How High We Go in the Dark: A Novel
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Description
"Haunting and luminous, How High We Go in the Dark orchestrates its multitude of memorable voices into beautiful and lucid science fiction. An astonishing debut." — Alan Moore, creator of Watchmen and V for Vendetta
"Epic . . . Sequoia Nagamatsu is a writer whose imagination is matched only by his compassion, the kind we need to light our way through the dark." — Chloe Benjamin, New York Times bestselling author of The Immortalists
Recommended by Los Angeles Times * Entertainment Weekly * Esquire* Good Housekeeping * Buzzfeed * Business Insider * Bustle * Goodreads * The Millions * The Philadelphia Inquirer * Minneapolis Star-Tribune * San Francisco Chronicle * The Guardian * PopSugar * Literary Hub * and many more!
For fans of Cloud Atlas and Station Eleven, a spellbinding and profoundly prescient debut that follows a cast of intricately linked characters over hundreds of years as humanity struggles to rebuild itself in the aftermath of a climate plague—a daring and deeply heartfelt work of mind-bending imagination from a singular new voice.
In 2030, a grieving archeologist arrives in the Arctic Circle to continue the work of his recently deceased daughter at the Batagaika Crater, where researchers are studying long-buried secrets now revealed in melting permafrost, including the perfectly preserved remains of a girl who appears to have died of an ancient virus.
Once unleashed, the Arctic plague will reshape life on Earth for generations to come, quickly traversing the globe, forcing humanity to devise a myriad of moving and inventive ways to embrace possibility in the face of tragedy. In a theme park designed for terminally ill children, a cynical employee falls in love with a mother desperate to hold on to her infected son. A heartbroken scientist searching for a cure finds a second chance at fatherhood when one of his test subjects—a pig—develops the capacity for human speech. A widowed painter and her teenaged granddaughter embark on a cosmic quest to locate a new home planet.
From funerary skyscrapers to hotels for the dead to interstellar starships, Sequoia Nagamatsu takes readers on a wildly original and compassionate journey, spanning continents, centuries, and even celestial bodies to tell a story about the resilience of the human spirit, our infinite capacity to dream, and the connective threads that tie us all together in the universe.
"Wondrous, and not just in the feats of imagination, which are so numerous it makes me dizzy to recall them, but also in the humanity and tenderness with which Sequoia Nagamatsu helps us navigate this landscape. . . . This is a truly amazing book, one to keep close as we imagine the uncertain future." — Kevin Wilson, New York Times bestselling author of Nothing to See Here
Book Information
Characteristics
1 reviews
Mood
Protagonist(s)
Pace
Writing Style
Posts
Der Ansatz an sich sehr interessant. Ich mag, dass die Kapitel fast immer mit einem Verlust enden und in den danach folgenden Charaktere wieder aufgegriffen werden. Das war schon recht spaßig, mitzurätseln. Allerdings ist dies auch einer der großen Schwachpunkte des Buchs. In jedem Kapitel werden Ideen angerissen, aber selten aufgegriffen. Jedes Kapitel ist ein "was wäre, wenn...". Auch geht es fast immer darum, dass Menschen sich ineinander verlieben oder sich erinnern, dass geliebte Personen wichtig sind. Im letzten Kapitel wird versucht, alle Stränge zu verknüpfen, aber das gelingt nur sehr wenig. Dafür ist Nagamatsu zu sehr in seinem Kopf und seinen Ideen gefangen und denkt, dass die Lesenden jedes kleinste Detail verstanden haben. Mein anderer größter Kritikpunkt ist: wir begleiten hier Menschen über teilweise mehrere 1000 Jahre. Keiner davon ist auch nur ansatzweise queer? Kein einziges gleichgeschlechtliches Paar? Ich weiß nicht.. hier wird von Raumschiffreisen gesprochen und Schweine mit telepathischen Kräften gibts.. aber keine queeren Menschen? Weird.
Deprimierend aber unterhaltsam
Das Buch hat mich zu Beginn sehr mitgerissen, aber zur Mitte wurde Trauer/Verlust zu einem repetitivem und ehrlicherweise deprimierendem Element. Die einzelnen Geschichten waren sich in der Hinsicht recht ähnlich, was jedoch dienend war, waren die Verbindungen zwischen den einzelnen Beiträgen. Zum Ende hin nimmt die Erzählung nochmal an Fahrt auf und wird -Spoiler- auch deutlich positiver und lebensbejahender.
