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Posted 20 hours ago

Nod

£3.995£7.99Clearance
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ZTS2023
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The first few days very clearly outlined what was happening for Paul, who could sleep, and his partner Tanya, who could not, and the bar was set for absolute mayhem and trauma to come. It was probably meant to be a mercy killing, but it didn't seem like one because I got the impression the MC wanted to do it, probably because of what a slut she had turned into. My edition of the book also attached an essay from the author in which he detailed his cancer prognosis. As is often the case, two of the things which make this into an interesting and rewarding novel, the originality of the reason for the end of the world and the specific qualities of the narrative voice, can also feel like weaknesses.

I did like the little bits of end of the world stuff that happened, some of the imagery sprinkled through was cool and interesting, and I think the idea of it all was fantastic, but the execution just wasn’t for me unfortunately. It's a hard book to review, because I think it's good, and original, and it deserves readers, and I hope it will go on and get lots of them, but if I want to do a fair review then I have to mention the things which I found problematic, and this may spoil the experience for people who have not yet tried the book. Firstly, Princess Leia doesn’t receive the news of her homeworld’s destruction: she witnesses it first-hand. I didn't really connect with Paul that much--he's pretty detached and rarely experiences strong emotions about what is happening around him.Barnes tries to cram this book so full of Memorable, Quoteable Lines that absolutely nothing sticks. Nod chronicles the devastating side effects that occurs in the Awakened , with the world changing into something unrecognisable. It tells the tale of Paul who finds himself an unlikely prophet after his manuscript on the etymology of words becomes a surrogate bible to a city who cannot sleep. Nod is a must for every insomniac because it shows you that no matter how bad your night of no sleep is, things could be a lot worse.

A few people, perhaps one in ten thousand, can still sleep, and they’ve all shared the same golden dream. In a publishing universe where the end of the world seems to come round with monotonous regularity, Barnes has found an ingenious way of bringing about the collapse of society. Even as our hero Paul manages to sleep—one of the few—the world of the book gets more and more dreamlike, with characters behaving in unexpected ways and surprising developments occurring out of the blue. His girlfriend considers him to be a 'geek', going by a few scenes-- this is one of the author's many, many shortcomings. It seems that almost all of the population of the world has slept either, except a few persons, Paul included.

The destruction and breakdown of civilization is only part of the story, a necessary sacrifice to deliver a narrative rich with religious, ethic, and philosophical dichotomies, in particular, "good and evil". Paul and Tanya decide to abandon their apartment and head out to find a safer place to live out this nightmare, but as they enter the world of Nod things become weird, mythical and ambiguous.

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