Status
Available
Publication
Mariner Books (2009), Edition: 1st, 207 pages
Description
After rendering the planet unlivable, humankind begins to colonize a new blue planet, and heroine Billie Crusoe embarks on a personal odyssey into the future, in an adventure that explores humankind's relationship to the environment, power, and technology.
User reviews
LibraryThing member MikeFarquhar
The Stone Gods is Jeanette Winterson's latest, and in it she ventures into that realm of writing science fiction without wanting to admit that she's writing science fiction (right down to having characters mentioning how much they hate SF). She falls into many of the usual traps of authors doing
The novel is a moderately complex one, with a recursive story told in three separate times and places (Easter Island in the Middle Ages; a near-future London; and a colony planet of a future society - all times and places where the dominant society is engaged in destroying itself), with elements of one feeding into and echoing elements from the others. Winterson's theme is not a subtle one - we're destroying our planet and our future - but she argues the points around it well. The structure of the novel - different characters with the same names telling each other stories that loop around and between each other - works particularly well, building to a climax which leaves a bittersweet taste in your mouth. The twist that ties everything together is fairly guessable - though Winterson does sneak in some deliberate red herrings to try to persuade you away from it - but she pulls it off anyway.
There's an odd bit about two thirds of the way through where what seems like an element of autobiography creeps in, as the central character describes her experience of coming to terms with the fact that she was adopted; something Winterson herself was dealing with while writing the novel. The intensity in this section is palpably different to that elsewhere, and it throws everything else into sharp relief (it particularly contrasts with the relatively light, sacchariney approach to the echoing love stories in all three sections).
It's not without its flaws (the existence of the image that is key to the finale is somewhat dubious in terms of the novel's own internal logic), but it is a deftly intertwined Russian Doll set of stories that makes for a good read.
There's also a funny sex scene with a robot head.
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this - an early over-reliance on technobabble in lieu of scene-setting, and slightly flowery prose, but once that settles down, things improve a bit.The novel is a moderately complex one, with a recursive story told in three separate times and places (Easter Island in the Middle Ages; a near-future London; and a colony planet of a future society - all times and places where the dominant society is engaged in destroying itself), with elements of one feeding into and echoing elements from the others. Winterson's theme is not a subtle one - we're destroying our planet and our future - but she argues the points around it well. The structure of the novel - different characters with the same names telling each other stories that loop around and between each other - works particularly well, building to a climax which leaves a bittersweet taste in your mouth. The twist that ties everything together is fairly guessable - though Winterson does sneak in some deliberate red herrings to try to persuade you away from it - but she pulls it off anyway.
There's an odd bit about two thirds of the way through where what seems like an element of autobiography creeps in, as the central character describes her experience of coming to terms with the fact that she was adopted; something Winterson herself was dealing with while writing the novel. The intensity in this section is palpably different to that elsewhere, and it throws everything else into sharp relief (it particularly contrasts with the relatively light, sacchariney approach to the echoing love stories in all three sections).
It's not without its flaws (the existence of the image that is key to the finale is somewhat dubious in terms of the novel's own internal logic), but it is a deftly intertwined Russian Doll set of stories that makes for a good read.
There's also a funny sex scene with a robot head.
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LibraryThing member meika
It's better when an SF writer discovers an ism than vice-versa (though not by much) as in this novel "The Stone Gods". While re-hashing and the eternal return, the cycle of violence... are a basic theme of the novel, this doesn't save it from being a bit like a badly informed but 'enthusiastic'
Avoid it.
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blog: derivative, recycled, and parasitic on the form. It may work for those who have never read SF and to whom some of the elements will be new.Avoid it.
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LibraryThing member M.Campanella
This book is science fiction. Some people have a problem with this.
How people react to this is always of great entertainment. It can be seen in the various online reviews of this book, trying to decipher what it is and what it is not.
Most comical for me was when one reviewer insisted on correcting
I am sure no one questioned the validity of Jeanette Winterson's web-footed Venetians in 'The Passion', or her extraordinary revision of Noah's ark in 'Boating for Beginners'. In fact, that she even got any facts correct about Easter Island impressed me.
While I was reading this I assumed, being completely ignorant of Easter Island and it's history, that the fact that it had been completely stripped of trees was a fact of her invention. I was willing to go that far to listen to Winterson's argument.
