perhaps that’s my misunderstanding of the region – I know people have populated the area for millennia so clearly survival is not impossible – but I can only say I didn’t feel the cold seeping into my bones as much as I anticipated.
I’m struggling to find much to say about this one, to be honest. It is quite readable, the writing is good and Makepeace is a likeable heroine. I didn’t hate it, but I suspect I’ll have forgotten all about it in a couple of weeks. 2½ stars for me, so rounded up.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
Makepeace Hatfield lives alone – the last resident of the town of Evangeline in Siberia. Some unexplained catastrophe has destroyed civilisation and decimated humanity. But one day Makepeace sees something that makes her think that somewhere remnants of civilisation may still exist and she sets off to find out...
This is a pretty standard post-apocalypse story, and I might as well start by saying I found it rather dull and pointless. We never know what caused the catastrophe – possibly climate change, though if so it doesn’t seem to have had much impact on the snowy wastes of Siberia. And, while we see humanity’s struggle to survive, there’s nothing terribly insightful about it. Scenes of horror and misery abound, there’s the usual cult religious aspects that are always included as part of apocalyptic dystopian fiction, man’s inhumanity to man is given full play, and we see that those who had stuck to their old traditional ways of life are better suited to survival than those who had lived in cities, far removed from nature and with skills that are useless in this new/old society. It has been compared (probably by the marketing people) to The Road, but it has none of the profundity or bleak beauty of that book – this is simply a kind of adventure story that quite frankly doesn’t have enough adventure in it.
While there are lots of descriptions of the wildlife and mentions of the local indigenous tribespeople, I never found the setting came to life for me. I can’t quite put my finger on why. I think it may be because I felt that survival in the Arctic region should have been much tougher, oddly, than it’s portrayed. Perhaps that’s my misunderstanding of the region – I know people have populated the area for millennia so clearly survival is not impossible – but I can only say I didn’t feel the cold seeping into my bones as much as I anticipated.
I’m struggling to find much to say about this one, to be honest. It is quite readable, the writing is good and Makepeace is a likeable heroine. I didn’t hate it, but I suspect I’ll have forgotten all about it in a couple of weeks. 2½ stars for me, so rounded up.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
amandalanphear's review against another edition
4.0
"Strange how it is that men never act crueler than when they're fighting for the sake of an idea. We've been killing since Cain over who stands closer to God "
wyntrchylde's review against another edition
2.0
Far North
Author: Marcel Theroux
Publisher: Locator / Farrar, Straus, and Giroux / Pan Books Ltd
Publishing Date: 2009
=======================================
REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS
Summary:
My father had an expression for a thing that turned out bad. He'd say it had gone west. But going west always sounded pretty good to me. After all, westwards is the path of the sun. And through as much history as I know of, people have moved west to settle and find freedom. But our world had gone north, truly gone north, and just how far north I was beginning to learn.
Out on the frontier of a failed state, Makepeace―sheriff and perhaps last citizen―patrols a city's ruins, salvaging books but keeping the guns in good repair.
Into this cold land comes shocking evidence that life might be flourishing elsewhere: a refugee emerges from the vast emptiness of forest, whose existence inspires Makepeace to reconnect with human society and take to the road, armed with rough humor and an unlikely ration of optimism.
What Makepeace finds is a world unraveling: stockaded villages enforcing an uncertain justice and hidden work camps laboring to harness the little-understood technologies of a vanished civilization. But Makepeace's journey―rife with danger―also leads to an unexpected redemption.
Far North takes the reader on a quest through an unforgettable arctic landscape, from humanity's origins to its possible end. Haunting, spare, yet stubbornly hopeful, the novel is suffused with an ecstatic awareness of the world's fragility and beauty, and its ability to recover from our worst trespasses.
_________________________________________
Genre:
Post Apocalypse
Dystopia
Fiction
_________________________________________
The Page 100 Test:
Ω ◄ - struggle to finish this.
? ◄ - Just not sure about this.
(≖_≖ ) ◄ - side eyeing this
± ◄ - could go either way
Ÿ ◄ - this is causing fallopian discomfort
DNF: Pg#Read/TotPg#
The Feel:
Was expecting a "The Road" vibe. But already got it by page 2.
