Hareonthegrove

Listened to this via Audible. An easy, fun listen. The main character is somewhat prickly, but I wish she had been even harder to root for, like a character from “Eileen” by Ottessa Moshfegh. I thought the resolution to the plot at the end was somewhat outlandish, but for a book like this it works and was still enjoyable. Not great literature, but an entertaining story, not to be taken too seriously.

What a waste of time.

Things I liked:
1) The characters of Murderbot and Mickey
2) The narrator - This guy is SO MUCH BETTER than the more expensive dramatized versions of these books. He is really good.


However:
90% of this book just describes what the character is doing at that moment. So most of the book is something like “I checked my feed, heard something strange, pinged the other bot on the terraforming pod, didn't hear back, so also turned on the video feed from the incapacitated other bot near the lift lobby.” Or “Human so-and-so was ahead of me and we turned the corner around the food lockers, to our right there were exit tubes which didn't seem to be in the right place and then we went down a set of stairs and found a flickering screen in front of us. Human so-and-so tapped the screen and there was no response, so I used my thingamajig and connected”

TEDIOUS oh my god.

Honestly, by the time the story was ending I did not even remember why the human characters were even on whatever space habitat they were on.

I love John Boyne's writing and, in particular, appreciate his willingness to examine the nastiness of humanity. The interconnections between these four novellas also elevate the overall reading experience - this is another one of Boyne's signature literary touches and he does it extremely well.

Water: Loved this, loved the character who was starting a new life after a family tragedy of sorts.
Earth: I liked the second of these a lot at first, but it evolved into something fairly dark.
Fire: I found this bordering on implausible, to be honest. Like maybe if Lifetime had ever created an x-rated movie
Air: The narrator was very compelling and I was rooting for him throughout. Glad the book ended with this one.

This is the best book I have read in decades.

Last time I was this enthralled with a book was “Sacred Hunger” by Barry Unsworth in the 1990s.

Somehow Ben Hopkins creates a huge cast of characters who are all connected in some way but also it is all so darn easy to follow! It's absolutely amazing.

My partner gave up on the audiobook because the beginning of this book focused on the financial dealings and situation of the man tasked with raising funds for the eponymous cathedral. He is flat out wrong for giving up.

This will be - in a positive way - nothing like you have read in years. It is old school storytelling with a very modern sensibility. It is historical fiction but also a page turner.

I recommend it to anyone and everyone who enjoys a good story. I hope Mr. Hopkins gets paid a bunch of money someday for this to be adapted into a long series of television. He will deserve it.