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Wall Around Eden
Two decades after a nuclear war, small enclaves survive the destruction of the ozone layer, somewhat protected by walls of air established by the alien floating globes that the radiation-contaminated humans call angelbees.
Isabel Garcia-Chase comes of age in Gwynwood in what was formerly Pennsylvania, rebelling against the angelbees, who communicate with humans only through a now-dying Contact and forbid the use of much technology, including radios. The enclaves, the largest of which is in Australia, keep in touch with each other through the angelbee-operated Pylons which provide instantaneous transmission.
While Isabel and others believe the angelbees either caused the devastation or at least exacerbated it, the Quakers who mostly populate Gwynwood see them as saviors. After an act of rebellion, Isabel and her new husband, Daniel Scattergood, are taken into the Pylon and they begin to learn more about the aliens.
Slonczewski ( Still Forms on Foxfield ) writes a thoughtful and unusual after-the-holocaust novel, strongly infused with the Quaker outlook. Its slow but careful pace rewards the reader with such beautifully developed characters as Peace Hope Scattergood, born without hands and a talented painter, and a hopeful view of humanity and its future.
Isabel Garcia-Chase comes of age in Gwynwood in what was formerly Pennsylvania, rebelling against the angelbees, who communicate with humans only through a now-dying Contact and forbid the use of much technology, including radios. The enclaves, the largest of which is in Australia, keep in touch with each other through the angelbee-operated Pylons which provide instantaneous transmission.
While Isabel and others believe the angelbees either caused the devastation or at least exacerbated it, the Quakers who mostly populate Gwynwood see them as saviors. After an act of rebellion, Isabel and her new husband, Daniel Scattergood, are taken into the Pylon and they begin to learn more about the aliens.
Slonczewski ( Still Forms on Foxfield ) writes a thoughtful and unusual after-the-holocaust novel, strongly infused with the Quaker outlook. Its slow but careful pace rewards the reader with such beautifully developed characters as Peace Hope Scattergood, born without hands and a talented painter, and a hopeful view of humanity and its future.
288 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1989
6 people are currently reading
330 people want to read
About the author
Joan Slonczewski
35 books197 followersJoan Lyn Slonczewski is an American microbiologist at Kenyon College and a science fiction writer who explores biology and space travel. Her books have twice earned the John W. Campbell award for best science fiction novel: The Highest Frontier (2012) and A Door into Ocean (1987). With John W. Foster she coauthors the textbook, Microbiology: An Evolving Science (W. W. Norton).
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
February 23, 2016
This is an odd one for me. I'm giving it three stars because even though I thought some aspects of it were well done and other aspects of it are things I really respect, I also didn't enjoy reading it. Part of that is due to one of the things I paradoxically respect: the author spent a LOT of time and energy making it very clear exactly how much things sucked for her protagonist and those in her world, and while I'm glad she didn't skimp on the details of, you know, how living in a post-nuclear-disaster world means living with the inevitability of aggressive cancer and a 20% infant mortality rate, it also just wasn't enjoyable to read (for me) because of the emphasis put on that. The first dozen or so chapters involve the protagonist flitting about between things she wants to do and fires she has to put out and sort of weird excuses to exposition us (I thought the exposition toward the beginning was particularly cringeworthy, but it got better). It sort of felt like there were too many balls in the air all the time. This book was an odd recipe that combines college-level physics concepts with a mish-mash of religious parables and spiritual symbols. I just wasn't quite sure if it was trying to tell me something important with all its parallels or if the lack of cohesiveness was meant to tell me I should take whatever messages I wanted from it.
More stuff I didn't care for:
* Characters talked out loud about things that happened years ago with no particular impetus as a method of exposition, and that drove me up the wall.
* The book uses mental age to discuss intellectually disabled people and immediately cast intellectually disabled people as not worth having around. Being intellectually disabled is portrayed as much worse than having an illness. A character named Grace is basically portrayed as a stomping, braying animal who speaks in broken sentences, and she is never mentioned without negative adjectives attached to her.
* There's a really sudden introduction of additional dimensions and physics talk in chapter ten, and it seemed like it came out of nowhere to me.
* The Quaker speak with thees and thous kind of got on my nerves. I guess that's picky of me though.
* The protagonist gets married and there's a little bit of focus on her attraction to her husband--how she wanted him to notice her before they got together, etc.--but the first time there's any acknowledgment that they'd had sex was when she was worrying about being pregnant. It's not like I wanted a sex scene, but Isabel focused on and described a lot of "first" experiences along the way, so it felt peculiar that this got skipped.
* The pacing was weird throughout for me.
