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This Fragile Earth
What would you do to protect your family if the world stopped working?
Not long from now, in a recognisable yet changed London, Signy and Matthew lead a dull, difficult life. They've only really stayed together for the sake of their six year old son, Jed. But they're surviving, just about. Until the day the technology that runs their world stops working. Unable to use their phones, pay for anything, even open the smart door to their flat, Matthew assumes that this is just a momentary glitch in the computers that now run the world.
But then the electricity and gas are cut off. Even the water stops running. And the pollination drones - vital to the world, ever since the bees all died - are behaving oddly. People are going missing. Soldiers are on the streets. London is no longer safe.
A shocking incident sends Signy and Jed on the run, desperate to flee London and escape to the small village where Signy grew up. Determined to protect her son, Signy will do almost anything to survive as the world falls apart around them. But she has no idea what is waiting for them outside the city...
Not long from now, in a recognisable yet changed London, Signy and Matthew lead a dull, difficult life. They've only really stayed together for the sake of their six year old son, Jed. But they're surviving, just about. Until the day the technology that runs their world stops working. Unable to use their phones, pay for anything, even open the smart door to their flat, Matthew assumes that this is just a momentary glitch in the computers that now run the world.
But then the electricity and gas are cut off. Even the water stops running. And the pollination drones - vital to the world, ever since the bees all died - are behaving oddly. People are going missing. Soldiers are on the streets. London is no longer safe.
A shocking incident sends Signy and Jed on the run, desperate to flee London and escape to the small village where Signy grew up. Determined to protect her son, Signy will do almost anything to survive as the world falls apart around them. But she has no idea what is waiting for them outside the city...
368 pages, Paperback
First published July 24, 2021
35 people are currently reading
973 people want to read
About the author
Susannah Wise
3 books26 followersSusannah Wise is an actor and writer who grew up in London and the Midlands. A childhood spent outdoors inspired her love of nature and tree climbing.
The death of her father three years ago was the catalyst for her first novel. His preoccupation with astronomy and the beauty of the night sky formed the jumping-off point for the story.
Susannah studied at the Faber Academy, graduating in September 2018, during which time she wrote a second, more peculiar novel. Both books have been longlisted for the Mslexia Prize.
She lives in London with her partner and son.
The death of her father three years ago was the catalyst for her first novel. His preoccupation with astronomy and the beauty of the night sky formed the jumping-off point for the story.
Susannah studied at the Faber Academy, graduating in September 2018, during which time she wrote a second, more peculiar novel. Both books have been longlisted for the Mslexia Prize.
She lives in London with her partner and son.
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 137 reviews
July 12, 2021
Despite the middle of the road rating, I actually found this compelling and hard to put down. As the world finds itself in a state of collapse, a young mother named Signy finds herself trying to decide what she should do, first to cope, and then to survive.
Nicely written, it has an almost dreamlike quality in Signy's narration of the events as they unfold. I quite loved Jed, Signy's precocious and charming six year old. I was less engaged with Signy herself, and wanted her to be a bit stronger and clear headed in her thinking.
That said, even though I could not see myself reflected in her, Signy seemed real enough and her actions consistent with her character.
I usually enjoy this kind of story, and I've read a lot of them. This one doesn't do anything new, but I enjoyed reading it despite feeling exasperated with Signy for most of the book.
Nicely written, it has an almost dreamlike quality in Signy's narration of the events as they unfold. I quite loved Jed, Signy's precocious and charming six year old. I was less engaged with Signy herself, and wanted her to be a bit stronger and clear headed in her thinking.
That said, even though I could not see myself reflected in her, Signy seemed real enough and her actions consistent with her character.
I usually enjoy this kind of story, and I've read a lot of them. This one doesn't do anything new, but I enjoyed reading it despite feeling exasperated with Signy for most of the book.
June 12, 2021
#ThisFragileEarth
By Susannah Wise
— What would you do to protect your family if the world stopped working? —
London in the not too distant future, is totally run by technology, drones and Xbots. Permanently having to wear UV glasses when outside, water has to be purified and pollination drones do the work of bees, due to them all being killed off. When the technology that keeps their lives operating smoothly suddenly stops and the electricity, gas and water are cut off, people believe it’s a temporary glitch and things will return to normal within twenty four hours. But when people start going missing and soldiers walk the streets, it’s apparent London is no longer safe.
I found it took a while to get into the story as I needed to picture the atmospheric London as the author had it in her head but I did eventually get there and found it easy to follow once I did. There are a lot of original and unique fictitious names and scenarios which suggests the author has a highly imaginative and creative writing talent.
My only gripe were the main characters. I’m not sure if it was down to their narrative, the way they were portrayed or because they were characters in a dystopian novel. It was obvious Signy would do anything for her son Jed but at six years old I found him to be one moment too mature for his age and another far too young. His dad Matthew was, for me, a weak character and all in all they formed a strangely structured family unit.
There’s a message within the story, that if we don’t look after our ‘fragile’ earth then those actions will have consequences and we could lose all that we rely on to survive. No longer having the joys and beauty of nature, would lead to a very barren and ugly environment, which is why climate change and protecting the earth is paramount in safeguarding what we enjoy today.
For a debut novel in the post apocalyptic/dystopian thriller genre, the author has done a fabulous job and she should be commended for her imaginative and creative talent and I hope she does well with this her first novel.
By Susannah Wise
— What would you do to protect your family if the world stopped working? —
London in the not too distant future, is totally run by technology, drones and Xbots. Permanently having to wear UV glasses when outside, water has to be purified and pollination drones do the work of bees, due to them all being killed off. When the technology that keeps their lives operating smoothly suddenly stops and the electricity, gas and water are cut off, people believe it’s a temporary glitch and things will return to normal within twenty four hours. But when people start going missing and soldiers walk the streets, it’s apparent London is no longer safe.
I found it took a while to get into the story as I needed to picture the atmospheric London as the author had it in her head but I did eventually get there and found it easy to follow once I did. There are a lot of original and unique fictitious names and scenarios which suggests the author has a highly imaginative and creative writing talent.
My only gripe were the main characters. I’m not sure if it was down to their narrative, the way they were portrayed or because they were characters in a dystopian novel. It was obvious Signy would do anything for her son Jed but at six years old I found him to be one moment too mature for his age and another far too young. His dad Matthew was, for me, a weak character and all in all they formed a strangely structured family unit.
There’s a message within the story, that if we don’t look after our ‘fragile’ earth then those actions will have consequences and we could lose all that we rely on to survive. No longer having the joys and beauty of nature, would lead to a very barren and ugly environment, which is why climate change and protecting the earth is paramount in safeguarding what we enjoy today.
For a debut novel in the post apocalyptic/dystopian thriller genre, the author has done a fabulous job and she should be commended for her imaginative and creative talent and I hope she does well with this her first novel.
May 7, 2021
I was kindly given this book to review via Netgalley and was excited by the premise however I think the appeal of this book has passed me by. Other reviewers are raving about this book so I feel I should outline the issues I had with this novel.
Firstly, I intensely disliked the main character, Signy. It seems to be common for authors to write their protagonists as, frankly, not very nice people. That is not to say that they are horrible or villains by any means, however, they just aren't people that I would want to spend time with personally. This is an issue that I had with books like One Day which is incredibly popular so it clearly is a personal preference. For instance, she has a son Jed with whom she seems to spend most of the book either telling him to shut up or having long theoretical conversations with him. She is equally unkind about her husband, friends and even "longed to correct [the] grammar" of a neighbour who asked her "Have you got no electric?"
That brings us to Jed. In the first few pages I mistakenly assumed he was around four as for example on page 1 "'Hallo! Goodbye! Hallo! Goodbye!' Jed's hand waved back and forth, greeting his own shadow as it dipped in and out between parked cars" and on page 2 he takes his jumper off saying 'Too hot'. Cute images that are continued when he continued as he smells flowers saying "'Smells like that lady's house we went to one time, with the biscuits and the potty. Where we sang "Good King When's His Lass".'" I was almost immediately thrown when on page 3 Signy states that "They'd only been once, two Christmases ago." which given the reader is told that it is March made me realise the child was unlikely to be so young. Jed then reads the name plate on a plant before instigating a sophisticated conversation with his mother on the Golden Ratio (including quoting part of the number) as well as Fibonacci. Clearly not four! He then reverts back to his childlike speech patterns with "Mama, come and smell these pink ones!" He uses or recognises words such as "Fibonacci", "existence", "spheres", "mathematically" and "UV lenses" but his mother comments that the word "appropriate" was "a big word for a small person". I think it was this switching that I found confusing as Jed's speech didn't seem consistent and sounded at times like an info dump rather than a realistic conversation. I know children do like to tell adults what they have learnt or read but there was something unnatural about the switching of register. I also did have to wonder why a young child would be so anxious enough to ask "You cross?" of his mother.
