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Sherwood Nation: a novel
Chosen for the 2016 Silicon Valley Reads program.
"Parzybok does this thing where you think, 'this is fun!' and then you are charmed, saddened, and finally changed by what you have read. It's like jujitsu storytelling."—Maureen F. McHugh, author of After the Apocalypse
In drought-stricken Portland, Oregon, a Robin Hood-esque water thief is caught on camera redistributing an illegal truckload of water to those in need. Nicknamed Maid Marian—real Renee, a twenty-something barista and eternal part-time college student—she is an instant folk hero. Renee rides her swelling popularity and the public's disgust at how the city has abandoned its people, raises an army . . . and secedes a quarter of the city.
Even as Maid Marian and her compatriots build their community one neighbor at a time, they are making powerful enemies amongst the city government and the National Guard. Sherwood is an idealistic dream too soon caught in a brutal fight for survival.
Sherwood Nation is the story of the rise and fall of a micronation within a city. It is a love story, a war story, a grand social experiment, a treatise on hacking and remaking government, on freedom and necessity, on individualism and community. Benjamin Parzybok is the author of the novel Couch and has been the creator/co-creator of many other projects, including Gumball Poetry, The Black Magic Insurance Agency (city-wide, one night alternate reality game), and Project Hamad. He lives in Portland with the artist Laura Moulton and their two kids. He blogs at secret.ideacog.
"Parzybok does this thing where you think, 'this is fun!' and then you are charmed, saddened, and finally changed by what you have read. It's like jujitsu storytelling."—Maureen F. McHugh, author of After the Apocalypse
In drought-stricken Portland, Oregon, a Robin Hood-esque water thief is caught on camera redistributing an illegal truckload of water to those in need. Nicknamed Maid Marian—real Renee, a twenty-something barista and eternal part-time college student—she is an instant folk hero. Renee rides her swelling popularity and the public's disgust at how the city has abandoned its people, raises an army . . . and secedes a quarter of the city.
Even as Maid Marian and her compatriots build their community one neighbor at a time, they are making powerful enemies amongst the city government and the National Guard. Sherwood is an idealistic dream too soon caught in a brutal fight for survival.
Sherwood Nation is the story of the rise and fall of a micronation within a city. It is a love story, a war story, a grand social experiment, a treatise on hacking and remaking government, on freedom and necessity, on individualism and community. Benjamin Parzybok is the author of the novel Couch and has been the creator/co-creator of many other projects, including Gumball Poetry, The Black Magic Insurance Agency (city-wide, one night alternate reality game), and Project Hamad. He lives in Portland with the artist Laura Moulton and their two kids. He blogs at secret.ideacog.
604 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 9, 2014
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645 people want to read
About the author
Benjamin Parzybok
12 books41 followersBen lives in Portland, OR
full bio for Ben Parzybok
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 49 reviews
September 14, 2014
Full disclosure: I know Ben and read this book in MS form, before it was published. I haven't read the published version yet (just got it, fresh off the press!) so my comments are a little dated and details may not match with the final version.
That said, this is a great book. Set in Portland, OR, it follows the stories of several different characters navigating the slow apocalypse of a world in fatal drought. It's not so much a book about the end of the world, though, as it is about the creation of a new one. It's a clear-eyed and thoughtful take on what happens when things go downhill not just fast, but (even worse) slowly--when there's no single tragic event to pull people together, but only a gradual deadly decline.
It's also a book about racial and social justice, and all the infuriating and hopeful ways that race and class could play out as things start to crumble. When water is worth its weight in gold, who dies of thirst? Who matters more--corporations, or people? And what happens when the little people see clearly what's up, and start to fight for their own interests?
Parzybok examines all these deadly-serious questions in his signature style, at turns darkly comic, absurd, and tragic. But the overall tenor of the book is hope--and hope that comes from the bottom up. His revolution is led not by Robin Hood but by Maid Marian, a woman of color with a lesbian Little John. His heroes are the people most often pushed to the sidelines, and his villains aren't so much villains as they are people deposited in positions of power, oblivious to their own privilege, often dithering and apathetic and fearful, frequently pitiable.
I loved this book in MS and I'm looking forward to reading it again in its fully grown-up, finished form. Ben has a unique voice, light and amiable but concealing depths. If you're looking for an apocalypse-novel-that-isn't, or a book about the end of the world for grown-ups, I highly recommend this one.
That said, this is a great book. Set in Portland, OR, it follows the stories of several different characters navigating the slow apocalypse of a world in fatal drought. It's not so much a book about the end of the world, though, as it is about the creation of a new one. It's a clear-eyed and thoughtful take on what happens when things go downhill not just fast, but (even worse) slowly--when there's no single tragic event to pull people together, but only a gradual deadly decline.
It's also a book about racial and social justice, and all the infuriating and hopeful ways that race and class could play out as things start to crumble. When water is worth its weight in gold, who dies of thirst? Who matters more--corporations, or people? And what happens when the little people see clearly what's up, and start to fight for their own interests?
Parzybok examines all these deadly-serious questions in his signature style, at turns darkly comic, absurd, and tragic. But the overall tenor of the book is hope--and hope that comes from the bottom up. His revolution is led not by Robin Hood but by Maid Marian, a woman of color with a lesbian Little John. His heroes are the people most often pushed to the sidelines, and his villains aren't so much villains as they are people deposited in positions of power, oblivious to their own privilege, often dithering and apathetic and fearful, frequently pitiable.
I loved this book in MS and I'm looking forward to reading it again in its fully grown-up, finished form. Ben has a unique voice, light and amiable but concealing depths. If you're looking for an apocalypse-novel-that-isn't, or a book about the end of the world for grown-ups, I highly recommend this one.
January 8, 2015
What happens when the water gets turned off for good? When civilization heads for the cliff? Benjamin Parzybok's Sherwood Nation has both bangs and whimpers, and an outstanding cast of characters who find and/or lose their humanity as the west coast of North America turns into a dust bowl. Unexpected outcomes to several events thrust the protagonist into the role of a community leader, and while she rises to the occasion, she also pays a heavy price. An aging drug lord finds his humanity, while the mayor of Portland loses his. I liked Parzybok's characters; they are unpredictable, strong in some ways while frail in others. The multi-faceted human condition plays out against the backdrop of a thirsty world, and as I read Sherwood Nation, I sometimes disracted myself: what would -I- do under those circumstances?
September 12, 2022
An interesting mental exercise in what would happen if a severe drought hit Portland. Four star rating if you're a Portlander.
August 1, 2016
This strikes me as a novel that deserves more attention than I saw it get when it was published. In some ways it's easy to pin down. Not too far into the future, a persistent drought is leading to the collapse of American civil institutions and social fabric, as exemplified within the book by day-to-day life in Portland, OR; a young activist is caught on camera distributing water intended for the wealthy, nicknamed "Maid Marion", and is pushed into (and seizes) the opportunity to lead an area of the city to secede, becoming the independent micro-nation of Sherwood; the rest of the novel follows the fate of the new nation and its inhabitants, at various levels. And yet that doesn't capture the elusive, organic quality of reading it. The publisher's blurb describes it, in part, as "a treatise on government, on freedom and necessity, on individualism and community", and it is that, with attention paid to the mechanics of the society, its meetings and principles and strategies, in a decidedly uncool (but, to me, enthralling) didactic fashion. Nor does it shy away from the fact that its proposed society is a dictatorship, or asking you to think about why, despite that, you like it.
And yet ... Jedediah Berry's blurb describes it as, among other things, a "social fable", and that too seems correct: there are moments when it slips away from the groundedness of the treatise into something much more organic, peculiar, and personal: one character, for instance, is building a tunnel to nowhere under his house, obsessively. It's also, within all the nation-building, a novel about a relationship, in a way that I found acute and poignant and even-handed: about, on the one hand, what it is to be in a relationship with someone who has a strong vocational identity, and on the other, what it is to be in a relationship as someone who has a strong vocational identity.
