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Chargement... The Dead Landspar Benjamin Percy
  
Actuellement, il n'y a pas de discussions au sujet de ce livre.  LibroLindsay | Jun 18, 2021 |    ) DrFuriosa | Dec 4, 2020 |  ) snakes6 | Aug 25, 2020 | Despite the apparent high stakes, I found it difficult to care much about the characters. I was more invested in the outcome of Simon and Ella's stories than that of Lewis, Clark, Gawea & co. As others have mentioned, the last 50 pages are where things begin to go off the rails a little. I wondered how all of the various ends could be tied up in such a short span of pages, and the answer is: poorly! The ending, especially the epilogue and the few paragraphs immediately beforehand, completely destroys the vibe of the rest of the book for me. The pacing of the last 1/4 of the book is very different and really ruined the last bits of enjoyment I was getting from the story. Smaller nitpicks: I HATE the cutesy naming scheme. It isn't so much a "nod" to the real life Lewis and Clark expedition as it is a slap in the face. I also didn't like the constant references to current culture such as the numerous mentions of 9/11... Is this the only (inter)national tragedy that Percy has heard of? (  ) nellbailey | Jul 16, 2020 | DevilStateDan | Feb 11, 2020 |
 *** Into The West. If you have been reading as long as I have, you will have come across more than a few post-apocalyptic novels. I’m not exactly sure what the attraction is, but I think it might be the contradictory pleasure of destroying one world and re-creating another. Whatever the case, a writer needs to find a fresh new take if they want their book stand out. The Dead Lands, by Benjamin Percy has some new angles, but it didn’t blow me away. The Dead Lands is essentially based on the western adventures of the Corps of Discovery; two of its main characters even share almost identical names; Lewis Meriwether and Mina Clark, which is kind of conceptually audacious, but aside from that it doesn’t mean too much. In the future, one hundred fifty years after war and disease and famine have nearly destroyed the world, St. Louis, now called the Sanctuary, is a shielded community that has managed to survive through a militant defense and draconian leadership. Life there is brutal and harsh, unless you are the Mayor or one of his cronies. For all they know they may be the last city left in the world, until one day a rider shows up, claiming to be from the West, with tales of bountiful water and food, but also the threat of a dangerous army, bent on conquest. Her name is Gawea. The Mayor, who is almost a caricature of the evil bureaucrat, wants to execute her. A guard, Clark, and the town historian/curator, Lewis, decide to sneak out of the city and head West. They are followed by a small yet plucky group of ragtag explorers, and the rest of the novel follows the explorers on their trek, and some of their friends left in the city who decide to rebel and overthrow their dictatorial leaders. Mr. Percy’s prose is startling, but at times stilted. He knows how to plot, and keeps the various story-lines and characters rolling along. The action scenes were well-handled, and there was a lot of suspense. The main problem I had was with the characters. There are a variety of types, but I found most of them boring. With the exception of Mina, I was pretty much indifferent to their fates. While I kept reading to find out what would happen next, I really didn’t worry about the fate of most of the characters, which damped down the tension a bit. It wasn’t a question of them being likable or unlikeable, but just flat. My other complaint was that near the end the action felt very compressed compared to the pace of the rest of the novel. It felt like Mr. Percy didn’t want to past a certain length, so he had to cram a lot in at the end. The world was a bit wonky as well, with giant vampire bats and charters developing “super” powers, which took away from what was otherwise a gritty and believable world. What frustrated me was that this book was so close to being a real knock-out, but fell just a little short. The Dead Lands is a solid novel, but I’m really looking forward to see what Mr. Percy does next. Review by: Mark Palm Full Reviews Available at: http://www.thebookendfamily.weebly.co... Prix et récompenses
Fiction.
Thriller.
HTML:In Benjamin Percy's new thriller, a post-apocalyptic reimagining of the Lewis and Clark saga, a super flu and nuclear fallout have made a husk of the world we know. A few humans carry on, living in outposts such as the Sanctuary-the remains of St. Louis-a shielded community that owes its survival to its militant defense and fear-mongering leaders. Then a rider comes from the wasteland beyond its walls. She reports on the outside world: west of the Cascades, rain falls, crops grow, civilization thrives. But there is danger too: the rising power of an army that pillages and enslaves every community they happen upon. Against the wishes of the Sanctuary, a small group sets out in secrecy. Led by Lewis Meriwether and Mina Clark, they hope to expand their infant nation, and to reunite the States. But the Sanctuary will not allow them to escape without a fight. Aucune description trouvée dans une bibliothèque |
Discussion en coursAucunCouvertures populaires
 Google Books — Chargement...GenresClassification décimale de Melvil (CDD)813.6Literature English (North America) American fiction 21st CenturyClassification de la Bibliothèque du CongrèsÉvaluationMoyenne: (3.36)
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3
The Dead Lands is an inventive re-imagining of the Lewis and Clark expedition, only set in a post-apocalyptic America that has been ravaged by a super-virus and then nuked to oblivion. I think this book particularly shines in its character development--they are all deeply flawed, but (mostly) thoroughly endearing as we follow them over the months on the trail as well as within the Sanctuary. I grew to really like the female leads in particular. Percy also did one helluva job balancing such detailed back story with a gripping progression of the plot--I was never disappointed to drop one thread to jump to another, and then back again. And even though this looks to be the start of a series, the end wraps up nicely enough to make this a decent standalone novel. I had a few minor quibbles with the set-up of the Sanctuary--being a native St. Louisan, I sometimes found his descriptions a little off, particularly to the layout of the city--and some of the dialogue and characterization at the very end felt a bit too cheesy and unlike our heroes. However, these were, as I said, minor and almost completely overshadowed by the tension and character development. I'm not sure if this adds anything new to the post-apocalyptic canon, but it certainly earns a stalwart placement within it nonetheless. It hits all the marks with great satisfaction.
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Read as my Read Harder published-this-year challenge. (