Diane’s Book Club chose Station Eleven as their January book. Diane initially had some trepidation about Station Eleven because she’s not a fan of science fiction. But once Diane started reading Station Eleven she was swept up by the story. A pandemic hits the world and kills most of the people. The survivors struggle to exist when civilization crumbles around them. The novel jumps back and forth from before the pandemic and after the pandemic. The inside cover asks: What would you miss? My answer would be EVERYTHING!
Needless to say, after Diane finished the book in record time, I read it. I’ve read a lot of dystopian novels. Station Eleven is pretty good. The most grim novel I can think of is Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. Station Eleven isn’t as dark, but the collapse of civilization brings plenty of violence and suffering. A band of actors and musicians travel from town to town keeping Shakespeare and classical music alive. If you’re in the mood for a thoughtful story of a possible tomorrow, I recommend Station Eleven. GRADE: B+
Phil loved it. I haven’t read it yet.
Patti, part of STATION ELEVEN story takes place in Toronto. Diane and i recognized many of the locations from our visits over the years.
Haven’t seen it yet but this reminds me of the wave of dystopian/Third World War/Apocalypse novels that appeared in the 50s, or during the cold war when many people were really afraid of an atomic war that would have destroyed Earth as we know it.
My favourite was by a female author whose name “is lying on my tongue” about a kind of deadly virus in the USA – only people bitten by a venomous snake are immune …
Anyone here know which book I mean?
Though generally I’m not a fan of this type of book – prefer my spirits to be lifted up!
Wolf, dystopian fiction is very popular in the States. THE HUNGER GAMES series, the DIVERGENT series, books like STATION ELEVEN and THE ROAD find plenty of readers. I don’t know what that says about times, but it can’t be good.
Similar in theme, though not in tone, is Peter Heller’s THE DOG STARS. A flu-like pandemic wipes out most of the world’s population, the rest stagger on, suspicious of everyone else–most with good reason.
Deb, I have THE DOG STARS in my Read Real Soon stack.
I couldn’t read THE ROAD. Way, way too dark for me. But despite the dark theme I liked STATION ELEVEN a lot, more than I’d expected to after seeing the reviews. (I often dislike highly praised books, like GONE GIRL and THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN.) The traveling troupe worked well to tie the book together.
Jeff, Diane was surprised she liked STATION ELEVEN so much. Not her type of book. THE ROAD is the darkest book I’ve ever read. I finished it, but it bothered me for weeks afterward.
I liked it, and liked it even more in retrospect, after I’d had a week or two to consider it. I thought it was skillfully written though it was yet another of those books that stopped rather than ended. Though it was labeled “science fiction” by many people, it’s not, really It’s just a straight dystopian novel.
Rick, I had a similar reaction to STATION ELEVEN. It’s a novel that stays with you for weeks after you read it.