Kiehtova, tunnelmaltaan surumielinen, mutta silti kaunis dystopia
4 stars
Kiehtova, tunnelmaltaan surumielinen, mutta silti kaunis dystopia, joka vei voimalla mukaansa ilmastokatastrofin jälkeiseen miehitettyyn Skandinaviaan ja karuun tunturin juuressa sijaitsevaan kylään. En ihmettele miksi moni on tämän kirjan nostanut esille yhtenä lukusuosituksenaan - nämä suositukset saivat minutkin tarttumaan kirjaan, kun se kirjaston valikoimissa tuli sattumalta vastaan.
This was a quick read for me, started and finished on a six hour plane ride home. It's post-apocalyptic with a message - one reviewer called it "preachy", although I didn't find it so. I found it to be better than most post-apocalyptic books I've read, with an interesting sub-theme running through it.
Throughout the book, I was reminded of another Finnish author I've read, Hannu Rajaniemi, and his "Quantum Thief" novels. While those are post-human high-tech sci-fi novels, Rajaniemi makes the same assumptions about his readers - they're smart, and they can figure things out without having everything explained all the time. Itäranta will do exposition at times, but for the most part she assumes you are smart enough to figure out what's happening.
I was also strongly reminded of Stephen Vincent Benet's "By the Waters of Babylon", where the post-apocalyptic world is very different from ours, while the …
This was a quick read for me, started and finished on a six hour plane ride home. It's post-apocalyptic with a message - one reviewer called it "preachy", although I didn't find it so. I found it to be better than most post-apocalyptic books I've read, with an interesting sub-theme running through it.
Throughout the book, I was reminded of another Finnish author I've read, Hannu Rajaniemi, and his "Quantum Thief" novels. While those are post-human high-tech sci-fi novels, Rajaniemi makes the same assumptions about his readers - they're smart, and they can figure things out without having everything explained all the time. Itäranta will do exposition at times, but for the most part she assumes you are smart enough to figure out what's happening.
I was also strongly reminded of Stephen Vincent Benet's "By the Waters of Babylon", where the post-apocalyptic world is very different from ours, while the current world is largely unknown to the narrator and is partially discovered through the plot. I had a vague feeling of dread while reading both stories, as if something horrible was going to happen - I chalk that up to my own bias when reading post-apocalytic stories.
This is well worth the time to read, IMO. I didn't find it preachy, but there is a message there, so your mileage may vary based on your own reaction to the message. I think there's a lot more world to be discovered here as well, although I don't expect Itäranta to return to it, any more than Benet returned to his Babylon. It's just as well - both worlds do well as single stories.
