Station Eleven

Wow, a book that isn't part of a series, doesn't have a lead character named Harry, and wasn't read in 3 days. Go me.

There exists a particular style of book in which nothing particularly exciting happens, the plot plods along, and the reader is supposed to, I don't know, bond with a character or two in the book. The Shipping News had this feel to it, as did Her Fearful Symmetry. The plot just sorta goes along, lives intertwine, foreshadowing is explained, and details planted in one spot reveal their nature in another.

In yet another post-apocalyptic world (I swear, I've been on a the-world-is-going-to-end-kick as of late), 99% of the people die, with it taking 20 years before a power grid will come back on and life can resume. Of course, there's the bad people and the good people in the book. Mostly, there are people trying to survive, some trying to remember, some trying to forget, everyone learning something new about people.

This book was far more positive about the end of the world than Wool was. With the plot jumping back and forth among various timelines, how clever that so many lives were intertwined in a way that belies believability, even as it possibly delights the author.

It's a mostly-good book, if you like the plodding, nothing really happens, life can still be interesting, sort of plot. If you like something to happen (12% more plot!), eh, go read something else.

THAT all said, I did make a couple notes of in the book.

"It's like the corporate world is full of ghosts... Adulthood is full of ghosts... I'm talking about these people who ended up in one life, instead of another and they are just so disappointed... They've done what's expected of them. They want to do something different, but it's impossible now. There's a mortgage, kids, whatever."

"You don't think he likes his job?"

"Correct. But I don't think he even realizes it. You probably encounter people like him all the time: high-functioning sleep walkers, essentially."