Book Group - 'Nod' discussion thread

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Diogenes Jan 2017 5:32pm, 10 Jan 2017 19,878 posts	0 Diogenes Positives: I read this book very quickly, which was nice. I was intrigued and entertained enough to keep reading. I liked the epigraphs (is that the right term?) at the beginning of each chapter. Some of the word play and references were good and interesting. Negatives: To start with I felt my main problem might be a tendency to overwritten playfulness. The word "blurping" on page 11 set my teeth on edge. However, after 3 or 4 chapters the style settled down for the most part, and the story took centre stage. And that's where the real problem started. The premise was a sound enough starting point. It's a bit like the day of the Triffids where most people have been blinded and just a few sighted people are left to try and ensure the survival of some kind of civilisation. There are plot holes large enough to drive an aircraft carrier (or destroyer) through, and there are all kinds of inconsistencies that undermined the book. Moreover, no one in the book is likeable, or believable. I don't believe that society would break down as quickly as it did, especially not in Canada, the politest of all nations. Where were the armed services and the disaster response plan? Maybe a whole truck load of passive aggression was simultaneously released as a result of lack of sleep? Paul was no hero and no villain. I didn't really care about him, especially when he seemed to forget about Zoe (or Zöe, both forms were used). Tanya deserved everything she got. Doctor London was ridiculous. After freeing Captain America, there was no way Paul would have been given the freedom he had to wander around the school, murder Tanya, leave, return, send signals, etc. The ending was weak and unsatisfying. Paul might as well have died in the first attack, save us all the trouble of reading. There are so many better books on this kind of the; the aforemention The Day Of The Triffids by John Wyndham and, one of my all time favourites, The Road by Cormac McCarthy. That really gives you an idea of what it might be like to live and survive in a post-apocalyptic world and ends in a way that is both moving, sad, and yet leaves one with hope for those that remain. I gave it a 5, I might revise that down to a 4
GregP Jan 2017 5:44pm, 10 Jan 2017 89,067 posts	0 GregP Well done with the reprise of the aircraft carrier/ destroyer motif. Agree with all that, plus my radiation sickness quibble. Now go and read Station Eleven. Because survival is insufficient.
Badger Jan 2017 5:44pm, 10 Jan 2017 7,934 posts	0 Badger Yes, The Road isn't short on the filth or lack of food (disturbingly so, actually) that westmoors mentioned.
Columba Jan 2017 9:54pm, 10 Jan 2017 12,150 posts	0 Columba I'm going to write what I think first, and then read back and see what everyone else thinks. Interesting and absorbing at first, but definitely a No before the end, indeed well before the end. I found Charles unconvincing from the start, even before he became Admiral of the Blue. When the Really Nasty things start being described (Captain America being tortured and eventually drowned in a bucket of yellow paint, gruesome murders, bodies rotting in the streets) I could not believe that Paul would carry on thinking rationally through them all, even intermittently. I feel SF ought to do more than just describe weird happenings; it should provide some sort of explanation. No sort of explanation was forthcoming here. Why had (nearly) everyone stopped sleeping? Why did it seem to be only humans who were affected? Why did the few Sleepers keep having this golden dream? Why had the children stopped speaking, and why did they seem to take everything so calmly? Did Paul die at the end, or get carried off into his golden dream, and if the latter were all the Sleepers going to meet together in some sort of Golden Dreamland? I thought I'd identified a Mistake quite early on, though at the time I thought perhaps it would turn out to be part of the Explanation (it didn't; there was no explanation). It's this: when there's a Disaster, such as a tsunami or an asteroid strike, it's an event which happens at a specific time. But Night - and with it, sleep - isn't an event in that way, it rolls continually round the world. The book didn't seem to take this into account. By the time the people in Vancouver were approaching their second sleepless night, they would surely have known that all the people 8 hours or more ahead of them had already experienced a second sleepless night, and yet in the evening all the "heads" on television are speculating about whether or not there would be any sleep for them rather than taking into account what the eastern europeans, middle easterners, Indians, Chinese etc. had already experienced during that second night.
Columba Jan 2017 10:11pm, 10 Jan 2017 12,151 posts	0 Columba Read back; see that someone else made that point (about night/sleep being a round-the-world phenomenon). And thank you Badger, for mentioning "agape", - I noticed it at the time but had forgotten. Two completely different sources for words that just happen to be spelled the same. Out of interest I looked up the quotation about Cain being sent to the Land Nod, east of Eden. According to a footnote in my Bible Nod was not intended as a place, but as a state, a state of being unsettled and a wanderer.
GregP Jan 2017 10:17pm, 10 Jan 2017 89,070 posts	0 GregP Once the Spanish had decided on their word for 11...
westmoors Jan 2017 9:08am, 11 Jan 2017 1,515 posts	0 westmoors I'd forgotten about The Road I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that I'm useless at reviewing books. I read them and either enjoy them or not. Trying to find what I like or don't like about them and why is challenging! Looking back I hated English Literature at school as the constant tearing apart of characters and plots and the "hidden meanings" ruined the enjoyment of the stories for me.
Diogenes Jan 2017 9:31am, 11 Jan 2017 19,886 posts	0 Diogenes I agree, westmoors, that's why I (wrongly) chose not to take it at A level. Most of my reviews are more what I felt about the book that proper criticism, totally my lessons opinion.
Serendippily Jan 2017 1:45pm, 11 Jan 2017 1,059 posts	0 Serendippily shuffles feet guilty love of deconstruction I did an English degree and everything, that's why I work in IT now I can see structures to my hearts content
Seratonin Jan 2017 7:44pm, 11 Jan 2017 13,445 posts	0 Seratonin I read this in just a few days which is quite quick by my usual standards. I really did enjoy it. I liked Barnes prose and I liked the epigraphs at the start of each chapter. I didn't really think too hard about the whys or wherefores. I generally try to take a book at face value and don't question plot holes too much unless they upset my take on the credibility of what the author is trying to present. Like others have already commented, I did wonder why Charles gave Paul so much latitude as I don't think that he really needed him to excuse his plan or control his followers. Also, the part where Tanya tells Paul that she has been unfaithful was her way of being cruel to be kind - that she actually loved Paul and was pushing him away so that he would not have to see her at the end? I didn't really like the scene where Charles uses Tanya as a sex toy - How could Paul be so restrained? For enjoyment I would recommend the book as a light novel - maybe 7 out of 10. However, I would say that I enjoyed The End of the World Running Club more as that painted a more brutal picture of a post-apocalyptic society - which is more like I would expect. Nod did not induce in me a fear for the characters. There was no real sense of menace under the surface. The Road is a much better example of the genre. My favourite post-apocalyptic novel is Lucifers Hammer by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. A much thicker novel that gives the science behind what has occurred, a description of the problems that survivors are likely to face, the individual journies that survivors have to make and then the politics/tension of trying to create an self sustaining enclave. Another worthy mention is The Stand by Stephen King. My favourite King novel by far and I was blown away when I read this.