Not all parts of the texture work, of course. Parzybok does not seem to me to be as deft with an action sequence as he is with his character interaction and thought experiment, but there are only a handful of them, and with one exception they don't outstay their welcome. And it is a shame that, beyond Maid Marion, all of the novel's major cast members are male (albeit varied in other demographic ways). And some characters are won over to the cause of Sherwood in a manner that, depending on how charitable you're feeling, is less an affirmation of the complexity and potential of individuals when their social circumstances change, and perhaps slightly more a denial of likely reality. Put another way, Bacigalupi's The Water Knife, much as I like that kind of thing when I'm in the mood, this is not. But I like what we have here, too: a more Solnit-ish faith that humans in adversity will find ways to be good to each other, as well as (not instead of) bad.
And yet ... Jedediah Berry's blurb describes it as, among other things, a "social fable", and that too seems correct: there are moments when it slips away from the groundedness of the treatise into something much more organic, peculiar, and personal: one character, for instance, is building a tunnel to nowhere under his house, obsessively. It's also, within all the nation-building, a novel about a relationship, in a way that I found acute and poignant and even-handed: about, on the one hand, what it is to be in a relationship with someone who has a strong vocational identity, and on the other, what it is to be in a relationship as someone who has a strong vocational identity.
Not all parts of the texture work, of course. Parzybok does not seem to me to be as deft with an action sequence as he is with his character interaction and thought experiment, but there are only a handful of them, and with one exception they don't outstay their welcome. And it is a shame that, beyond Maid Marion, all of the novel's major cast members are male (albeit varied in other demographic ways). And some characters are won over to the cause of Sherwood in a manner that, depending on how charitable you're feeling, is less an affirmation of the complexity and potential of individuals when their social circumstances change, and perhaps slightly more a denial of likely reality. Put another way, Bacigalupi's The Water Knife, much as I like that kind of thing when I'm in the mood, this is not. But I like what we have here, too: a more Solnit-ish faith that humans in adversity will find ways to be good to each other, as well as (not instead of) bad.
June 4, 2016
Omg I finally finished this book. Don't read it. It's quite terribly bad. The writing is pretentious and wooden and occasionally grammatically incorrect, there are meandering useless plot lines galore, important things are left unresolved and others resolved in the most bizarre ways. I started to cringe every time the mayor's voice appeared because the writing was so unlikable. And I kept thinking - it takes water to make stuff, to make plastic, gasoline, everything and it's never mentioned, like just never. Oh, and fuck Zach who fell in love with a self created image and then couldn't handle it when, surprise surprise, his manic pixie dream girl was a real person.
But it gets two stars rather than one because Renee, at her fundamental self, is awesome; and I loved loved Jamal.
One day though, I will learn how to quit books, even if they're about apocalyptic droughts. Maybe someone will write a good book about the subject instead.
But it gets two stars rather than one because Renee, at her fundamental self, is awesome; and I loved loved Jamal.
One day though, I will learn how to quit books, even if they're about apocalyptic droughts. Maybe someone will write a good book about the subject instead.
January 13, 2015
Good book, more in the lines of Erehwon, Utopia, and Shangra-La than most dystopian fiction. There are certainly no nuclear explosions and mutants. Its basic idea is that, in a crisis, traditional governments are too large to manage, and what is needed is what, in the Civil Rights days of the 60s, was called "community organizing," and gives one fictional account on doing so.
March 7, 2016
A strong look at our country dealing with major disaster-- in this case, ongoing widespread drought.
The characters were strong, and the way they dealt with the issues was believable. I had a few issues with the worldbuilding, but not enough to significantly get in the way of the story.
The characters were strong, and the way they dealt with the issues was believable. I had a few issues with the worldbuilding, but not enough to significantly get in the way of the story.
June 10, 2021
Fun to read a book based in my city. Couldn't help but visualize each location named, and add in the drought features. It makes me anxious for our soon- to-come water issues. Often my mind drifted to those living in six or seven tents less than a block from my home. A similar situation could arise not just from lack of water, but from soul-crushing houseless poverty, adding in illness, disability, addiction and mental health.
October 24, 2014
Still not sure what I think. Did make me cherish every drop of water I drank.
