Stephanie Jane recenzis Farm Land: Sentience de G Lawrence
A perfect Veganuary read!
5 steloj
Prior to starting Veganuary in 2029 I asked for recommendations for novels featuring vegan characters to help keep me motivated through the month. Author Terry Tyler came up with Farm Land: Sentience by Gemma Lawrence. I already knew I love Terry's writing so I figured if she enjoyed this book then I would too and I was right. I think Farm Land: Sentience is brilliant - and perfectly suited to Veganuary reading!
Farm Land: Sentience is set many generations into the future after human activity caused catastrophic climate change and wiped most of us out. In this world, humans are no longer the dominant species and I loved Lawrence's ideas about what could have taken our place. We explore through following the experiences of a girl who will be called Holt. She escapes from a horrific captive existence underground which is vividly portrayed at the beginning of the story. Lawrence …
Prior to starting Veganuary in 2029 I asked for recommendations for novels featuring vegan characters to help keep me motivated through the month. Author Terry Tyler came up with Farm Land: Sentience by Gemma Lawrence. I already knew I love Terry's writing so I figured if she enjoyed this book then I would too and I was right. I think Farm Land: Sentience is brilliant - and perfectly suited to Veganuary reading!
Farm Land: Sentience is set many generations into the future after human activity caused catastrophic climate change and wiped most of us out. In this world, humans are no longer the dominant species and I loved Lawrence's ideas about what could have taken our place. We explore through following the experiences of a girl who will be called Holt. She escapes from a horrific captive existence underground which is vividly portrayed at the beginning of the story. Lawrence effectively describes scenes through senses other than sight and I felt this gave me a good understanding of the Pit and its inhabitants. I could also appreciate the grim parallels with our world as it is in 2018.
Lawrence brings together varied elements in creating her story. We have fantasy and dystopia, traditional storytelling and a little romance, exciting action scenes and philosophical discussion. I was pleasantly surprised by how well all the threads meshed especially as I don't consider myself a fantasy reader. Here, however, I was reminded more of folktale inspired novels such as Redemption In Indigo by Karen Lord or even Nnedi Okorafor's Lagoon. Holt herself is someone I could easily root for even though she is often impetuous and naive. These traits are understandable considering her personal history. I loved how we got to see varied environments as Holt travels across the land, intentionally or by accident, and Lawrence's detailed worldbuilding had me convinced all the time. There are amusing nods to 21st century living such as the 'precious plastic'! I felt this story was an action adventure overall, but one driven by nuanced and authentic characters acting in completely plausible ways. I couldn't help but feel strongly for tormented Hather, and Holt's romance is sweetly underplayed. Perhaps I could have done with less of the inspirational speechifying in the latter stages, but I'm using that to scrape for criticisms!
Without, I hope, spoilering the story, I was delighted that Farm Land: Sentience does Not end on a cliff hanger because I loathe that! Threads are left open for further novels in this series, but I appreciated feeling that I had also read a whole story within this first book. I do wish I hadn't read it so fast though because I don't know how long I might wait for the second book? I thought these 400-odd pages would last several days, but I just couldn't put the book aside for more than a few minutes. Holt's adventures had me totally gripped!