Stuff I appreciated or liked:
* It was nice to have a protagonist who was half Chilean, half African, and that wasn't fetishized or lingered upon like she was ~exotic~ or anything--a nice change for female-led science fiction.
* Similarly, the occasional Spanish asides were not clumsily translated or wedged into places that made no sense. It felt appropriate.
* When a new person came to Gwynwood for the first time in a long time, you could really feel how shocking this was because of how familiar everyone's become with one another.
* There's a cool statement about how Isabel is taking college classes and reading books as if she's being educated for civilization, but that their society is in survival mode.
* There's an interesting discussion of homosexuality in the book. A newcomer is suspected by the protagonist's father as being gay, and Isabel is confused about why that would be wrong even if it's true, while her dad apparently killed somebody for suggesting he might be gay or hitting on him or something. (And of course he incorporated religion into his interpretation of what kind of love is allowed, while Isabel did too and came to a different conclusion.)
* I liked how Isabel kept mice and at one point they were going to set them free and the babies ran out of the cage eventually but the mother stayed behind, and even when she was taken out of the cage, she went back in it. There are a lot of parallels there.
* It was kind of cool that there were so many references to The Little Prince and of course the Bible (particularly the Garden of Eden) before Isabel and Daniel ended up in their own sort of mini-planet/garden.
This is just a weird book for me I think. I don't have strong feelings about it. It just kinda felt like a lot of stuff that happened to some people and some of it was done well and other parts of it felt stitched together or half formed, and I just don't really have much more to say about it.
More stuff I didn't care for:
* Characters talked out loud about things that happened years ago with no particular impetus as a method of exposition, and that drove me up the wall.
* The book uses mental age to discuss intellectually disabled people and immediately cast intellectually disabled people as not worth having around. Being intellectually disabled is portrayed as much worse than having an illness. A character named Grace is basically portrayed as a stomping, braying animal who speaks in broken sentences, and she is never mentioned without negative adjectives attached to her.
* There's a really sudden introduction of additional dimensions and physics talk in chapter ten, and it seemed like it came out of nowhere to me.
* The Quaker speak with thees and thous kind of got on my nerves. I guess that's picky of me though.
* The protagonist gets married and there's a little bit of focus on her attraction to her husband--how she wanted him to notice her before they got together, etc.--but the first time there's any acknowledgment that they'd had sex was when she was worrying about being pregnant. It's not like I wanted a sex scene, but Isabel focused on and described a lot of "first" experiences along the way, so it felt peculiar that this got skipped.
* The pacing was weird throughout for me.
Stuff I appreciated or liked:
* It was nice to have a protagonist who was half Chilean, half African, and that wasn't fetishized or lingered upon like she was ~exotic~ or anything--a nice change for female-led science fiction.
* Similarly, the occasional Spanish asides were not clumsily translated or wedged into places that made no sense. It felt appropriate.
* When a new person came to Gwynwood for the first time in a long time, you could really feel how shocking this was because of how familiar everyone's become with one another.
* There's a cool statement about how Isabel is taking college classes and reading books as if she's being educated for civilization, but that their society is in survival mode.
* There's an interesting discussion of homosexuality in the book. A newcomer is suspected by the protagonist's father as being gay, and Isabel is confused about why that would be wrong even if it's true, while her dad apparently killed somebody for suggesting he might be gay or hitting on him or something. (And of course he incorporated religion into his interpretation of what kind of love is allowed, while Isabel did too and came to a different conclusion.)
* I liked how Isabel kept mice and at one point they were going to set them free and the babies ran out of the cage eventually but the mother stayed behind, and even when she was taken out of the cage, she went back in it. There are a lot of parallels there.
* It was kind of cool that there were so many references to The Little Prince and of course the Bible (particularly the Garden of Eden) before Isabel and Daniel ended up in their own sort of mini-planet/garden.
This is just a weird book for me I think. I don't have strong feelings about it. It just kinda felt like a lot of stuff that happened to some people and some of it was done well and other parts of it felt stitched together or half formed, and I just don't really have much more to say about it.
February 3, 2021
This is one of the many novels I've read in the last few years through a recommendation from the ongoing "Five Great Books About..." series at sci-fi publisher Tor.com's blog, in this case recommending interesting titles that all have to do with ways civilization might continue on in the face of societal collapse. But while this was at least better than the other book from that list I decided to read, Waubgeshig Rice's disappointingly flat Moon of the Crusted Snow (my review), it wasn't actually that much better, which ironically made it extra-disappointing since author Joan Slonczewski is a two-time winner of the Astounding Award (formerly the John W. Campbell Award).