Much of the book was written in an easy to read style but every now and again the author would throw in a word that seemed out of place such as "flexuous" (p5), "serried" (p37), "baffle of boxes" (p60) or odd, arguably overwritten passages such as "She glanced at her wrist, though she could almost always tell the time without a watch now. She thought without resentment that this was one of the premier skills learned from the routine school pick-up. Snacks! Playground! Holoscreen! Children's lives existing entirely in the vocative." (p8) Maybe I am the only one who feels that if you have to say something was "thought without resentment" there is an element of protesting too much?
On page 6 we were given a not so subtle explanation of technology that is arguably ubiquitous in the modern world "GQOS' voice from the GScope again. You could tell GQOS was an AI system because no human could sound that happy all the time." I admit that I am probably being picky here but at no point before this did I imagine that the voice from the GQOS device that projected a 3D hologram of the caller was not an AI. Due to taking modules is creative writing I was also very aware of an occasional plague of adverbs. For example I"m not sure how her GScope could ring and then the "GQOS' voice began, a little tardily, given the GScope was already ringing." With hindsight this could have been a "clue" that the computer systems were being disrupted however there wasn't enough establishment of the status quo by page 4 for the reader to make that assumption. In contrast, I am not sure whether "Conglomerate North" (p8) was ever defined and I assumed it was some sort of company though given the setting was London I ended up wondering what it was "North" of?
On page 14 I was a little flummoxed by the description of Signy coming home after being "gone for four hours" to a kitchen that "smelled odd". When Jed opens the freezer door "[t]he mulchy odour of thawing veg filled the room". It is possible that devices work differently in this reality however whenever I have attempted to defrost my freezer it certainly takes longer than four hours and that is open and empty. If the door was shut the thermal insulation should keep the food cold for a significant period in case of a power cut and also as this increases the efficiency of the appliance.
There were lots of other odd passages such as on page 28 when Signy couldn't sleep and lay awake "listening to Jed's rhythmical breathing in the next room" despite her own breathing, Matthew's (her husband) who was starting to snore and their door being closed. She either has brilliant hearing or that child might need a doctor. The shops also seemed to be staffed by people for whom English was not their first language as their sentences were poorly structured such as "Only synthetic-meat spring roll now. Is okay?" (p16) Having lived in very ethnically diverse areas and shopped in stores and restaurants similar to those described, I can say that their English was usually excellent. She also seems to pay in a shop using a digital card "There were only three Litecoin credits left on the card" (p40) before realising that the cash machine won't work due to the power cut. How did the Litecoin card work?
The author was incredibly free with the use of expletives within the text. Arguably, in a true crisis we all swear or curse far too much but I didn't feel like it lent much to the story beyond making Signy seem even more bad tempered and bitter. There was even a moment that caused me to double take when Jed used a particular word beginning with 'C' completely out of the blue. This seemed unnecessary on the part of the author and purely for the shocking effect. There were also numerous graphic descriptions of nakedness or various states thereof which again didn't add anything to the novel for me personally. Not to mention the scene of the cat eating its feline companion's vomit!
I can probably sum this up as one that was not for me.
Firstly, I intensely disliked the main character, Signy. It seems to be common for authors to write their protagonists as, frankly, not very nice people. That is not to say that they are horrible or villains by any means, however, they just aren't people that I would want to spend time with personally. This is an issue that I had with books like One Day which is incredibly popular so it clearly is a personal preference. For instance, she has a son Jed with whom she seems to spend most of the book either telling him to shut up or having long theoretical conversations with him. She is equally unkind about her husband, friends and even "longed to correct [the] grammar" of a neighbour who asked her "Have you got no electric?"
That brings us to Jed. In the first few pages I mistakenly assumed he was around four as for example on page 1 "'Hallo! Goodbye! Hallo! Goodbye!' Jed's hand waved back and forth, greeting his own shadow as it dipped in and out between parked cars" and on page 2 he takes his jumper off saying 'Too hot'. Cute images that are continued when he continued as he smells flowers saying "'Smells like that lady's house we went to one time, with the biscuits and the potty. Where we sang "Good King When's His Lass".'" I was almost immediately thrown when on page 3 Signy states that "They'd only been once, two Christmases ago." which given the reader is told that it is March made me realise the child was unlikely to be so young. Jed then reads the name plate on a plant before instigating a sophisticated conversation with his mother on the Golden Ratio (including quoting part of the number) as well as Fibonacci. Clearly not four! He then reverts back to his childlike speech patterns with "Mama, come and smell these pink ones!" He uses or recognises words such as "Fibonacci", "existence", "spheres", "mathematically" and "UV lenses" but his mother comments that the word "appropriate" was "a big word for a small person". I think it was this switching that I found confusing as Jed's speech didn't seem consistent and sounded at times like an info dump rather than a realistic conversation. I know children do like to tell adults what they have learnt or read but there was something unnatural about the switching of register. I also did have to wonder why a young child would be so anxious enough to ask "You cross?" of his mother.
Much of the book was written in an easy to read style but every now and again the author would throw in a word that seemed out of place such as "flexuous" (p5), "serried" (p37), "baffle of boxes" (p60) or odd, arguably overwritten passages such as "She glanced at her wrist, though she could almost always tell the time without a watch now. She thought without resentment that this was one of the premier skills learned from the routine school pick-up. Snacks! Playground! Holoscreen! Children's lives existing entirely in the vocative." (p8) Maybe I am the only one who feels that if you have to say something was "thought without resentment" there is an element of protesting too much?
On page 6 we were given a not so subtle explanation of technology that is arguably ubiquitous in the modern world "GQOS' voice from the GScope again. You could tell GQOS was an AI system because no human could sound that happy all the time." I admit that I am probably being picky here but at no point before this did I imagine that the voice from the GQOS device that projected a 3D hologram of the caller was not an AI. Due to taking modules is creative writing I was also very aware of an occasional plague of adverbs. For example I"m not sure how her GScope could ring and then the "GQOS' voice began, a little tardily, given the GScope was already ringing." With hindsight this could have been a "clue" that the computer systems were being disrupted however there wasn't enough establishment of the status quo by page 4 for the reader to make that assumption. In contrast, I am not sure whether "Conglomerate North" (p8) was ever defined and I assumed it was some sort of company though given the setting was London I ended up wondering what it was "North" of?
On page 14 I was a little flummoxed by the description of Signy coming home after being "gone for four hours" to a kitchen that "smelled odd". When Jed opens the freezer door "[t]he mulchy odour of thawing veg filled the room". It is possible that devices work differently in this reality however whenever I have attempted to defrost my freezer it certainly takes longer than four hours and that is open and empty. If the door was shut the thermal insulation should keep the food cold for a significant period in case of a power cut and also as this increases the efficiency of the appliance.
There were lots of other odd passages such as on page 28 when Signy couldn't sleep and lay awake "listening to Jed's rhythmical breathing in the next room" despite her own breathing, Matthew's (her husband) who was starting to snore and their door being closed. She either has brilliant hearing or that child might need a doctor. The shops also seemed to be staffed by people for whom English was not their first language as their sentences were poorly structured such as "Only synthetic-meat spring roll now. Is okay?" (p16) Having lived in very ethnically diverse areas and shopped in stores and restaurants similar to those described, I can say that their English was usually excellent. She also seems to pay in a shop using a digital card "There were only three Litecoin credits left on the card" (p40) before realising that the cash machine won't work due to the power cut. How did the Litecoin card work?
The author was incredibly free with the use of expletives within the text. Arguably, in a true crisis we all swear or curse far too much but I didn't feel like it lent much to the story beyond making Signy seem even more bad tempered and bitter. There was even a moment that caused me to double take when Jed used a particular word beginning with 'C' completely out of the blue. This seemed unnecessary on the part of the author and purely for the shocking effect. There were also numerous graphic descriptions of nakedness or various states thereof which again didn't add anything to the novel for me personally. Not to mention the scene of the cat eating its feline companion's vomit!
I can probably sum this up as one that was not for me.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 28, 2021
Unpopular opinion, due to this book getting a lot of 4 or 5 star reviews.
I knew this book wasn't for me when the MC came back home after having been out for four hours and found the contents of the fridge and freezer having partly gone off due to a power outage. Since the book is set in a world not too far into our current future this sounded highly unlikely, unbelievable actually. My freezer takes ages to defrost, even with the door open.
I continued to read until 28%.
I didn't like the MC; no, can't say why exactly. Her son talked like he was part time 4 years old part time 40. Her husband felt like a prop, so the MC had something else to be grumpy about.
