Nod

Product Information

Satan a la Mode: A Devilish Piece of Good News (Rossland, British Columbia: The Poor Tree Press, 2006) [illus/pb/Charlene Barnes]

I've unknowingly read three books that focus on mass insomnia in the past few weeks. I suffer from bouts of insomnia myself and so this premise is especially terrifying and interesting, in equal measure. Every now and again a novel comes along that is so Completely original and captivating that it makes you gasp....well Nod is one of these! Violent, frightening, textured, and dystopian are words that aptly describe the short-lived world that Barnes has created. Barnes' writing is beautiful" - Quest For Sleep There are some fantastic Dystopian Worlds to discover; try Sand by Hugh Howey or Railhead by Philip Reeve. As the end of the world begins he is working on his next book, the eponymous Nod, which focuses on words and phrases that have fallen out of common usage and understanding. Anyway, in forgetting words, my thesis went, we abandon them. But the realities those banished words gave voice to don’t vanish: old, unmanned realities lurk eternally in dark woods, in nursery tales, police reports, and skittish memories. Like Grimm wolves.Having said all that, the author raises some interesting questions about the human nature, its relationship with catastrophe, leadership, manipulation and chaos. Perhaps i'm just not intelligent enough to get the idea.

The second half of this novel seemed to switch in direction and take the reader on a more abstract and fantastical journey. I continued to appreciate the gorgeously lyrical writing style, as well as the overall ingenuity, but I longed for a return to the somewhat simpler initial stages of the novel. On both counts I was disappointed. No explanation is offered, and all that is just used as setup for that tired old Humans are the Real Monsters tripe that's been done to death by this point. Debut author Barnes has written a completely original twist on the subject of insomnia. His apocalyptic thriller will appeal to fans of Christopher Galt's Biblical and other dystopian and sf thrillers as well as readers with an interest in mythology" - Library Journal If anyone has ever tried to get a good night’s sleep and not managed it for several days, or even a week, or been an insomniac, they will view this novel as a form of torture and maybe understand it more than the average reader. As the situation gets more and more problematic, the authorities try to take a stand against the insomnia outbreak, and it, as usual doesn't work and all the while Paul watches his one true love get the insomnia illness and steadily go to her demise. One thing this book is is a chronicle of a love story that could have been epic for him if his lover had been bothered enough. As Paul is one of the Sleepers, he takes great pains to keep it hidden from others, but gets noticed by a bunch of people who think of his as almost like a god who, as every author would like, hang on his every word, even want to understand one of his manuscripts as the work of a prophet. Despite the tail of the book being a little flatter than the start, it is still an outstanding read, if just for the first half alone. Barnes is able to write a horrifying novel without the reader even knowing that they are reading horror. It is not the beasties that go bump in the night that scare you, but the demons that live inside your head; with Nod Barnes has just reached into your skull and given their bellies a rub.As there seems to be no explanation for just why the Awakened are… perpetually awake, and they draw ever closer to death; as The Dream filled with golden light and a feeling of well-being continues to call to Paul; and as he tries to find a safe place for Zoe, the mute Sleeper girl he and Tanya stumbled upon and took in, the question becomes not so much about how to survive this situation, but rather how to ride it out until the inevitable end. As awful as a night without sleep makes you feel the next morning, imagine what life would be like if you could never sleep again. If the night before was the last time you ever slipped into unconsciousness. If your mind and body never again got its eight—or even four or three or any—hours of necessary rejuvenation. Imagine that it’s not that you don’t need sleep—you do need sleep, you desperately do—and you long for sleep more than you’ve ever wanted anything in your life. The problem is that you can’t ever sleep again. Can the Sleepers protect these children? How can the Sleepers even protect themselves from desperate Awakers while they sleep? Will the Sleepers be able to ride out these terrifying four weeks until the Awakers, rapidly devolving into their Neanderthal progenitors, finally die? Thought provoking and utterly engrossing, NOD is a science fiction tale of horror unlike any I have read before.” -Count Gore

The style of writing that Nod is written in was overwhelmingly distracting. Maybe the author did manage to write a passably interesting book, but it was completely hidden under that many words I couldn't even be bothered to start digging. I did manage to finish Nod, mainly because I was playing the "how many ridiculous words in one sentence can I find" game. It's not that often that I find myself writing a completely negative review, but I can honestly say that I can not find anything about this book that I liked. 1 star. Watch this.’ He turned and faced the angel-watchers, smiling grimly. Cupping his hands around his mouth, and without even bothering to try to sound like he meant it, he yelled, ‘Holy shit! Those aren’t angels. They’re devils!’ Paul is an etymologist – his life revolves around the exploration of words and their origins, and writing books about their history and transformation. Honestly, that's a solid setup. It was enough to convince me this novel was worth the price of admission.

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I have never read anything quite like this book. It’s the perfect blend of heady existentialism and dystopian nightmare. The grand scope of the many ideas and themes, including anti-establishment, anti-consumerism, and the very nature of good and evil, is balanced out by fast-paced events that play on a micro-level...Nod is horror born of the unflinching and uncompromising detail that dissects what it means to be human.” -Dread Central I could see what the new world of Nod looked like, could easily picture the slow collapse of Vancouver and its people thanks to Barnes' close attention to detail. At times I could even smell the death and decay it so vividly described." - Project Fandom Edit: RIP Adrian Barnes. I learned today that the author died early this year, succumbing to the brain cancer he was diagnosed with around the time the book was released. While I was expecting a different story, Nod delivers in establishing a truly atmospheric semi-dystopian infused survival horror. For anyone who has suffered from insomnia, the idea of a world with no sleep is an unsettling place as it feels so real. The thought of having to drag yourself to work after a night with no sleep is bad enough, but what about two nights, or three, or four? Society will crumble if everyone missed five meals in a row, but what would happen if we all missed five nights of sleep? If you end up in the land of Nod, we are all in trouble.