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3.7 AVERAGE
3.7 AVERAGE
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.
=======================================
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.
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.
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.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Wow what a journey. Lots of twists I didn’t see coming. I gasped loud several times. Pretty slow placed but when there is action it happens in an instant
adventurous
challenging
hopeful
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I am not sure that the author knew enough about how women think ( we think as in she not he) and how a woman has to undress to go to the toilet outside.... he was so wrong! This is what made me disappointed in the story. Otherwise it was fine.
dark
emotional
hopeful
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A gripping story. I thoroughly enjoyed it. A memorable protaganist, battling the odds, the elements and other hardships in a not too distant future. Brutal at times but always thoughtful, sometimes tender , even occasionally a little humerous. Ultimately an uplifting tale of the human spirit.
The last of civilization endures in the wilds of Siberia and Alaska. Harsh winters and short summers produce hardy, resourceful survivors. Nature is cold and callous, and so, too, are many of the characters that populate this novel--though not the narrator.
Makepeace, the narrator, is alone in the ghost town of Evangeline. Even this town of adventurous settlers on the remote frontier of the Far North has failed. Makepeace alone remains. Makepeace is about to commit suicide when a plane crashes near Evangeline, killing all the crew and passengers. But the very existence of this plane gives Makepeace hope. Makepeace sets out to find what remains of civilization. The story that follows is utterly compelling.
Far North is the story of a dying world. The prose reflects an author in his prime with not a word wasted and a well imagined world created from spare, straightforward language. There are a few jaw-dropping revelations in the narrative, but it's really not that kind of story. It's not a thriller nor a mystery. It's the story of Makepeace's life and journeys. And it is a fantastic story.
Makepeace, the narrator, is alone in the ghost town of Evangeline. Even this town of adventurous settlers on the remote frontier of the Far North has failed. Makepeace alone remains. Makepeace is about to commit suicide when a plane crashes near Evangeline, killing all the crew and passengers. But the very existence of this plane gives Makepeace hope. Makepeace sets out to find what remains of civilization. The story that follows is utterly compelling.
Far North is the story of a dying world. The prose reflects an author in his prime with not a word wasted and a well imagined world created from spare, straightforward language. There are a few jaw-dropping revelations in the narrative, but it's really not that kind of story. It's not a thriller nor a mystery. It's the story of Makepeace's life and journeys. And it is a fantastic story.
If you've read "The Road" and thought — well, that was fun, but it could use more feel-good vibes usually associated with Syberia, Solzhenitsyn, and Stalker. A great post-apocalyptic novel.