I don't think the writing is good or bad, I had more problems with the unbelievable events (defrosting freezer, paying with a card although there's no power, not sharing water with their pregnant neighbour, continuing to surf the internet, using smart phones,...) that were used to get and keep the story going.
I knew this book wasn't for me when the MC came back home after having been out for four hours and found the contents of the fridge and freezer having partly gone off due to a power outage. Since the book is set in a world not too far into our current future this sounded highly unlikely, unbelievable actually. My freezer takes ages to defrost, even with the door open.
I continued to read until 28%.
I didn't like the MC; no, can't say why exactly. Her son talked like he was part time 4 years old part time 40. Her husband felt like a prop, so the MC had something else to be grumpy about.
I don't think the writing is good or bad, I had more problems with the unbelievable events (defrosting freezer, paying with a card although there's no power, not sharing water with their pregnant neighbour, continuing to surf the internet, using smart phones,...) that were used to get and keep the story going.
November 17, 2021
In 2 minds about this book - on the one hand, for a debut novel I think it was a commendable effort, but this doesn’t necessarily excuse some of the drawbacks I saw in this book.
Set in a dystopian future where we rely on technology, the story follows Signy and her young son, Jed, as they try to stay alive when everything stops working. The character development didn’t work for me - Jed felt at times too young and too old for his dialogue, and Signy made me very frustrated at times.
In terms of the overall plot, I felt this book was too ambitious for the length of the book. We don’t really start getting into the ‘explanation’ until right at the end, when it all feels a bit rushed and ill-explained. The ending was also a bit cliche and not really in fitting with the tone of the rest of the story.
On the whole, I felt this was not a bad science fiction novel, but was too ambitious and perhaps didn’t develop the characters and plot well enough for me to give it more than 3 stars.
Set in a dystopian future where we rely on technology, the story follows Signy and her young son, Jed, as they try to stay alive when everything stops working. The character development didn’t work for me - Jed felt at times too young and too old for his dialogue, and Signy made me very frustrated at times.
In terms of the overall plot, I felt this book was too ambitious for the length of the book. We don’t really start getting into the ‘explanation’ until right at the end, when it all feels a bit rushed and ill-explained. The ending was also a bit cliche and not really in fitting with the tone of the rest of the story.
On the whole, I felt this was not a bad science fiction novel, but was too ambitious and perhaps didn’t develop the characters and plot well enough for me to give it more than 3 stars.
July 3, 2021
Love post apocalyptic fiction but GOOD GOD the last 25% of this book was hard work. I couldn't have cared less for any of the characters (except maybe the dog). Who honestly cared about *Matthew*?
Sig's decision making was frustratingly terrible (not to spoil things too much, but you have a MEDIC BOT and you get rid of it *face palm*)
First 75% was interesting. Wanted it to end so I could move onto another book after that.
Sig's decision making was frustratingly terrible (not to spoil things too much, but you have a MEDIC BOT and you get rid of it *face palm*)
First 75% was interesting. Wanted it to end so I could move onto another book after that.
June 14, 2021
Beginning in London in the not too distant future machinery starts to fail. Everything is machine-based from water and electricity to cars, computers, doctors and everything that makes everyday life easier.
Realising this may not be a glitch Signy with her son Jed decide to make the journey to her mother's house. Pollution is something that is more advanced than today, special glasses to protect eyes, safe drinking water is just the very basics that have to be taken into consideration. Transport is down, no cars, trams, buses just an old heavy bike is all that is available to Signy as she makes her journey. Leaving London behind.
This is a very atmospheric book and one that involves futuristic science. The author has used the extinction of bees as being one of the important factors in her futuristic world, this is coupled with a computer system that controls everything from planting and growing of food, medical advice and treatment, pretty much everything.
As Signy and Jed make their journey, the author gradually fills in what has happened and what could potentially be happening as things change. It is a chance to pose questions, delve into living conditions, explore the science of this changing world.
As much as I really enjoyed this story and I did find it addictive, I did find that Jed did start to grate on my nerves. A child who is incredibly clever and one that doesn't always have a sense of respect. While Signy does her best, I could feel her frustrations with the constant questions and felt the pressure building.
This is a book that I found interesting, there were some of the science things that I didn't understand, but sort of got the gist of. There is a moralistic thread in this story as we look at how today's environment is standing on a precipice. It is this that makes this sort of near-future story more believable. Advances in technology, reliance on machinery and gadgets all help to add an authentic feel.
This was a really good read, it is one for those who like atmospheric, slower-paced intriguing and thought-provoking reads. A dystopian novel set in the near future and one I would recommend reading.
Realising this may not be a glitch Signy with her son Jed decide to make the journey to her mother's house. Pollution is something that is more advanced than today, special glasses to protect eyes, safe drinking water is just the very basics that have to be taken into consideration. Transport is down, no cars, trams, buses just an old heavy bike is all that is available to Signy as she makes her journey. Leaving London behind.
This is a very atmospheric book and one that involves futuristic science. The author has used the extinction of bees as being one of the important factors in her futuristic world, this is coupled with a computer system that controls everything from planting and growing of food, medical advice and treatment, pretty much everything.
As Signy and Jed make their journey, the author gradually fills in what has happened and what could potentially be happening as things change. It is a chance to pose questions, delve into living conditions, explore the science of this changing world.
As much as I really enjoyed this story and I did find it addictive, I did find that Jed did start to grate on my nerves. A child who is incredibly clever and one that doesn't always have a sense of respect. While Signy does her best, I could feel her frustrations with the constant questions and felt the pressure building.
This is a book that I found interesting, there were some of the science things that I didn't understand, but sort of got the gist of. There is a moralistic thread in this story as we look at how today's environment is standing on a precipice. It is this that makes this sort of near-future story more believable. Advances in technology, reliance on machinery and gadgets all help to add an authentic feel.
This was a really good read, it is one for those who like atmospheric, slower-paced intriguing and thought-provoking reads. A dystopian novel set in the near future and one I would recommend reading.
July 31, 2021
DNF @ page 107. There were some good ideas at the beginning which in the hands of a decent SF writer could have become an interesting take on how western civilizations cope when technology begins to break down, but this book concentrated on a woman and child to the detriment of those ideas. The women is whiny, neurotic and obsessed with her son even before things start going awry, and she doesn't get any better. The son is mostly written as a the 6yr old kid he's meant to be, but occasionally drops into "bored teenage know-it-all script kiddie" when the author wants to info-dump some coding info on us and can't think of how to do it within the story arc. They are trying to get out of London: I don't care.
July 1, 2021
This Fragile Earth is set in a 'near future' Britain but, to be honest, it could be just around the corner. In this setting people are, pretty much as they are now, dependent on computers, gadgets, tech. Everything can be controlled by a click, a swipe, an app and as you'd expect, when these things start to go awry everyday life goes to hell. People have no access to their money, the food they have soon goes off as the tech fridges stop working, the water and power soon fail and people cannot even get in/out of their homes (electronic access and egress).
When the police and army are seen patrolling the streets and people start going missing Signy decides it's not safe in London any more and sets off on foot with her family (partner Matthew and 6 yr old son Jed) for her old family home in the Northamptonshire countryside in the hopes things will be better there.
This book really ticked all the boxes for me. I've long wondered what will happen when the tech we all depend on stops working and Wise handles this really well. The way people panic and regress to more animalistic ways quite quickly feels pretty much spot on.
As for the characters Signy and Matthew worked well as they are really only still together for the sake of their son (so more friends than lovers) but I wasn't so sure about Jed (I think he annoyed me too much at times) but for the most part their group dynamic worked.
The tech they depended on felt feasible and not too far fetched which is probably what makes the setting quite unnerving and the early scenes where this was introduced to the reader was done really well. It's remarkable that this is a debut novel.
One final thing I will say, if I owned a movie or TV company I would be wanting to snap this up straight away
A well deserved 5/5*
When the police and army are seen patrolling the streets and people start going missing Signy decides it's not safe in London any more and sets off on foot with her family (partner Matthew and 6 yr old son Jed) for her old family home in the Northamptonshire countryside in the hopes things will be better there.
This book really ticked all the boxes for me. I've long wondered what will happen when the tech we all depend on stops working and Wise handles this really well. The way people panic and regress to more animalistic ways quite quickly feels pretty much spot on.
As for the characters Signy and Matthew worked well as they are really only still together for the sake of their son (so more friends than lovers) but I wasn't so sure about Jed (I think he annoyed me too much at times) but for the most part their group dynamic worked.
The tech they depended on felt feasible and not too far fetched which is probably what makes the setting quite unnerving and the early scenes where this was introduced to the reader was done really well. It's remarkable that this is a debut novel.