I kept putting it down, going I don't really like it. Then I'd pick it up to see how it ends. Or really doesn't.
The twist of the end of Brandon and Christopher was jarring. The end of the story, though, was predictable in that there weren't really any outs. But it was still handled well.
So - characters: okay, but I really never did care much for any of them
Setting: well done and intrinsic to the plot
Plot: great idea, good and decent execution. Parts dragged a bit (when I was putting it down, some from characters monologues in their heads or may externally; I had stopped caring). The transition of location was handled well, as was the mixing of the character diversity.
Ending was pretty strong and expected but not semaphored throughout the book.
While it may feel sometimes like an exercise in global politics or bad governance, it isn't.
It's a story about girl. In a terrible place. Who makes a fast decision that impacts thousands. And decides her life and it's course. The growth, and lack of that growth, of the girl. The growth of family and community around the girl and her decision.
It's complicated
I kept putting it down, going I don't really like it. Then I'd pick it up to see how it ends. Or really doesn't.
The twist of the end of Brandon and Christopher was jarring. The end of the story, though, was predictable in that there weren't really any outs. But it was still handled well.
So - characters: okay, but I really never did care much for any of them
Setting: well done and intrinsic to the plot
Plot: great idea, good and decent execution. Parts dragged a bit (when I was putting it down, some from characters monologues in their heads or may externally; I had stopped caring). The transition of location was handled well, as was the mixing of the character diversity.
Ending was pretty strong and expected but not semaphored throughout the book.
While it may feel sometimes like an exercise in global politics or bad governance, it isn't.
It's a story about girl. In a terrible place. Who makes a fast decision that impacts thousands. And decides her life and it's course. The growth, and lack of that growth, of the girl. The growth of family and community around the girl and her decision.
It's complicated
April 13, 2017
I don't think I've ever come across an apocalypse story quite like this, that focuses on politics and logistics, or is as much about how people help as hurt one another when things collapse.
This is sort of the opposite of the more common loner survivalist or oppressive regime apocalypse narratives. Instead you get the collective working together story, and all the individual weirdos with their own obsessive projects involved in building a new society (apocalypse for nerds, maybe). Not to mention the main character who's been thrust into leadership and out of her element, and learns fast how far brains and idealism get her - I loved seeing how she reacted to her instant fame and every new thing that came up as a result. There were plenty of moments in reading this when I thought "oh dang, this is just so cool." And it was meaty, too - I could see getting into hours of discussion in a book club or, even, a poli-sci class.
On the other hand I never really *enjoyed* reading it. It always felt more like "ok, gotta keep reading to see what happens," as opposed to "can't wait to get back to my book!" There's really nothing bad or dry about the prose, so maybe that's just me? Just moved slow instead of flowing naturally and pulling me along with it.
This is sort of the opposite of the more common loner survivalist or oppressive regime apocalypse narratives. Instead you get the collective working together story, and all the individual weirdos with their own obsessive projects involved in building a new society (apocalypse for nerds, maybe). Not to mention the main character who's been thrust into leadership and out of her element, and learns fast how far brains and idealism get her - I loved seeing how she reacted to her instant fame and every new thing that came up as a result. There were plenty of moments in reading this when I thought "oh dang, this is just so cool." And it was meaty, too - I could see getting into hours of discussion in a book club or, even, a poli-sci class.
On the other hand I never really *enjoyed* reading it. It always felt more like "ok, gotta keep reading to see what happens," as opposed to "can't wait to get back to my book!" There's really nothing bad or dry about the prose, so maybe that's just me? Just moved slow instead of flowing naturally and pulling me along with it.
gave-up-on
February 21, 2016I like the idea of this book very much, but as soon as I started it, I felt tired. There are many viewpoints, many human relationships to pay attention to--I like this sometimes, but this time, it just felt like hard work. Maybe I didn't take an instant shine to any of the people I was introduced to--not that I disliked them (I didn't), it's just I couldn't find my way into them. And although I really love the idea of forming an autonomous community, when faced with the prospect of reading about this happening, I ended up blanching. I've decided at page 19 to put it aside. Maybe some other time, I might be able to find my way into this. Not now, though.
