Novel here just in time for our next pandemic
Iread this week that Bill Gates believes a pandemic is coming in about 10 years. He said, “We’re due for an apocalyptic with the sickness on the scale of the 1918 flu, characters which killed some 50 million people.” A the loss of statement for sci- fi writers to enjoy and the simple ponder and expand into a 400- page novel. and beautiful
The science fiction book shelf at my things house emptied when my three boys left enjoyed home. There were a few lingering duplicate before the copies of the “Dune” series with tattered collapse of covers, but all the rest migrated. It civilization. was fine with me since I rarely read this It also genre and I needed more room for my makes us Dick Francis collection anyway. wonder how
One of my book thief sons handed me we could go a copy of the national bestseller “Station back to a Eleven” by Emily St. John Mandel as I time without the advances in technology boarded the plane to Hawaii last month. It we all take for granted. is a haunting post-apocalyptic novel – not No one can communicate by telephone, a beach book (mindless entertainment). I internet or mail. There are no cars or airplanes couldn’t put it down because great writing for travel. Isolated people wander always wins. across the landscape hoping to find family
The story begins with the on-stage and loved ones who may have survived. death of aging actor Arthur Leander as What would we become without the ability he performs in “King Lear.” The death is to contact others? witnessed by a cast and audience who will The author has purposely chosen 20 join him in death in the next week as a years after the pandemic, which is much flu pandemic quickly kills 99 percent of more interesting to me. Some of the earth’s population. post-apocalyptic books I have read are set
A few chapters and 20 years later, we in the terror-filled immediate aftermath or meet the small Traveling Symphony group the depressing generations past. There is a whose members hope to keep some of the sense of hope amidst the struggle to survive past culture alive as they journey between for those who have made it this far, settlements and perform Shakespeare and and we are left with the feeling that mankind classical music. The small troupe has will rebuild a better earth. painted their theme on the lead wagon, As I handed “Station Eleven,” with a “Survival is Insufficient,” but many have couple of salt water marks on the cover, never seen the “Star Trek” episode where back to my son, I couldn’t help smiling the quote was taken. as I thought about all the books he had
Connections emerge as the reader goes scuffed up over the years. My smile faded back and forth in time. The child who as I remembered Bill Gates pandemic prediction stood in the wings at King Lear, Kirsten and the spooky coincidence of this Raymonde, now performs in the same sci-fi book. This is one tale I hope never play as an adult woman. Others emerge comes true. from that past to take on new roles in the aftermath.
This novel causes the reader to mourn *** Give me liberty or give me death. - Patrick Henry