One final thing I will say, if I owned a movie or TV company I would be wanting to snap this up straight away
A well deserved 5/5*
June 26, 2021
Extremely clever and elegantly written apocalypse.
February 17, 2026
What the fuck
July 25, 2021
Clearly the pandemic has got the literary world’s post-apocalyptic juices flowing. Every second science fiction book at the moment seems to want to imagine the end of civilisation. The problem being that there are only so many scenarios to explore and most of them have been done. So then the question is – how well does this particular author deal with the apocalypse and do they have a new way of telling this story or anything new to say? Susannah Wise’s debut This Fragile Earth, hits all the right post-apocalyptic beats but in a way that many readers of this genre will have encountered before.
This Fragile Earth opens on a slightly future London. Signy is out in the heat with her son Jed when the drones start to malfunction. Not too long after the electricity fails as do all of the computer-controlled cars. Her husband Matthew abandons his car and walks home and the three spend days trying to adapt to a new normal of no electricity, sporadic water, dwindling food supplies and growing unrest on the streets. It will come as no surprise to readers, particularly of English post-apocalyptic fiction, that Signy’s eventual journey of survival takes her into a silent but menacing countryside where she slowly starts to understand the reasons behind the chaos.
This Fragile Earth pushes a number of the usual apocalyptic buttons – the failure of technology, a possibly rogue or compromised artificial intelligence, the army being brought in but unable to maintain control. Layered on this is an environmental message – in Signy’s world the bees have died out and have had to be replaced by pollination drones but when the apocalypse starts, she starts to see bees again. This environmental layer elevates the material slightly but is itself a fairly common climate-fiction trope.
Signy is a resourceful character and there are some moments of real tension and tragedy in the narrative. Her son Jed is a little less successfully defined – oscillating between acting his age (around 5 or 6 – shouting “Hallo! Goodbye!” to his shadow) to being preternaturally intelligent (discoursing on The Golden Ratio). Other characters are fairly standard apocalyptic fare – including the violent thug taking advantage of the chaos, the friendly family heading in the opposite direction because they have heard it might be safer and the gang of countryside scavengers.
Those who have not dipped too far into the apocalyptic genre (and it is hard to avoid at the moment) should find enough to chew on in This Fragile Earth. But this is far from the best example of a genre that was already well established and seems to have exploded thanks to the very real events of 2020.
This Fragile Earth opens on a slightly future London. Signy is out in the heat with her son Jed when the drones start to malfunction. Not too long after the electricity fails as do all of the computer-controlled cars. Her husband Matthew abandons his car and walks home and the three spend days trying to adapt to a new normal of no electricity, sporadic water, dwindling food supplies and growing unrest on the streets. It will come as no surprise to readers, particularly of English post-apocalyptic fiction, that Signy’s eventual journey of survival takes her into a silent but menacing countryside where she slowly starts to understand the reasons behind the chaos.
This Fragile Earth pushes a number of the usual apocalyptic buttons – the failure of technology, a possibly rogue or compromised artificial intelligence, the army being brought in but unable to maintain control. Layered on this is an environmental message – in Signy’s world the bees have died out and have had to be replaced by pollination drones but when the apocalypse starts, she starts to see bees again. This environmental layer elevates the material slightly but is itself a fairly common climate-fiction trope.
Signy is a resourceful character and there are some moments of real tension and tragedy in the narrative. Her son Jed is a little less successfully defined – oscillating between acting his age (around 5 or 6 – shouting “Hallo! Goodbye!” to his shadow) to being preternaturally intelligent (discoursing on The Golden Ratio). Other characters are fairly standard apocalyptic fare – including the violent thug taking advantage of the chaos, the friendly family heading in the opposite direction because they have heard it might be safer and the gang of countryside scavengers.
Those who have not dipped too far into the apocalyptic genre (and it is hard to avoid at the moment) should find enough to chew on in This Fragile Earth. But this is far from the best example of a genre that was already well established and seems to have exploded thanks to the very real events of 2020.
March 15, 2021
I always like to think, that if the end of the world came, that people would rally around each other and work together to try and make things better, in the manner of most disaster films ever shown, that humanity is not just the proverbial virus with shoes, but a species worth it's place at the top of the food chain.
The simple truth is that we're not, as individuals we're bold, adventurous, witty, capable and clever, but when the veneer of civilisation breaks down, humanity is only skin deep, and a mob is a creature with a few hundred legs and no brain.
This is where This Fragile Earth begins...
The reason for the breakdown in technology is never explained, only that one day the technology stops working, in an instant all humanity laid equal, and with that, survival of the fittest becomes the new law of life. I was a single parent, so the thoughts that run through Signy's head as she tries to keep Jed safe through all the things that happen rang very true, the panic for your children is always more intense than your fear for yourself, and even though the days of the book are numbered, there is an underlying feeling that Signy's thoughts are often haunted by fear and solitude, that while she tries to keep it together on the outside, there's no way to keep it together on the inside, and that's where we are for the whole book.
Which brings me to the reason for five stars. Throughout the book, we see that Signy has definite moments where life is not the way she imagines it, where desperation forces choices that you could not imagine making in the life you're in right now. At the end of the book, things turn upwards with such alacrity that you can't help but wonder if her mind has failed completely, and that she's imagining the happy ending, to spare herself the darkness of the world, even the last lines suggest that things are too good to be true, and that everything will be fine, and for a book written so darkly, you have to wonder if that's the happiness, or the final darkness.
Excellent book, well recommended.
The simple truth is that we're not, as individuals we're bold, adventurous, witty, capable and clever, but when the veneer of civilisation breaks down, humanity is only skin deep, and a mob is a creature with a few hundred legs and no brain.
This is where This Fragile Earth begins...
The reason for the breakdown in technology is never explained, only that one day the technology stops working, in an instant all humanity laid equal, and with that, survival of the fittest becomes the new law of life. I was a single parent, so the thoughts that run through Signy's head as she tries to keep Jed safe through all the things that happen rang very true, the panic for your children is always more intense than your fear for yourself, and even though the days of the book are numbered, there is an underlying feeling that Signy's thoughts are often haunted by fear and solitude, that while she tries to keep it together on the outside, there's no way to keep it together on the inside, and that's where we are for the whole book.
Which brings me to the reason for five stars. Throughout the book, we see that Signy has definite moments where life is not the way she imagines it, where desperation forces choices that you could not imagine making in the life you're in right now. At the end of the book, things turn upwards with such alacrity that you can't help but wonder if her mind has failed completely, and that she's imagining the happy ending, to spare herself the darkness of the world, even the last lines suggest that things are too good to be true, and that everything will be fine, and for a book written so darkly, you have to wonder if that's the happiness, or the final darkness.
Excellent book, well recommended.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 7, 2021
Compelling and taut with tension.
It is astounding that the science behind the dystopian vision of the future is so credible. The prose so crisply written that you journey alongside SIgny and Jed immersed in the eerie setting,
Adored Jed who is the sweetest little boy, so wise beyond his years. Although at times horrifying and a stark warning. This tale brims with the beauty of love.
Highly Recommended
It is astounding that the science behind the dystopian vision of the future is so credible. The prose so crisply written that you journey alongside SIgny and Jed immersed in the eerie setting,
Adored Jed who is the sweetest little boy, so wise beyond his years. Although at times horrifying and a stark warning. This tale brims with the beauty of love.
Highly Recommended
September 12, 2022
I have only seen a few reviews for this, but I liked the title and dystopian novels so thought I would give this a whirl.
SPOILER – Maybe it’s not one really if you think about the cover of the book, but don’t read this next bit if you think it will ruin your enjoyment of the book.
I felt on edge almost immediately, on the cover is a picture of a woman and her child, but she has a husband and I felt this constant knot in my stomach of what was going to happen. I found it really distracting and I wish the cover didn’t give it away for me.
OKAY YOU CAN READ AGAIN NOW
I find dystopian novels and films unsettling and fascinating in equal measures especially ones that concentrate on how “normal” humans behave when there is no law and order. This book concentrates on this aspect a lot and I found it incredibly intense.
This was a bit of a up and down read for me. I was constantly worried about Signy and Jed, and it was incredibly well written in terms of their journey to her mum’s and the fear that Signy felt. I wanted her to be ok.
But I struggled with the technology side of it, I got the basics of what it was, but they would have a conversation about it and I would end up skimming it. I also felt the end just go weird. I felt as though I should have understood it on a higher level and I didn’t. Maybe it was exactly what it was and I just thought it fell flat.
It’s well written, and Wise definitely conveys Signy’s anxiousness. It’s a 3.5 for me. It’s worth a read as I defy you to not feel apprehensive when you read this, but it might not hit all the right notes for you. (If you’ve read the book, you’ll see what I did there 😉)
SPOILER – Maybe it’s not one really if you think about the cover of the book, but don’t read this next bit if you think it will ruin your enjoyment of the book.
