Sean Randall reviewed News from Gardenia by Robert Llewellyn
Review of 'News from Gardenia' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
"I was in a room with what looked like normal human beings, but things were steadily and relentlessly going out of whack."
The opening of this book was quite intriguing; I'd heard an audio reading of the first chapter a few months ago and so was glad to give it a go. The writing is lightly amusing, Llewellyn has a style that is both comfortable, informative and funny.
"It sounded like the whole system I’d known, in fact the whole country, had broken down into some sort of anarchist semi-medieval subsistence-farming backwater."
This, of course, is a fairly accurate review of where the main character finds himself, and the technological and social innovations that he learns about are really quite interesting to read about. I don't know if I'd enjoy living in such an environment, and the characters lack depth here, but I enjoyed it all the same.
Knock half …
"I was in a room with what looked like normal human beings, but things were steadily and relentlessly going out of whack."
The opening of this book was quite intriguing; I'd heard an audio reading of the first chapter a few months ago and so was glad to give it a go. The writing is lightly amusing, Llewellyn has a style that is both comfortable, informative and funny.
"It sounded like the whole system I’d known, in fact the whole country, had broken down into some sort of anarchist semi-medieval subsistence-farming backwater."
This, of course, is a fairly accurate review of where the main character finds himself, and the technological and social innovations that he learns about are really quite interesting to read about. I don't know if I'd enjoy living in such an environment, and the characters lack depth here, but I enjoyed it all the same.
Knock half a star off for the ending, too, which I felt was the weakest part of the book.
