Devolution - BokDraken

Inbunden, 304 sidor

Publicerades 16 juni 2020 av Del Rey.

ISBN:: 978-1-9848-2678-7

As the ash and chaos from Mount Rainier’s eruption swirled and finally settled, the story of the Greenloop massacre has passed unnoticed, unexamined . . . until now. The journals of resident Kate Holland, recovered from the town’s bloody wreckage, capture a tale too harrowing—and too earth-shattering in its implications—to be forgotten. In these pages, Max Brooks brings Kate’s extraordinary account to light for the first time, faithfully reproducing her words alongside his own extensive investigations into the massacre and the legendary beasts behind it. Kate’s is a tale of unexpected strength and resilience, of humanity’s defiance in the face of a terrible predator’s gaze, and, inevitably, of savagery and death.

Yet it is also far more than that.

Because if what Kate Holland saw in those days is real, then we must accept the impossible. We must accept that the creature known as Bigfoot walks among us—and …

As the ash and chaos from Mount Rainier’s eruption swirled and finally settled, the story of the Greenloop massacre has passed unnoticed, unexamined . . . until now. The journals of resident Kate Holland, recovered from the town’s bloody wreckage, capture a tale too harrowing—and too earth-shattering in its implications—to be forgotten. In these pages, Max Brooks brings Kate’s extraordinary account to light for the first time, faithfully reproducing her words alongside his own extensive investigations into the massacre and the legendary beasts behind it. Kate’s is a tale of unexpected strength and resilience, of humanity’s defiance in the face of a terrible predator’s gaze, and, inevitably, of savagery and death.

Yet it is also far more than that.

Because if what Kate Holland saw in those days is real, then we must accept the impossible. We must accept that the creature known as Bigfoot walks among us—and that it is a beast of terrible strength and ferocity.

Part survival narrative, part bloody horror tale, part scientific journey into the boundaries between truth and fiction, this is a Bigfoot story as only Max Brooks could chronicle it—and like none you’ve ever read before. ~ from dust jacket.

12 utgåvor

Björn recenserade Devolution av Max Brooks

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3 stjärnor

Brooks' strengths, as per World War Z and Zombie Survival Guide, translate spottily to Devolution. Survival tactics, Rousseau vs Hobbes, the fragile shortcomings of modern society to tackle questions of purely predatory dangers... When you depend entirely on WiFi and clever app solutions to survive, what happens when you're knocked back to, if not stone age, then close enough for survival to suddenly become not a theoretical question but an actual emergency? (Yes, it's a very timely mid-Covid read.) Add some fairly well-argued cryptozoology to that and I'm intrigued.

But as good as he is at sketching characters in short bursts and epistolary instalments, and as interesting as the book gets when it gets to philosophize, he struggles to make the narrative work completely over 283 pages of mostly one single diary, because what you do when you're fighting for your life is sit down for hours writing …

Brooks' strengths, as per World War Z and Zombie Survival Guide, translate spottily to Devolution. Survival tactics, Rousseau vs Hobbes, the fragile shortcomings of modern society to tackle questions of purely predatory dangers... When you depend entirely on WiFi and clever app solutions to survive, what happens when you're knocked back to, if not stone age, then close enough for survival to suddenly become not a theoretical question but an actual emergency? (Yes, it's a very timely mid-Covid read.) Add some fairly well-argued cryptozoology to that and I'm intrigued.

But as good as he is at sketching characters in short bursts and epistolary instalments, and as interesting as the book gets when it gets to philosophize, he struggles to make the narrative work completely over 283 pages of mostly one single diary, because what you do when you're fighting for your life is sit down for hours writing in a literary style. (There's the irony of Brooks' ape-shall-kill-ape reductionism; his writing is just too damn soft and civilized.) There are a few too many but-why-would-they and but-why-wouldn't-they that either get brushed aside or simply ignored in the hope that the reader won't second-guess the protagonist's actions and reasons, and when even she can barely be bothered to get to know the other characters, why would we?

(Also, I'm glad you're watching Herzog, but maybe try to adopt some of his compassion too rather than just contempt?)

That said, the ending is chilling. That one will stay with me a little while.