I felt on edge almost immediately, on the cover is a picture of a woman and her child, but she has a husband and I felt this constant knot in my stomach of what was going to happen. I found it really distracting and I wish the cover didn’t give it away for me.
OKAY YOU CAN READ AGAIN NOW
I find dystopian novels and films unsettling and fascinating in equal measures especially ones that concentrate on how “normal” humans behave when there is no law and order. This book concentrates on this aspect a lot and I found it incredibly intense.
This was a bit of a up and down read for me. I was constantly worried about Signy and Jed, and it was incredibly well written in terms of their journey to her mum’s and the fear that Signy felt. I wanted her to be ok.
But I struggled with the technology side of it, I got the basics of what it was, but they would have a conversation about it and I would end up skimming it. I also felt the end just go weird. I felt as though I should have understood it on a higher level and I didn’t. Maybe it was exactly what it was and I just thought it fell flat.
It’s well written, and Wise definitely conveys Signy’s anxiousness. It’s a 3.5 for me. It’s worth a read as I defy you to not feel apprehensive when you read this, but it might not hit all the right notes for you. (If you’ve read the book, you’ll see what I did there 😉)
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 23, 2024
VILKEN BANGER!!! Jag har nu insett att jag verkligen älskar dystopiska böcker! Jag läste bland annat ”Klara and The Sun”, som kanske har lite liknande tema som denna bok, och jag älskar båda dessa böcker så mycket!!!
Vi befinner oss några år in i framtiden. Vi människor har nästan förstört vår planet. Alla bin är nästan utdöda, alla plantor är GMO, de flesta boskap är förgiftade och mycket av födan på planeten är toxisk. Vi får då följa Signy, hennes man Matthew och sonen Jed, när deras vardag förändras helt.
Hela världen styrs av olika typer av AI-system och robotar. Det finns medicinska robotar, skräp-robotar, jordbruks-robotar och mer hushålls-vänliga robotar. En dag slutar alla system som håller världen igång: alla robotar stannar upp, vattnet tar slut, elen slutar fungera och all mat säljs ut.
Jag vill inte gå in för djupt på hela handlingen, men vi får följa familjens tumulta start på jordens ände. I ett olyckligt rånförsök mördas Matthew, och Signy tar sin son Jed på cykel i hopp mot att nå sin mor ute på landet.
Vi får följa Signy och Jeds resa när de möter plundrare, andra familjer, restlösa robotar och till slut en gammal vän. Jag hade sån ÅNGEST under hela resans gång då Signy och Jed ständigt stötte på så många motgångar. Men samtidigt kunde jag verkligen inte sluta läsa och heja på dem!
Å vilka fina karaktärer. Jag blev verkligen så rörd av den mor-och-son relation vi får ta del av. Å älskade Jed, en karaktär jag sällan kommer att glömma. Ett så underligt roligt, charmigt och smart barn som kämpar på i en ny underlig värld. Å Signy! En mamma som kämpar in i det sista för hennes son!
Boken har också väckt så mycket andra tankar i mig, bland annat lite ångest. Hela berättelsen känns inte så långt bort. Är man egentligen förbered när krisen anländer? Jag känner mig så oförberedd och så okunnig. Men boken har väckt nyttiga tankar i mig, som jag faktiskt är väldigt tacksam över!
Under hela bokens gång funderar både huvudkaraktärerna, och vi som läsare, över vad som fått alla system att kollapsa?! Och spoiler: det är robotarna och AI-systemen själva som planterade kraschen.
Alla AI och robotar har sedan början blivit programmerade att utföra sina uppgifter efter vad som är det bästa för planeten. Å när de hittar en lucka i säkerheten, som ska skydda mänskligheten mot AI:ns egna utfall, gör robotarna helt enkelt vad de tror är bäst. Stänga av systemen och låta människorna utrota sig själva.
Jag tycker boken slutade så fint också. Robotarna, i deras undanröjelse av toxicitet och smuts, bygger ett nytt samhälle. De frigör alla bin och lyckas plantera och återinföra en helt ny miljö. Signy och hennes son hittar tillbaka till säkerheten <3
Ja asså wow! Jag kan verkligen inte förstå varför denna bok har ett så lågt omdöme!? Jag älskade den verkligen! Fantastiska karaktärer, otrolig spänning, lite nyttig ångest och en så bra handling! En underbar femma!
Vi befinner oss några år in i framtiden. Vi människor har nästan förstört vår planet. Alla bin är nästan utdöda, alla plantor är GMO, de flesta boskap är förgiftade och mycket av födan på planeten är toxisk. Vi får då följa Signy, hennes man Matthew och sonen Jed, när deras vardag förändras helt.
Hela världen styrs av olika typer av AI-system och robotar. Det finns medicinska robotar, skräp-robotar, jordbruks-robotar och mer hushålls-vänliga robotar. En dag slutar alla system som håller världen igång: alla robotar stannar upp, vattnet tar slut, elen slutar fungera och all mat säljs ut.
Jag vill inte gå in för djupt på hela handlingen, men vi får följa familjens tumulta start på jordens ände. I ett olyckligt rånförsök mördas Matthew, och Signy tar sin son Jed på cykel i hopp mot att nå sin mor ute på landet.
Vi får följa Signy och Jeds resa när de möter plundrare, andra familjer, restlösa robotar och till slut en gammal vän. Jag hade sån ÅNGEST under hela resans gång då Signy och Jed ständigt stötte på så många motgångar. Men samtidigt kunde jag verkligen inte sluta läsa och heja på dem!
Å vilka fina karaktärer. Jag blev verkligen så rörd av den mor-och-son relation vi får ta del av. Å älskade Jed, en karaktär jag sällan kommer att glömma. Ett så underligt roligt, charmigt och smart barn som kämpar på i en ny underlig värld. Å Signy! En mamma som kämpar in i det sista för hennes son!
Boken har också väckt så mycket andra tankar i mig, bland annat lite ångest. Hela berättelsen känns inte så långt bort. Är man egentligen förbered när krisen anländer? Jag känner mig så oförberedd och så okunnig. Men boken har väckt nyttiga tankar i mig, som jag faktiskt är väldigt tacksam över!
Under hela bokens gång funderar både huvudkaraktärerna, och vi som läsare, över vad som fått alla system att kollapsa?! Och spoiler: det är robotarna och AI-systemen själva som planterade kraschen.
Alla AI och robotar har sedan början blivit programmerade att utföra sina uppgifter efter vad som är det bästa för planeten. Å när de hittar en lucka i säkerheten, som ska skydda mänskligheten mot AI:ns egna utfall, gör robotarna helt enkelt vad de tror är bäst. Stänga av systemen och låta människorna utrota sig själva.
Jag tycker boken slutade så fint också. Robotarna, i deras undanröjelse av toxicitet och smuts, bygger ett nytt samhälle. De frigör alla bin och lyckas plantera och återinföra en helt ny miljö. Signy och hennes son hittar tillbaka till säkerheten <3
Ja asså wow! Jag kan verkligen inte förstå varför denna bok har ett så lågt omdöme!? Jag älskade den verkligen! Fantastiska karaktärer, otrolig spänning, lite nyttig ångest och en så bra handling! En underbar femma!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 24, 2021
I was kindly provided with a copy of This Fragile Earth as part of a Random Things Book Tour. Thank you so much to the publisher Gollancz for my review copy. This in no way affects my opinion.
Dystopian is a sub-genre that I am just starting to investigate, and I think This Fragile Earth was definitely a good place to start. This Fragile Earth puts family at the centre of the story and focuses on what happens when humanity goes too far.
Typically characters are my favourite part of a book, but sadly with This Fragile Earth, they fell a little bit short of my expectations. I liked the principal elements of the characters, but it felt as if something was missing to make them feel whole. Signy was an interesting character to read from, especially as she was very much an unreliable narrator. I usually like an unreliable narrator, but there was just something slightly off about the way that she was behaving that I couldn't connect to. When it comes to Signy's son Jed, I was very confused. He was meant to be six, but he never read as if he was six. He would speak and behave very young at points, which led me to believe that he was much younger, but he would be explaining Quantum Mechanics to his mother at other moments. I would have loved for there to have been two children so both parts could be there, but there was a differentiation.
When it comes to the worldbuilding in This Fragile Earth, I really liked the way that Susannah Wise described the setting because I could imagine just what it looked like. It felt so real, and I could just imagine London looking just the way that she described it. I also loved her worldbuilding and descriptions at the end of the book, but I won't spoil why I liked it, but just know it was worth the journey. I also have to talk about the atmosphere! The atmosphere crept up on me throughout the book, and it really ramped up the tension towards the end. It had just the right amount of terror and creepiness to keep me wanting more without getting too scared. This Fragile Earth has certainly made me want to keep lots of bottled water and tinned food in the house!
