Couldn't buy into it.

I normally have a pretty easy time buying into a story, but this one just had too many things that broke my suspension of disbelief. Once I got used to the narrators (there are several to match the point of view of each chapter) I tried to get into the story. It was farfetched but I was willing to go with it. I just kept finding myself distracted and wondering whether or not people in that situation would act that way instead of wondering about the story or the characters. Generally I came to the conclusion, there were several things that are basic human nature, that would have happened long before in this world.

I also didn't think the story was very original. It's basically Lord of the Flies on another planet. I also really didn't care for most of the characters. It maybe because the story is told from several people's point of view that we never really get to know any of them, I'm not sure.

This obviously this was the start of a series but I won't be listening to the rest.
Save your time and listen to something else.


(Spoilers)........

Spoilers.


Here are few of the my problems with the plot:

You figure out the big surprise at the end pretty early into the story. The space ship ended up crashing back on the planet, no one from earth is coming and they are stuck on the planet forever. It was so obvious that when it happens I just thought it was just a sub plot put in for character development. But That's it, the story ends. I guess the author was going for a big dramatic Planet of Apes ending, but it just fizzled for me.

In the story we are supposed to believe in 160 years, no one has explored this planet beyond the one little valley they live in. No one has pushed building tools, boats or other things beyond the most basic, basic level. I get it was such a lush forest that no one really had to work for anything until the population grew but these people knew all about earths technology and didn't try to duplicate things as simple as the wheel.

Everyone sleeps with everyone and no one really cares. Yeah sure they are a little jealous but it's just accepted. No one even knows who the fathers of the children are. I understand in world with no diseases people may have lots of free love, but I couldn't buy there were no monogamous couples, no family units at all.

In a 160 years no one has killed another person.

In a 160 years no one has raped another person, even though the "Batface's" and "Clawfeet" men weren't popular with the women and didn't get to "Slip" like the other guys.

Then after 160 years of all of this going on one boy changes everything and within a couple years people start acting like people.

54 people found this helpful

A Ripping Yarn

I don’t read a lot of fiction, and I can count the number of science fiction books I’ve read on the fingers of one hand, so I was quite curious to see how much I would enjoy Dark Eden. The answer was ‘a lot’. Forgive me if I don’t know the genre well enough to judge whether this is truly a good example of sci-fi, but I loved it.

The story takes place some time in the not too distant future, when humans are able to travel into distant space, but they still have some familiar old technology such as radio, television, electricity and police vehicles. We only know this secondhand, however, because we are told about this technology by ancestors of 3 earth colonists who crash landed there and then formed a ‘fee-amily’ of about 500 people by interbreeding with each other.

They have heard about radios and television, but never seen them for themselves.
They are very simple souls who live a hunter-gatherer existence living off the exotic flora and fauna of this dark planet. There is no sun, and the only light comes from trees and animals who generate it through their evolved 'lee-anterns’, supplemented by a little bit of starlight and the light from human fires. There is a high incidence of birth deformities in this community, such as hair-lip ('Bat Face') and claw-foot resulting, presumably, from the interbreeding.

They all believe in a kind of creation story about their ancestors, and harbour a quasi- religious belief that earth will one day return to Dark Eden to fetch them back, even though it is about 150 years since their ancestors landed there. In order not to miss being picked up by earthlings, they all feel obliged to stay close to the original landing spot in a crater on the planet’s surface called ‘Circle Vee-ally’, even though the area has been over-hunted and food is growing too scarce to feed the growing Fee-amily.

But there is one character, John Red-Lee-Antern, who is different to all the rest. He doesn’t believe that the Fee-amily is destined to stay in this one small part of the planet waiting to be picked up. He wants to go on a dangerous trip over the top of ‘Snowy Dark’ in search of richer pastures. He has the courage and the vision to explore this unknown terrain, with exciting consequences for the rest of the story.

It is very appealing the way the fee-amily has evolved its own dialect and customs. They have become quite a primitive community, even though they are descended from advanced humans.