Read
October 1, 2014The gritty world in Sherwood Nation and the circumstances that changed a former barista into a figure of hope is a story that focuses more on the consequences of disaster rather than the disaster itself.
Read the full review on GeekyLibrary
The author event was exciting too!
Read the full review on GeekyLibrary
The author event was exciting too!
September 21, 2015
A perfect example of why I get bent out of shape when friends say speculative fiction has no relevance to daily life. Great food for thought with engaging characters. Wrapped up nicely and I suspect it's one of those that's going to stick in my head for a very long time.
October 2, 2014
This was an excellent story, very well told. The plot unfolds well, with surprises and a pretty clear set of messages about power. I thoroughly enjoyed this book!
November 13, 2015
No. I do not buy it. The characters are wooden, the social comportment is not plausible. This is the script to a catastrophy happening inside a computer simulation - maybe SimCity?
May 6, 2017
This book really doesn't compare well to "The Water Knife" by Bacigalupi. Both books deal with societies that are in crisis due to a lack of water, however, I often struggled to get myself to finish "Sherwood Nation". Moving past that comparison, I also found there were too many scenarios that strained credibility along with some statements about weather that were just plain wrong. It seems to me that this was all just an excuse to drive the plot in order to explore the concept of Micro Nations, which was the most interesting part of the book. Frankly, a Micro Nation doesn't seem any different to me than the City States of old--new name, old idea. And, given how the story ultimately plays out, I think even the author is skeptical of the idea.
February 11, 2018
I loved the premise of this book. Loved it. But it just fell flat! There were too many characters, and the world-building was done poorly. It doesn't make sense that in a world deplete of water you still are producing things made of plastic and growing crops. Maybe this is possible, but they never explain how. Also, the characters just got boring! Because there were so many, we didn't get to delve into them. The love story was also weak.
April 26, 2021
This was way more interesting than I thought it would be. Local Portland author, setting a dystopian drought condition that has gone on for years. Many of our Northeast Portland neighborhoods secede from the city and create their own volunteer based security, water-distribution, and health and well-being systems. It gives you a lot to think about as we face the climate-change ravaged future.
October 18, 2017
LOVED THIS BOOK
November 18, 2018
This was a fun, enjoyable read for me. I wonder what kind of Robin Hood I would be?
February 17, 2019
Great story. Very inspired. The writing was a bit clunky and despite trying a style it was kind of all of the place.
December 8, 2020
This feels exceptionally relevant with the recent civil unrest in Portland. An excellent novel.
May 11, 2022
Set in future Portland during wxtreme drought. Politics of taking local control in a situation out of control.
May 3, 2017
Here in California we’re having another year of drought. A severe drought. The state is considering drastic measures. Well, not as drastic as what you find in Sherwood Nation. This book’s theme is of water becoming so scare that people are literally dying of thirst and water becomes the measure of wealth. The setting is Portland, Oregon and they are cut off from the rest of the United States. East of the Rockies things may be going better, but that’s not really explored. The National Guard rations food and water given out each day to each citizen at distribution drops. The city has power for only a few hours each day. Work and nearly everything has come to a halt.
What arises is a revolution to start a new way of handling water, food, security and a new way of life. This is Sherwood Nation, a new country within the borders of Portland. The unlikely leader is named Maid Marion when on her first heist of intercepting an unmarked water truck with untagged gallons of water she hands out to whomever is around. The news cameras caught the action and show her spreading this wealth that was designed for the rich part of town.
The premise is great. The writing falters a bit though. It focuses on just a few main characters early on then starts adding in more and more points of view, which unties some of the immediacy in the story. We don’t get much on why Renee dubbed Maid Marion does much of what she does, and really I didn’t find her a very believable female character. In fact her boyfriend seemed more feminine. Perhaps that was purposeful, the role reversal but it didn’t ring true for me. Another aspect that kept pulling me out of the story was the timeline. We’d follow a charter along for a while, hours, days maybe a week or two then suddenly pulled back to some other point. The timeline was often confusing. The new nation was building quickly, this new project was now up and running and the response from the citizens were going strong, and then I felt the rug is pulled out when it's stated this all happened in a few days. Really? Okay, my summary isn’t doing it justice, but there was way too much going on in such a short amount of time that it was hard to accept.