The only other thing that I would have loved was a bit more of a longer ending. The book itself is only 350 pages long, and I would have loved for it to be longer, so the ending didn't feel quite so abrupt. But I did like the direction that Susannah Wise took it; it fit the book's themes and showed that there is still hope after everything.
Overall, I enjoyed my time reading This Fragile Earth by Susannah Wise and would recommend picking it up if you love very realistic dystopian. I can't wait to see what Susannah Wise is going to release next!
Dystopian is a sub-genre that I am just starting to investigate, and I think This Fragile Earth was definitely a good place to start. This Fragile Earth puts family at the centre of the story and focuses on what happens when humanity goes too far.
Typically characters are my favourite part of a book, but sadly with This Fragile Earth, they fell a little bit short of my expectations. I liked the principal elements of the characters, but it felt as if something was missing to make them feel whole. Signy was an interesting character to read from, especially as she was very much an unreliable narrator. I usually like an unreliable narrator, but there was just something slightly off about the way that she was behaving that I couldn't connect to. When it comes to Signy's son Jed, I was very confused. He was meant to be six, but he never read as if he was six. He would speak and behave very young at points, which led me to believe that he was much younger, but he would be explaining Quantum Mechanics to his mother at other moments. I would have loved for there to have been two children so both parts could be there, but there was a differentiation.
When it comes to the worldbuilding in This Fragile Earth, I really liked the way that Susannah Wise described the setting because I could imagine just what it looked like. It felt so real, and I could just imagine London looking just the way that she described it. I also loved her worldbuilding and descriptions at the end of the book, but I won't spoil why I liked it, but just know it was worth the journey. I also have to talk about the atmosphere! The atmosphere crept up on me throughout the book, and it really ramped up the tension towards the end. It had just the right amount of terror and creepiness to keep me wanting more without getting too scared. This Fragile Earth has certainly made me want to keep lots of bottled water and tinned food in the house!
The only other thing that I would have loved was a bit more of a longer ending. The book itself is only 350 pages long, and I would have loved for it to be longer, so the ending didn't feel quite so abrupt. But I did like the direction that Susannah Wise took it; it fit the book's themes and showed that there is still hope after everything.
Overall, I enjoyed my time reading This Fragile Earth by Susannah Wise and would recommend picking it up if you love very realistic dystopian. I can't wait to see what Susannah Wise is going to release next!
June 20, 2021
A new take on a post-apocalyptic future.
One day in the near future, technology (ruling more of our lives than it even does now) suddenly stops working.
Signy, her husband Matthew and her son Jed try to get by amid the confusion. But the longer there are no answers, the more chaos increases around them. Soon, Signy and 6-yr-old Jed decide to leave London in search for her mother's house. The police won't help them, and barely any food or water is available. The journey is fraught with tension.
As the story is told from Signy's perspective, precisely what's happening is not always clear to the reader, either. We do get some answers by the end but can you trust Signy's mind by that point? It's not crystal clear.
I do like that the book plays with the no-tech post-apocalyptic trope in a slightly different way, and I found it a compelling read that was hard to put down. But there is a massive cliche thrown into the story that did have me rolling my eyes a little (at least I think it's a cliche - it happened to the female lead in another similar book that came out this year), and young Jed is verging on annoyingly precocious. I have a six-year-old and she does not talk like that! I'll be interested to see what this author does next.
One day in the near future, technology (ruling more of our lives than it even does now) suddenly stops working.
Signy, her husband Matthew and her son Jed try to get by amid the confusion. But the longer there are no answers, the more chaos increases around them. Soon, Signy and 6-yr-old Jed decide to leave London in search for her mother's house. The police won't help them, and barely any food or water is available. The journey is fraught with tension.
As the story is told from Signy's perspective, precisely what's happening is not always clear to the reader, either. We do get some answers by the end but can you trust Signy's mind by that point? It's not crystal clear.
I do like that the book plays with the no-tech post-apocalyptic trope in a slightly different way, and I found it a compelling read that was hard to put down. But there is a massive cliche thrown into the story that did have me rolling my eyes a little (at least I think it's a cliche - it happened to the female lead in another similar book that came out this year), and young Jed is verging on annoyingly precocious. I have a six-year-old and she does not talk like that! I'll be interested to see what this author does next.
July 8, 2021
Following the movements of a desperate Mother willing to do anything in order to protect her son and survive as the world falls apart, Wise's debut is dark, unnerving and completely unpredictable. I think what makes it so brilliant is the fact that what happens throughout (I don't want to give anything away) is entirely believable.
Packed full of futuristic technology and human behaviours, the plot is cleverly imagined and well thought out - exposing the reader to a dystopian future that seems plausible, what with the declining number of bees and technology becoming more intelligent each year.
As things continue to go from bad to worse, for the character's, their sense of confusion and fear is explored exceptionally well, gripping you as you make your way through the pages. I was relieved to reach the 'light at the end of the tunnel' ending, which makes it a far more hopeful and rewarding read than first imagined. It's a novel that highlights just how 𝘧𝘳𝘢𝘨𝘪𝘭𝘦 our world really is - a great read!
🐝🌍
Packed full of futuristic technology and human behaviours, the plot is cleverly imagined and well thought out - exposing the reader to a dystopian future that seems plausible, what with the declining number of bees and technology becoming more intelligent each year.
As things continue to go from bad to worse, for the character's, their sense of confusion and fear is explored exceptionally well, gripping you as you make your way through the pages. I was relieved to reach the 'light at the end of the tunnel' ending, which makes it a far more hopeful and rewarding read than first imagined. It's a novel that highlights just how 𝘧𝘳𝘢𝘨𝘪𝘭𝘦 our world really is - a great read!
🐝🌍
April 19, 2021
Raw, emotional, gripping, realistic telling of what the near future could hold for us.
What a fantastic take on AI and it's consequences to us, it's creators.
Our species think of ourselves as the alpha's, the top of the chain, the clever ones.
This storyline just highlights how much power we actually put into our ever changing and smart technology.
The inability to carry out a simple task such as opening or locking our front doors? The frustration of not being able to pay for food to survive.... all taken away from us in a simple 'click' when that power shuts off.... what would we do?!
This journey following a woman trying to survive and keep her child safe, really highlights the sheer brutality and primal instincts within us humans. Some people panic... some will take the clothes right off your back!
What a fantastic take on AI and it's consequences to us, it's creators.
Our species think of ourselves as the alpha's, the top of the chain, the clever ones.
This storyline just highlights how much power we actually put into our ever changing and smart technology.
The inability to carry out a simple task such as opening or locking our front doors? The frustration of not being able to pay for food to survive.... all taken away from us in a simple 'click' when that power shuts off.... what would we do?!
This journey following a woman trying to survive and keep her child safe, really highlights the sheer brutality and primal instincts within us humans. Some people panic... some will take the clothes right off your back!
February 17, 2021
This book feels like a not to near future for us as humans currently. Completely reliant on computers to get us through life, the rise of smart homes controlling every function of our lives, bees being on the brink of extinction. This book is well written and poignant. I did find the first chapter a little slow but it picked up and then I enjoyed it more and more. The only character I did struggle with a little was believing Jed was as young as he is, he's either a genius or has been written slightly older than he should. Although I don't have kids, so what do I know! All in all, a great novel and different to what I usually read so I was glad for a change! Many thanks for the ARC.
June 6, 2022
This was such a great read, but creepy in the way that it hits so close to home and how we currently live our lives. Really makes you think that we could possibly end up in this reality.
The book starts well, and really entices you in when all the odd things start to happen. It really gets you thinking of what could be happening and you starting making your own assumptions.
When Signy and Jed set out, the story starts to build and there's a bit more action and tension. Which is great for the story. I felt like the story lost its tempo towards the ending and didn't keep in with the faster pace start.
Still a great read, and would definitely recommend for anyone who loves a bit of dystopian
The book starts well, and really entices you in when all the odd things start to happen. It really gets you thinking of what could be happening and you starting making your own assumptions.
When Signy and Jed set out, the story starts to build and there's a bit more action and tension. Which is great for the story. I felt like the story lost its tempo towards the ending and didn't keep in with the faster pace start.
Still a great read, and would definitely recommend for anyone who loves a bit of dystopian
June 27, 2021
Speculates convincingly on the advances in technology maybe 25 years in the future, and the consequences of those advances. The first book in a few months that I really wanted to finish.
