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A review by mllocy
Clade by James Bradley
3.0
This book is more a series of vignettes than a cohesive whole. The narrative jumps quickly between characters as they deal with the increasingly dire consequences of global warming gone unmitigated.
The author never lingers too long on any one character and only hints at the emotional depth they contain. This is both good and bad, on one hand, it serves the sprawling story well, because you need to be in different places, seeing from different eyes, all the myriad ways we've messed up the planet and how misfortune can aggravate those mistakes. But, it's just hard to care about any one character when they all get so little screen time, personal tragedies mix with the global tragedies, and mistakes compound misfortune, but it's difficult to really feel it.
Perhaps this is the author's intent, as caring about the right things (global warming, your family, your fellow humans) is a theme of the book, and some characters do better than others. And most of the problems stem from this source. But, as a reader, I also found it difficult to care, and if that was the point, it was well-made, if not engaging.
The author never lingers too long on any one character and only hints at the emotional depth they contain. This is both good and bad, on one hand, it serves the sprawling story well, because you need to be in different places, seeing from different eyes, all the myriad ways we've messed up the planet and how misfortune can aggravate those mistakes. But, it's just hard to care about any one character when they all get so little screen time, personal tragedies mix with the global tragedies, and mistakes compound misfortune, but it's difficult to really feel it.
Perhaps this is the author's intent, as caring about the right things (global warming, your family, your fellow humans) is a theme of the book, and some characters do better than others. And most of the problems stem from this source. But, as a reader, I also found it difficult to care, and if that was the point, it was well-made, if not engaging.