Goal of the day: 136 words. Written: 558.
Europe is full of people. Europe is overcrowded. Europe is a land of technology and culture that lacks food, air, living space and water.
And also - Europeans are vaccinated against death. Life expectancy is probably infinite, and the body does not age after 20.
Good for Europeans, good.
True, children are a bit of a problem in this year, the 2460s - how can we afford to raise them if there is no room for the living anymore, and all of Europe is covered with endless skyscrapers? How can we afford them if we live in 2x2x2 meter boxes and only eat grasshoppers, seaweed and synthetic beef because there is simply no place for other plants and animals to breed?
People who give birth to children are terrorists.
No, Europe is a country of laws and personal freedom - no one will kill you for having children. They won't go to jail either. You just have to give up your immortality. The same immortality that, if you were one of the first to receive it, you've probably gotten used to over the last 300 years.
It's simple: Do you want children? Please! The rules are the same for everyone! Simply put, you will have to make room for your child.
Europe is the land of culture, personal freedom and law in a world where Russia has turned into a wasteland, Pakistan and India have turned each other into a radioactive jungle, and China has become a country of robots.
And live as long as you can. Just don't have kids.
* * *
In this book, by the already legendary Russian author (who created the famous "Metro 2033 world") the book is full of everything I mentioned above.
It is also the story of one aggressive character in an aggressive Future world.
Anger, pain, sadness and other emotions will accompany you while reading this book. And it goes straight to the top of my list of best fantasy books to read.
This book is a good exercise for your brain, exercising stereotypes and attitudes about today's world.
My rating if you're too lazy to read on: 9.8/10.
- Writing style: 10/10. Great atmosphere, perfectly created and conveyed emotions. While reading, I felt both anger and sadness, and real fear and excitement for the characters in the book.
- Readability: 9/10. I found this book so easy to read that I finished half of it (middle to end), about 100 pages, in one night. Forgot to sleep. It's true - the end of the book was too abrupt.
- Quality of the printed book: 10/10. The cover and pages are very pleasant to the touch, the book is light, the font is legible. It was really good here!
Liked the most:
The structure of the future world, its ideas - how it is created. There are also plenty of allusions to the modern world, as good fiction should be.
It's a fight between the views "who needs those children" and "children are the meaning of life", it's refugees to Europe from other countries of the world, it's the tense relations between India and Pakistan, it's the Russian tsars in the Moscow Palace, it's the USA's tendency towards capitalism, it's technology and the impact of multiculturalism on our lives. Dimitri digs deep and that is very good.
Disliked the most:
Lack of development and one-sidedness of some characters. Basically, the only character that is best developed is the main character, Jan Nachtigal 3-Pe. He has both his backstory and his reasons for his cynicism and claustrophobia, and slowly transforms into a different person over the course of the book. He transforms like a real person.
Other characters? Not so much. Neither the secondary heroine Aneli, nor the anti-hero Schreier, nor the anti-villain Rokamora. Of course, when I say names like that now, you don't understand anything. But don't be afraid - these heroes have their own stories and modus operandi. Not too bad, just a little trippy.
I recommend the book:
For anyone who doesn't like fantasy. Because this book can turn over your attitude. If you like fantasy, I recommend it all the more.
And I'm about to put the book on the shelf, forget it... And read it again a year later. Because it was so much fun!
dystopian,
Daniel
P.S One more a detailed review of this book in Lithuanian can read on the Goodreads page. If you understand Russian - under the book you will find more reviews of readers who read it in the original language.