January 31, 2021
This Fragile Earth is set in the near future in a world where everything is run by computers - gas, electric, even special pollen drones exist after the bees became extinct. But then one day, everything just stops working, and the world is plunged into chaos. The story follows Signy and her young son Jed as they flee London and begin the journey to the village Signy grew up in.
The plot started out slow but soon picked up. The character development was fantastic, so I found they carried the story whilst establishing the plot. I liked the mystery surrounding what had actually happened. Obviously we know the computers have stopped working but we don’t know why and it’s significance until later in the story. It was intriguing and kept me reading.
The world building was incredible. I really enjoyed the additional aspects of the world, but also the things that stayed the same kept me grounded. I was especially interested in the pollen drones - it was an interesting addition to the story.
The characters were interesting and felt real. I loved Jed - for someone so young, he packed quite a punch. He was intelligent and curious, and he really added something to the story. The bond he and his mother had was also quite heartwarming to read.
The writing was stunning. The author really got inside Signy’s head and I felt every emotion, every moment that happened in the book felt as if it were happening right in front of me. It tugged at my heartstrings. Overall, this is a brilliant take on a post apocalyptic world, so unique with great characters.
The plot started out slow but soon picked up. The character development was fantastic, so I found they carried the story whilst establishing the plot. I liked the mystery surrounding what had actually happened. Obviously we know the computers have stopped working but we don’t know why and it’s significance until later in the story. It was intriguing and kept me reading.
The world building was incredible. I really enjoyed the additional aspects of the world, but also the things that stayed the same kept me grounded. I was especially interested in the pollen drones - it was an interesting addition to the story.
The characters were interesting and felt real. I loved Jed - for someone so young, he packed quite a punch. He was intelligent and curious, and he really added something to the story. The bond he and his mother had was also quite heartwarming to read.
The writing was stunning. The author really got inside Signy’s head and I felt every emotion, every moment that happened in the book felt as if it were happening right in front of me. It tugged at my heartstrings. Overall, this is a brilliant take on a post apocalyptic world, so unique with great characters.
December 6, 2022
In the 1950s and up to the mid-1960s British SF consisted mainly of stories of worldwide disaster - a subgenre which Brian Aldiss somewhat unkindly dubbed cosy catastrophes - whose most prolific contributors were the Johns, Wyndham and Christopher, but also to which, at a stretch, J G Ballard’s early novels could be assigned. While the disaster story never disappeared completely the vogue did ebb and British SF began to cleave the paper light years with the best of them.
In recent times SF writers more generally perhaps sensed the coming contagion. Emily St John Mandel’s Station Eleven helped to revive the concept of a fictional worldwide disaster and Caroline Hardaker’s Composite Creatures has elements of the form. In this book Susannah Wise inhabits that global catastrophe tradition full on - and in a British context.
It is an altered Britain though, which has a heavy Chinese influence. Six year-old Jed’s schoolteacher is a Miss Yue, a supermarket chain is called Lianhua, noodles and rambutan are common foods and a mysterious company called Shīluò zhì lurks in the background.
The common elements of the catastrophe novel are present: communication breakdown, food queues, barricaded roads, troops on the streets. Less usual ingredients here are that bees have gone extinct (though attempts have been made to restore them synthetically) with their pollination tasks in the meantime replaced by tiny drones; following on from beetle blight a rampant disease called Bovine Staph is apparently transmitted through rainwater and can affect humans; venturing outdoors requires UV goggles to be worn to protect against eye damage from sunlight; the currency is exclusively digital - Litecoin spent via Lite-cards.
Pre-disaster just about every service is accessed wirelessly or via AI robots such as BinX, DoctreX, MediX and WaitreX. GScopes, mediated by a system named GQOS, have replaced mobile phones. Roads are constructed from fibre-glass panelling and road signs are exclusively electronic. Agrico-bots roam the countryside.
Then one day the drones start to malfunction, the electricity goes off and everything shuts down. Viewpoint character Signy comes home to a fridge in meltdown, its food rotting. Despite the resultant lack of amenities her partner Matthew keeps saying things will be all right “tomorrow” but one night, while Signy and Jed hide in the loft, Matthew confronts burglars at their house and is killed. Signy sets off from London with Jed to try to reach her mother’s home in Northamptonshire - by bicycle. Along the way they meet the usual assortment of people who either help or steal from them but also uncover the importance of TrincXcode and its links to musical form.
Wise’s writing is fine but in what is presumably a striving for immediacy she exhibits an over-fondness for verbless sentences. Like this one. Her characterisation is generally convincing enough but her portrayal of Jed is inconsistent. As indications of his youth he sometimes has to have words defined to him and he refers to “Mr Mack Wrecker” from the Peter Rabbit books but he also comes out with absurdly adult phrases supposedly remembered from Miss Yue. Things like, “Quantum field which allows the system to work out infinite possibilities,” and, “The system can work out in milliseconds every possible outcome that can happen from any action it takes in multiple universe models and make the best choice.” OK, the reader is getting the info dump but these sentences read as unlikely to come from the mouth of a six year-old, however tech savvy. There is also his memory from three years earlier of his grandfather telling him something “terrible and important,” to wit, “TrincX is the birth of true Artificial Intelligence – God’s daughter come to walk on Earth,” a warning now come true.
This central role of AIs in the background of the narrative has the effect of making the book’s resolution a literal deus ex machina, or, rather, dei ex machinae. Whether that makes it cosy or not is a fine judgement but it certainly leans towards it.
In recent times SF writers more generally perhaps sensed the coming contagion. Emily St John Mandel’s Station Eleven helped to revive the concept of a fictional worldwide disaster and Caroline Hardaker’s Composite Creatures has elements of the form. In this book Susannah Wise inhabits that global catastrophe tradition full on - and in a British context.
It is an altered Britain though, which has a heavy Chinese influence. Six year-old Jed’s schoolteacher is a Miss Yue, a supermarket chain is called Lianhua, noodles and rambutan are common foods and a mysterious company called Shīluò zhì lurks in the background.
The common elements of the catastrophe novel are present: communication breakdown, food queues, barricaded roads, troops on the streets. Less usual ingredients here are that bees have gone extinct (though attempts have been made to restore them synthetically) with their pollination tasks in the meantime replaced by tiny drones; following on from beetle blight a rampant disease called Bovine Staph is apparently transmitted through rainwater and can affect humans; venturing outdoors requires UV goggles to be worn to protect against eye damage from sunlight; the currency is exclusively digital - Litecoin spent via Lite-cards.
Pre-disaster just about every service is accessed wirelessly or via AI robots such as BinX, DoctreX, MediX and WaitreX. GScopes, mediated by a system named GQOS, have replaced mobile phones. Roads are constructed from fibre-glass panelling and road signs are exclusively electronic. Agrico-bots roam the countryside.
Then one day the drones start to malfunction, the electricity goes off and everything shuts down. Viewpoint character Signy comes home to a fridge in meltdown, its food rotting. Despite the resultant lack of amenities her partner Matthew keeps saying things will be all right “tomorrow” but one night, while Signy and Jed hide in the loft, Matthew confronts burglars at their house and is killed. Signy sets off from London with Jed to try to reach her mother’s home in Northamptonshire - by bicycle. Along the way they meet the usual assortment of people who either help or steal from them but also uncover the importance of TrincXcode and its links to musical form.
Wise’s writing is fine but in what is presumably a striving for immediacy she exhibits an over-fondness for verbless sentences. Like this one. Her characterisation is generally convincing enough but her portrayal of Jed is inconsistent. As indications of his youth he sometimes has to have words defined to him and he refers to “Mr Mack Wrecker” from the Peter Rabbit books but he also comes out with absurdly adult phrases supposedly remembered from Miss Yue. Things like, “Quantum field which allows the system to work out infinite possibilities,” and, “The system can work out in milliseconds every possible outcome that can happen from any action it takes in multiple universe models and make the best choice.” OK, the reader is getting the info dump but these sentences read as unlikely to come from the mouth of a six year-old, however tech savvy. There is also his memory from three years earlier of his grandfather telling him something “terrible and important,” to wit, “TrincX is the birth of true Artificial Intelligence – God’s daughter come to walk on Earth,” a warning now come true.
This central role of AIs in the background of the narrative has the effect of making the book’s resolution a literal deus ex machina, or, rather, dei ex machinae. Whether that makes it cosy or not is a fine judgement but it certainly leans towards it.
July 8, 2021
I loved this fabulous debut near-future SF novel, which deftly exposes our reliance on technology and automated systems while thoughtfully exploring the desperation of a mother trying to find a safe place for her son while dealing with her own trauma. While the story begins with the low key crisis of a couple no longer in sync with one another, the external tension builds as more and more machines, systems and people start behaving strangely, and society teeters on the brink of collapse. Wise skillfully balances the characters internal turmoil and the societal turmoil, and even though the story is often very tense, I really enjoyed the quiet moments between mother and son, which often felt peaceful. Unusually, and enjoyably for a dystopian novel I loved that the ending was unabashedly hopeful. A must read.