The problem here is that it's a one-trick-pony book, setting up an admittedly intriguing idea at the beginning (after a nuclear war that devastates most of Earth, a group of space aliens show up and save a series of small communities around the planet by enclosing them in impenetrable clear domes, but no one knows why the aliens did it, what they want out of it, or when they're going to let the humans go again); but then we go an entire 250 pages before there's even a single other development regarding the central idea, the pages in between being essentially a look at a Quaker community in Pennsylvania and how life would both change and stay the same for them under such a situation (apparently a common theme in Slonczewski's work, in that this 65-year-old biologist and Kenyon College professor is a lifelong Quaker themselves).
The eventual answer to what exactly the aliens are doing was interesting enough, in a sorta obvious way; but I have to admit, I'm much more intrigued by the central premise behind the books Slonczweski is most famous for, the idea that perhaps the fabled "technological Singularity" is actually underway already, but that instead of it transforming humans into new super-creatures, we're destined to be merely the mitochondria for whatever super-machine is fated to replace us. This is the concept they explore in their newest novels, so I think I might possibly take these on in the future as well. For others, I recommend you do the same, and skip this minor '80s book of theirs altogether.
The problem here is that it's a one-trick-pony book, setting up an admittedly intriguing idea at the beginning (after a nuclear war that devastates most of Earth, a group of space aliens show up and save a series of small communities around the planet by enclosing them in impenetrable clear domes, but no one knows why the aliens did it, what they want out of it, or when they're going to let the humans go again); but then we go an entire 250 pages before there's even a single other development regarding the central idea, the pages in between being essentially a look at a Quaker community in Pennsylvania and how life would both change and stay the same for them under such a situation (apparently a common theme in Slonczewski's work, in that this 65-year-old biologist and Kenyon College professor is a lifelong Quaker themselves).
The eventual answer to what exactly the aliens are doing was interesting enough, in a sorta obvious way; but I have to admit, I'm much more intrigued by the central premise behind the books Slonczweski is most famous for, the idea that perhaps the fabled "technological Singularity" is actually underway already, but that instead of it transforming humans into new super-creatures, we're destined to be merely the mitochondria for whatever super-machine is fated to replace us. This is the concept they explore in their newest novels, so I think I might possibly take these on in the future as well. For others, I recommend you do the same, and skip this minor '80s book of theirs altogether.
July 27, 2014
This book was a favourite of mine in my late teens/early 20's, and I haven't read it for about 20 years, so I thought I'd go back and see if it still resonated with me.
I think more so now. The protagonist is a woman of colour who is intelligent, courageous and yearns to be an educated woman while still having solid interpersonal relationships. The surrounding characters are diverse in race, religion, class and physical/intellectual ability without being one dimensional. The story questions humanity without laying blame at any one group of people, covers issues like race, sexuality, reproductive freedom, ableism, interfaith communities, the environment, women's rights and roles, and a multitude of others.
It's well fleshed out, a complex plot line that never grows predictable or cliché, the narrative voice feels familiar and personal and the settings are beautifully described.
A really good read.
I think more so now. The protagonist is a woman of colour who is intelligent, courageous and yearns to be an educated woman while still having solid interpersonal relationships. The surrounding characters are diverse in race, religion, class and physical/intellectual ability without being one dimensional. The story questions humanity without laying blame at any one group of people, covers issues like race, sexuality, reproductive freedom, ableism, interfaith communities, the environment, women's rights and roles, and a multitude of others.
It's well fleshed out, a complex plot line that never grows predictable or cliché, the narrative voice feels familiar and personal and the settings are beautifully described.
A really good read.
March 14, 2024
THE WALL AROUND EDEN, written by Joan Slonczewski and published in 1989, is a thoughtful, swift-moving piece of speculative fiction, at times bordering on feminist literature.
The book is a post-apocalyptic tale, set decades after humans nuked the planet to the point of being uninhabitable—however, pockets of people were "saved" by a strange alien race resembling insects, who arrived at precisely the right time. Society barely gets by, with towns around the world slowly but surely dying off, walled off from the inhospitable outside world through the use of advanced technology. Slonczewski uses her background in biology to inform the hard science behind this novel, though I wouldn't call it "hard SF"—it's definitely character- and plot-driven, with a fantastical edge. As the cover suggests.
Speaking of the cover, I spotted it in the sci-fi section at some Toronto used bookstore, open surprisingly late one night on my way to a show, and was instantly drawn to it. Plus that title is fantastic, immediately bringing certain concepts to mind: dystopian, perhaps with biblical references.
Highly recommended.
