How High We Go in the Dark

This one started off very promising to me, and kind of fizzled out a bit further into it. I really like the structure of this book, it's a series of short stories told as vignettes from different characters, but all within the same world and timeline. (It's also a pandemic story, although a fantastical one, but that might be off-putting to some).

There are a few stories near the beginning that were incredibly engrossing. I'll try to keep it vague and it will sound silly, but one is about a euthanasia theme park and another is about a talking pig. These are complete stories, well told, and are actually quite heartwrenching.

I think I may try rereading this at some point, I listened to the audiobook and it's possible I just wasn't in the mindset to pay property attention to the latter parts of the book, but they just didn't hold my attention as much and by the end I was a bit unsatisfied. Still worth reading for the high points though.

A stunning debut novel by Nagamatsu. From deep under the melting permafrost in Siberia an ancient virus is unleashed upon the world by unsuspecting archaeologists. So you might think this is another Covid influenced “pandemic” novel, but the germ of the idea came to the author in 2008. Indeed this is more a tale dealing with loss, grief and the thread of humanity that carries this species forward.

Essentially a series of interconnected stories, where characters from one tale pop up in another, or their descendants do. The characters are well drawn, the stories are moving, melancholy at times yet also uplifting, as humanity fights to find a cure. Along the way scientific breakthroughs lead to the singularity, which in turn enables intergalactic flight and ships sail to the stars looking for a second Earth.

The narrative moves forward in time and shows how we deal with the huge loss of life, how we care for victims of a virus that causes mutations. The strange funerary customs that grow up, the way even that business changes as a cure is found and the aftermath, how the survivors deal with returning to a world forever changed.

I have not enjoyed a novel this much for quite a while, hence the five stars. The revelatory chapter at the end, that pulls all the disparate threads together is surprising and yet makes perfect sense of all that has come before. Wonderful stuff.

CW: pandemic, child euthanasia, cancer

From the first time I read the premise of this book, I knew I had to read it. I went as far as preordering the audiobook which is something I rarely do. It took me a couple weeks after the release to get to it but I am happy all my anticipation wasn't in vain.

This is not a spoiler because it's mentioned in the blurb but this is a book about the aftermath of a pandemic - not something novel like Covid-19 but an ancient one that gets released into our world when the ice starts melting in Siberia. The symptoms of this disease were very different from the one we are experiencing, so I think that's why I was able to disassociate myself from our reality and enjoy this one purely as a near future sci-fi novel. And it was so fascinating. This is a collection of stories of different people - what each person is going through in the months and years after the pandemic, how their lives and surroundings have changed, what has become important and what has been relegated as trivial in this new world, how communities and philosophies have evolved, and how everyone is coping while trying to survive as well as while making very difficult decisions.

What was surprising was how the author connected each of these stories with some small reference or just a word and it was a marvelous feeling when I could connect the threads from the beginning to the end. And that revelation in the final chapter is a perfect capstone to this unique and fascinating world. Because of the pandemic as the major catalyst of this book, it's understandable that death is a major theme across the board. We see every single character as well as communities and countries dealing with death in different ways, developing new ways to honor the people who have gone and creating some new funerary rituals along the way. And as with any disaster, capitalism is always ready to commercialize even this somber point of humanity. But what really surprised as well as awed me was that despite there being so much death in the book, the author manages to infuse the stories with so much love, family and hope - so, even when you are feeling the immense grief the characters are experiencing, you are also rooting for them to survive and appreciating their efforts to move on and do better.

I had thought this book would take me a while to finish because of its subject matter but I finished it in day. I have to credit the excellent cast of narrators who brought each of the characters to life and let me experience their grief and loss and hope through their narrations. And I know the premise of this book can be a deterrent during our current times, but I would still recommend it because it's a sober and poignant look at the possibilities of humanity's survival in a climate/pandemic ravaged world and more importantly a call to all of us to preserve the only way of life we know.