The characterisation and dialogue are very convincing and interesting. I found the book compelling from the beginning to the end and will now be keen to give sci-fi another go.

39 people found this helpful

Fascinating, but problematic

This is the story of the descendents of Tommy and Angela who were marooned on an alien planet in an unknown part of an unknown galaxy. The 500 descendents of Tommy and Angela have outgrown the little area of Eden they inhabit, but only one person is willing to face the challenge of spreading out across an unknown world.

This was an interesting premise and the world building in this book is excellent. Everything from the source of the planet's warmth, to the lights on the living organisms, to the common birth defects in the Family Tree that never branches. It's these two points that made me give this a 3 star rating (if I were feeling less generous, that would be a 2 star rating). The rest of the book... not so great.

Firstly, there is a language issue at the beginning of the book. The people in this story speak a different dialect of English that has evolved over the 160 or so years they've been on Eden. Certain "a" sounds are pronounced up in the sinuses which makes words like "lantern," "valley," and "family" sound like "lee-antern," "vee-alley," and "fee-amily." This was well-coordinated amongst the narrators so when you do finally get the hang of the lingo and accent, its not too difficult to follow the story. Still, it took at least 20 minutes for the words to begin to make sense as I was listening, and it still bothered me at least 3 hours into the recording.

Secondly, the portrayal of women in this book is extremely problematic. The society on Eden is matriarchal, and yet the women just seem to be the administrators (when they're not busy procreating) while men do the actual leading. There are women leaders, but we don't really see them leading; we see them deposed. Additionally, the rules of their society state that men and women can only "slip" when the woman grants permission (and women in this book usually do the propositioning), but there are three rape scenes in this book. In the first, a woman makes a boy touch her and that is upsetting not just to the boy, but to his entire community and the woman who did it is ostracized. In the second, a girl is raped and just thinks to herself, "man, he must have been really upset!" and then there is no future mention of it. The third time, when the same girl is nearly raped, the incident is the catalyst for the big conflict in the book not because the girl is nearly raped, but because of what happens when that rape is interrupted.

But let's go back to that procreation angle. The women do the vast majority of the propositioning in this book. But they don't do it because sex is fun, or because it's enjoyable, or because they like it. With the exception of the aforementioned rape scene, they do it because they want babies. They want the "baby juice." Grown women proposition 15 year old boys for the sake of procreation. This leads to some of the most awkward and unsexy sex scenes I've ever read. And that's before you're reminded for the umpteenth time that all of these people are very closely related.

Thirdly, the characters are static. When I read a book, I expect the characters to learn and grow. That doesn't really happen. The protagonist remains handsome and arrogant. The antagonist remains ugly and belligerent. The main "love interest" (for lack of a better word) is the only character that changes, and her motivations for that change are never explained (see previous paragraph).

Lastly, this book just stops. The dramatic structure is interrupted just before the climax. We have exposition, rising action, and then just when you think the climax is about to happen, the book ends.

This is the first Chris Beckett book I've ever read, so I am unfamiliar with his personal beliefs. That said, I think that Dark Eden was meant not as a cohesive, stand-alone story, but as commentary on the Biblical Adam and Eve story. This would explain the static characters and the lack of any climax or resolution. It's an interesting thought exercise, but I feel this book would have been far more satisfying if it had used the creation story as inspiration rather than a source. This would have given him the opportunity to finish what he'd started, resolve the conflict, and let us know where the characters go from here.

37 people found this helpful

Hope to see a sequel soon

John Redlantern is done with simply waiting. He is one of more than 500 people stuck in a cycle that was intended to be temporary. They are all waiting for rescue, because their parents and grandparents have passed down a plan which was constructed by their ancestors, more than 100 years ago.

Generations ago, 5 earthlings crashed on a strange planet with no sun. Three left, they were to come back with help from earth; Tommy and Angela stayed behind, waiting for their rescue. They become the original parents to a colony of their descendants.

Years of inbreeding, combined with limited knowledge, have addled most of their minds and bodies, but not everyone. John and his friends are forward thinkers. This story is about those who dared to ask what if we are stuck here? Shouldn't we start to live as if we will never be rescued?