Someone else nominated the absurdity of space travel for the purpose of alleviating a polluted planet. Again, the actual functionality of this plot is not the point, the point was to illustrate a flaw in human nature that causes us to have an effect on our planet.
How people react to this is always of great entertainment. It can be seen in the various online reviews of this book, trying to decipher what it is and what it is not.
Most comical for me was when one reviewer insisted on correcting
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all the errors about Easter island the book contains; how captain cook did not abandon any of his crew on that island, how the deforestation of that island actually happened, how the natives really treated Cook and his crew. Clearly, he did not understand what was meant by the word fiction. I am sure no one questioned the validity of Jeanette Winterson's web-footed Venetians in 'The Passion', or her extraordinary revision of Noah's ark in 'Boating for Beginners'. In fact, that she even got any facts correct about Easter Island impressed me.
While I was reading this I assumed, being completely ignorant of Easter Island and it's history, that the fact that it had been completely stripped of trees was a fact of her invention. I was willing to go that far to listen to Winterson's argument.
Someone else nominated the absurdity of space travel for the purpose of alleviating a polluted planet. Again, the actual functionality of this plot is not the point, the point was to illustrate a flaw in human nature that causes us to have an effect on our planet.
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LibraryThing member Magus_Manders
Science fiction, as a genre, is a way for an author and a people to look directly at their society without having to name names or point fingers. Good science fiction should be a dream, a hope, a warning, and a mirror. Not too many books these days can fulfill sci-fi's true potential...
The Stone
Ok, so these are very strong words, but this reader does not think that they are entirely without backing. With this book, Winterson has recaptured much of the spirit of the classic Science Fiction writers of the middle 20th Century in a voice that is distinctly modern/post-modern. It begins in a short, descriptive, cleverly and beautify written Bradburyan world where the human planet is dying, illiteracy is state-mandated, robots are obligatory, and genetic science allows one to pick their age. When a new world, pristine and primordial, is discovered, what does humanity do?
Though it is a simple and oft-seen theme, this story quickly reveals its depths and twists in a circular pattern of human nature. Part-way through it takes a very unexpected path, but that is for you to discover, not me to divulge. In many ways, it is an Environmentalist novel, but in a way that this reader felt was more touching, more troubling, and more believable than any Ismael or Silent Spring.
A short novel, but one that requires patience, thought, and acceptance of the incredible. If you can give Winterson a chance, she very well might just blow you, as she did me, right off your feet.
The Stone
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Gods does. Ok, so these are very strong words, but this reader does not think that they are entirely without backing. With this book, Winterson has recaptured much of the spirit of the classic Science Fiction writers of the middle 20th Century in a voice that is distinctly modern/post-modern. It begins in a short, descriptive, cleverly and beautify written Bradburyan world where the human planet is dying, illiteracy is state-mandated, robots are obligatory, and genetic science allows one to pick their age. When a new world, pristine and primordial, is discovered, what does humanity do?
Though it is a simple and oft-seen theme, this story quickly reveals its depths and twists in a circular pattern of human nature. Part-way through it takes a very unexpected path, but that is for you to discover, not me to divulge. In many ways, it is an Environmentalist novel, but in a way that this reader felt was more touching, more troubling, and more believable than any Ismael or Silent Spring.
A short novel, but one that requires patience, thought, and acceptance of the incredible. If you can give Winterson a chance, she very well might just blow you, as she did me, right off your feet.
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LibraryThing member the_awesome_opossum
I love Winterson, I love sci fi, and I especially love dystopian novels. But something about The Stone Gods sadly fell flat for me. Perhaps it was just because Winterson was out of her comfort zone with the genre; all of the sci fi elements were either vintage or cliche (depending on how charitable
The last part may actually be to the book's credit. The plot is about humans' inability to grasp "the big picture," and their inability to keep from making the same mistakes - of consumerism and damage to the economy - over and over again. Quick fixes, living in the here and now, are more attractive solutions than foresight or prudence.
That is how The Stone Gods begins: when it looks like the planet has just about had it, the inhabitants have caused too much permanent destruction, a new planet is discovered. It is politicized and viewed as a reprieve and a solution. But human nature doesn't change.
