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Chargement... Too Like the Lightningpar Ada Palmer
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Inscrivez-vous à LibraryThing pour découvrir si vous aimerez ce livre Actuellement, il n'y a pas de discussions au sujet de ce livre. Well, I have a lot of feelings about this book. I was fascinated by the world building, but felt it got in the way of the story, which didn't really start until page 200, and got dark and weird pretty quickly. I appreciate that this was written by a history professor, but overall, this book got bogged down in histories and philosophies and I cannot even give it stars because It does not fit into a simple 5 star category. I have been staring at the blank white box on the screen because I don't quite know how to review this book. It was less a reading experience and more an ensorcellment. This inventive, disturbing novel set in an ambiguous utopia is so very, very well-crafted, offering the dual pleasures of enjoying an ambitious science fiction story and enjoying the narrator tell that story. Mycroft Canner is a convicted criminal in a world that has done away with incarceration (and organized religion, and nation-states). Also, there's possibly magic? And political conspiracies are afoot? Palmer drops us in this inventive and immersive future, but she tells it slant. We soon realize that Mycroft is not just an unreliable narrator with a mysterious past, he is totally bonkers. As a reader I was increasingly unsettled by the layers of creepy, gossamer subtext (its webs surely spider-infested) yet totally charmed by Canner's manic, sententious prose, complete with back-and-forth arguments with the imagined reader and supercharged similes that would be at home in a SF retelling of Paradise Lost. I also feel that for a trippy, literary SF novel, Too Like the Lightning delivers good storytelling. Every scene advances the story, and there's a convoluted mystery story that's resolved with some surprising but fairly satisfying reveals. I found it to be a page-turner, although tastes may vary. Most of all, I think this novel is brave, and charts a way forward for writing socially-conscious fiction that isn't overly earnest or stylistically conservative. Mycroft Canner is an uncomfortable mind to inhabit, and plenty in this book tends toward the lurid and salacious - but this book doesn't feel like a prurient read; we never get the sense that Palmer is leering at her own characters or glorying in her book's most shocking moments. She writes too well for that, skillfully juxtaposing utopia and horror, dark and light. She's getting something right in a genre that plenty of authors before her have failed at, becoming too enamored with their own monsters. My favorite book so far this year - highly recommended. aucune critique | ajouter une critique
Appartient à la sérieTerra Ignota (1) Prix et récompensesDistinctions
Année 2454. Trois siècles après des évènements meurtriers ayant remodelé la société, les concepts d'État-nation et de religion organisée ont disparu. Dix milliards d'êtres humains se répartissent ainsi par affinités, au sein de sept Ruches aux ambitions distinctes. Paix, loisirs, prospérité et abondance définissent ce XXVe siècle radieux aux atours d'utopie. Qui repose toutefois sur un équilibre fragile. Et Mycroft Canner le sait mieux que personne… Coupable de crimes atroces, condamné à une servitude perpétuelle mais confident des puissants, il lui faut enquêter sur le vol d'un document crucial : la liste des dix principaux influenceurs mondiaux, dont la publication annuelle ajuste les rapports de force entre les Ruches. Surtout, Mycroft protège un secret propre à tout ébranler : un garçonnet aux pouvoirs uniques, quasi divins. Or, dans un monde ayant banni l'idée même de Dieu, comment accepter la survenue d'un miracle ? Diplômée de Harvard, Ada Palmer enseigne au département d'histoire de l'université de Chicago. Trop semblable à l'éclair a été salué par le prix Compton Crook et a valu à son autrice le prestigieux John W. Campbell Award. Considéré d'emblée comme un livre majeur outre-Atlantique, il forme avec Sept redditions, sa suite indissociable, le premier versant de « Terra Ignota », l'un des projets littéraires les plus ambitieux que la science-fiction moderne ait produit, quelque part entre Dune et Hypérion, entre philosophie des Lumières et sidération radicale. Aucune description trouvée dans une bibliothèque |
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Google Books — Chargement... GenresClassification décimale de Melvil (CDD)813.6Literature English (North America) American fiction 21st CenturyClassification de la Bibliothèque du CongrèsÉvaluationMoyenne:
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This is a kind of book to discuss in seminars at university, to be reread and written about, as there are so many layers to unpack. Palmer purposefully builds a universe which is both a dystopia and a utopia. It is a sandbox universe for me, not realistic or believable, but intriguing as a thought experiment.
The world we read about is the one where people don't live in nation-states but in "hives" of their own choosing. Hives are huge, almost like continents, with capital cities connected with super-fast travel networks. People don't live in families but in groups they choose based on their preferences and vocation called "bash'es". Following religious wars in the 22nd century, organized religion is the ultimate taboo. Instead of religion, the human need for spirituality is "taken care of" by spiritual advisors, sensayers.
The part I struggled the most with about this book was the style. The narrator of the book is a convict, who in the 25th-century future lives his punishment by doing public service. (The nature of his crime was shocking to me, completely unexpected.) Mostly he is a servant for people in high offices, so he seems to be the perfect person to retell the events we read about. However, he is telling this story in the manner of 18th-century literature which makes it difficult to follow in the context of futuristic sci-fi. But, the most confusing part was the novel's treatment of gender, and this was done on purpose. In this world gender is considered obsolete, everyone is referred to as "they". However, Mycroft is using gendered pronouns, but not always "correctly" or as expected. It takes a while to get used to this, especially because Mycroft is not always a reliable narrator, as he claims himself very early on (so not a spoiler).
Books like this can feel gimmicky and pretentious and this one does, too. You truly can have too much of a good thing. I feel it is asking a tremendous effort from the reader, but the payoff is not that great. This is still an intriguing read, esp. for lovers of heavy politics and philosophy. I wonder if sequels redeem this heavy start, but have no time or patience to go there just yet. ( )