Fandom name: Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel Medium/Location: Literary fiction novel of about 300 pages. Available where books are sold, your library etc. Summary: Set before, during and after a pandemic sweeps across the world. The survivors try to find their way in a reshaped world, some forming a travelling Shakespeare company, and connections from the past keep weaving through the story. Content warnings: Like 95% of everyone dies in a pandemic, including major characters, there's also violence, sexual violence (mostly off page/referenced), a cult, suicide, and some ableism (essentially people with disabilities do not fare well in post-apocalyptic world). The world building is more impressionistic than anything in places. Why I like it: Despite the everyone dying, it's a weirdly optimistic book. We get a lot of small communities trying to find a way forward in the post-flu world, and different views of what works and what doesn't for leadership. I really love how the story is about the importance of art, and how the definition of art can be Shakespeare or Star Trek or someone's personal comics project, and how each of those can have a different legacy. There's a strong emphasis on kindness and justice and beauty.
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
Medium/Location: Literary fiction novel of about 300 pages. Available where books are sold, your library etc.
Summary: Set before, during and after a pandemic sweeps across the world. The survivors try to find their way in a reshaped world, some forming a travelling Shakespeare company, and connections from the past keep weaving through the story.
Content warnings: Like 95% of everyone dies in a pandemic, including major characters, there's also violence, sexual violence (mostly off page/referenced), a cult, suicide, and some ableism (essentially people with disabilities do not fare well in post-apocalyptic world). The world building is more impressionistic than anything in places.
Why I like it: Despite the everyone dying, it's a weirdly optimistic book. We get a lot of small communities trying to find a way forward in the post-flu world, and different views of what works and what doesn't for leadership. I really love how the story is about the importance of art, and how the definition of art can be Shakespeare or Star Trek or someone's personal comics project, and how each of those can have a different legacy. There's a strong emphasis on kindness and justice and beauty.
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