Ein wirklich tolles Buch, das mich immer wieder mit einem emotionalen gut punch erwischt hat. Wenn ich das abschließende Ganze betrachte sind einige Teile etwas zusammenhangslos, aber ich habe das Buch sehr genossen und es ist etwas total anderes und besonderes. Ich braucht etwas, was man gar nicht aus der Hand legen will und das ist es auf jeden Fall.
Well, this was a crazy ride! This books feels more like a short story collection of glimpses into different lives during and after a global pandemic and the climate crises. It's hopeful and morbid at the same time and even though I was pretty confused at some points, I liked how it all was woven together in the end. Often I wished to have a little more time with one of the chapters, and I definitely liked and felt some of them more than others, but all in all it was an interesting mix of characters and perspectives and ideas. I'm really impressed with Nagamatsu's creative ideas and writing abilities, each scene is full of crazy technology, real characters and some kind of questioning the human race. I feel like many of the chapters are realistic and could happen like this one day, even though I really don't hope so 😬 This is definitely a book that needs your full attention and not an easy read, but it's interesting and visionary and asks hard questions, so if you're into that, you might like it!
2.5/5 It wasn't bad, it just definitely wasn't for me, I had to force myself a lot to finish it and not DNF. The writing style and the story reminded me a bit of Ken Liu (in a good way lol), the last couple pages were really good, and the tension-building was fantastic, I do however think there wasn't enough lgtbq+ rep, and the pace was very very slow.
A series of short stories that explores the impact of a deadly decades long pandemic, and how the world and people deal with it. Beginning in the near future it tells very different stories full of fresh ideas about how society and humans change in a world where death and climate change is all around. The stories often build upon another and have breadcrumb like connections from the very start of the outbreak, to thousand years in the future where humanity travels among the stars. Some stories are more forgettable than other but concepts like the City of Laughter and other visions of the future will likely stay with me for a long time. I got a lot of „Black Mirror“ vibes while reading, which I consider a good thing.
Characteristics
1 reviews
Mood
Protagonist(s)
Pace
Writing Style
Description
"Haunting and luminous, How High We Go in the Dark orchestrates its multitude of memorable voices into beautiful and lucid science fiction. An astonishing debut." — Alan Moore, creator of Watchmen and V for Vendetta
"Epic . . . Sequoia Nagamatsu is a writer whose imagination is matched only by his compassion, the kind we need to light our way through the dark." — Chloe Benjamin, New York Times bestselling author of The Immortalists
Recommended by Los Angeles Times * Entertainment Weekly * Esquire* Good Housekeeping * Buzzfeed * Business Insider * Bustle * Goodreads * The Millions * The Philadelphia Inquirer * Minneapolis Star-Tribune * San Francisco Chronicle * The Guardian * PopSugar * Literary Hub * and many more!
For fans of Cloud Atlas and Station Eleven, a spellbinding and profoundly prescient debut that follows a cast of intricately linked characters over hundreds of years as humanity struggles to rebuild itself in the aftermath of a climate plague—a daring and deeply heartfelt work of mind-bending imagination from a singular new voice.
In 2030, a grieving archeologist arrives in the Arctic Circle to continue the work of his recently deceased daughter at the Batagaika Crater, where researchers are studying long-buried secrets now revealed in melting permafrost, including the perfectly preserved remains of a girl who appears to have died of an ancient virus.
Once unleashed, the Arctic plague will reshape life on Earth for generations to come, quickly traversing the globe, forcing humanity to devise a myriad of moving and inventive ways to embrace possibility in the face of tragedy. In a theme park designed for terminally ill children, a cynical employee falls in love with a mother desperate to hold on to her infected son. A heartbroken scientist searching for a cure finds a second chance at fatherhood when one of his test subjects—a pig—develops the capacity for human speech. A widowed painter and her teenaged granddaughter embark on a cosmic quest to locate a new home planet.
From funerary skyscrapers to hotels for the dead to interstellar starships, Sequoia Nagamatsu takes readers on a wildly original and compassionate journey, spanning continents, centuries, and even celestial bodies to tell a story about the resilience of the human spirit, our infinite capacity to dream, and the connective threads that tie us all together in the universe.
