Call number
SPEC FICT BAR
Collection
Genres
Publication
Titan Books (2015), 256 pages
Description
Dawn breaks over Vancouver and no one in the world has slept the night before, or almost no one. A few people, perhaps one in ten thousand, can still sleep, and they've all shared the same golden dream. After six days of absolute sleep deprivation, psychosis will set in. After four weeks, the body will die. In the interim, panic ensues and a bizarre new world arises in which those previously on the fringes of society take the lead. Paul, a writer, continues to sleep while his partner Tanya disintegrates before his eyes, and the new world swallows the old one whole.
User reviews
LibraryThing member TheAmpersand
There are a lot -- perhaps too many -- books dealing with dystopias out there these days, but this one's better than most. "Nod" certainly has a fun hook: it forgoes the most obvious triggers for the End of the World (nukes, environmental degradation, alien invasion). Instead, most of humanity
By now, you've probably figured that "Nod" is the sort of science fiction that often threatens to escape the most restrictive definitions that are applied to this genre and cross the line into literary fiction. What I liked best about it, perhaps, is that it doesn't read like a "serious" author trying to gussy up genre lit: this book is anything but stilted. Barnes's prose is informal, inventive, and playful throughout. The author's a good enough writer that Paul has a genuine voice: "Nod" reads like a good yarn related by your clever best friend. The author makes his most interesting points while making pithy observations and letting you in on his best inside jokes. While it keeps a book that contains scenes of terrible violence and overpowering despair light and readable, this style also seems appropriate to a novel whose fundamental concern is language's power and mutability. Along with its musings on semiotics, it also contains a lovely portrait of Paul's relationship with his long-term girlfriend and potential wife, Tanya, his long-term girlfriend, who, having lost her ability to sleep, slowly unravels as sleep deprivation takes its toll on her. "Nod" is also firmly grounded in its setting: Canadians -- especially westerners -- will enjoy the frequent mentions of Vancouver's landmarks and the obvious affection that the author has for the city's natural beauty. For all the blood, gore, and societal decay it features, "Nod" is not, in the end, a depressing book. It's ending is surprisingly optimistic, and might remind some readers of Arthur C. Clarke's "Childhood's End." Recommended to readers, such as myself -- who like to spend time in that increasingly productive grey area between "serious" lit and sci-fi. And to insomniacs, too, I suppose.
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perishes because it loses the ability to sleep. The story's told from the point of view of Paul, a Vancouver resident who writes academically inclined books about etymology. The author uses this as a jumping-off point for some fruitful meditations on language and how a complete societal collapse might affect our relationship with it. As the surreal becomes the norm and brutality come commonplace, we see some characters attempt to redefine their world at will while others cling gamely to outmoded ways of thinking. We see Paul, who has miraculously retained his ability to sleep and who has spent much of his life delving into archaic words and expressions, attempt to draw on the linguistic past to understand a weird new future. Barnes seems to agree with Samuel Taylor Coleridge's assertion that "Language is the armory of the human mind, and at once contains the trophies of its past and the weapons of its future conquests." In "Nod," we get to see the narrator try to understand the unfamiliar world that he's been thrust into using the linguistic tools available to him. It's a solid thematic premise for an end-of-the-world tale, and generally well-executed.By now, you've probably figured that "Nod" is the sort of science fiction that often threatens to escape the most restrictive definitions that are applied to this genre and cross the line into literary fiction. What I liked best about it, perhaps, is that it doesn't read like a "serious" author trying to gussy up genre lit: this book is anything but stilted. Barnes's prose is informal, inventive, and playful throughout. The author's a good enough writer that Paul has a genuine voice: "Nod" reads like a good yarn related by your clever best friend. The author makes his most interesting points while making pithy observations and letting you in on his best inside jokes. While it keeps a book that contains scenes of terrible violence and overpowering despair light and readable, this style also seems appropriate to a novel whose fundamental concern is language's power and mutability. Along with its musings on semiotics, it also contains a lovely portrait of Paul's relationship with his long-term girlfriend and potential wife, Tanya, his long-term girlfriend, who, having lost her ability to sleep, slowly unravels as sleep deprivation takes its toll on her. "Nod" is also firmly grounded in its setting: Canadians -- especially westerners -- will enjoy the frequent mentions of Vancouver's landmarks and the obvious affection that the author has for the city's natural beauty. For all the blood, gore, and societal decay it features, "Nod" is not, in the end, a depressing book. It's ending is surprisingly optimistic, and might remind some readers of Arthur C. Clarke's "Childhood's End." Recommended to readers, such as myself -- who like to spend time in that increasingly productive grey area between "serious" lit and sci-fi. And to insomniacs, too, I suppose.
