Gorgeous and lyrical, Station Eleven is a life-affirming story of an apocalypse. Yes! As Emily St. John Mandel describes a virus that wipes out civilization, she affirms the value of art, music, and literature, and the wonder of human connection. The way she plays with time is breathtaking. ( )

I liked it; the audiobook was well read.
4 abandoned burger kings out of 5 abandoned burger kings. ( )

The book isn't bad exactly, but I had such high expectations after the absolutely fantastic miniseries from Patrick Somerville (wonderful cast and production). I thought the book would bring me even deeper into this fascinating world, but wow...the book was just the inspiration for what the series was able to refine, organize, dramatize, and build in ways that the writer just can't do. In fact, the book really fails in terms of character development, scenes, dialogue, and overall vision. There's still a lot of imagination and some good ideas, but if only this young writer had found a good editor or someone to help coach the writing into more fruitful territory. I probably wouldn't try this writer again, but I'm still grateful for how this flawed work inspired some really excellent television. ( )

Ups and downs.
Very interesting and effective narrative structure, first of all the everyday objects linking the scattered stories of all the characters before and after the disaster; a deep love and understanding for humanity and its weakness and strenght; no interest for the bad guys/good guys dychotomy.
On the other hand, some superficiality in describing the post-disaster world: how the suddenly neglected nuclear power plants didn't change the world into a wasteland? Also, on the "downs" front lie a flatness in characters' personality (which is partially amended in the course of the narrative), and an overall lack of depth.
I don't even mention the style. Most of contemporary novels are written as if they were a high school report. Maybe it's all that "ceative writing" education, anyway it nearly made me abandon the reading. I have to say, anyway, that in the end I did not only finished the book, but I also finished it in a night. I could say that of many brain-chewingum books I read, but I have to admit (begrudgingly) that there is something more to this one. ( )

If you want to read a great post-virus/apocalyptic scenario book... The 5th Wave is fantastic. It handles the flashbacks better; it is written at a faster pace, with engaging characters.

This book introduces you to interesting characters and then does little with it, letting each of them peter out to an unsatisfying, awkward ending. Though this book is much more socio-political than The 5th Wave, yet it is only observational, with a long narrative structure and no real conclusions to be drawn. ( )