One of my goals in 2022 is to read more. See other books I've read or listened to here.
The last of three books I read for a PD James reading Vlog, Children of Men is her only Sci Fi. I was lucky enough to find this library discard copy in a little free library near my work.
It’s been 30 years since it was discovered that no new children were being born. Theo has settled into the end of his life, he teaches adults in college, he loves his flat, he only sometimes regrets his lost loves. He is comfortable and not looking for excitement before death. He is not expecting to get thrown into conspiracy, and possibly change the course of the human race.
This books starts on Jan 1 2021, and I almost wish I had started reading it then, too. But I’m happy that it was a coincidence that I did end up reading it sometime in 2021. It’s also about a global phenomenon that effects all humans, so reading it in 2021 was timely in that way, as well. As I mentioned this is PD James’ only sci fi. Written in the 90s, It was made into a well received movie in the 2000s. I really liked the idea of how each nation, focusing on England, would deal with a global health crisis. This book is quite English centric, perhaps satirically stating that England would handle this issue far better than other nations. But behind the national inovations, comforts and conceits there are dark forces at work, to keep the peace at least from a outside perspective. Under the stoic sheen of a well organized country and world dying naturally, PD James does a great job at keeping an undercurrent of uncomfortableness and unease. I don’t love tense anticipation in stories, but this was more of a proclaimed foreboding. This is a story about the salvation of the human race, but also of one man and the idea that self possessed determination can change the course of a life. One can decide to live, or resign themselves to death. This book tackles that in an interesting way, depicting a resistance to action with a long interlude in the middle of the story. This book and story have certainly earned a place in sci fi history and it’s easy to see why this is a modern classic of the genre. I would highly recommend this to PD James fans, bc it is so different than her well known mysteries. But there are glimmers of her more more traditional work. For instance the flat of our main character is pretty much identical to a flat described in The Private Patient, the last of the Adam Dalgliesh novels and written nearly 30 years later. I would also recommend this book to sci fi lovers, those interested in the classics of the genre, people who like end of the world stories, or readers who want to read about global pandemics and their geopolitical repercussions.
Have you read this book? What are your thoughts? What is your favorite classic sci fi story?
This book can be seen in my July Wrap Up.