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dei2dei's review against another edition
2.0
I was... not impressed. Amusing read, but I thought the ending was weak and this just... wasn't hitting the spot.
dkalina's review against another edition
adventurous
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
nicolet2018's review against another edition
3.0
When I began this book, the first thing that came to mind was the song in High School Musical "Stick to the Status Quo".
"No, no, nooooo
no, no, no
Stick to the stuff you know
If you wanna be cool
Stick to one simple rule
Don't mess with the flow, no no
Stick to the status quo"
Mostly because the Family refused to open their minds to possibilities and were more comfortable with leaving things as they are. That is human nature isn't it? Fearing change and risk. The themes of the story are so common and if you like dystopian and sci fi this is probably something you would be interested in.
The way they hold their traditions and tell the old stories of how they came to be and the frustrations of the characters like John and Tina who are sick and tired of hearing about the same old things, felt relatable and universal. I was impressed with how the Family created society and had rules. The way they talk about myths and unknowns was interesting too. Despite their simplistic lifestyle, characters want more, get greedy and tempted.
I was most surprised by how sex was such a perfunctionary thing for the Family and the reason why their children are born slighted deformed, the "batface" was what I assumed was a cleft lip and claw foot is where the toes are deformed I guess. What touched me the most was the reader has a perspective of males who do not want sex and feel uncomfortable with it but they do it anyway. In most of our real life and fiction we hardly hear about the male's perspective of sex as they are traditionally those who seek sexual pleasure. It was interesting to see how some thought of sex as special and some thought of it as a everyday thing like hunting for food. It was so different so see that polygamy was normal for the family even incest.
Their words were spelled slight differently but I caught on like "lecky-trickity" is electricity and "secret ree" is secretary. I could go on and on about how the words differ. Of course we have John Redlantern who wants more than he has and is the odd one out. He tries to speak out but is beaten down but he does not give up.
This really was a coming of age story and the reader can see how John struggles with leadership and learns that leaders are not always loved and at times stand alone. I liked how Jeff is seen as a weirdo when he is young but he blossoms in appearance when he grows up and that changes how others see him.
I did struggle through this book because the writing style and pacing was not for me. I am the type who struggled through a book despite not liking it. I had to gorce mydelf to continue reading this to be honest. It did get better but only towards the end. I am not sure if I want to read the next book.
"No, no, nooooo
no, no, no
Stick to the stuff you know
If you wanna be cool
Stick to one simple rule
Don't mess with the flow, no no
Stick to the status quo"
Mostly because the Family refused to open their minds to possibilities and were more comfortable with leaving things as they are. That is human nature isn't it? Fearing change and risk. The themes of the story are so common and if you like dystopian and sci fi this is probably something you would be interested in.
The way they hold their traditions and tell the old stories of how they came to be and the frustrations of the characters like John and Tina who are sick and tired of hearing about the same old things, felt relatable and universal. I was impressed with how the Family created society and had rules. The way they talk about myths and unknowns was interesting too. Despite their simplistic lifestyle, characters want more, get greedy and tempted.
I was most surprised by how sex was such a perfunctionary thing for the Family and the reason why their children are born slighted deformed, the "batface" was what I assumed was a cleft lip and claw foot is where the toes are deformed I guess. What touched me the most was the reader has a perspective of males who do not want sex and feel uncomfortable with it but they do it anyway. In most of our real life and fiction we hardly hear about the male's perspective of sex as they are traditionally those who seek sexual pleasure. It was interesting to see how some thought of sex as special and some thought of it as a everyday thing like hunting for food. It was so different so see that polygamy was normal for the family even incest.
Their words were spelled slight differently but I caught on like "lecky-trickity" is electricity and "secret ree" is secretary. I could go on and on about how the words differ. Of course we have John Redlantern who wants more than he has and is the odd one out. He tries to speak out but is beaten down but he does not give up.
