Station Eleven

by

Paperback, 352 pages

Published April 10, 2017 by Harper Perennial.

ISBN:
9781443434874

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5 stars (4 reviews)

The international publishing sensation now available in paperback: an audacious, darkly glittering novel about art, fame and ambition, set in the eerie days of civilization’s collapse

One snowy night, a famous Hollywood actor dies onstage during a production of King Lear. Hours later, the world as we know it begins to dissolve. Moving back and forth in time—from the actor’s early days as a film star to fifteen years in the future, when a theatre troupe known as the Travelling Symphony roams the wasteland of what remains—this suspenseful, elegiac, spellbinding novel charts the strange twists of fate that connect five people: the actor, the man who tried to save him, the actor’s first wife, his oldest friend and a young actress with the Travelling Symphony caught in the crosshairs of a dangerous self-proclaimed prophet. Sometimes terrifying, sometimes tender, Station Eleven tells a story about the relationships that sustain us, the …

4 editions

reviewed Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

Suspenseful, Meditative, Apocalyptic

5 stars

I wasn't sure I wanted to read (listen to) a book with the premise "What if COVID19, but much much worse",. but I'm glad I did.

The best speculative fiction is often a vehicle for commentary on contemporary life, and this book definitely is that, both on big themes, and perhaps more interestingly on the quirks and foibles of life in the 21st century.

The characters are nicely drawn and interesting. In a strange feat, I am now a fan of a fictional comic book series that I have only heard someone describe.

There was enough suspense and plot to keep me interested, without indulging in an excess of action. There some slightly implausible coincidences, but they don't drive the plot, but serve more like decoration.

reviewed Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

It was fine

3 stars

Listened to this on audiobook, which it was pretty good for. I wasn't expecting much and therefore it met my expectations. I liked the structure of weaving together all the different storylines, it was decently well written. After a while I started getting annoyed at how useless everyone was after their tech stopped functioning, it's not like ALL knowledge disappears and suddenly people are like "huh, wow, I simply cannot fathom HOW airplanes worked?" idk.

avatar for joachim@lire.boitam.eu

rated it

5 stars