Not a patch on the Mars Series

Very disappointed, didn’t even finish it! Wanted to believe it wasn’t more disaster movie than SF but gave up. Too political but at least the English aren’t the baddies for a change but I suppose it was written in 1984 when the Americans were still obsessed with the Reds!

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1 person found this helpful

Of the three..

..this is best of the series. A low key post apocalyptic (at least for the USA) story that is both a coming of age and a reflection of the past.

Voice narration was good.

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Odd coming of age story. Talented writer but dated

This is an odd book to review. It is written by a very talented writer, who uses poetic language without becoming flowery. He is also fantastic at characterization. I honestly think I could love this book if the premise -what I thought it was when I started listening- had gone in a different direction.

So, I thought I was getting a futuristic novel about a community surviving after disaster (war) struck. What I got was a coming of age novel written from the perspective of a teenage boy. This teenage boy is infuriating in many ways, but also deeply sympathetic. He is very, very naïve and self-centered, and makes terrible decisions that cause the deaths of others. Other than feeling guilty about it he doesn't really get held accountable for that. He seems introspective and gets sympathy points for a lot of things. But after finishing the novel I don't think I liked him very much, even though he is clearly written as the person you are supposed to root for. So listening to an entire book from his perspective was not all that satisfying in the end. The other two main characters are another insufferable teenage boy, who is clearly bullying and dominating the main character, but is still written as his 'best friend'. The last is an old man, Tom. That one was he most interesting one. It's hard to explain why without spoilers. But all three characters have in common that they are written incredibly well. They really come alive. It is just too bad (for me) that two of them are insufferable in my eyes.

So in the end, even though I very much recognize the skill of the writer, I did not enjoy this novel all that much. I also suspect this novel reads very differently based on whether you are an American or not. I think in the end we are supposed to have sympathy for all the patriotic hoo-ha, but as an European that just reads like MAGA not realizing they lost. I think there could be parallels drawn between the North/South, civil war aftermath as well.

The narrator is a professional and has a very comforting, deep voice. I sped it up a little, but would absolutely listen to another book read by him.

One last word of caution:
This book was written in 1984 and has some racist and sexist tropes as well. They are not overt and I think it is easier to give two examples to explain what I mean. 01: There is for example a non-ironic description of the population of an island off the coast where a character ends up that goes like this: (quote) "There were Mexican faces, Asian faces, some Black, but I could see no American faces." Another one is that the only two women that feature more than a few lines in the book are 01: a conniving seductress who is a love interest for the protagonist and betrays him, and the girl next door who ends up as his other love interest. That's it. Plus the usual comments about how men are all cool and unproblematic (despite unleashing war and such), while women need to gossip and are all emotional. No LGBTQ representation at all, in any way. So yeah. I knew going in that this is an 80's book and I've read far worse, but this is clearly a white guy in the eighties perspective, when his existence was the default. I think if I had been that man, reading this book when it came out, I would have found it FANTASTIC. Because like I said, the storytelling skill is very clearly there. I may seek out more recent material of this writer to see if he has improved with the changing times.

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5 people found this helpful

A beautiful and hypnotic story

Stefan Rudniciki performs a beautiful melancholic poem of a story. Compelling from start to finish.

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1 person found this helpful

Underrated masterpiece

Incredibly detailed yet written with such skill it never feels verbose. And the performance is perfection and has a gentleness that sits so well with the narrative. This is book one of a trilogy.

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I have enjoyed many books from this author. This is different.

Slower than normal but a subtle and engaging story. Although the story is low in dramatic cliff hangers it does paint a believable picture

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Not enough action

This was one book I was not able to finish. Whilst I can in no way criticise the quality of the prose it was rich and descriptive my problem with the book was that for me there was just not enough action to keep me interested in the story. I listened through approx 40% of the book but could not force myself to finish the story. It's just that it is not quite my kind of book

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