Favorite Character:
There is only one character, really. Makepeace is it. All the other people who appear have been cardboard cutouts.
Least Favorite Character:
Character I Most Identified With:
Plot Holes/Out of Character:
For us to accept that Makepeace is a survivor living in a post-apocalypse world, they sure do many foolish things in service to the plot. Walking into traps, failing to hide the bottle well enough that someone riding their backtrail couldn’t find it, going back to the base under any circumstances, just foolish. I know we're looking at it from the God's eye view of the reader and author, but Makepeace is out-of-character too much. Someone who survived. Someone who took on the role of sheriff. Someone who was trained as a sheriff by a ranger who got killed doing his job would make them more suspicious and wary than Makepeace acts throughout much of the book.
Favorite Quote:
"Yes, somewhere along the ladder of years I lost the bright-eyed best of me." A pretty harsh indictment of growing older.
Calling the Ball:
Kick In The Gut: Page 38, even seeing it coming, smacks HARD.
Meh / PFFT Moments:
The “he’s my brother’ coincidence is too heavy-handed.
Going home and then turning to chase the plane...I get that the crashed plane was the reason she decided to not commit suicide and try and find where in the world the plane had come from, but, geez, walking back into that base and the trap that it was after their actions.
Turd in the Punchbowl:
Them loving up to the glowing blue bottle isn't intelligent. These people are close enough to us timeline-wise that they would be leery of the glowing bottle.
Confirmation Bias:
Between what happened with Ping and the after at the lake, "The Road" vibes are strong.
Strikeout:
Strike One: I'm still reading, but I'm probably one strike from considering putting it down.
The relationship with her friend from prison when he was infected with whatever was in the glowing bottles happens off-page but doesn’t appear to have even been referenced. I mean, maybe I missed something, but that felt very left-field to me.
Predictability/Non-Predictability:
So, it's like a dystopian greatest hits, first, it was The Road, then, A Handmaid's Tale, and now it's a hybrid Shawshank Redemption. I'm still reading, but it's feeling off to me.
_________________________________________
Pacing:
Need more to happen. It's been a lot of pages since an event happened to move the story forward. The discovery of Makepeace's secret in prison isn't an event but is treated as one. And if something does happen because of that, then, we'll just be in salacious territory.
Last Page Sound:
Liked it well enough to finish it. Wanted to see what happened to Makepeace.
Editorial Assessment:
This could've stood a little closer to an editor's pen. There are a couple of spots where sentences are clunky or malformed. And at least one spot where guards are referred to as prisoners after the prisoners had already been sent across the bridge into the city. Course with the way this world works, maybe that’s right and the guards are prisoners after a fashion.
=======================================
Author: Marcel Theroux
Publisher: Locator / Farrar, Straus, and Giroux / Pan Books Ltd
Publishing Date: 2009
=======================================
REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS
Summary:
My father had an expression for a thing that turned out bad. He'd say it had gone west. But going west always sounded pretty good to me. After all, westwards is the path of the sun. And through as much history as I know of, people have moved west to settle and find freedom. But our world had gone north, truly gone north, and just how far north I was beginning to learn.
Out on the frontier of a failed state, Makepeace―sheriff and perhaps last citizen―patrols a city's ruins, salvaging books but keeping the guns in good repair.
Into this cold land comes shocking evidence that life might be flourishing elsewhere: a refugee emerges from the vast emptiness of forest, whose existence inspires Makepeace to reconnect with human society and take to the road, armed with rough humor and an unlikely ration of optimism.
What Makepeace finds is a world unraveling: stockaded villages enforcing an uncertain justice and hidden work camps laboring to harness the little-understood technologies of a vanished civilization. But Makepeace's journey―rife with danger―also leads to an unexpected redemption.
Far North takes the reader on a quest through an unforgettable arctic landscape, from humanity's origins to its possible end. Haunting, spare, yet stubbornly hopeful, the novel is suffused with an ecstatic awareness of the world's fragility and beauty, and its ability to recover from our worst trespasses.
_________________________________________
Genre:
Post Apocalypse
Dystopia
Fiction
_________________________________________
The Page 100 Test:
Ω ◄ - struggle to finish this.