⭐⭐⭐⭐/5
The book is a post-apocalyptic tale, set decades after humans nuked the planet to the point of being uninhabitable—however, pockets of people were "saved" by a strange alien race resembling insects, who arrived at precisely the right time. Society barely gets by, with towns around the world slowly but surely dying off, walled off from the inhospitable outside world through the use of advanced technology. Slonczewski uses her background in biology to inform the hard science behind this novel, though I wouldn't call it "hard SF"—it's definitely character- and plot-driven, with a fantastical edge. As the cover suggests.
Speaking of the cover, I spotted it in the sci-fi section at some Toronto used bookstore, open surprisingly late one night on my way to a show, and was instantly drawn to it. Plus that title is fantastic, immediately bringing certain concepts to mind: dystopian, perhaps with biblical references.
Highly recommended.
⭐⭐⭐⭐/5
May 21, 2015
If you want an easy science fiction read, Joan Slonczewski is never the author for you. But if you want a science fiction read heavy on the biological sciences and tackle complex social issues, Slonczewski may well be worth your time.
"The Wall Around Eden" is a stand alone novel that takes place 20 years after the "6 Minute War" in a not-too-distant (which is now our past given that this book came out in 1989). Our main character is Isabel, a very smart young woman who has idealized the past she never knew and wants to fight back against aliens who have trapped her small American town behind a dome of air. Isabel's life is one of conflicting facts that she learns in "school" and from books and the rumors about the war and the aliens. These conflicting sources of information are one of the most challenges aspects of the book for the reader because we ourselves can never know what is real, what is imagined, and what is observed.
The town of Gwynwood Hill is doing okay considering that right outside their air dome they can see hundreds if not thousands of skeletons of humans and animals who died during Nuclear Winter. Life isn't easy but for some reason their alien "captors" allow some trade between themselves and the city of Sydney in Australia. We learn that there are other generally small enclaves of likewise air domed communities but one of the greatest mysteries of the book is why Sydney, such a large urban center, would be allowed to survive let alone allowed to trade if the aliens had committed genocide against humanity (the most common of the rumors). The aliens, oddly called angelbees (they don't look like either and the reasons for the name seem unsatisfying) allow medication, news, and ornaments to travel between locations though only Sydney is mentioned as a trade partner for Gwynwood Hill. Food trade seems very rare and the only doctor in town, Isabel's mother, is always measuring radiation and limiting what they can eat, drink, where they can grow food, and what they can use from the trades.
Yet the entire town is run like a Plain Quaker community enough though we are told there are Lutherans and at least one Catholic (to begin). Why are Quakers and their beliefs in charge? Is it a matter of pure population? Is the community treated better under their rule? This is never really explained. We know that other surviving towns are run in other ways yet we aren't completely sure why.
The why and the truth are not something you should expect in this novel. We end up with more questions than we begin but that is likely on purpose since the story is more about the psychological and social survival than an objective snapshot of a post-nuclear war society. However not every reader will appreciate the increasing number of questions and the lack of facts about the war or even what is happening around the world. When I told my partners about this book they said it sounded horrible yet I was thrilled to have so much to think about.
A big downside for me is that the group of survivors seems a bit too conveniently educated for one small community. Perhaps this is why their community was saved but with all the highly educated people and even a fairly complex schooling system, they seem very dependent on the Pylon that the angelbees use to "control" the town and their trade with Sydney. I also found Isabel oddly stubborn about this idealized past that frankly didn't reflect the education she was getting or the attitudes of the adults around her.
This is a challenging read so do not get it if you aren't up to several days of slow reading, lots of thinking, and accepting that there are answers you simply will not get.
"The Wall Around Eden" is a stand alone novel that takes place 20 years after the "6 Minute War" in a not-too-distant (which is now our past given that this book came out in 1989). Our main character is Isabel, a very smart young woman who has idealized the past she never knew and wants to fight back against aliens who have trapped her small American town behind a dome of air. Isabel's life is one of conflicting facts that she learns in "school" and from books and the rumors about the war and the aliens. These conflicting sources of information are one of the most challenges aspects of the book for the reader because we ourselves can never know what is real, what is imagined, and what is observed.
The town of Gwynwood Hill is doing okay considering that right outside their air dome they can see hundreds if not thousands of skeletons of humans and animals who died during Nuclear Winter. Life isn't easy but for some reason their alien "captors" allow some trade between themselves and the city of Sydney in Australia. We learn that there are other generally small enclaves of likewise air domed communities but one of the greatest mysteries of the book is why Sydney, such a large urban center, would be allowed to survive let alone allowed to trade if the aliens had committed genocide against humanity (the most common of the rumors). The aliens, oddly called angelbees (they don't look like either and the reasons for the name seem unsatisfying) allow medication, news, and ornaments to travel between locations though only Sydney is mentioned as a trade partner for Gwynwood Hill. Food trade seems very rare and the only doctor in town, Isabel's mother, is always measuring radiation and limiting what they can eat, drink, where they can grow food, and what they can use from the trades.