Winterson does have some interesting things to say as far as environmental politics goes (although I couldn't help but wonder as I was reading, if the politics she satirizes will all read as terribly dated, looking back on it). But as a work of literature, it needs a bit of polish.
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one is about them). Most of the characters didn't resonate strongly with me, and the story was sketchy and hard to grasp.The last part may actually be to the book's credit. The plot is about humans' inability to grasp "the big picture," and their inability to keep from making the same mistakes - of consumerism and damage to the economy - over and over again. Quick fixes, living in the here and now, are more attractive solutions than foresight or prudence.
That is how The Stone Gods begins: when it looks like the planet has just about had it, the inhabitants have caused too much permanent destruction, a new planet is discovered. It is politicized and viewed as a reprieve and a solution. But human nature doesn't change.
Winterson does have some interesting things to say as far as environmental politics goes (although I couldn't help but wonder as I was reading, if the politics she satirizes will all read as terribly dated, looking back on it). But as a work of literature, it needs a bit of polish.
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LibraryThing member isabelx
The new world–El Dorado, Atlantis, the Gold Coast, Newfoundland, Plymouth Rock, Rapanaui, Utopia, Planet Blue. Chanc'd upon, spied through a glass darkly, drunken stories strapped to a barrel of rum, shipwreck, a Bible Compass, a giant fish led us there, a storm whirled us to this isle. In the
History repeats itself, life goes on, and Billie or Billy falls in love with Spike or Spikkers as the world crashes and burns. This is a well-written book, as you would expect of Jeanette Winterson, but unfortunately I didn't really care what happened to the unengaging main characters, although you would have to have a heart of stone to be unmoved by this description of two hidden casualties of the War: A small boy and a small dog, the dog hairless and pink, tongue lolling, body worn thin like hope, the boy with a bad stomach wound sewn up at his home or his hole, subcutaneous fat pushed on the outside like a roll of tripe. He had the dog on a lead and he was still managing to be a boy with a dog and the dog was still managing to be a dog with a boy because not even a bomb gets to wipe out everything, and this little bit was missed in the blow-up, the fall-out, the death-toll, the regrettable acts of war.
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wilderness of space, we found . . .History repeats itself, life goes on, and Billie or Billy falls in love with Spike or Spikkers as the world crashes and burns. This is a well-written book, as you would expect of Jeanette Winterson, but unfortunately I didn't really care what happened to the unengaging main characters, although you would have to have a heart of stone to be unmoved by this description of two hidden casualties of the War: A small boy and a small dog, the dog hairless and pink, tongue lolling, body worn thin like hope, the boy with a bad stomach wound sewn up at his home or his hole, subcutaneous fat pushed on the outside like a roll of tripe. He had the dog on a lead and he was still managing to be a boy with a dog and the dog was still managing to be a dog with a boy because not even a bomb gets to wipe out everything, and this little bit was missed in the blow-up, the fall-out, the death-toll, the regrettable acts of war.
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LibraryThing member puttocklibrary
This was an unusual book, filled with a lot of interesting ideas. Unfortunately, the interesting ideas--of humanity's history, and humanity's destiny--weren't enough to make me love this story. But it did suck me in quickly enough to make me think it would.
This is the story of a future earth, both
This is the story of a future earth, both
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similar to what we now know, and scarily possible. Human beings have messed up themselves--and the Earth in a BIG WAY--in doing so. Then another world, "Planet Blue" is found, and it seems there will be a way out of this hard place humanity finds themselves in. But humanity has a tendency to make the same errors over and over again, and this time is no different... Show Less
LibraryThing member chauve-souris
Wonderful book. It's one of Winterson's philosophical speculative fiction books, not one of her more narrative fiction books, so pick it up with that mindset. I can't stop thinking about it. Five stars.