"Wondrous, and not just in the feats of imagination, which are so numerous it makes me dizzy to recall them, but also in the humanity and tenderness with which Sequoia Nagamatsu helps us navigate this landscape. . . . This is a truly amazing book, one to keep close as we imagine the uncertain future." — Kevin Wilson, New York Times bestselling author of Nothing to See Here
Book Information
Posts
Der Ansatz an sich sehr interessant. Ich mag, dass die Kapitel fast immer mit einem Verlust enden und in den danach folgenden Charaktere wieder aufgegriffen werden. Das war schon recht spaßig, mitzurätseln. Allerdings ist dies auch einer der großen Schwachpunkte des Buchs. In jedem Kapitel werden Ideen angerissen, aber selten aufgegriffen. Jedes Kapitel ist ein "was wäre, wenn...". Auch geht es fast immer darum, dass Menschen sich ineinander verlieben oder sich erinnern, dass geliebte Personen wichtig sind. Im letzten Kapitel wird versucht, alle Stränge zu verknüpfen, aber das gelingt nur sehr wenig. Dafür ist Nagamatsu zu sehr in seinem Kopf und seinen Ideen gefangen und denkt, dass die Lesenden jedes kleinste Detail verstanden haben. Mein anderer größter Kritikpunkt ist: wir begleiten hier Menschen über teilweise mehrere 1000 Jahre. Keiner davon ist auch nur ansatzweise queer? Kein einziges gleichgeschlechtliches Paar? Ich weiß nicht.. hier wird von Raumschiffreisen gesprochen und Schweine mit telepathischen Kräften gibts.. aber keine queeren Menschen? Weird.
Deprimierend aber unterhaltsam
Das Buch hat mich zu Beginn sehr mitgerissen, aber zur Mitte wurde Trauer/Verlust zu einem repetitivem und ehrlicherweise deprimierendem Element. Die einzelnen Geschichten waren sich in der Hinsicht recht ähnlich, was jedoch dienend war, waren die Verbindungen zwischen den einzelnen Beiträgen. Zum Ende hin nimmt die Erzählung nochmal an Fahrt auf und wird -Spoiler- auch deutlich positiver und lebensbejahender.
Ein wirklich tolles Buch, das mich immer wieder mit einem emotionalen gut punch erwischt hat. Wenn ich das abschließende Ganze betrachte sind einige Teile etwas zusammenhangslos, aber ich habe das Buch sehr genossen und es ist etwas total anderes und besonderes. Ich braucht etwas, was man gar nicht aus der Hand legen will und das ist es auf jeden Fall.
Well, this was a crazy ride! This books feels more like a short story collection of glimpses into different lives during and after a global pandemic and the climate crises. It's hopeful and morbid at the same time and even though I was pretty confused at some points, I liked how it all was woven together in the end. Often I wished to have a little more time with one of the chapters, and I definitely liked and felt some of them more than others, but all in all it was an interesting mix of characters and perspectives and ideas. I'm really impressed with Nagamatsu's creative ideas and writing abilities, each scene is full of crazy technology, real characters and some kind of questioning the human race. I feel like many of the chapters are realistic and could happen like this one day, even though I really don't hope so 😬 This is definitely a book that needs your full attention and not an easy read, but it's interesting and visionary and asks hard questions, so if you're into that, you might like it!
2.5/5 It wasn't bad, it just definitely wasn't for me, I had to force myself a lot to finish it and not DNF. The writing style and the story reminded me a bit of Ken Liu (in a good way lol), the last couple pages were really good, and the tension-building was fantastic, I do however think there wasn't enough lgtbq+ rep, and the pace was very very slow.
A series of short stories that explores the impact of a deadly decades long pandemic, and how the world and people deal with it. Beginning in the near future it tells very different stories full of fresh ideas about how society and humans change in a world where death and climate change is all around. The stories often build upon another and have breadcrumb like connections from the very start of the outbreak, to thousand years in the future where humanity travels among the stars. Some stories are more forgettable than other but concepts like the City of Laughter and other visions of the future will likely stay with me for a long time. I got a lot of „Black Mirror“ vibes while reading, which I consider a good thing.