Yet the entire town is run like a Plain Quaker community enough though we are told there are Lutherans and at least one Catholic (to begin). Why are Quakers and their beliefs in charge? Is it a matter of pure population? Is the community treated better under their rule? This is never really explained. We know that other surviving towns are run in other ways yet we aren't completely sure why.
The why and the truth are not something you should expect in this novel. We end up with more questions than we begin but that is likely on purpose since the story is more about the psychological and social survival than an objective snapshot of a post-nuclear war society. However not every reader will appreciate the increasing number of questions and the lack of facts about the war or even what is happening around the world. When I told my partners about this book they said it sounded horrible yet I was thrilled to have so much to think about.
A big downside for me is that the group of survivors seems a bit too conveniently educated for one small community. Perhaps this is why their community was saved but with all the highly educated people and even a fairly complex schooling system, they seem very dependent on the Pylon that the angelbees use to "control" the town and their trade with Sydney. I also found Isabel oddly stubborn about this idealized past that frankly didn't reflect the education she was getting or the attitudes of the adults around her.
This is a challenging read so do not get it if you aren't up to several days of slow reading, lots of thinking, and accepting that there are answers you simply will not get.
February 23, 2016
Isabel's world is very small: in Gwynwood, one of the few human settlements left alive on the planet after a nuclear disaster, everyone wrestles to survive in a grim future that no one truly understands. Both trapped and preserved by airwalls around the community, Isabel and her fellow townspeople educate themselves, go to worship, and try to keep the dying to a minimum despite the fact that everything they eat and everything they are is some level of radioactive. She has many interests and talents--the desire to support her mother in tending the town's sick as well as the dream of going to Sydney for a higher education--but she also has her eyes on a certain man and her mind on deciphering the mystery of the aliens who observe them. As Isabel pursues her various curiosities and alternately endangers herself and her town, she finds her questions getting answered in beautiful and terrible ways.
I had mixed feelings about this book because most of the time I just felt like it was trying to do too many things at once and didn't quite connect with any of them. I didn't personally *enjoy* reading the book and that's a big part of it. I appreciated the unusual worldbuilding and the fact that the aliens were not some monolithic threat or simplistic altruistic race that had a single mystery at its core, and I appreciated that there were so many conflicting opinions and extraordinarily complex human interactions. But it also sort of read like it was trying to relay a thematic message and didn't quite get around to it, and people felt more like the concepts they represented than real people (even though the concepts themselves were quite realistic). I did not like the exposition that continued through the first dozen chapters of the book, and the character interaction consistently left me cold, but I thought it definitely deserves props for originality and refusing to melt into explicit parables (which I was kind of expecting it to do, given the heavy symbolism and the religiousness of so many of the characters).
I had mixed feelings about this book because most of the time I just felt like it was trying to do too many things at once and didn't quite connect with any of them. I didn't personally *enjoy* reading the book and that's a big part of it. I appreciated the unusual worldbuilding and the fact that the aliens were not some monolithic threat or simplistic altruistic race that had a single mystery at its core, and I appreciated that there were so many conflicting opinions and extraordinarily complex human interactions. But it also sort of read like it was trying to relay a thematic message and didn't quite get around to it, and people felt more like the concepts they represented than real people (even though the concepts themselves were quite realistic). I did not like the exposition that continued through the first dozen chapters of the book, and the character interaction consistently left me cold, but I thought it definitely deserves props for originality and refusing to melt into explicit parables (which I was kind of expecting it to do, given the heavy symbolism and the religiousness of so many of the characters).
June 13, 2014
A small community is isolated when the world blows up, and only a few enclaves are saved by aliens. Did the aliens cause this? What are the survivors to do?
The enclaves are somewhat protected from the toxicity of the rest of the world, but not entirely; radiation in groundwater makes all their water and crops dangerous... and yet, one must eat.
What did the aliens do? What do they think they're doing now? Everyone wonders, and diverse people react very differently to the situations.
This is not a save-the-universe sort of novel; it's more meditative and human-scale. Characters grow and change; the aliens may or may not be more comprehensible; and the plot threads weigh different factors with understandable flaws all around.
In short, I guess I'd call it a novel about curiosity and compromise.
The enclaves are somewhat protected from the toxicity of the rest of the world, but not entirely; radiation in groundwater makes all their water and crops dangerous... and yet, one must eat.
What did the aliens do? What do they think they're doing now? Everyone wonders, and diverse people react very differently to the situations.
