terrifying and heartbreaking

To the extent that this is speculative fiction I found it terrifying. The callousness with which humanity treats the world is all too real. The story of a father and his son grieving a lost mother is heartbreaking.

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Beautiful

One of the most interesting and beautiful books I have read in a long time. Thoughtful and engaging I will think about this and what it means to me for a long time. Thank you Richard Powers

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Hard to listen to but worth it

This story shouldn't make you happy or be easy to listen to. It's our world, our future, we better start truly listening.

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An eye opener

Everyone should read this book. Its full of truths we all know but don’t want to believe

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amazing

I was so moved by this book. beautiful writing. Beautiful narration. Character is everything. Highly recommend.

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Well written

I wasnt a fan of how he characterized his wife and eventually the character of Robin became annoying. all in all this book was excellently written and had a satisfying story arc.

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Phenomenal!

I loved this book! It was difficult at times to understand what was happening but an extraordinary read. Heartbreaking ending! Wouldn't change a thing!

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Another profoundly relevant book from Richard Powers

I wish every person would read/listen to this important, hard hitting, but beautifully woven tale, and wake up to the (normalized) insanity of what we are doing to the Earth and all her wonderous life, including of course, human life.

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In retrospect I could have passed on this one

Not going to lie, this book really made me sad. A very realistic look into a possible future, one that hit a little too close to home when thinking about what might have happened had Trump been re-elected. Could completely sympathize with Robin and all the pain of being an empathetic and emotional soul.

Didn’t really care for the narration, it sometimes made the beautiful descriptions and thoughtful commentary come off a little pretentious and sappy, which definitely made the book overall less enjoyable.

It’s a decent book, well written and cool descriptions of possible planets and nature, but it was a real bummer. I kind of wish I hadn’t read it, as it put me in a negative headspace. It captures well the feels of being a kid and hearing about all the environmental tragedies happening and feeling an overwhelming need to do something coupled with a crippling mental agony of having no real way to help and no way to comprehend how others could just ignore it all. Having grown up in a very similar headspace to Robin regarding these issues, maybe I just found it a little triggering. If you’re a sensitive or highly empathetic person, particularly regarding animals or nature, you may like relating to the story, or you may feel just as hopeless and helpless as you do when watching documentaries about ecological degradation or the commercial meat industry. I felt both after listening and to be honest, that’s not the feeling I look for when I read fiction.

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3 people found this helpful

I couldn't finish it

I appreciated the character of Robin, a neurodivergent young person. It was refreshing to break away from the cliché and to enjoy how this cerebral superfeeler takes in and sorts the world around him. However, the pace of the story was just too slow and I found myself having to work to stay engaged. I felt like I was supposed to have a great appreciation of the writing but it just never held me. After restarting a few of the chapters, I finally gave it up.

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