Reviews

This takes “food for thought” to another level.

You might associate apples with Fall but this is the perfect winter read due to the cli-fy/end-of-the world/earth is a snowball vibe.

In a sense, this vibe reminded me of The Fifth Season, but sans magic (okay, 2/3’s less magic) and less emotional. But this has three unexpected plots interweaving apples, fates/furies, and poor career decisions. Let me back up a little.

What would happen if all the bees died? (And how could science technology/ bio-engineering fix this?)
What if all the money in the world couldn’t fix social issues?
Could Earth’s environmental issues have one massive reset (and be reprinted/regrown when it's time?) Bell takes us down this rabbit hole and hits some uncomfortable notes of truth that don’t feel as absurd as they should.

In retrospect, this wasn’t the most optimistic TBR pick to start off 2022, but it was still an interesting read/listen.

keen23's review against another edition

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4.0

Well, this was the longest and the weirdest book I've read so far this year. There's a centaur, perhaps more than one. There's multiple timelines. Lots of technology. No real explanation of anything. Everything gets thrown at you all at once. But the chaos drives the plot, and the story basically is the chaos of a dying world.

shelbymarie516's review against another edition

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2.0

2.25
This genre is normally something I am in to but this just never captured my attention.

anrevat's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional reflective slow-paced

4.75

jenhurst's review against another edition

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3.0

I like how weird this was and I thought it was a really interesting way to explore climate change. I just struggled to connect to it at times.

cobgoblin's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

noranne's review against another edition

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2.0

What a weird book. At first I really disliked it, then I kind of liked, then I was like huh? Climate fic is so hard because IME it almost always comes off as preachy. And a lot is anti-human and you know I don't think the human race deserves to go extinct so that's a hard sell for me.

There are three epochs of time in this story and how they connect is not immediately obvious (and in some ways not eventually obvious either). American folk tale blends with ecoterrorism blends with geocapitalism blends with post-apocalyptic sci-fi blends with AI and cloning.

Ambitious but ultimately not really my thing.

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