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3.4 AVERAGE
3.4 AVERAGE
The late 19th century yielded a slew of utopian novels, the most famous being Edward Bellamy’s Looking Backward (1887). In it a man wakes up more than a hundred years in future and is amazed by the changes that have taken place. Bellamy’s aim was to show how society could improve.
Kiernan doesn’t have that purpose, but his scenario is similar. The big difference is that scientists have discovered a way to reanimate life. They harvest a particular kind of iceberg and bring back to life the krill and other tiny organisms. Then they discover a man who had drowned on an expedition in 1906. What happens is handled cleverly by the author.
He tells the story from four distinctive points of view: Dr. Kate Philo; a jaded reporter; the arrogant lead scientist, Dr. Carthage; and Jeremiah Rice, the man brought back to life. Each character is finely drawn and, to me, wholly believable.
While the purpose is not to divulge a Utopian society, the author provides some critiques of contemporary culture. He does this mainly through the eyes of the man learning about the new century. Much of the tension in the book stems from the conflict between Dr. Philo and Dr. Carthage. Kate doesn’t like how Carthage seeks to exploit Jeremiah; the fact that she’s fallen in love with Jeremiah just adds to the drama. It’s a grand story.
Kiernan doesn’t have that purpose, but his scenario is similar. The big difference is that scientists have discovered a way to reanimate life. They harvest a particular kind of iceberg and bring back to life the krill and other tiny organisms. Then they discover a man who had drowned on an expedition in 1906. What happens is handled cleverly by the author.
He tells the story from four distinctive points of view: Dr. Kate Philo; a jaded reporter; the arrogant lead scientist, Dr. Carthage; and Jeremiah Rice, the man brought back to life. Each character is finely drawn and, to me, wholly believable.
While the purpose is not to divulge a Utopian society, the author provides some critiques of contemporary culture. He does this mainly through the eyes of the man learning about the new century. Much of the tension in the book stems from the conflict between Dr. Philo and Dr. Carthage. Kate doesn’t like how Carthage seeks to exploit Jeremiah; the fact that she’s fallen in love with Jeremiah just adds to the drama. It’s a grand story.
This novel raises about life and death. It also makes you think about whether or not our society has "progressed" as the main character visits our world from another time. Some interesting character development, page-turning plot (not surprised that the rights have already been bought for the movie), and varying narratives keeps the story moving quickly. As a former Bostonian, I also appreciated tall the details in the setting. Some rather profound text in places as well. Definitely a great summer read...
The concept and some of the criticism of modern day culture were good, even clever.
There was a lot that wasn't.
Many of the characters were unlikeable, and the use of second person made me unlikeable in the process.
The love story felt flat and wasn't really important to so much of the story, despite its tie-in to the title.
There were lots of errors and that doesn't usually bother me too much, but it just felt like piling on in this book.
I didn't hate it. It really was ok. The themes were good ones and I didn't mind that some of them were spelled out quite explicitly.
I just wanted this to be so much more.
There was a lot that wasn't.
Many of the characters were unlikeable, and the use of second person made me unlikeable in the process.
The love story felt flat and wasn't really important to so much of the story, despite its tie-in to the title.
There were lots of errors and that doesn't usually bother me too much, but it just felt like piling on in this book.
I didn't hate it. It really was ok. The themes were good ones and I didn't mind that some of them were spelled out quite explicitly.
I just wanted this to be so much more.
The Lazarus Project is in the Arctic trying to find hard ice and the sea creatures within it to reanimate them and bring them back to life. They're hoping to find larger creatures rather than the small shrimp and sardines they've been working with but they never dreamed they would find a human. This story comes from the perspective of three people: Dr. Kate Philo, a top scientist in charge of the expedition, Daniel Dixon, the journalist along for the ride, Erastus Carthage, the egotist responsible for The Lazarus Project, and Judge Jeremiah Rice, the frozen man.
Not surprisingly, bringing the dead back to life creates a circus. Jeremiah Rice left for an expedition 100 years ago and fell off the ship he was on in to the freezing water. He wakes up, what feels like moments later, but is actually a hundred years later with Dr. Philo by his side. Philo and some of the other scientists try to bring Rice up to speed on what's happened in the last 100 years and his condition but Carthage is busy plotting and scheming which is affecting almost everyone.
