Station Eleven

I adored it.

The people in the airport were so unrealistic. If humans were that passive we'd still be living in caves.

I’ve just finished the is in two days and thought everything about it was practically perfect as far as writing goes.

I fell in love with every single character (even Arthur!) and I feel like this is because they were so honest and raw and human. It really taps in to their emotions. It wasn’t about the drama of the epidemic it was about themselves and their habits and their thoughts. It made me feel pretty comforted in a strange way about our current situation and any other future pandemics yet to come. Left me with loads of things to think about. Why Clarke or any of the others at the airport never set out with the symphony to find the ‘grid’ at the end for example. Why a whole 5 weeks had passed before they embarked on travelling there. They had all settled and accepted for a life as they presently knew it as so many years had passed and I found that so human and beautiful.

It was a silly plot. No infrastructure was damaged so life should have gone back to normal very quickly. There was a bit about seeing an electric light come on for the first time since the virus but loads of people own generators so lots of people would always have had electricity. Nobody seemed to attempt to connect to other places by radio.

I read it years ago and thought it was ok. I re read it last year and the travelling theatre people really annoyed me and I gave up.

The pre-virus stuff was pretty banal, and the post-apocalypse stuff was far more interested in the situation than in its characters. The one paragraph which was memorably brilliant and effective was the one about all the last times someone did something, like load a webpage, get on a flight, made a phone call...

I have this on Kindle but abandoned it because I couldn’t get into it. I was thinking the other week I might try it again. Maybe not!

I don't understand how anyone could not care about the characters...I mean, seriously? Truly don't understand that at all.

I started reading Station Eleven on March 18th last year (and started a thread here about it!). Found it unusual and absorbing.

I've read one Octavia Butler (can't recall which). Wonderful writer, powerful storytelling - but I did find it quite depressing.

I really enjoyed it for all the reasons @Timeforabiscuit listed

@Springfern I read Kindred last year and just finished Parable of the Sower which is one of the best books I’ve ever read - which of her others would you recommend?

I read it a couple of years ago. I love a dystopian fiction and I did enjoy the book I suppose, but I wasn’t gripped and it took me a fair while to read it. Thinking back, I recall I found it quite repetitive.

I wouldn’t put it as a literary great but it was a reasonable read.

I'm about half way through and though I think I'll probably finish it I am skimming quite big bits. Don't think it will make my favourites list

I agree OP, skimmed most of it towards the end. Have you read any Octavia Butler? Must better for sci fi/dystopia

Loved it! All the threads of people's connections through art, through tenuous relationships, beauty as a pursuit, the museum at the airport, the baking bread at the end.

It was just so darn comforting as ends of the world go!

I read it over Christmas (festive and all that ) and while I thought it was quite good, I didn't think it was the best thing since sliced bread. I had read The Road for the first time the day before though. It just didn't seem quite as profound as I had been expecting from reviews.

I also found it an unusually hopeful read from that genre (I had not long read the Death of Grass so to be fair was in need of a lift).

I like the ideas of humans, no matter how shit things get, will still find comfort in art and culture.

Also, my book has an illustration of a stag on the front cover. For an odd reason I really liked that image too.

I liked it, but I didn't see it as anything special. A good dystopia read, nothing more.

I really liked it but it was weak in parts definitely. I mainly read it because I seek out dystopian fiction. I love it. I thought the part where a whole airplane of people somehow managed to escape the virus, all of them having managed to get on the plane without coming into contact with the virus. Even though the plane leaves from NYC which was crawling with this flu. Pretty silly really.

Sporit? Spirit!

I loved the message that the human sporit survives, that music and literature, both highbrow (travelling orchestra) and lowbrow (graphic novel) are vital. Most dystopias are brutal barbaric struggles for survival. I found this hopeful. Also I did think it was beautifully written. Also I have recurring dreams where I am in a library or book shop and find a beloved book has sequels I never knew about so I love the plot about the mysterious comic series. And I am a sucker for an end-of-the-world story anyway.

I found St11 okay. The Prophet was tedious boring character for me. Earth Abides is somewhat similar but much better.

I didn't get it either..

I failed to see the attraction. I normally love a dystopian read but found myself skimming great chunks of this one as it was so dull...