In the end I found the book to be enjoyable. It made me look at water in a new way and perhaps that is main point here. We may be heading towards a world where water will be more regulated, at least in some areas. How will that look if we’re rationed to two gallons a day per person, then told that will be cut in half? We waste water like nothing now and one day may regret it. So this book makes you think a little, and will make you thirsty!
Book rating: 4 stars (really 3.5 but rounding up for the utopian ideals)
Update - May 3, 2017: I received a free copy of this book at a library conference. I was not required to write a review, but felt like it and, of course, the above opinions are my own.
What arises is a revolution to start a new way of handling water, food, security and a new way of life. This is Sherwood Nation, a new country within the borders of Portland. The unlikely leader is named Maid Marion when on her first heist of intercepting an unmarked water truck with untagged gallons of water she hands out to whomever is around. The news cameras caught the action and show her spreading this wealth that was designed for the rich part of town.
The premise is great. The writing falters a bit though. It focuses on just a few main characters early on then starts adding in more and more points of view, which unties some of the immediacy in the story. We don’t get much on why Renee dubbed Maid Marion does much of what she does, and really I didn’t find her a very believable female character. In fact her boyfriend seemed more feminine. Perhaps that was purposeful, the role reversal but it didn’t ring true for me. Another aspect that kept pulling me out of the story was the timeline. We’d follow a charter along for a while, hours, days maybe a week or two then suddenly pulled back to some other point. The timeline was often confusing. The new nation was building quickly, this new project was now up and running and the response from the citizens were going strong, and then I felt the rug is pulled out when it's stated this all happened in a few days. Really? Okay, my summary isn’t doing it justice, but there was way too much going on in such a short amount of time that it was hard to accept.
In the end I found the book to be enjoyable. It made me look at water in a new way and perhaps that is main point here. We may be heading towards a world where water will be more regulated, at least in some areas. How will that look if we’re rationed to two gallons a day per person, then told that will be cut in half? We waste water like nothing now and one day may regret it. So this book makes you think a little, and will make you thirsty!
Book rating: 4 stars (really 3.5 but rounding up for the utopian ideals)
Update - May 3, 2017: I received a free copy of this book at a library conference. I was not required to write a review, but felt like it and, of course, the above opinions are my own.
August 8, 2016
I had heard the author speak on The Commonwealth Club and I thought the premise was intriguing - a severe multi-year drought in the Western States (since we were living through one at the time). Not a total dystopia - each person gets one gallon a water per day and the government still functions (sort of).
So, I got the book and read it.
In a word, 'meh'. None of the characters are compelling and one could argue they appeal more to the young adult market. The locale, Portland OR, is settling into a slow decay. There seems to be an economy although how food is grown without water is left a mystery. Public sanitation also seems to be holding up although not sure exactly how. City services still have gasoline but not exactly sure how this happens either as the western part of the country supposedly has devolved into disconnected city states. There's electricity during the daytime coming from where is not clear (it isn't hydroelectric, that's for sure).
What we get is a story of a young woman who takes on a mythical persona after robbing a water truck making illicit deliveries and then redistributing the contents to the needy ("Maid Marian"). From there, we get a combination northeast Portland rise of utopia coupled with shades of Hugo Chavez cult-of-personality and some bloody score settling. The mayoral character, while playing a lead antagonist role, is at best feckless and just uninteresting. It is hard to see the remnants of civil society putting up with him.
The premise was good, but I couldn't put myself into this near future story -- which is a shame, as it could be only too real.
So, I got the book and read it.
In a word, 'meh'. None of the characters are compelling and one could argue they appeal more to the young adult market. The locale, Portland OR, is settling into a slow decay. There seems to be an economy although how food is grown without water is left a mystery. Public sanitation also seems to be holding up although not sure exactly how. City services still have gasoline but not exactly sure how this happens either as the western part of the country supposedly has devolved into disconnected city states. There's electricity during the daytime coming from where is not clear (it isn't hydroelectric, that's for sure).
