What do you think?
Rate this book
The Forest of Life
Earth at the end of the 22nd Century – population 12 billion with only 1 stand of environment left – walled off and protected from everyone. But life continues as normal – food is recycled, economies grow and space is explored.
A young 20 year old woman Michelle Holland leaves her home on the Moon for her new life on Earth and meets Matthew Finler a naïve and idealistic computer programmer. They fall in love and begin a tempestuous relationship – torn between a love for each other but radically different views on the world.
They struggle with this until Matthew discovers something that will change their life and the future of the entire world, if only they can prove it.
Part love story, part scarily prescient vision of the future The Forest of Life is a book that will move you like few others.
A young 20 year old woman Michelle Holland leaves her home on the Moon for her new life on Earth and meets Matthew Finler a naïve and idealistic computer programmer. They fall in love and begin a tempestuous relationship – torn between a love for each other but radically different views on the world.
They struggle with this until Matthew discovers something that will change their life and the future of the entire world, if only they can prove it.
Part love story, part scarily prescient vision of the future The Forest of Life is a book that will move you like few others.
544 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 16, 2016
4 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 6, 2016
Actual rating: 3.5
**I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review**
When I first got to know "The Forest of Life" it was intended as a serialised novel. However, this turned out a bit impractical and I'm happy that Scot McPhie decided to release it all at once instead and changed the title from "Zero World" to "The Forest of Life". So when I started this book I had already read the first 30% and loved the beginning.
The first thing any reader will notice is the uncommon style of writing the author uses. It's pretty associative - many hyphens, not always full sentences. It takes some getting used to in the beginning but to me it read very natural after a bit. However, I'm pretty sure there are gonna be people who hate it. Good thing is: if this style of writing is not for you, you'll notice a few pages in :)
In contrast, there's something that will become apparent only after some time: "The Forest of Life" is actually two kinds of stories in one book. On the one hand, Scot McPhie gives us a very grown-up dystopia sporting a focus on Economics and Ecology, with skillful world building and the occasional surprise. However, this is merely the sandwich bread for a lengthy analysis of a failing relationship. The middle 50% are mostly an endless cycle of the protagonists having a good time, rowing because they want different things from life, nearly breaking up, making up, having a good time... and on it goes. The repetitiveness was also obvious in the dialogues going in an endless circle of 'why?' - 'I dunno' and 'you don't do enough'-'I'm doing everything I can'. This was not really what I expected and frankly, it wasn't exactly my cup of tea.
The middle part is the reason why I can only give 3.5 stars. There wasn't enough plot for me, not enough content. But if you're in it for the dystopia, you can just skim-read the middle. Trust me, the last few chapters are worth the wait.
**I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review**
When I first got to know "The Forest of Life" it was intended as a serialised novel. However, this turned out a bit impractical and I'm happy that Scot McPhie decided to release it all at once instead and changed the title from "Zero World" to "The Forest of Life". So when I started this book I had already read the first 30% and loved the beginning.
The first thing any reader will notice is the uncommon style of writing the author uses. It's pretty associative - many hyphens, not always full sentences. It takes some getting used to in the beginning but to me it read very natural after a bit. However, I'm pretty sure there are gonna be people who hate it. Good thing is: if this style of writing is not for you, you'll notice a few pages in :)
In contrast, there's something that will become apparent only after some time: "The Forest of Life" is actually two kinds of stories in one book. On the one hand, Scot McPhie gives us a very grown-up dystopia sporting a focus on Economics and Ecology, with skillful world building and the occasional surprise. However, this is merely the sandwich bread for a lengthy analysis of a failing relationship. The middle 50% are mostly an endless cycle of the protagonists having a good time, rowing because they want different things from life, nearly breaking up, making up, having a good time... and on it goes. The repetitiveness was also obvious in the dialogues going in an endless circle of 'why?' - 'I dunno' and 'you don't do enough'-'I'm doing everything I can'. This was not really what I expected and frankly, it wasn't exactly my cup of tea.
The middle part is the reason why I can only give 3.5 stars. There wasn't enough plot for me, not enough content. But if you're in it for the dystopia, you can just skim-read the middle. Trust me, the last few chapters are worth the wait.
March 28, 2016
There was very vivid images and a lot of thought provoking issues in a possible future. I liked the thought of rebreathers- which is the earths lungs. It's a thought that I hadn't read much about before. There were fun newsflashes-short articles- throughout the book that were entertaining. The flashbacks threw me off a bit but I understand the reason they were there. The characters were realistic but the romance was too quick for my liking. I felt it should have been dragged out more. Some parts of the book did move more in a slower pace than I liked- the book was pretty long. I was completely surprised by the ending. It was a shocker.
May 1, 2016
This is a post apocalyptic novel set in Brisbane in the not too distant future. It's an immersive, quick read. It's chilling. A catastrophe has happened - and what could be more catastrophic than wiping out the world's plants and animals - yet people are still focused on climbing the corporate ladder instead of fixing the mess. **note I received this book free in exchange for an honest review *
September 15, 2016
I received this book from the author in exchange for an honest review. The beginning wasn't bad. I actually liked the way the apocalypse was described, and it was my favorite kind of apocalypse. The ending wasn't bad either. I like surprise endings and there were some surprises. The middle was not very interesting, the love story wasn't very good in my opinion.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews