Paperback, 400 pages
Published Jan. 24, 2015 by Papierowy ksiezyc.
Station Eleven is a novel by the Canadian writer Emily St. John Mandel. It takes place in the Great Lakes region before and after a fictional swine flu pandemic, known as the "Georgia Flu", has devastated the world, killing most of the population. The book was published in 2014, and won the Arthur C. Clarke Award the following year.The novel was well received by critics, with the understated nature of Mandel's writing receiving particular praise. It appeared on several best-of-year lists. As of 2020, it had sold 1.5 million copies.A ten-part television adaptation of the same name premiered on HBO Max in December 2021.
A book I have kept thinking of years after reading it. Great prose, plot, characters, universe - it has it all.
My favorite scenes are of Jeevan and Frank in Toronto as the pandemic is unfolding.
If not for food-, sleep- and toilet breaks I almost read this in one go. Harrowing and layered story that gives a surprising entanglement of characters.
Even days after finishing I still had ah-ha moments when I suddenly understood how and why some things happened and who was connected to whom.
Wish there was a sequel where you learn more about the characters. Some parts are eerily recognizable now we had a real pandemic.
Mind you; the book is not sci-fi! It is our world after a pandemic; no fancy, crazy tech is used or invented in the book.
A surprisingly "civil" story about believable characters trying to eke it out in the aftermath of a grand fall.
Made me think of Covid and The Last of us.
I have read many post-apocalypse novels, and this is one of the best. Where it differs from the others is that it includes a lot of contemplative ideas about memory and loss, about what we value in our lives. There are parallel narratives from before and after the apocalypse. The "disaster porn" element of it, where you imagine what it would be like to be one of the survivors, is superbly done. But the accounts of the everyday life of the characters beforehand are also compelling . Emily is just a great writer, she has that way with words that creates an internal voice you just can't stop listening to.
Like Margaret Attwood and Kazuo Ishiguro, this author is one of those writers who denies they are SF authors. I am an unashamed genre tribalist - conventions, cosplay, the lot. But it doesn't matter in the end. This is just …
I have read many post-apocalypse novels, and this is one of the best. Where it differs from the others is that it includes a lot of contemplative ideas about memory and loss, about what we value in our lives. There are parallel narratives from before and after the apocalypse. The "disaster porn" element of it, where you imagine what it would be like to be one of the survivors, is superbly done. But the accounts of the everyday life of the characters beforehand are also compelling . Emily is just a great writer, she has that way with words that creates an internal voice you just can't stop listening to.
Like Margaret Attwood and Kazuo Ishiguro, this author is one of those writers who denies they are SF authors. I am an unashamed genre tribalist - conventions, cosplay, the lot. But it doesn't matter in the end. This is just a great book. Also, I have to admit the non-genre focus really sets this book apart. I think Emily does it better than Kazuo Ishiguro.
This was recommended to me and I went in knowing very little about it.
I found it to be a really gripping novel; hard to put down. I was really excited to see how the characters lives intersected and how they handled the trauma of the devastating pandemic.
The book tells the story of the characters at various stages of their lives ranging from many years before the pandemic, to around 20 years after. This gives a really interesting perspective on the characters, and keeps the pace of the book fast and interesting.
Highly recommended!
There was a lot in this I really enjoyed. Interesting characters and a fascinating set of situations, all very tightly plotted and woven together in a system that slowly became visible throughout the novel. The structure and style of it has a lot of similarities to The Passage - something the book slyly acknowledges at one point.
However, I can only give this four and not five stars because the ending - or, more accurately, the climactic point of the narrative - feels too short and brief, almost perfunctory in the way it happens. When I was getting towards the end, I was thinking that I'd missed something in the blurb and this was just the first book of a pair or a series. There was enough going on and being built up I couldn't see how it could be resolved in that space - and I'm not sure it …
There was a lot in this I really enjoyed. Interesting characters and a fascinating set of situations, all very tightly plotted and woven together in a system that slowly became visible throughout the novel. The structure and style of it has a lot of similarities to The Passage - something the book slyly acknowledges at one point.
However, I can only give this four and not five stars because the ending - or, more accurately, the climactic point of the narrative - feels too short and brief, almost perfunctory in the way it happens. When I was getting towards the end, I was thinking that I'd missed something in the blurb and this was just the first book of a pair or a series. There was enough going on and being built up I couldn't see how it could be resolved in that space - and I'm not sure it was, leaving me a bit empty when it finished.
The plot of this book is not only interesting but one that lets you think. The writing is superb and it is an overall beautiful book.
A really great imagining of sweeping pandemic and complete societal collapse bogged down by too many side stories of half-formed characters and convenient contrived coincidences that detract from what could have been a fantastic piece of post-apocalyptic fiction.
My book of the year so far - a wonderful read that I literally could not put down. The premise of a global pandemic is of course topical (although it was written before Covid 19) and I love a good post apocalyptic tale, but what is the most captivating element of the book are the story line threads that twist and tangle with each other.
EDIT: 28/4/19: Yes. Wonderful. Brilliant. I still adore it.
Astounding. I love it. I love it so, so much.
I've read this book for two different book clubs, with about 6 years between each reading, and on both occasions I've come away feeling a bit 'meh'. On the plus side, it's easy to read, the characters have distinguishable names (e.g. no 'Jon' and 'John' who are completely different characters) and all the threads that run through it are tidied up at the end. Each character is distinctive and has their own flaws and background.
On the downside, there isn't really anything particularly new or special in this book. A virus that spreads rapidly and kills off >95% of the population has been done before, and it's unconvincing to have an infectious agent with an incubation period of a few hours which kills within a day - people would die before they could pass it on (at that speed you'd have a plane full of bodies on a long-haul flight). …
I've read this book for two different book clubs, with about 6 years between each reading, and on both occasions I've come away feeling a bit 'meh'. On the plus side, it's easy to read, the characters have distinguishable names (e.g. no 'Jon' and 'John' who are completely different characters) and all the threads that run through it are tidied up at the end. Each character is distinctive and has their own flaws and background.
On the downside, there isn't really anything particularly new or special in this book. A virus that spreads rapidly and kills off >95% of the population has been done before, and it's unconvincing to have an infectious agent with an incubation period of a few hours which kills within a day - people would die before they could pass it on (at that speed you'd have a plane full of bodies on a long-haul flight).
The big problem I have though is that this is supposed to be a post-apocalyptic book, but at least half of it is set pre-apocalypse, achieved through the overuse of flashbacks. Used judiciously, flashbacks can add something to a story, but when they're overused they interrupt the flow and become jarring - better to start with the original events and proceed in chronological order than to jump backwards and forwards.
Like the other reviewers who have given this 1 or 2 stars, I'm struggling to see what I'm missing here that's causing the majority of reviews to be 4 or 5 stars and gushing with enthusiasm.