LibraryThing member lilysea
Winterson's writing is alway, always, always brilliant. I can never put her books down until I'm finished. That said, this wasn't one of my favorites. The part I liked best was the Easter Island romance. More of that, less of robot heads would have appealed more. But I have a hunch she threw that
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robot head in there specifically to unsettle me, so all I can really say is well done again. Show Less
LibraryThing member gonzobrarian
Despite a mere 200 pages you too can experience what seems like an epic, multi-volume heap of guilt vomited upon the vulgar vanity with which us humans tuck ourselves in each night. We describe ourselves as civilized, perhaps even progressive, yet in her book The Stone Gods, Jeanette Winterson
The problem with us, Winterson reminds, is that for all our abilities, we just can't seem to learn anything from history. This recurring idea is the theme of 3 and 1/2 short stories, vignettes maybe, all intertwined within The Stone Gods. The first story, centering around the newly discovered Planet Blue, deals with a very advanced "civilization" coming to terms with its interplanetary recolonization, or at least it's inevitable effect upon colonization. The second story, a historical speculative taking place on Easter Island, illustrates the more aged impulses involved in worshiping your chosen god while sacrificing your home in the process. The third + 1/2 story deals with our near-future hubris after the inevitable Post-3 War, or a not-so-subtle hint at World War III.
This novel is a brilliantly conceived yet complex mix of science fiction and dramatic literature. It's up to the reader to discern what worlds, time periods, even places Winterson is alluding to, and she does fantastic job of speculating human behavior, if it is indeed human, within each. She grapples with relevant concepts of today such as war, artificial intelligence, global warming, cosmetic enhancement, all the stuff we humans turn toward when we we turn away from ourselves. Our nuance is that we accept how flawed as a species we are, yet we still are too lazy to do anything about it.
Because of this, Winterson unleashes three apocalyptic scenarios upon the reader, both with beauty and inanity. It's a profound exposition on what it means to be human; dare I say it's vividly gonzo. Although it's an excellent book, for me it tended to degrade a bit at the third + story, amounting to more an effort of stream-of-consciousness than a coherent storyline. Here she also gets a little too complex in referring to the book within the story itself.
In any case, this is an imaginative and important work, good for both China Mieville and Cormac McCarthy fans.
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skillfully reiterates what what we humans are so good at, and obliterates such vanity like a bear would to a sausage pinata.The problem with us, Winterson reminds, is that for all our abilities, we just can't seem to learn anything from history. This recurring idea is the theme of 3 and 1/2 short stories, vignettes maybe, all intertwined within The Stone Gods. The first story, centering around the newly discovered Planet Blue, deals with a very advanced "civilization" coming to terms with its interplanetary recolonization, or at least it's inevitable effect upon colonization. The second story, a historical speculative taking place on Easter Island, illustrates the more aged impulses involved in worshiping your chosen god while sacrificing your home in the process. The third + 1/2 story deals with our near-future hubris after the inevitable Post-3 War, or a not-so-subtle hint at World War III.
This novel is a brilliantly conceived yet complex mix of science fiction and dramatic literature. It's up to the reader to discern what worlds, time periods, even places Winterson is alluding to, and she does fantastic job of speculating human behavior, if it is indeed human, within each. She grapples with relevant concepts of today such as war, artificial intelligence, global warming, cosmetic enhancement, all the stuff we humans turn toward when we we turn away from ourselves. Our nuance is that we accept how flawed as a species we are, yet we still are too lazy to do anything about it.
Because of this, Winterson unleashes three apocalyptic scenarios upon the reader, both with beauty and inanity. It's a profound exposition on what it means to be human; dare I say it's vividly gonzo. Although it's an excellent book, for me it tended to degrade a bit at the third + story, amounting to more an effort of stream-of-consciousness than a coherent storyline. Here she also gets a little too complex in referring to the book within the story itself.
In any case, this is an imaginative and important work, good for both China Mieville and Cormac McCarthy fans.
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LibraryThing member Virtual_Jo
Lyrical, harrowing and thought-provoking visions of the past and future.
LibraryThing member bhowell
The Stone Gods is a dazzling novel. I am not a science fiction fan but I loved this story told with beautiful prose, sometimes achingly sad, a profound comment on our destructive relationship with the earth.