This really was a coming of age story and the reader can see how John struggles with leadership and learns that leaders are not always loved and at times stand alone. I liked how Jeff is seen as a weirdo when he is young but he blossoms in appearance when he grows up and that changes how others see him.
I did struggle through this book because the writing style and pacing was not for me. I am the type who struggled through a book despite not liking it. I had to gorce mydelf to continue reading this to be honest. It did get better but only towards the end. I am not sure if I want to read the next book.
starryviolet's review against another edition
1.0
If I could give this less than a full star, I would. The plot is nothing new or remarkable; a group from the younger generation rebels against the elders and strikes out on their own. The characters are boring and wishy-washy. The only remotely interesting character completely changes from a strong and independent person to a soppy individual who only cares about the person she's infatuated with. And the language! This was the worst part of the whole book for me. Apparently this society lost the ability to use descriptive language. They are not furious. They are not enraged. They aren't even very angry. They are "mad mad". The same is true for pretty much everything. They are "cold cold" or "sad sad" or "happy happy". It was exceptionally frustrating, and that's not of language evolves.
I couldn't bring myself to finish reading this book. I tried. But I couldn't ever read more than two pages at once. Maybe the ending was good, but I don't care to find out. If you have more than three brain cells to run together, do not waste your time with this book. You'll be bored and annoyed through every word you read.
I couldn't bring myself to finish reading this book. I tried. But I couldn't ever read more than two pages at once. Maybe the ending was good, but I don't care to find out. If you have more than three brain cells to run together, do not waste your time with this book. You'll be bored and annoyed through every word you read.
lymadebell's review against another edition
1.0
No! Do not read this book if you have any issues with double words used to describe something like "I'm really mad mad about reading this book." Or... If you like English words in your books and not gibberish nonsense words. I only got about 30 pages in and I couldn't force myself to read this book. World building was great, but I couldn't get past the writing style.
evilhag21's review against another edition
2.0
Unfortunately, I gave up on this one. It took a long time to get into, the writing wasn't to my taste and I couldn't really see where the novel was going.
I may pick up and finish one day but that day isn't today.
I may pick up and finish one day but that day isn't today.
alexandragriffin's review against another edition
Just didn’t care. Didn’t like the story at all, hated the speech patterns of the society (reading the reasoning of said speech patterns by the author made 0 sense to me).
edgeworth's review against another edition
4.0
John Redlantern lives amid the warmth and safety of Family in Circle Valley. There is no sun – only eternal night. Light and warmth come from the valley’s alien geothermal trees, which glow red and white and emit boiling hot sap. Surrounding Circle Valley is the Snowy Dark – a cold, thin-air wasteland where you can’t even see your hand in front of your face. Nobody has ever left the valley, not since Angela and Tommy were first stranded there from Earth many generations ago. The 532 members of Family are their descendents – inbred, genetically mutating, clinging to the stories their first Mother and Father told them about distant Earth. One day, they have been told, Earth will come and find them again.
Dark Eden is a classic bildungsroman, in which 15-year-old (or 20 “wombtimes” old) John Redlantern grows weary at the parochial, stultifying atmosphere of Family. He fears that Family is growing larger, and game is getting scarce. He thinks that despite what Mother Angela once told her children, she never thought the wait for Earth would be this long. He believes there must be something else on the other side of Snowy Dark, and is determined to go against his elders and find out.
The novel ranges across a number of viewpoints, mostly John Redlantern and his lover Tina Spiketree, but occasionally taking in others when the narrative demands it. Beckett does a good job of exploring each character’s different motives; John, for example, knows that he’s a good leader and wants to try new things; from Tina’s perspective, we see that she appreciates this, but also recognises John has a deep, restless urge inside him, and an egotistical view that the world’s story is all about him. Similarly, the Family’s leader is a maternalistic woman who recognises the same problems as John but is wise enough to know that change must happen slowly; that “any fool can break a thing, but building a new one takes wakings and wakings.”