What we get is a story of a young woman who takes on a mythical persona after robbing a water truck making illicit deliveries and then redistributing the contents to the needy ("Maid Marian"). From there, we get a combination northeast Portland rise of utopia coupled with shades of Hugo Chavez cult-of-personality and some bloody score settling. The mayoral character, while playing a lead antagonist role, is at best feckless and just uninteresting. It is hard to see the remnants of civil society putting up with him.
The premise was good, but I couldn't put myself into this near future story -- which is a shame, as it could be only too real.
September 14, 2014
I received this book as a giveaway from Goodreads. The premise of this book is that in near future Portland there is an ongoing drought that has resulted in water rationing and an increase in violence. Renee, a barista, is part of an activist group that is taking action against presumed government corruption involving the distribution of water, and during one action she ends up distributing water to the masses and the tv news image of her doing so turns her into a kind of activist folk hero. Thereafter Renee takes this activism a step farther and creates a nation out of one neighborhood that secedes from the rest of the city.
I liked that the author takes the opportunity to visit various actors in the unfolding drama to see how the events affect people within the city who are differently situated. I also thought it was interesting how the romantic relationships of the Mayor and his husband and Renee and her boyfriend are explored. It is interesting to see how the partners deal with the stress and hard choices that must be made by the leaders they love. The author made the formation of a whole new society seem so easy and begs the question of why this isn't just done---it seems like it would be so simple for us to pool our resources, work together and improve everyone's lives.
The thing about this book that kept me a bit distant from it is that I never quite understood why Renee decided to take the actions she did, what had led her to become the leader of a new nation, or how she made the decisions she did throughout the book. The cipher like nature of Renee as a character made it difficult to fully give in to the story.
I liked that the author takes the opportunity to visit various actors in the unfolding drama to see how the events affect people within the city who are differently situated. I also thought it was interesting how the romantic relationships of the Mayor and his husband and Renee and her boyfriend are explored. It is interesting to see how the partners deal with the stress and hard choices that must be made by the leaders they love. The author made the formation of a whole new society seem so easy and begs the question of why this isn't just done---it seems like it would be so simple for us to pool our resources, work together and improve everyone's lives.
The thing about this book that kept me a bit distant from it is that I never quite understood why Renee decided to take the actions she did, what had led her to become the leader of a new nation, or how she made the decisions she did throughout the book. The cipher like nature of Renee as a character made it difficult to fully give in to the story.
May 11, 2017
Didn't like the cardboard characters anyway, but the ending was an enormously boring cliché. Infuriating. Why do I look for brilliance in modern fiction only to turn, disappointed, back to the classics? When will I learn my lesson?
April 28, 2016
I have to say it, sorry, but I found this book to be rather dry. I normally love dystopian stories but this one did not quench my thirst for a good book. I liked the premise of the story, it just seemed like a very dense text, like something read in a college classroom rather than for fun. There were a few unnecessary story lines (Martin and the guy who became Zach's patient). What purpose did those plot points server other than to increase the length of the book? I really wish I could give 1/2 stars as I would bump my rating to 2.5 stars instead of 2.
May 4, 2016
At times I had the impression that this book's inventive and original premise does not work fully. But Parzybok - or rather the characters he created - somehow tricked me into turning a blind eye to that.
I also put the book away around its middle for a month or so, reading something else. It felt like a solid 3-star to me, getting stronger towards the end. 3,5 stars, rounded up for its originality.
Side note: this man (or Maid?) an write letters!
I also put the book away around its middle for a month or so, reading something else. It felt like a solid 3-star to me, getting stronger towards the end. 3,5 stars, rounded up for its originality.
Side note: this man (or Maid?) an write letters!
July 24, 2015
Although this starts out as a pretty standard dystopian about a society that has run out of water, it stars to pick up when one area secedes from the city and sets up an independent system of government. The details of starting a new society from scratch are captivating and turns this into an interesting study of human nature. While not quite as well-written, I kept being reminded of aspects of Stephen King's Under the Dome and think this would make a good readalike.
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