LibraryThing member Knicke
Well, I won't lie. On a purely emotional level, I loved this book. I'm pretty sensitive about tragic Armageddons (Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle made me cry). And I loved all the pieces of the plot......I just feel like it wasn't well put-together. This happens so often when authors try to write spiritual
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science fiction...concepts get touched on, but never delved into. It's really lyrical and lovely in spots, but it just doesn't feel finished to me, just sketched out, and this leaves me deeply unsatisfied on an intellectual level. Show Less
LibraryThing member kk1
Would have liked it more if it had a clear beginning, middle and ending. Starts off with party sent to colonize another planet due to wearing out resources on current one. Found it mildly intersting, but cut short. Then a few minor chapters from different time zones and then finishing back on the
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war torn/dying planet. Can't quite unravel the timeline and wish it was more explicit. (Perhaps I shouldn't have skipped the captain cook chapter). Show Less
LibraryThing member somnambule
When I bought my copy of The Stone Gods, the bookseller told me two things: it had received strong reviews, and “It’s science fiction, you know.” I parried this last one with some fuzzy comment that much of Winterson’s fiction violates expectations, and we left it at that, both sounding
And then I started reading: sure enough, page after page, the thing read true to the sci-fi genre. And not just in the details: it sounded like sci-fi, it thought like sci-fi, it even carried sci-fi’s common politics—as much genre work tends to be, it sounded downright reactionary. The main character, Billie Crusoe, sounded as if she had actually been beamed into her era from our own; she spoke constantly of the contrast between then and now, as if she’d been witness to our time, and was quite conscientiously leading us through hers, tour-guide style, with heavy asides to the reader and a general lack of believable selfhood.
I was a bit taken aback; in fact, at several points, I had to remind myself of Winterson’s previous work—I said to myself, in fact, “prose this obvious, this flat and predictable, has been put in place for a reason.” And even fifty pages from the end, after the place and the style had shifted radically—several times, in fact—I was still sitting a few seats back in the auditorium, wondering whether she knew what she was up to.
But the connection comes—again and again, in surprising, subtle, parallel, spooky ways. In fact, much of the intersection is rightly described as spooky; quantum, in fact. As she did in Gut Symmetries, Winterson spends a lot of time pulling on the greater metaphor of quantum physics as she sees it mirrored in human life: it would not be a stretch to say that this book, as was Gut Symmetries, is something of a quantum novel, and that Billie Crusoe, strange particle that she is, exists outside of Newtonian plotting: where we want characters to make choices and suffer results—we want them to see three doors, walk through one, then lose forever what was behind the other two—Billie exists simultaneously in all three. The book travels through three different frames of time and space, and she is there—not only that, she is reading about herself in a manuscript left on the Tube, and she is stumbling across her own adventures in the journals of Captain Cook.
At every turn, she meets human short-sightedness: waste, folly, power. And at every turn, she ends up in a dead world, one sacrificed on the altar of power, but with the promise of a new birth coming soon—a new planet, a new peace, a new sapiens—that will never make the same mistakes again.
And this hits on one of the themes running through: the impossibility of denying the limbic, the spooky, the unreal. It’s not emotion that kills us off, it’s control. It’s our fear of a world more complex, less divided, and less clear that leads us to kill off the potential that exists when control falls away. We see this in the corporate governance of MORE, and we see this in the war between the Ariki Mau and the Bird Man on Easter Island. We see this, too, in the Robo sapiens, free of the unpredictability of emotion, to lead us from the damage of our own fuzzy natures. It’s clear, though, that the obsessive attempts to hide from our fuller selves have brought on our ending.
It was clear to me that the novel was, in part, Winterson’s response to the upsurge in media/commodity culture and feel-good authoritarianism that seems to be cresting so fervently at this time. Initially, I thought to myself, “what a shame that the novel will end up such a didactic response—so flat and obvious.” With the patters apparent, though, I see that the “message” of the book, in fact, is nowhere near as easy and flat as the initial section seems to belie. Maybe I’m a sucker for flash and experimentation, but the risk that Winterson took in the Stone Gods felt—to me—brave, insightful, and revelatory. It’s certainly not her first foray into these waters, nor is it the first book to reinvent linear narrative; however, the mission it takes and the tools it picks match up perfectly. I’m glad I stuck it through.
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smart and not having said much.And then I started reading: sure enough, page after page, the thing read true to the sci-fi genre. And not just in the details: it sounded like sci-fi, it thought like sci-fi, it even carried sci-fi’s common politics—as much genre work tends to be, it sounded downright reactionary. The main character, Billie Crusoe, sounded as if she had actually been beamed into her era from our own; she spoke constantly of the contrast between then and now, as if she’d been witness to our time, and was quite conscientiously leading us through hers, tour-guide style, with heavy asides to the reader and a general lack of believable selfhood.