The world of Eden is beautifully rendered, from the glowing and humming trees to the menacing six-legged fauna, but it’s not overwrought – the characters mention things like “leopards” and “trees,” and it’s only through incidental detail that the reader sees how different these things must be from their earthly namesakes.
Beckett’s use of language to establish Family’s culture (however small and stagnant it may be) is excellent. There are shades of a post-apocalyptic story here, as degenerate tribals cling to their society’s past glory and revere their ancestors. Small linguistic touches go a long way, such as the loss of the word “very,” with characters instead simply doubling up on adjectives to emphasise them: cold cold, tired tired, etc.
What Beckett gets absolutely pitch perfect is the claustrophobic sense of Eden: the darkness, the enveloping cold, the rigid tribal laws and the inability to escape Family, to go anywhere else, do anything different or find anything new. Circle Valley is all the characters have ever known, but they have grown up hearing stories of Earth and the rest of the human race, and they know that there is more to life than this. “Sometimes I hated Eden,” John says to himself. “Sometimes I felt that if I ate another mouthful of greenish Eden meat I would vomit out my guts.”
Dark Eden has a satisfying if limited conclusion, avoiding the brutal showdown other science fiction writers might have opted for. It’s open to a sequel, but is an excellent standalone novel – an original and haunting story.
Side note – it’s a miserly publisher indeed who’d choose to save on ink by issuing the reprint with a white cover, as my edition has. The original was black, a thousand times more appropriate for this novel.
Dark Eden is a classic bildungsroman, in which 15-year-old (or 20 “wombtimes” old) John Redlantern grows weary at the parochial, stultifying atmosphere of Family. He fears that Family is growing larger, and game is getting scarce. He thinks that despite what Mother Angela once told her children, she never thought the wait for Earth would be this long. He believes there must be something else on the other side of Snowy Dark, and is determined to go against his elders and find out.
The novel ranges across a number of viewpoints, mostly John Redlantern and his lover Tina Spiketree, but occasionally taking in others when the narrative demands it. Beckett does a good job of exploring each character’s different motives; John, for example, knows that he’s a good leader and wants to try new things; from Tina’s perspective, we see that she appreciates this, but also recognises John has a deep, restless urge inside him, and an egotistical view that the world’s story is all about him. Similarly, the Family’s leader is a maternalistic woman who recognises the same problems as John but is wise enough to know that change must happen slowly; that “any fool can break a thing, but building a new one takes wakings and wakings.”
The world of Eden is beautifully rendered, from the glowing and humming trees to the menacing six-legged fauna, but it’s not overwrought – the characters mention things like “leopards” and “trees,” and it’s only through incidental detail that the reader sees how different these things must be from their earthly namesakes.
Beckett’s use of language to establish Family’s culture (however small and stagnant it may be) is excellent. There are shades of a post-apocalyptic story here, as degenerate tribals cling to their society’s past glory and revere their ancestors. Small linguistic touches go a long way, such as the loss of the word “very,” with characters instead simply doubling up on adjectives to emphasise them: cold cold, tired tired, etc.
What Beckett gets absolutely pitch perfect is the claustrophobic sense of Eden: the darkness, the enveloping cold, the rigid tribal laws and the inability to escape Family, to go anywhere else, do anything different or find anything new. Circle Valley is all the characters have ever known, but they have grown up hearing stories of Earth and the rest of the human race, and they know that there is more to life than this. “Sometimes I hated Eden,” John says to himself. “Sometimes I felt that if I ate another mouthful of greenish Eden meat I would vomit out my guts.”
Dark Eden has a satisfying if limited conclusion, avoiding the brutal showdown other science fiction writers might have opted for. It’s open to a sequel, but is an excellent standalone novel – an original and haunting story.
Side note – it’s a miserly publisher indeed who’d choose to save on ink by issuing the reprint with a white cover, as my edition has. The original was black, a thousand times more appropriate for this novel.