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LibraryThing member shelley.s
NoD 4/5
I don't really know how to rate this book! It was unputdownable. I literally wanted to keep reading it but sadly finished it after just 3 days, i wish it was longer. I thought the idea was fantastic and i thought the characters were so believe despite the circumstances, I think Paul, the
I don't really know how to rate this book! It was unputdownable. I literally wanted to keep reading it but sadly finished it after just 3 days, i wish it was longer. I thought the idea was fantastic and i thought the characters were so believe despite the circumstances, I think Paul, the
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main protagonist, balanced out wacky crack pot Charles so well and the whole story built up perfectly. The slight problem i have is the ending. Nothing, literally nothing was explained. No reason as to why Nod occurred why there were sleepers and non-sleepers or what happened to the children or even Paul. I can see how an ambiguous ending would have fitted like a glove if a little bit more had been explained but it was like a brake neck speed wacky roller coaster that sort of tipped you off at the ending into a never ending abyss. In a way i liked it because it was its nice to be left thinking damn i wanted more, its a sign of a good book but at the same time i did have so many unanswered questions. Depending on what kind of reader you are and because of the ending you'll either think the book is genius or you'll think its badly written. I'm on the genius side for now although that ending will certainly annoy alot of people! Show Less
LibraryThing member StephenZillwood
Sleep. We do everything we can to avoid it when we’re young, and embrace it willingly when we’re older. But what if some of us could never sleep again? Adrian Barnes attempts to answer this question in his debut novel from Bluemoose Books, Nod.
Nod tells us the story of Paul, a linguist who is
The novel is set in and around Vancouver’s West End and Stanley Park, a true urban jewel of old-growth Northwest rain forest a proverbial stone’s throw from the city. Barnes plays with real locations, old mythology, and long-forgotten words to weave a world that dips in and out of reality, using a voice that at times plays with the reader’s sensibilities, reading more like a poetic tripping of the light fantastic rather than a straight narrative piece of fiction. This reminds me somewhat of Neil Gaiman’s ability to come across as an old friend in his prose, and also of some of Clive Barker’s best fantasy (Imajica and Weaveworld). On a classical note, Barnes’s wordplay also reminds me of some of D.H. Lawrence’s shorter works, such as “The Fox”; much like Lawrence, this novel is less interested in where the characters are going than in how they get there.
While this kind of narrative goal can be frustrating (I was particularly disappointed that we are never given the keys to the “golden dream” dreamed by the sleepers – a tantalizing hint of some meaning behind the chaos that never quite materializes), there is, for me, more than enough going on to keep my interest, and it is deftly enough written that I will be looking forward to more of Barnes’s work in the future. Overall, a very strong first outing from a fresh voice – here’s hoping that Barnes continues with more of the same.
Steve’s Grade: A-
I found it somewhat ironic that Nod had no problem keeping me up late at night. Well worth a look for fans of post-apocalyptic or dystopian flavors of science fiction.
Nod tells us the story of Paul, a linguist who is
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writing a book on lost words called Nod, his live-in love Tanya, and Charlie, a mostly harmless local nut who looks upon Paul as something of a friend, even if the feeling is not exactly reciprocated. One night after running into Charles at a local eatery in the West End of Vancouver, Paul wakes to find Tanya cranky and restless – she’s been unable to get a wink of sleep all night. It turns out that she isn’t the only one, and soon people begin differentiating the “Sleepers” from the “Awakened”. At first, people take it all with a certain air of optimism – after all, if some people are still sleeping, there must be a solution. And it seems as though children are having none of the sleepless nights their elders are suffering from whatsoever. But that optimism soon peters out as people enter the early stages of psychosis, and the people who are able to sleep become not only rare, but endangered.The novel is set in and around Vancouver’s West End and Stanley Park, a true urban jewel of old-growth Northwest rain forest a proverbial stone’s throw from the city. Barnes plays with real locations, old mythology, and long-forgotten words to weave a world that dips in and out of reality, using a voice that at times plays with the reader’s sensibilities, reading more like a poetic tripping of the light fantastic rather than a straight narrative piece of fiction. This reminds me somewhat of Neil Gaiman’s ability to come across as an old friend in his prose, and also of some of Clive Barker’s best fantasy (Imajica and Weaveworld). On a classical note, Barnes’s wordplay also reminds me of some of D.H. Lawrence’s shorter works, such as “The Fox”; much like Lawrence, this novel is less interested in where the characters are going than in how they get there.