I was a bit taken aback; in fact, at several points, I had to remind myself of Winterson’s previous work—I said to myself, in fact, “prose this obvious, this flat and predictable, has been put in place for a reason.” And even fifty pages from the end, after the place and the style had shifted radically—several times, in fact—I was still sitting a few seats back in the auditorium, wondering whether she knew what she was up to.
But the connection comes—again and again, in surprising, subtle, parallel, spooky ways. In fact, much of the intersection is rightly described as spooky; quantum, in fact. As she did in Gut Symmetries, Winterson spends a lot of time pulling on the greater metaphor of quantum physics as she sees it mirrored in human life: it would not be a stretch to say that this book, as was Gut Symmetries, is something of a quantum novel, and that Billie Crusoe, strange particle that she is, exists outside of Newtonian plotting: where we want characters to make choices and suffer results—we want them to see three doors, walk through one, then lose forever what was behind the other two—Billie exists simultaneously in all three. The book travels through three different frames of time and space, and she is there—not only that, she is reading about herself in a manuscript left on the Tube, and she is stumbling across her own adventures in the journals of Captain Cook.
At every turn, she meets human short-sightedness: waste, folly, power. And at every turn, she ends up in a dead world, one sacrificed on the altar of power, but with the promise of a new birth coming soon—a new planet, a new peace, a new sapiens—that will never make the same mistakes again.
And this hits on one of the themes running through: the impossibility of denying the limbic, the spooky, the unreal. It’s not emotion that kills us off, it’s control. It’s our fear of a world more complex, less divided, and less clear that leads us to kill off the potential that exists when control falls away. We see this in the corporate governance of MORE, and we see this in the war between the Ariki Mau and the Bird Man on Easter Island. We see this, too, in the Robo sapiens, free of the unpredictability of emotion, to lead us from the damage of our own fuzzy natures. It’s clear, though, that the obsessive attempts to hide from our fuller selves have brought on our ending.
It was clear to me that the novel was, in part, Winterson’s response to the upsurge in media/commodity culture and feel-good authoritarianism that seems to be cresting so fervently at this time. Initially, I thought to myself, “what a shame that the novel will end up such a didactic response—so flat and obvious.” With the patters apparent, though, I see that the “message” of the book, in fact, is nowhere near as easy and flat as the initial section seems to belie. Maybe I’m a sucker for flash and experimentation, but the risk that Winterson took in the Stone Gods felt—to me—brave, insightful, and revelatory. It’s certainly not her first foray into these waters, nor is it the first book to reinvent linear narrative; however, the mission it takes and the tools it picks match up perfectly. I’m glad I stuck it through.
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LibraryThing member bsbllbsbll
This sure is postmodernist. Had only one moment of pathos for me, which isn't great in a story that is so long. More of an idea novel than a character novel. Not my bag.
LibraryThing member TomMcGreevy
An incredibly perceptive look at the human condition. Yes, we do repeat our errors over and over again. Yet for all of that we possess the redemptive power of love, and such a gift that is. It suggests our potential, and how dare we turn away from hope... Thank you Ms Winterson for a thoughtful
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novel, one full of sentences worth pondering all on their own. Show Less
LibraryThing member sumariotter
This book has a lot of flaws--she's pretty heavy handed with the political satire/dystopia stuff and the novel's three part structure is a little too surreal/disjointed for me, but somehow I really enjoyed it anyway. People talk a lot in their comments about it being a sci-fi novel--to me, this
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isn't science fiction, it's our near future. I think she pretty brilliantly describes the logical consequences of where our current ecological/sociological collective choices are taking us. Sure, she exaggerates, but not much. There are some very clever and funny bits, and a love story that's not very developed but touching all the same. From some of her books that I've read, I had gained an impression of Jeannette Winterson as having more style than substance. This book changed my mind and makes me want to read some of her earlier books that I skipped. Show Less
LibraryThing member thioviolight
Jeanette Winterson always awes me with her works, and The Stone Gods is no exception. A timely tale about a dying planet, it is frightening but also full of hope, and always, love.
LibraryThing member devilwrites
I've been wanting to read more of Jeanette Winterson's work ever since I fell I love with The Passion. The Stone Gods seemed right up my alley, as it's fiction that utilizes science for its plot (and therefore science fiction, I don't care what side of the genre-fence you're on). I'll admit I was
The full review, which does contain spoilers, may be found in my LJ. As always, comments and discussion are most welcome.