The science aspect of this book was well explained and not at all tiring to read like some books can make this subject. This provided an interesting 'what if' scenario to ponder over. If we could be brought back to life after being frozen, would you consider it?
This book grabbed me as soon as I started it because Kiernan does such a great job of writing his characters. The style of his character writing rather reminded me of Jodi Picoult. It helps make for a very easy read. This also helped me get through some of the holes I thought there were in the book. For example, Dr. Philo is supposed to be an incredibly smart scientist but when Carthage cuts her down and puts her on a menial job, she makes one threat then does nothing about it. I feel like the rest of the book she's objectified as the token female scientist even though she's no longer conducting any science. There were also some threads that were never wrapped up by the end of the book. An example of this was Dixon looking in to the background of one of the protesters. Except we never found out who he really was, so what was the point of looking him up?
Despite the few flaws in the book, I still really enjoyed this, mostly due to Kiernan's writing style.
Not surprisingly, bringing the dead back to life creates a circus. Jeremiah Rice left for an expedition 100 years ago and fell off the ship he was on in to the freezing water. He wakes up, what feels like moments later, but is actually a hundred years later with Dr. Philo by his side. Philo and some of the other scientists try to bring Rice up to speed on what's happened in the last 100 years and his condition but Carthage is busy plotting and scheming which is affecting almost everyone.
The science aspect of this book was well explained and not at all tiring to read like some books can make this subject. This provided an interesting 'what if' scenario to ponder over. If we could be brought back to life after being frozen, would you consider it?
This book grabbed me as soon as I started it because Kiernan does such a great job of writing his characters. The style of his character writing rather reminded me of Jodi Picoult. It helps make for a very easy read. This also helped me get through some of the holes I thought there were in the book. For example, Dr. Philo is supposed to be an incredibly smart scientist but when Carthage cuts her down and puts her on a menial job, she makes one threat then does nothing about it. I feel like the rest of the book she's objectified as the token female scientist even though she's no longer conducting any science. There were also some threads that were never wrapped up by the end of the book. An example of this was Dixon looking in to the background of one of the protesters. Except we never found out who he really was, so what was the point of looking him up?
Despite the few flaws in the book, I still really enjoyed this, mostly due to Kiernan's writing style.
This book was a recommendation from one of my favorite authors - Chris Bojalin. It had a great concept. It started off strong, but then just fell apart. It was just ok for me. I was eager to finish...mostly so I could move on.
This was the first book in a long time that I found myself picking up and not wanting to put down. I was completely enamored by the concept — frozen man from 100 years ago is brought back to life — and this definitely gave me Time Traveler's Wife vibes. All the different narratives (Kate, the scientist; Daniel, the journalist; Carthage, the head of the project; and Jeremiah, the reanimated judge) worked well together and they kept the pacing moving along nicely.
However, if I'm being picky...
I didn't like the ending.
And I didn't like the portrayal of women. Though I loved the whole book, the gender dynamics felt a bit off to me. Dr. Kate Philo is the only female scientist in the lab, she's mainly characterized by being beautiful and emotional. She's the only one with ethics who cares about Jeremiah since most of the other men are assholes and only out for themselves. Also the whole part of Kate wondering what sex was like 100 years ago since it was a "simpler sexual time" and if Jeremiah has different sexual desires than current men was really weird and I just kept thinking "of course a man wrote this 😐."
However, if I'm being picky...
I didn't like the ending.
And I didn't like the portrayal of women. Though I loved the whole book, the gender dynamics felt a bit off to me. Dr. Kate Philo is the only female scientist in the lab, she's mainly characterized by being beautiful and emotional. She's the only one with ethics who cares about Jeremiah since most of the other men are assholes and only out for themselves. Also the whole part of Kate wondering what sex was like 100 years ago since it was a "simpler sexual time" and if Jeremiah has different sexual desires than current men was really weird and I just kept thinking "of course a man wrote this 😐."
This book had a little too much science stuff in the beginning for me and I also could not stand Erastus Carthage and how the author made it seem like we were him.
Interesting premise, but I was unconvinced by any of the main characters and ultimately disappointed and unmoved.