While this kind of narrative goal can be frustrating (I was particularly disappointed that we are never given the keys to the “golden dream” dreamed by the sleepers – a tantalizing hint of some meaning behind the chaos that never quite materializes), there is, for me, more than enough going on to keep my interest, and it is deftly enough written that I will be looking forward to more of Barnes’s work in the future. Overall, a very strong first outing from a fresh voice – here’s hoping that Barnes continues with more of the same.
Steve’s Grade: A-
I found it somewhat ironic that Nod had no problem keeping me up late at night. Well worth a look for fans of post-apocalyptic or dystopian flavors of science fiction.
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LibraryThing member Dani14
First off I'll say that I did enjoy this book very much. I had a bit of trouble trying to follow the story in the very beginning because I had to stop and look up several words. I kind of felt like unusual words were thrown in just to make the story sound "smarter", if that makes any sense. I say
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that mainly because in the rest of the story there wasn't a single word I needed to look up. Past the beginning though the flow was perfect and I finished listening to this book in one day. I enjoyed the story and the deterioration of the mental state. Highly recommend! Show Less
LibraryThing member iansales
We’ve just had a somewhat controversial Clarke Award – but then, when hasn’t the Clarke been somewhat controversial? It was back in 2013, when Nod was shortlisted. From what I remember, Nod was seen as a quite baffling choice; although the same could also be said for The Dog Stars, also
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shortlisted that year, and which I read a year or two ago and thought not very good at all. Whereas Nod… Nod is one of those books written with a strong, idiosyncratic voice – not idiosyncratic like Riddley Walker or Engine Summer – but the first person narrator is chatty and irreverent and likes to pepper his story with witticisms and snide remarks and it’s really fucking annoying. The central premise is nicely done – suddenly no one can sleep, except for a handful – and the breakdown of civilisation as sleep deprivation psychosis kicks in, as seen in the narrator’s home town of Vancouver, is well-handled… But the way the book is written, the prose style, is like fingernails on a blackboard for me. I hated it. It was a test of endurance to read it. This is one of those books which illustrates the difference between “this book is good” and “I enjoyed this book”. I hated it, didn’t enjoy it at all, but could see it was put together with skill. My response to it is entirely personal; the book’s quality is intrinsic to it. The two should not be confused. Show Less
LibraryThing member fothpaul
This was a good one. The premise is an interesting one, unlike a lot of other apocalypse novels it doesn't feature any nuclear war etc. It has a general feeling of dread throughout a lot of it as society descends into chaos due to a lack of sleep, with the fear and envy driving everything. Sections
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of the book tug at the heartstrings, such as the main characters partner slowly losing her mind through a lack of sleep and the two of them drifting apart. Reflecting back on it now, the narrative of the child and the adult protecting the child from malevolence is reminiscent of the road. Show Less
LibraryThing member bragan
This novel features an unusual sort of apocalypse: one in which almost everyone entirely loses their ability to sleep and quickly descends into madness, while the few remaining sleepers all experience more or less the same oddly beautiful dream.
There is, I think, room in the world for an extremely
And I enjoyed it, if "enjoyed" is quite the right word for this sort of thing. The writing has a fresh, creative, casually inventive feel to it that I really liked. I feel like lately I've been reading a fair number of works that are trying to do something a bit unusual with language and story (or even with apocalyptic narratives) and left me thinking that while I can intellectually appreciate what the author was doing and the artistic energy that went into it, it just didn't quite do it for me as a reader. So it's really nice to have found one, finally, that, for whatever reason, did work this well for me.
There is, I think, room in the world for an extremely
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realistic take on an insomniac apocalypse, complete with carefully researched medical details. This is not that novel. This one has a slightly surreal feel to it, and no explanations for anything, and is more interested in exploring some half-glimpsed metaphors about language and our relationships to each other and to reality than in giving us a believable post-apocalyptic survival story. And I enjoyed it, if "enjoyed" is quite the right word for this sort of thing. The writing has a fresh, creative, casually inventive feel to it that I really liked. I feel like lately I've been reading a fair number of works that are trying to do something a bit unusual with language and story (or even with apocalyptic narratives) and left me thinking that while I can intellectually appreciate what the author was doing and the artistic energy that went into it, it just didn't quite do it for me as a reader. So it's really nice to have found one, finally, that, for whatever reason, did work this well for me.
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LibraryThing member tuusannuuska
3,6 stars
I loved the writing. Everything else was just okay. (The afterword made me tear up a little, though, not gonna lie.)
I loved the writing. Everything else was just okay. (The afterword made me tear up a little, though, not gonna lie.)
Awards
Arthur C. Clarke Award (Shortlist — 2013)
Pages
256
ISBN
1783298227 / 9781783298228