REVIEW: Jeanette Winterson's THE STONE GODS
Happy Reading!!
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disappointed at first, because while the writing is still very, very good, it's nothing like The Passion. Still, once I got into the story, I began to appreciate what Winterson was doing more and more. She preaches, yes, and it's obvious to see how current events influence this book, but this is about more than simply humanity's ability to destroy itself and the world around it, but it's also about the permanence of soul, and that's a beautiful thing.The full review, which does contain spoilers, may be found in my LJ. As always, comments and discussion are most welcome.
REVIEW: Jeanette Winterson's THE STONE GODS
Happy Reading!!
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LibraryThing member iansales
There’s a reverse snobbery thing you sometimes find in science fiction in which sf commentators sneer at non-sf authors, so-called “literary fiction” authors, who write sf and sort of get it wrong. I’m not one of them (well, not unless they sneer at science fiction first). Literary authors
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writing science fiction, whether they acknowledge it or not, has resulted in some excellent science fiction and fiction. Unfortunately, it has also resulted in books some writers would probably sooner didn’t appear on their bibliographies. I mean, Jeanette Winterson is a highly-regarded author in the UK and has written some excellent novels, but The Stone Gods reads like it was written by someone who thinks all literary sf should resemble David Mitchell’s highly successful Cloud Atlas. While the prose is actually really good, everything in the story feels secondhand and, well, used, and you have to wonder what point Winterson thought she was trying to prove. I mean, the novel opens with the sort of misogyny that might not have looked out of place in a 1940s sf novel but would certainly have raised eyebrows in a 2000 one. And then the narrative drops back to the 1700s and Easter Island, and takes as real the myth the islanders caused the islands’ ecological collapse. The idea of using science fiction as one of several narratives to illuminate a point is, in principle, almost impossible to abuse, although perhaps not entirely. Mitchell at least has a history in sf – he was a member of the BSFA for many years – but even so his novels still feel somewhat jejeune on a science-fictional level. Which is somewhat ironic, given that science fiction is itself a largely juvenile genre. But Winterson, an otherwise excellent writer, does not compare well with Mitchell with this book, and I don’t simply mean reading The Stone Gods as sf. In other respects, too. It’s clumsy. It fumbles its deployment of its sf tropes. It seems to imagine sf exists in opposition to an historical narrative. Which is not true. And never has been. Everything a literary author could do wrong when when writing sf-as-literary-fiction it sort of does wrong. And yes, I know “wrong” is not the right word, but you know what I mean. It fumbles everything. It’s almost the dictionary definition of a book by a lit author that sf snobs sneer at. Which unfortunately means it is neither good sf nor good literary fiction. Avoidable. Show Less
LibraryThing member dreamweaversunited
Abandoned at 55% read because I just got fed up, for the following reasons.
1) It's a knockoff of a bunch of other science fiction books, most prominently Fahrenheit 451 and Cloud Atlas, but worse.
2) It brought up pedophilia as subject matter a whole lot without ever taking its implications
3) The middle section set on Easter Island is both hamfisted in driving home the book's themes, and unforgivably racist in its depiction of Easter Islanders.
1) It's a knockoff of a bunch of other science fiction books, most prominently Fahrenheit 451 and Cloud Atlas, but worse.
2) It brought up pedophilia as subject matter a whole lot without ever taking its implications
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seriously. 3) The middle section set on Easter Island is both hamfisted in driving home the book's themes, and unforgivably racist in its depiction of Easter Islanders.
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LibraryThing member Mithril
Decent, somewhat overwrought.
LibraryThing member jennybeast
A complex book, telling and retelling stories. It's a philosophical contemplation of ecological disaster shaped kind of like a science fiction book. The science fiction bits are only trapping and decoration, however, to a story that seems to me like Winterson rediscovering her voice.
LibraryThing member Charon07
At the junction of science fiction and poetry. Achingly beautiful and sad, vast in scope, and intensely personal.
Awards
Dublin Literary Award (Longlist — 2009)
Original language
English
Physical description
207 p.; 5.31 inches
ISBN
0156035723 / 9780156035729
Local notes
fiction