Reviews and Comments

I was enjoying this, but my library loan ran out and it was not an easy world to track even when reading daily.

I was skeptical that the concept would work, but good writing can bridge many gaps. I was drawn in by curiosity about weird sea creatures and was rewarded richly in that realm, but also unexpectedly in metaphorical ties to the author's personal realm, which is also very different from my own.

Curious how this will relate to Wim Hof's approach to breathing, and my own subsequent shift to a more breath-centric approach to life.

Yes it's a lot MacGyvering in space. I guess my brain likes that, and there's enough substance to it to trigger good musings. No regrets here.

Octavia Butler wrote with such iron-hard conviction and uncompromising vision, it's humbling and gripping to read. Her sense of human behavior on the individual and global scale is uncanny. I feel certain I've only gleaned a small portion of what her work has to offer.

A beautiful travelogue that manages to convey some of the challenges and insights of a year-long wilderness trek without ever over-digressing into hiker obsessions with food, gear, and miles. The environment gets center stage, perhaps leaving some curiosity about the inner lives of the adventurers, but at least one big change is gradually revealed.

Also notable for the absence of cellphones, which now gives a new depth to the peace and simplicity the couple experiences.

A beautiful travelogue that manages to convey some of the challenges and insights of a year-long wilderness trek without ever over-digressing into hiker obsessions with food, gear, and miles. The environment gets center stage, perhaps leaving some curiosity about the inner lives of the adventurers, but at least one big change is gradually revealed.

Also notable for the absence of cellphones, which now gives a new depth to the peace and simplicity the couple experiences.

Had a young-adult noir feel with some science thrown in here and there. I felt the need for a little escape and this did the job.

McDougall influenced me like many others with Born to Run and this book landed in my lap, so I went for it. Probably won't be as life-changing a read for me, but you never know. Taking a donkey's perspective for a while was a relief, and the portrayal of Sherman's community is rich and admirable.

Well-researched vignettes and story lines portray some of the likelyhoods and possibilities the changing climate could dish out. The thorough research doesn't always equal plausibility for me, but I found it educating and probably a much healthier rumination than I can manage on my own. Don't mistake hopeful for utopian, there is no denial that if there going to be hope humanity is going to get it's ass kicked on the way.

Might be timing, but I was ready to receive this. Love the message and the practice so far, though I have limited access to the cold at the moment.

I usually drop fiction that hits me with too much magic up front, but this was so foreign, irreverent, and unpredictable that it kept me curious. Having finished it I really feel like I've spent time in an alien world. I'm not sure I like or understand all of it, but the exposure forced my mind to broaden somehow.

Lots of themes here appeal to me with deserts, tech giants, and misfits in a Nigerian future I'm not equipped to imagine. There were bits here and there I couldn't swallow, but overall I'm thankful for the journey.

Wanting to think about things more carefully from the standpoint that we are animals.

We might not have quite reached this level of dystopia but having nearly reached 2024 nothing seems too farfetched. Butler shows that she needs nothing supernatural to power a story. This one will stick with me should I manage to live through the time period it is set in.