3.25

I thought the story was going to be a lot more fast paced than it ended up being. The first half of the story was the strongest because the possibilities on what could happen and what path Lauren would take once her community walls eventually fell were endless. I also found her revelations and the way she shaped the world through the Earthseed religion to be most interesting when she when she was pondering within the walls. Her father, Corey and Keith were really made alive and it made her experiences with her family seem that much more intense. Once the community burnt down and Lauren began her journey with Zara and Harry I was wondering how the story would take us (with a handy time-skip) into hopefully a time where Zara had built a following and space exploration was imminent. Unfortunately for me that didn’t happen. The second half of the book really focuses on the terror of surviving beyond the walls as we see Lauren slowly take in more travelers, and see as one by one they become part of the community. I enjoyed this but after a certain point it felt a bit repetitive.

I knew she wanted to created her own community and that is what they ended up doing, I just think that if the rise and expansion of the earthseed religion takes place in the second book then I would have preferred the two books to be one instead in order to balance the pacing, because it seemed like nothing really happened in the second half of the book. I also understand that maybe the space exploration and the ‘taking root in the stars’ being the objective of the religious movement isn’t actually literal and that the point of the religion is just to help people now deal with the present and it’s change. And that the story in the second book might just focus on how the religion is used to build humanity and civilization back up to standard again rather than to explore the galaxies.

Also I know the book is begins in 2024 and ends in 2027 but reading it in 2024 I don’t think the story is too dystopian anymore, especially with the lack of focus on the religion and space exploration, the horrible terrors beyond the wall are a lived reality for many across the world (Congo, Palestine, Sudan and even people in countries that are meant to be ‘developed’ like the US).