Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel

Summary:

DAY ONE: The Georgia Flu explodes over the surface of the earth like a neutron bomb. News reports put the mortality rate at over 99%.

WEEK TWO: Civilization has crumbled.

YEAR TWENTY: A band of actors and musicians called the Travelling Symphony move through their territories performing concerts and Shakespeare to the settlements that have grown up there. Twenty years after the pandemic, life feels relatively safe.

But now a new danger looms, and he threatens the hopeful world every survivor has tried to rebuild.

Moving backwards and forwards in time, from the glittering years just before the collapse to the strange and altered world that exists twenty years after, Station Eleven charts the unexpected twists of fate that connect six people: famous actor Arthur Leander; Jeevan - warned about the flu just in time; Arthur's first wife Miranda; Arthur's oldest friend Clark; Kirsten, a young actress with the Travelling Symphony; and the mysterious and self-proclaimed 'prophet'.

About the Author:

Emily St John Mandel is a Canadian author. She has written 6 novels including ‘Sea of Tranquility’ which debuted at number on the New York Times Bestseller List.

Rating:

4 stars - ★★★★☆

Review:

I’m not overthinking this one, despite some hang-ups, I enjoyed Station Eleven. The characters weren’t that memorable (except Arthur Leander’s first wife Miranda who was the only one with any kind of character traits and feelings), there weren’t lots of beautiful descriptions, there wasn’t even that much action for a post apocalyptic world. I didn’t really feel any particular emotions surrounding the characters. But it was really easy to read, I enjoyed it and I wanted to find out how it ended. 

It certainly was an interesting premise - a group of people who are loosely linked go through ‘the end of the world’, we follow their stories and see where they all end up.

In terms of the actual content, some stuff didn’t make tons of sense. Like how after 20 years, even though the infrastructure is still there, no one has managed to get anywhere close to the old way of life. Why do people not live better in the abandoned houses? Sure they don’t have electricity and water but why choose to live in a tent or an old service station instead? Why are there not more homesteads? There would still be crops and livestock. But most of the people seem to live in this ‘in-between’ place, still waiting to be saved. After 20 years. 

I liked the parallels between the Doctor Eleven comics and the world in the book, with the smaller villages and encampments linked by dangerous routes, and the lack of communication with anyone else. Would have been cool to see some snippets of the comics? Some comic book chapters maybe?

I would have liked to have seen more drama from the prophet storyline. That seemed to end quite quickly. I would have liked more adventures on the road. And more backstory for each character between 20 years ago and the ‘current’ time. Maybe less characters but more in depth for the fewer characters. I do often wish that books were longer with more descriptions and backstory.

I also didn’t understand the significance of some things. Like there were a few items that kept popping up (paperweight, comics…) but apart from them passing hands and then serving to work out how characters were linked, they didn’t seem to have any real reason for being there. And I don’t think it was hard to work out how characters were linked even without these random items, so why include them? I was expecting more.

I did initially think that Mandel wrote Station Eleven during the COVID 19 pandemic as there were lots of similarities however I was surprised to learn that it was written in 2014!

I also think Station Eleven would probably make a good movie because of the speed and the interlinked stories. Is it already a movie? (I later learned that it is a TV show which I would like to watch).

I did enjoy reading Station Eleven. The concept was really interesting (possibly more so after the COVID pandemic), there were lots of characters and it was interesting to see how all their stories intertwined. If you’re into post-apocalyptic stories and want something pretty easy to read then I would definitely recommend Station Eleven.  

New Words:

Gumption: Shrewd or spirited initiative and resourcefulness (this is one of my favourite words since the movie 'The Holiday')

Quotes:

Because survival is insufficient.

A fragment for my friend - If your soul left this earth I would follow and find you. Silent, my starship suspended in night.

Hell is the absence of the people you long for.