This is not a save-the-universe sort of novel; it's more meditative and human-scale. Characters grow and change; the aliens may or may not be more comprehensible; and the plot threads weigh different factors with understandable flaws all around.
In short, I guess I'd call it a novel about curiosity and compromise.
December 19, 2009
Not sure why I continued through to the end. There was more religion that I need in a novel & the Quakers were more like the Amish than any Quakers I've met, but what do I know? There were also more medical details than the story needed, but I suppose some get off on that. The story itself is actually fine. The real problem is that there is not a character in the book about whom I cared. At all. None of them were compelling.
January 1, 2015
Fascinating and thoughtful book about Quaker survivors of a nuclear holocaust and their relationship with mysterious extraterrestrial keepers. Lots of ruminating on religion, science, agriculture and marriage, which makes it reminiscent of another favorite science fiction novel, "The Sparrow," by Mary Doria Russell. Bonus: Slonczewski is a biology professor at Kenyon.
September 6, 2007
A good cautionary tale that camouflages itself as an alien invasion story, Wall Around Eden is a story that is acceptable for nearly anyone. It's simple enough to read in Junior High, but has enough meat on it to keep the attention of adult sci/fi or fantasy fans.
April 10, 2011
Oh I'm such a sucker for a post apocalyptic novel written by a pacifist. I love the nebulousness of what is really good and what is really evil. I love that it's set in Pennsylvania, where i grew up. Also, I love Quakers.
Quite a shift from her Elysium novels. NO microbes to speak of!
Quite a shift from her Elysium novels. NO microbes to speak of!
July 2, 2021
The setting for most of the book is a town of 150 people in Pennsylvania 20+ years after a nuclear holocaust. The town is surrounded by an energy wall which prevents people and animals from coming in or out. This and other tech is controlled by aliens. The most visible aliens (or their drones?) are sort of like balloons with enough hydrogen inside to let them float in the air, but not enough to make them keep going up. These are enough like balloons that they can be popped, but they are able to see (especially infrared) and communicate via radio waves.
It's unclear during most of the book whether the aliens helped cause the nuclear war, and whether the aliens are trying to protect the humans in the town or have other objectives. Later in the book, the main characters come to suspect the aliens are remnants of a civilization which destroyed their own planet and are an incomplete group which hopes to help humans survive better than the alien species did. However, the very end of the book has central human characters wondering how long it will really be before humans create the next apocalypse.
Within this cheerful context, the book follows the life of Isabelle, a rebellious young woman. Eventually, she marries. Shortly thereafter, her activities to try to get away from alien restrictions leads to Isabelle and her husband being sent to an alien hypersphere habitat where Earth ecologies are being restored. They have a baby there and, later, find a way back to their town.
There are various threads in the story. Most of the people in the town are Quakers, but there are Catholics and Jews (and variants within each group.) There are discussions here and there in the book with questions of religious ideas. And questions of if, when and what violence may be acceptable. Very briefly, it is wondered whether self-destruction is the fate of all intelligent species.
There is only limited communication between humans and aliens. Any attempt to have a dialog involves pictures, gestures, pointing and such. If any reflect an attempt by the aliens to explain things to humans, the humans don't get a clear understanding. Toward the book's end, it seems the aliens' system is becoming less functional.
It's unclear during most of the book whether the aliens helped cause the nuclear war, and whether the aliens are trying to protect the humans in the town or have other objectives. Later in the book, the main characters come to suspect the aliens are remnants of a civilization which destroyed their own planet and are an incomplete group which hopes to help humans survive better than the alien species did. However, the very end of the book has central human characters wondering how long it will really be before humans create the next apocalypse.
Within this cheerful context, the book follows the life of Isabelle, a rebellious young woman. Eventually, she marries. Shortly thereafter, her activities to try to get away from alien restrictions leads to Isabelle and her husband being sent to an alien hypersphere habitat where Earth ecologies are being restored. They have a baby there and, later, find a way back to their town.
There are various threads in the story. Most of the people in the town are Quakers, but there are Catholics and Jews (and variants within each group.) There are discussions here and there in the book with questions of religious ideas. And questions of if, when and what violence may be acceptable. Very briefly, it is wondered whether self-destruction is the fate of all intelligent species.
There is only limited communication between humans and aliens. Any attempt to have a dialog involves pictures, gestures, pointing and such. If any reflect an attempt by the aliens to explain things to humans, the humans don't get a clear understanding. Toward the book's end, it seems the aliens' system is becoming less functional.
October 28, 2025
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Feelings about the book:
- This was such a weird book for me, and from other reviews I'm not alone in this view. Joan Slonczewski isn't a scrub, she is actually a pretty decent writer. But this story was below average. Which is a shame because I love the 'under the dome' concept in science fiction - it is an elite one.
