Fun and exciting neo-hippie novel. Post apocalyptic survival story sprinkled with action, magical realism, plants and people coming together. Incredible page turner, made me lose two nights worth of sleep. Would gladly watch a film adaptation if there ever was one. ( )

fiction (magical realism; apocalypse by Nature). I'd enjoyed the Girl with Glass Feet and stumbled on this by accident while browsing my public library's holdings--why hadn't I heard of this sooner? Stayed up late to finish this one; recommended. ( )

Ein schwierige zu bewertendes Buch: ich hatte hohe Erwartungen, allein das Cover ist großartig und die Grundidee sehr vielversprechend.

Aber irgendwie stimmt zuviel an diesem Buch nicht: der Plot schleppt sich oft etwas mühsam dahin (wie die Protagonisten auf ihrer etwas planlosen Wanderung), der Schreibstil wirkt oft ungeschickt und insgesamt wird mir hier bei weitem zuviel geschwafelt. Dass Shaws Protagonisten alle irgendein Trauma mit sich herumschleppen, kennen wir schon aus seinen ersten beiden Büchern. Aber hier wird seitenlang darüber geschwafelt wie in einer drittklassigen Selbsthilfegruppe ("das darfst du nicht an dich heranlassen", "lass uns darüber reden, wenn es dir hilft" und andere Platitüden).

Ach, lassen wir das ... 2 1/2 bis drei Punkte, aber nicht mehr ( )

great characters and a thrilling bizarre tale.. kept me to the end. ( )

I love the concept, and I loved the the set up: in the first pages huge trees thrust themselves up out of the earth so suddenly that people are impaled, crushed, or lucky to survive. Wonderful!

Human response to this event is remarkably sanguine however. There is a bit of looting, a bit of fuss, a bit of death, but for the most part the main characters make their polite way through this new landscape without much yammering about how different things are now.The main action settles in on a very small group of survivors who seem so stiff-upper-lip that they might have been experiencing nothing more than an extended power outage. Semi-frequent encounters with unusual woodland beings are teased out with brief sitings scattered through the text, where someone thinks they see something, and then it runs away. Dialog goes on for too long for my taste, not about things like "where is the military" or "We need to find food and batteries and guns and maybe even a ham radio" but more about things like "should I stay a vegetarian or not" and "does my wife still love me."

I didn't buy it. ( )