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A review by silea
Dark Eden by Chris Beckett
Did not finish book.
This read like it was written for children about children, except for the sex and stillborn babies.
In a world without a sun in the sky, i understand keeping time in 'wombtimes' instead of years, counting 'wakings' instead of days, but why on earth was it 'slip' instead of 'sex'? Why did they apparently lose the word 'very' and have to make do with repetition, calling things 'old old' or 'quiet quiet'? I get that the hum of the forest is the background to their lives, but describing it with repeated onomatopoeia makes it sound like a children's book. "The cow says 'moo moo', the trees say 'hmmph hmmph hmmph'."
I also have trouble believing that, in 200 'wombtimes', John was the first to ever wonder what was outside the circle. And that a Family all descended from two people could have one clan that's dark-skinned while all the rest are fair-skinned.
The author made a relatively complex world, but filled it with boring people, and the Point Of View tosses randomly between them. I was fundamentally uncomfortable reading this book because the characters all seem like children except that they have sex all the time. It reminded me of the scene in Brave New World, with the sexually active children, that was designed to make readers squeamish.
Having read the spoilers in some other reviews, i'm confident i would not like the book any more in the latter two thirds than i did in the first third.
In a world without a sun in the sky, i understand keeping time in 'wombtimes' instead of years, counting 'wakings' instead of days, but why on earth was it 'slip' instead of 'sex'? Why did they apparently lose the word 'very' and have to make do with repetition, calling things 'old old' or 'quiet quiet'? I get that the hum of the forest is the background to their lives, but describing it with repeated onomatopoeia makes it sound like a children's book. "The cow says 'moo moo', the trees say 'hmmph hmmph hmmph'."
I also have trouble believing that, in 200 'wombtimes', John was the first to ever wonder what was outside the circle. And that a Family all descended from two people could have one clan that's dark-skinned while all the rest are fair-skinned.
The author made a relatively complex world, but filled it with boring people, and the Point Of View tosses randomly between them. I was fundamentally uncomfortable reading this book because the characters all seem like children except that they have sex all the time. It reminded me of the scene in Brave New World, with the sexually active children, that was designed to make readers squeamish.
Having read the spoilers in some other reviews, i'm confident i would not like the book any more in the latter two thirds than i did in the first third.