? ◄ - Just not sure about this.
(≖_≖ ) ◄ - side eyeing this
± ◄ - could go either way
Ÿ ◄ - this is causing fallopian discomfort
DNF: Pg#Read/TotPg#
The Feel:
Was expecting a "The Road" vibe. But already got it by page 2.
Favorite Character:
There is only one character, really. Makepeace is it. All the other people who appear have been cardboard cutouts.
Least Favorite Character:
Character I Most Identified With:
Plot Holes/Out of Character:
For us to accept that Makepeace is a survivor living in a post-apocalypse world, they sure do many foolish things in service to the plot. Walking into traps, failing to hide the bottle well enough that someone riding their backtrail couldn’t find it, going back to the base under any circumstances, just foolish. I know we're looking at it from the God's eye view of the reader and author, but Makepeace is out-of-character too much. Someone who survived. Someone who took on the role of sheriff. Someone who was trained as a sheriff by a ranger who got killed doing his job would make them more suspicious and wary than Makepeace acts throughout much of the book.
Favorite Quote:
"Yes, somewhere along the ladder of years I lost the bright-eyed best of me." A pretty harsh indictment of growing older.
Calling the Ball:
Kick In The Gut: Page 38, even seeing it coming, smacks HARD.
Meh / PFFT Moments:
The “he’s my brother’ coincidence is too heavy-handed.
Going home and then turning to chase the plane...I get that the crashed plane was the reason she decided to not commit suicide and try and find where in the world the plane had come from, but, geez, walking back into that base and the trap that it was after their actions.
Turd in the Punchbowl:
Them loving up to the glowing blue bottle isn't intelligent. These people are close enough to us timeline-wise that they would be leery of the glowing bottle.
Confirmation Bias:
Between what happened with Ping and the after at the lake, "The Road" vibes are strong.
Strikeout:
Strike One: I'm still reading, but I'm probably one strike from considering putting it down.
The relationship with her friend from prison when he was infected with whatever was in the glowing bottles happens off-page but doesn’t appear to have even been referenced. I mean, maybe I missed something, but that felt very left-field to me.
Predictability/Non-Predictability:
So, it's like a dystopian greatest hits, first, it was The Road, then, A Handmaid's Tale, and now it's a hybrid Shawshank Redemption. I'm still reading, but it's feeling off to me.
_________________________________________
Pacing:
Need more to happen. It's been a lot of pages since an event happened to move the story forward. The discovery of Makepeace's secret in prison isn't an event but is treated as one. And if something does happen because of that, then, we'll just be in salacious territory.
Last Page Sound:
Liked it well enough to finish it. Wanted to see what happened to Makepeace.
Editorial Assessment:
This could've stood a little closer to an editor's pen. There are a couple of spots where sentences are clunky or malformed. And at least one spot where guards are referred to as prisoners after the prisoners had already been sent across the bridge into the city. Course with the way this world works, maybe that’s right and the guards are prisoners after a fashion.
=======================================
jimodonnell's review against another edition
2.0
I found this book to be incredibly disappointing. The first few pages and even the first few chapters are quite good and I felt myself drawn into the story. But then the author failed us. The main character is pretty uninteresting and all the secondary characters are undeveloped, two dimensional nothings. The story itself is also quite lame. Makepeace, the main character, sees a plane crash and tries to seek out where it came from. But for most of the book the plane has no role as she goes a stockaded village to an internment camp for most of the book. In the end we find out where the plane comes from but with very little adult information and a plot to simply makes no sense. Magical jelly? Honestly, I don't really understand the point of this whole book. I will credit the author, however, for excellent writing. The writing is quite beautiful if the rest of the book itself is quite lame. I can't understand how this book won any awards. Disappointing.
davidpnw's review against another edition
4.0
I'm a sucker for post-apocalyptic dystopias, so this was right up my alley. Similar to the Road in its bleak depiction of a world of nothingness, slavery, and desolation, but with a bit more heart and a more fleshed-out world.
amybramblett's review against another edition
3.0
I love the post-apocalyptic genre. This one is pretty good, has a few pacing problems, but overall is very worth a read. Some great reveals, quietly done, pepper the narrative.