Premise/Plot:
- We follow a young woman who is part of a small town with 141 people who have been contained or 'protected' in a dome. This keeps out some, but not all, of the effects of nuclear war.
- No one knows why the aliens did what they did, or what they want. We see the everyday life of the townsfolk as they worshiptogether (there is a lot of religious talk in this book) and try to live as normal a life as possible.
Themes:
- Faith, oppression, invasion, aftermath of war, depleted way of life, rebirth, survival and more
Characters:
- We follow a single POV character but the other characters play important roles in her life. But there is nothing spectacular about any of them.
Sci-Fi elements:
- Telepathic communication, bioengineering, alien invasion, post-apocalyptic
Pros:
- Explores the role of religion in a post-apocalyptic world.
Cons:
- Nothing really happens, it's quite strange
- The alien presence is more symbolic and not fully realised
- The religious allegory makes up way too much of the story
Quotes:
‘Transport was the ultimate punishment for criminals; the angelbees no longer tolerated human executions, although they had caused several billion on Doomsday.’
‘The Wall was a tangible barrier that solid matter could not pass through, not even dust or flour.’
‘What good is it to have kind masters, if we remain slaves?’
Feelings about the book:
- This was such a weird book for me, and from other reviews I'm not alone in this view. Joan Slonczewski isn't a scrub, she is actually a pretty decent writer. But this story was below average. Which is a shame because I love the 'under the dome' concept in science fiction - it is an elite one.
Premise/Plot:
- We follow a young woman who is part of a small town with 141 people who have been contained or 'protected' in a dome. This keeps out some, but not all, of the effects of nuclear war.
- No one knows why the aliens did what they did, or what they want. We see the everyday life of the townsfolk as they worshiptogether (there is a lot of religious talk in this book) and try to live as normal a life as possible.
Themes:
- Faith, oppression, invasion, aftermath of war, depleted way of life, rebirth, survival and more
Characters:
- We follow a single POV character but the other characters play important roles in her life. But there is nothing spectacular about any of them.
Sci-Fi elements:
- Telepathic communication, bioengineering, alien invasion, post-apocalyptic
Pros:
- Explores the role of religion in a post-apocalyptic world.
Cons:
- Nothing really happens, it's quite strange
- The alien presence is more symbolic and not fully realised
- The religious allegory makes up way too much of the story
Quotes:
‘Transport was the ultimate punishment for criminals; the angelbees no longer tolerated human executions, although they had caused several billion on Doomsday.’
‘The Wall was a tangible barrier that solid matter could not pass through, not even dust or flour.’
‘What good is it to have kind masters, if we remain slaves?’
August 18, 2021
I picked this up when I was in a Post Apocalyptic phase and just got around to reading it. As a middle school/high school book, I'd rate this a 4. As an adult book, I'd probably rate it a 3 given how unaccustomed I am to literature being an education tool as this book is packed full of random information about science and religion which I found somewhat distracting, but I understand I am not the primary audience for the story.
The plot itself is obviously well thought out and ,for any age reader, has many points where readers will ask themselves 'what would I do if I were in this situation?' Personally I feel any book that causes thought and self reflection is worth reading. Plus I like that the story is mostly about a community rebuilding rather than the typical 'last person standing' mentality in many post apocalyptic fiction stories.
If you like neat tied up endings.....this won't give you that, but if you want to pause for some self reflection on the human condition and relationships, this has that in spades.
The plot itself is obviously well thought out and ,for any age reader, has many points where readers will ask themselves 'what would I do if I were in this situation?' Personally I feel any book that causes thought and self reflection is worth reading. Plus I like that the story is mostly about a community rebuilding rather than the typical 'last person standing' mentality in many post apocalyptic fiction stories.
If you like neat tied up endings.....this won't give you that, but if you want to pause for some self reflection on the human condition and relationships, this has that in spades.
January 28, 2025
Isabelle, a teen living in a community trapped under a dome by aliens, wants to know more about her world.
3.5 stars - it's hard to summarize this in one sentence because there are many plot threads. Is the dome something the aliens put up to protect the people from the rest of the world which was devastated by nuclear weapons? Or did the aliens cause the devastation? Because the majority of the community is Quaker, there are also discussions of pacifism and trusting in God and how that shapes their view of the aliens. Isabelle is a smart girl who figures out enough that the aliens transport her to a different place and she then has to decide how to handle being there with only two other people from her village. Does she settle in and live life? Or does she try to find her way back to her home or maybe some other place entirely?