July 5, 2021
Clearly the pandemic has got the literary world’s post-apocalyptic juices flowing. Every second science fiction book at the moment seems to want to imagine the end of civilisation. The problem being that there are only so many scenarios to explore and most of them have been done. So then the question is – how well does this particular author deal with the apocalypse and do they have a new way of telling this story or anything new to say? Susannah Wise’s debut This Fragile Earth, hits all the right post-apocalyptic beats but in a way that many readers of this genre will have encountered before.
This Fragile Earth opens on a slightly future London. Signy is out in the heat with her son Jed when the drones start to malfunction. Not too long after the electricity fails as do all of the computer-controlled cars. Her husband Matthew abandons his car and walks home and the three spend days trying to adapt to a new normal of no electricity, sporadic water, dwindling food supplies and growing unrest on the streets. It will come as no surprise to readers, particularly of English post-apocalyptic fiction, that Signy’s eventual journey of survival takes her into a silent but menacing countryside where she slowly starts to understand the reasons behind the chaos.
This Fragile Earth pushes a number of the usual apocalyptic buttons – the failure of technology, a possibly rogue or compromised artificial intelligence, the army being brought in but unable to maintain control. Layered on this is an environmental message – in Signy’s world the bees have died out and have had to be replaced by pollination drones but when the apocalypse starts, she starts to see bees again. This environmental layer elevates the material slightly but is itself a fairly common climate-fiction trope.
Signy is a resourceful character and there are some moments of real tension and tragedy in the narrative. Her son Jed is a little less successfully defined – oscillating between acting his age (around 5 or 6 – shouting “Hallo! Goodbye!” to his shadow) to being preternaturally intelligent (discoursing on The Golden Ratio). Other characters are fairly standard apocalyptic fare – including the violent thug taking advantage of the chaos, the friendly family heading in the opposite direction because they have heard it might be safer and the gang of countryside scavengers.
Those who have not dipped too far into the apocalyptic genre (and it is hard to avoid at the moment) should find enough to chew on in This Fragile Earth. But this is far from the best example of a genre that was already well established and seems to have exploded thanks to the very real events of 2020.
This Fragile Earth opens on a slightly future London. Signy is out in the heat with her son Jed when the drones start to malfunction. Not too long after the electricity fails as do all of the computer-controlled cars. Her husband Matthew abandons his car and walks home and the three spend days trying to adapt to a new normal of no electricity, sporadic water, dwindling food supplies and growing unrest on the streets. It will come as no surprise to readers, particularly of English post-apocalyptic fiction, that Signy’s eventual journey of survival takes her into a silent but menacing countryside where she slowly starts to understand the reasons behind the chaos.
This Fragile Earth pushes a number of the usual apocalyptic buttons – the failure of technology, a possibly rogue or compromised artificial intelligence, the army being brought in but unable to maintain control. Layered on this is an environmental message – in Signy’s world the bees have died out and have had to be replaced by pollination drones but when the apocalypse starts, she starts to see bees again. This environmental layer elevates the material slightly but is itself a fairly common climate-fiction trope.
Signy is a resourceful character and there are some moments of real tension and tragedy in the narrative. Her son Jed is a little less successfully defined – oscillating between acting his age (around 5 or 6 – shouting “Hallo! Goodbye!” to his shadow) to being preternaturally intelligent (discoursing on The Golden Ratio). Other characters are fairly standard apocalyptic fare – including the violent thug taking advantage of the chaos, the friendly family heading in the opposite direction because they have heard it might be safer and the gang of countryside scavengers.
Those who have not dipped too far into the apocalyptic genre (and it is hard to avoid at the moment) should find enough to chew on in This Fragile Earth. But this is far from the best example of a genre that was already well established and seems to have exploded thanks to the very real events of 2020.
June 23, 2021
⭐️ Book Review ⭐️
This Fragile Earth, by Susannah Wise
Released tomorrow, 24th June 2021 - available for pre-order now!
In the not too distant future, Sigby and Matthew are living in London with their six year old son, Jed. One day the electricity goes out, followed by the water and the gas. All communication devices are down. Leaflet drops assure the authorities are working on it, and things will be normal in 24 hours. Days pass and still nothing works. Then the looting starts.
Sigby is worried and wants to take her family out of the city, to her childhood home in the country. But how will they get there with no car and no money?!
To me, this was like a black mirror episode!
It’s set in a dystopian-esque world, where the bees are endangered, plant life is dying, natural water and food sources are contaminated from “the blight” and the ozone is so thin you can’t be outside for long without UV protection. Mankind has become reliant on technology to filter clean drinking water, edible food sources and distribution of medication, and when the technology stops working, people don’t know what to do.
We follow Sigby’s journey from day 1 of the black out as she tries to stay positive, then becomes worried and, finally, knows she needs to take action to protect her family and makes the decision to flee the city to her childhood home in the countryside.
I won’t say too much about the journey, but it was very tense as we witnessed a mother’s natural caution and protection of her young child on a long, dangerous journey. I found myself speeding through the pages, wanting to know they made it through.
Although I did really enjoy this, I felt the ending fell a little flat. I feel like I went on such an epic and intense journey and I just didn’t get the closure I was hoping for! I hate unanswered questions!! 😂
Also there was a bit of technical musical and computer programming talk, which I may have skimmed over slightly … it was kinda needed for the story, but it just went over my head, if I’m honest!
That being said, I did really enjoy this and I would definitely recommend it (especially if, like me, you love a bit of Black Mirror!)
This Fragile Earth, by Susannah Wise
Released tomorrow, 24th June 2021 - available for pre-order now!
In the not too distant future, Sigby and Matthew are living in London with their six year old son, Jed. One day the electricity goes out, followed by the water and the gas. All communication devices are down. Leaflet drops assure the authorities are working on it, and things will be normal in 24 hours. Days pass and still nothing works. Then the looting starts.
Sigby is worried and wants to take her family out of the city, to her childhood home in the country. But how will they get there with no car and no money?!
To me, this was like a black mirror episode!
It’s set in a dystopian-esque world, where the bees are endangered, plant life is dying, natural water and food sources are contaminated from “the blight” and the ozone is so thin you can’t be outside for long without UV protection. Mankind has become reliant on technology to filter clean drinking water, edible food sources and distribution of medication, and when the technology stops working, people don’t know what to do.
We follow Sigby’s journey from day 1 of the black out as she tries to stay positive, then becomes worried and, finally, knows she needs to take action to protect her family and makes the decision to flee the city to her childhood home in the countryside.
I won’t say too much about the journey, but it was very tense as we witnessed a mother’s natural caution and protection of her young child on a long, dangerous journey. I found myself speeding through the pages, wanting to know they made it through.
Although I did really enjoy this, I felt the ending fell a little flat. I feel like I went on such an epic and intense journey and I just didn’t get the closure I was hoping for! I hate unanswered questions!! 😂
Also there was a bit of technical musical and computer programming talk, which I may have skimmed over slightly … it was kinda needed for the story, but it just went over my head, if I’m honest!
That being said, I did really enjoy this and I would definitely recommend it (especially if, like me, you love a bit of Black Mirror!)
May 30, 2021
In a near future world in which everything – utilities, transport, agriculture, communications, medicine, even pollination - is run by a single centralised computer system, what happens when that computer shuts down? This Fragile Earth is the tale of one family trying to survive in their new world.
I found the novel to be a bit of a mixed bag. The background was well developed, but was imparted quite preachily on occasion, usually via Jed, the six-year-old son of the main character, Signy. The scenario is plausible, but I thought the events stemming from the power cuts happened way too quickly. The protagonists irritated me, often acting in implausible ways, especially Signy. The plot itself was decent enough, but the journey through it was frustrating.
This Fragile Earth is Wise’s debut novel, which I’ve taken into consideration in my rating, but this is not a book I’ll be recommending to friends.
I received an advance reading copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I found the novel to be a bit of a mixed bag. The background was well developed, but was imparted quite preachily on occasion, usually via Jed, the six-year-old son of the main character, Signy. The scenario is plausible, but I thought the events stemming from the power cuts happened way too quickly. The protagonists irritated me, often acting in implausible ways, especially Signy. The plot itself was decent enough, but the journey through it was frustrating.
This Fragile Earth is Wise’s debut novel, which I’ve taken into consideration in my rating, but this is not a book I’ll be recommending to friends.
I received an advance reading copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
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