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Ed O'Loughlin

Author of Minds of Winter

9+ Works 256 Members 18 Reviews

About the Author

Includes the name: Ed O Loughlin

Works by Ed O'Loughlin

Minds of Winter (2016) 102 copies
Not Untrue and Not Unkind (2009) 96 copies
Toploader (2011) 31 copies
This Eden (2021) 9 copies
This Eden (2021) 6 copies
This Eden (2021) 3 copies
Toploader (2011) 1 copy
This Eden 1 copy

Associated Works

The Best Australian Essays 2008 (2008) — Contributor — 28 copies

Tagged

Common Knowledge

Gender
male
Nationality
Ireland

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Reviews

In THIS EDEN, by Ed O'Loughlin, Michael is reeling from the death of his girlfriend when he is swept up by a mysterious man, Towse, who is on a secret mission to thwart a world catastrophe. Towse, along with his other recruit, Aoife, drag Michael across the globe in hopes of completing their mission and saving the world. The longer Michael is with Towse, the more it is clear that Towse never really tells the whole truth and Michael has to decide whether their mission really is for the good of everyone, or just good for Towse.
The fun in this novel is in the chase. From the time Michael meets Towse and Aoife, there is not a moment where the enemy is looming behind them. Never being comfortable, plans are often made and adjusted on fly and the reader really feels this sense of spontaneity. As more time is spent with Towse and it becomes clear he is very slow and calculating in what he reveals, the reader can't help but have fun trying to figure him out. The dialogue is challenging at times and the style O'Loughlin uses leaves the reader struggling to keep up with who is speaking. The global travel in the book is fun, but sometimes the geographic descriptions of the areas were hard to understand.
The plot of THIS EDEN is exciting and the finish of the book is a suspenseful and fun, I just struggled to get their wit the clunky dialogue and detailed, and yet muttled, descriptions of all the different settings.
Thank you to Quercus Books/Riverrun, Ed O'Loughlin, and Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!
… (more)
 
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EHoward29 | Jun 2, 2021 |
I’m not sure whether to categorize this as a missing person’s story or an adventure story. Overall it’s a good one full of different characters who are directly or indirectly involved in the final disastrous voyage of the Sir John Franklin expedition to find the Northwest Passage. Everything centers around a chronometer which may have been on the the HMS Erebus or Terror. There are many characters and many time periods including the present. If you can keep going, this is a very well written story and I did find it quite compelling. The ending is a little disappointing as it leaves the identity of a main character unresolved. If you are interested in the far North, its cruel weather, history, explorers and adventurers, you may like this.… (more)
½
 
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MaggieFlo | 7 other reviews | May 28, 2018 |
This was one of the most frustratng books I've read in a long time. It was a shortlisted book for the 2017 Giller Prize, so I was expecting something a little special. It also outlines the mysterious disappearance of Sir John Franklin's two ships and his entire crew on the polar ice in the year of 1845. I have always been fascinated with this particular arctic mystery, and couldn't wait to read more about it. This book was all over the place as far as I was concerned. For the first 1/2 of the story, I found it tough slogging getting through all the differing points of view, different parts of the world, and different time frames I almost gave up many times. But I persevered and after about halfway through, I was starting to get into the story, and I was really enjoying all the Arctic and Antacrctic history and geography. I was also enjoying the stories about the early arctic explorers. What a unique breed thery were!! They all were tied in someway to the polar climates, and all of them wanted to discover new islands, bays and never-before=seen geography. The book went along fairly well again until right near the end. Just when I was hoping that the mysteries and secrets were going to be explained, it stopped and the ending was abrupt and anti-clamactic, and never did explain any of the mysteries surrounding an elusive timepiece from Sir John Franklin's failed expedition that had mysteriously turned up in a museum in the present day. The book appealed to me in some ways because Mr. O'Loughlin had very obviously done his resarch on these early arctic explorers, and he has captured their essnece in his descriptions of their writings and in their dealings with other people that they encountered in their nomadic lives. That carried me along through many pages in a semi-state of wonder, and then, he abruptly drops it all with no proper explanations, and a feeeling at the end that it had all been a dream for Arthur Nelson and his Fay Morgan. We never found out for sure what happened to Arthur's brother Bert and Fay's grandfather - both who mysteriously disappeared in the frozen tundra of the north. They were both lost in geographical proximity, but sixty years apart. In all honesty, I am not really sure how this book made the Giller Prize shortlist. Maybe I missed the entire point of the book. I am glad that I read it though because of the insight it gave me into the lives and minds of these intrepid arctic explorers.… (more)
½
 
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Romonko | 7 other reviews | Feb 5, 2018 |
I've lost track of how many books I have read in the last ten years that touch on Sir John Franklin's quest for the North West Passage and the subsequent attempts to find him and his ships when they did not return to England. It seems to be almost a meme for Canadian literature and nonfiction. And it's a plot that never fails to entrance me so I guess it has become that prevalent for a good reason. Here's another book in that line and it's mesmerizing, if a little confusing.

Nelson arrives in Inuvik, NWT after his brother, Bert, sends an email asking him to drive there immediately. Except when Nelson gets to his brother's apartment Bert is gone and has not said where he is going. After spending a few days looking for Bert and also looking for work because he's broke and finding neither, Nelson decides to head back to Edmonton before a big storm blocks the road. As he is driving out of town he ends up driving into the airport instead of keeping to the road but he decides that is okay because he forgot to pick up cigarettes before he started out. At the terminal a British woman, Fay, asks him for a lift into town but he explains he is going to other way. Then he finds out he can't buy cigarettes in the terminal so he tells her he will drive her back into town where he will stock up with cigarettes. Fay came north because her grandfather disappeared from Tuktoyuktuk when the DEW line was being set up and her mother, who recently died, always wanted to come see where her father had spent his last days. Nelson and Fay are thrown together when the roads and the airport are closed and Fay needs someone to drive her to Tuktoyuktuk. Nelson has some of the research Bert had left behind in his apartment and Fay sees an article about a naval chronometer from the Franklin Expedition that had mysteriously turned up in England. Fay recognizes the chronometer as one that her grandmother had sitting on her mantle in Ireland. Is it a coincidence that Bert was looking into this or has fate brought Fay and Nelson together for some purpose? As the two delve into the reams of research Bert gathered they get glimpses of the lives of explorers throughout the centuries who have had some contact with the chronometer. It's a fascinating tale but pay close attention because the story twists and turns.… (more)
½
 
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gypsysmom | 7 other reviews | Jan 29, 2018 |

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