I liked the author's "Still Forms on Foxfield" more than this one but I still enjoyed following Isabelle as she dealt with her life. I'm looking forward to reading more by this author.
3.5 stars - it's hard to summarize this in one sentence because there are many plot threads. Is the dome something the aliens put up to protect the people from the rest of the world which was devastated by nuclear weapons? Or did the aliens cause the devastation? Because the majority of the community is Quaker, there are also discussions of pacifism and trusting in God and how that shapes their view of the aliens. Isabelle is a smart girl who figures out enough that the aliens transport her to a different place and she then has to decide how to handle being there with only two other people from her village. Does she settle in and live life? Or does she try to find her way back to her home or maybe some other place entirely?
I liked the author's "Still Forms on Foxfield" more than this one but I still enjoyed following Isabelle as she dealt with her life. I'm looking forward to reading more by this author.
December 28, 2022
This is a delightfully thoughtful and optimistic book about nuclear apocalypse. It is hard sci-fi that goes deep on biology and religion, with a touch of physics and math, and presents several mysteries that are only partly resolved. It is a decidedly mature adult book, although I appreciated that it focused more on meditative aspects instead of going for the emotional jugular by inflicting too many terrible things or people on the main characters.
There are a few odd points where protagonists suddenly jump to correct conclusions about the world and aliens. This is a kind of intellectual deus ex machina that holds the book back from Le Guin or Butler levels of mastery.
There are a few odd points where protagonists suddenly jump to correct conclusions about the world and aliens. This is a kind of intellectual deus ex machina that holds the book back from Le Guin or Butler levels of mastery.
June 4, 2022
Dystopian fiction with Slonczewski's usual interest in religion (Quaker but also Catholic, Jewish, Buddhist), and a more engaging lead character than A Door Into Ocean. Isabel is a young Black woman who grapples with her mixed heritage, ambition, and a world closed down by aliens who are both saviours and controllers.
November 23, 2018
Charming. Reflective. Geometric.
All things I like.
Aliens, communication barriers, physical barriers, and smart, bad ass, young women figuring shit out.
Could do without Daniel’s virtue ethics, but the Quaker presence is super interesting.
All things I like.
Aliens, communication barriers, physical barriers, and smart, bad ass, young women figuring shit out.
Could do without Daniel’s virtue ethics, but the Quaker presence is super interesting.
dnf
March 21, 2020Available on Open Library
January 29, 2021
Not worth the time
December 18, 2025
i hated isabelle until the last 40 pages
May 24, 2011
I took the kids to a book sale at a local library a year or two ago and my then two year old daughter was bringing me books to buy. I turned most down and told her I liked books about monsters and aliens. She then brought me this book. The cover looked cheesy but it certainly looked like what I told her I liked. So I bought it. It sat on my shelf for a while since I had no desire to read it (I'm somewhat picky with my authors and I'd never heard of this one). I finally got around to reading it and was very surprised. I liked it quite a bit. The characters were well developed, focus was on them rather than the aliens and the author kept a feeling of mystery the whole way through. I felt as if I were trapped behind the wall with them. Just the right amount of clues were given to keep my interest and the changing view of the aliens was intriguing. I plan on checking out another Joan Slonszewski book soon. Definitely a good choice if you like SF that's more of a character study in a SF setting.
January 11, 2012
Kind of a mixed bag. A bit too much emphasis on the evolutionary/environmental riddle, and not enough on the characters. A bit too disjointed in terms of continuity. Still, some moments of brilliance. I loved this: "The baby nursed, more alert than usual, her angelic eyes fixed upward adoringly at her mother, while her mouth chomped on the breast, making snuffling noises. What an odd hybrid creature an infant was, half angel and half piglet."
May 2, 2012
Isabel Garcia-Chase is a teenager who has lived her entire life within the Wall that encloses her town. Before her birth, nuclear war had created Doomsday and the death of all the land not enclosed by the Walls of the keepers. The question was whether the keepers hgad rescued them or were continuing to cleanse the Earth for their own purposes.
July 13, 2016
I read this book about 20 years ago when I was a kid and remember really liking it. For some time the book was lost in my parents basement with my other childhood stuff, but now that it's been retrieved, I think I'll give it another read and see if I like it as much now as kid me liked it all those years ago.
January 23, 2012
Somewhat dated sci-fi. This quote made it all worthwhile though: "The baby nursed, more alert than usual, her angelic eyes fixed upward adoringly at her mother, while her mouth chomped on the breast, making snuffling noises. What an odd hybrid creature an infant was, half angel and half piglet."
February 25, 2016
I love dystopian novels & this had a great twist on the genre. Pretty unique for how they are usually written.
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