Soft Skull
Under the Eye of the Big Bird
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SHORTLISTED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE
From one of Japan's most brilliant and sensitive contemporary novelists, this speculative fiction masterpiece envisions an Earth where humans are nearing extinction, and rewrites our understanding of reproduction, ecology, evolution, artificial intelligence, communal life, creation, love, and the future of humanity
In the distant future, humans are on the verge of extinction and have settled in small tribes across the planet under the observation and care of "Mothers." Some children are made in factories, from cells of rabbits and dolphins; some live by getting nutrients from water and light, like plants. The survival of the race depends on the interbreeding of these and other alien beings--but it is far from certain that connection, love, reproduction, and evolution will persist among the inhabitants of this faltering new world.
Unfolding over fourteen interconnected episodes spanning geological eons, at once technical and pastoral, mournful and utopic, Under the Eye of the Big Bird presents an astonishing vision of the end of our species as we know it.
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Book Details
ISBN:
9781593766115
EAN:
9781593766115
Binding:
Hardcover
Pages:
288
Authors:
Hiromi Kawakami
Publisher:
Soft Skull
Published Date: 2024-03-09
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I couldn’t tell you what this was about exactly, but it is speculative science fiction mixed with philosophical ideas, and I loved it.
There is imagination, and then there is incredible imagination. We are far past a time when humans became extinct. This is fiction at its best. Breathtaking.
Ik vond het niet zo. Je kan niet af en toe een stukje lezen, want dan raak je de draad kwijt met de losse verhaaltjes. Het voelde literair geforceerd. Kan door de vertaling komen.
I would not recommend this book to others-- I read it only because it was a monthly selection of our local library's science fiction book club. I love good science fiction with strong plots, well defined characters, and a wealth of ideas. This is not such a book-- it's basically a series of short chapter stories separated by long time periods, so there is not much chance to develop characters within the constraint of the each chapter, or time for the reader to get much invested in any one of them-- the characters are constantly changing, and often very passive. There's not a lot of plot, and what there is (humanity is dwindling away, efforts are being made to reverse it) is presented initially as enigmatic and mildly surreal. I actually like 'puzzle' stories, as long as there is a pay-off at the end, but in this case the point of the story was obscured until about 2/3 of the way through, and then it turned out to be a relatively simple story just told flat out by one of the characters in a long discursive chapter that's not particularly interesting. This is a case of telling, not showing, and makes for a dull book. There were a couple of times I started to nod off while reading, not something that usually happens to me. This book is not really for the typical science fiction fan, but for those who like New Yorker stories, although maybe not as good. After I finished this, I wanted to read a good John Scalzi space opera story to get the cobwebs out, not that I don't like other types of science fiction too.
A quiet subtle work about the parts of our humanity that endure and those that don't. It's not a book for someone who needs to "get it" from page one. It's for someone who's willing to put in a little bit of work.
