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3.66 AVERAGE
3.66 AVERAGE
The Boy at the End of the World by Greg van Eekhout
This is not usually a book I would pick up on my own to read. I had to think about this book after I finished it because I wasn't really sure how I felt about the book. This book really stuck with me and I am still thinking about it after a week. It is a mix of The Matrix, Terminator, and The Wizard of Oz and that may seem like a really weird combination the book does have elements of those movies.
It takes place after humans are no longer on Earth. Humans got to a point where they could not reproduce and survive in the world they had altered. So what they do is create several Arcs. In these arcs they have frozen people, animals, and plants that will be woken up when the Earth is habitable again. Something attacks the Arc Fisher is in and as the only survivor the robot in charge of the Arc selects a personality profile and awakens him. This book is about Fisher's journey to discover if he is the last human on the Earth or if there are others out there.
This was a very fast paced book and kept a pretty steady momentum through the story. I also enjoyed the characters. As Fisher travels he meets different animals and the author paints a world in which nature has taken back the Earth. It was a very interesting look at what could happen if humans are not more concerned with the choices they are making. I think books like this are good for kids to read. It allows them to think about their actions big and small and how they do effect people.
This is not usually a book I would pick up on my own to read. I had to think about this book after I finished it because I wasn't really sure how I felt about the book. This book really stuck with me and I am still thinking about it after a week. It is a mix of The Matrix, Terminator, and The Wizard of Oz and that may seem like a really weird combination the book does have elements of those movies.
It takes place after humans are no longer on Earth. Humans got to a point where they could not reproduce and survive in the world they had altered. So what they do is create several Arcs. In these arcs they have frozen people, animals, and plants that will be woken up when the Earth is habitable again. Something attacks the Arc Fisher is in and as the only survivor the robot in charge of the Arc selects a personality profile and awakens him. This book is about Fisher's journey to discover if he is the last human on the Earth or if there are others out there.
This was a very fast paced book and kept a pretty steady momentum through the story. I also enjoyed the characters. As Fisher travels he meets different animals and the author paints a world in which nature has taken back the Earth. It was a very interesting look at what could happen if humans are not more concerned with the choices they are making. I think books like this are good for kids to read. It allows them to think about their actions big and small and how they do effect people.
A post-apocalyptic far-future where a boy wakes up in a broken ark to find himself the last human in the world. He has to adjust to a new world with a robot for a companion. It’s a great little kid’s story. I read it out loud to the kids and we all loved it.
I had a hard time finishing this book. It was message fiction. I've read many books with different opinions and ideologies than my own with nary a problem. I enjoy being exposed to new ways of thinking through the characters. This book, however, was preachy since exposition and narration were used to convey the message.
If your ideological leaning is pro-environmental, anti-consumerism, then you may find this book illuminating, prophetic & relevant. I am sure the author simply accepted the tenets of his belief as a matter of course because the hammer he used to drive a nail into the pace of his story was delivered with confidence and repetition. However, if you rather like man and his nifty gadgets, don't think that consumerism is a dirty word, and don't believe man is going to blow everything up then poison what's left, you might find the constant pulpit pounding by robots and sentient prairie dogs as tedious as I did. The book is peppered with environmental messages that denigrate the advancements of man in a way that authoritatively attempts to influence the reader.
Yet, for all its focus on secularist belief in the supreme fault of man, the story is also oddly humanist. Is science good? Is science bad? Or is consumerism the villain? The message is both overbearing and conflicting. The author slams everything from fast food to man-made pollution, but is grateful in the acknowledgement for the miracles of technology that helped him write the story. This made me wonder if the book was satire then, but I suspect not.
I was able to finish the book because once I looked past the preaching I found a solid story filled with adventure and exploration. The story especially picks up steam after the first third of the book. There was adventure and survival and peril and humor. In a literary world overfilled with fantasy for children, this SciFi morality tale may be just what your kid is looking for. With apologies to the author, however, I'm just not sure I'll be recommending it to my kids.
If your ideological leaning is pro-environmental, anti-consumerism, then you may find this book illuminating, prophetic & relevant. I am sure the author simply accepted the tenets of his belief as a matter of course because the hammer he used to drive a nail into the pace of his story was delivered with confidence and repetition. However, if you rather like man and his nifty gadgets, don't think that consumerism is a dirty word, and don't believe man is going to blow everything up then poison what's left, you might find the constant pulpit pounding by robots and sentient prairie dogs as tedious as I did. The book is peppered with environmental messages that denigrate the advancements of man in a way that authoritatively attempts to influence the reader.
Yet, for all its focus on secularist belief in the supreme fault of man, the story is also oddly humanist. Is science good? Is science bad? Or is consumerism the villain? The message is both overbearing and conflicting. The author slams everything from fast food to man-made pollution, but is grateful in the acknowledgement for the miracles of technology that helped him write the story. This made me wonder if the book was satire then, but I suspect not.
I was able to finish the book because once I looked past the preaching I found a solid story filled with adventure and exploration. The story especially picks up steam after the first third of the book. There was adventure and survival and peril and humor. In a literary world overfilled with fantasy for children, this SciFi morality tale may be just what your kid is looking for. With apologies to the author, however, I'm just not sure I'll be recommending it to my kids.
Don't really feel like writing a review right now, but it was actually a 2.5.
His name is Fisher. The world is dangerous. And he’s the only one in it. These are the things Fisher knows immediately on waking up, on being born from the survival pod ages after all the other humans have died. The journey to find any other humans will require Fisher to outsmart robots, evade the deadly gadgets, and win over a colony of warrior prairie dogs—all in a world that has been completely destroyed.
Definitely a post-apocalyptic adventure, as all of humanity has been destroyed--and with it much of the earth. Luckily (I guess) the humans knew they were on their way out, and preserved samples of most existing animals (including humans) in suspended animation tanks on giant arks, with robotic "custodians" and guards to keep them safe. However, those safeguards are all failing and Fisher's ark is destroyed, and his only hope for survival is in finding another ark with other people. It's mostly an adventure story--lots of battles and scrapes and that sort of thing as Fisher navigates across the former United States--but it's an adventure through a post-apocalyptic world that has reinvented itself to be nearly unrecognizable--boundaries have changed, earthquakes have altered the topography, the Mississippi river is a hundred miles shorter than it used to be.
Won't hold the interest of high school readers, but a great choice for upper-elementary and middle schoolers looking to get on the Dystopian & Post-Apocalyptic Bandwagons.
Definitely a post-apocalyptic adventure, as all of humanity has been destroyed--and with it much of the earth. Luckily (I guess) the humans knew they were on their way out, and preserved samples of most existing animals (including humans) in suspended animation tanks on giant arks, with robotic "custodians" and guards to keep them safe. However, those safeguards are all failing and Fisher's ark is destroyed, and his only hope for survival is in finding another ark with other people. It's mostly an adventure story--lots of battles and scrapes and that sort of thing as Fisher navigates across the former United States--but it's an adventure through a post-apocalyptic world that has reinvented itself to be nearly unrecognizable--boundaries have changed, earthquakes have altered the topography, the Mississippi river is a hundred miles shorter than it used to be.
Won't hold the interest of high school readers, but a great choice for upper-elementary and middle schoolers looking to get on the Dystopian & Post-Apocalyptic Bandwagons.
An action packed book. I think that it is a great introduction to the world of science fiction.
A few interesting ideas although most of the story borrowed from other titles. Written for the 10+ age group but a pleasant diversion for an adult.
Good survival/post-apocalyptic story for people who like that sort of thing. I am not one of those people.