Written from several points of view, the story seamlessly allows the reader to understand where the characters stand, and how they developed into their current ways of thinking.

The ending could be final, but it gives hope for sequels!

23 people found this helpful

A Masterpiece in Science Fiction and Fiction

I have just finished this wonderful book. The characters are so well delineated and described, and the tour de force is the special language so well performed by the numerous narrators/actors. It is easy to believe and shows in a simple yet very complex way so many things that we think about in profound moods: the role that gender plays in our decision making and the course of history, the "telephone game" way that oral history is passed forward through time, the ways that major incidents can be changed through lies and prejudices, biology and inbreeding, and more. The language that is created is infectious, both easy and hard to understand. I highly recommend this novel because it is thought provoking, and the journey it takes you on is both obvious and convoluted. It helped me to understand my life in some ways, and it took me into the "Family" and offshoots who brave a dark world in different ways through fear, pride, eloquence and deep character development. The narrators are spectacular compared to many books I've listened to. No one in the book is perfect, no one is too hard to understand either, and the interactions between the inhabitants of this Dark Eden are understandable, unpredictable and fascinating. The ending is a bit confusing, honestly, but perhaps opens us for a second book from Dark Eden?? A+++ book! Great read! I hope this is helpful to other readers. I couldn't put the book down. Was up all night listening! Enjoy:) and learn in a different way than most books are configured.

22 people found this helpful

An unfortunate and painful listen

This is the story of inbreed survivors of a long lost space expedition. Either it is far too cleaver and everything feels a bit on the special spectrum because all the characters are 5th generation inbreeds, or its actually as dumb as it sounds. I still can't tell.

The main protagonist is static as can be. Arrogant, selfish and self-rightist, heart of stone and dispassionate. He fails to connect in any way as very human in my opinion. There is no interesting change or challenge to him because he enters the book as a hard ass, and continues through the whole book the same way. It could have been interesting if he was really weak at any point in the story.

The style is just down right bothersome. Want to make a word sound important? Say it again. And again. This is down right over used. There is lots of use of noises not described as normally expected, but actually spelled out (I am assuming because the narrators feel the need to try and reproduce them). Expletives are weird, and mostly about genitals. Speaking of, dirty, passionless sex fills this book which is even weirder because every character is related.

The narration is again, either too cleaver, or just dumb. A large cast doesn't bring any real depth to the experience. The accents are thick and sometimes downright laughable. Also, if you hail from the colonies you'll likely be wondering about the following words: Lantern, Family, and Valley. Is that really how it is pronounced? Why does it sound so weird? The sounds are all there, but good lord, why does this grate on my ears?
The worst part of these particular 3 words is that they make up maybe 5% of the book. I wish I was kidding, but it could actually be true.

In the end, its a concept play more then a story. It makes me think of a twist on Lord of the Flies by William Golding. If you liked that book I think you will really like this one. But if that one bothered the heck out of you like it did me, then maybe this one isn't worth the credit.

21 people found this helpful

Very well thought out story

Would you listen to Dark Eden again? Why?

No, because I rarely listen to novels twice. Self help book several times.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Jeff. Jeff was always asking the right questions, even if his group had no idea of what he was talking about. He saw animals not just as food, but as having personal lives of their own, with interests and purpose.

What about the narrators’s performance did you like?

It was a lot like listening to a play with all the different voices. Very interesting and gave the story an extra dimensions.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes, I could not put it down but listened to it in about two days time. This was so unusual that could not wait to see what would happen next. There is a bit in all of us that wonders what is on the other side of the mountain....this story took that idea to a new level. I hope there will be a second book to continue the journey.

Any additional comments?

All the characters were very believable as we heard the personal thoughts of each one, and saw the world from their unique perspective. The dialog was coherent with the type of language that might have evolved if no one corrected it for a few hundred years. In addition I loved the kids made up slang, which was fun and believable.

19 people found this helpful

Interesting, slow paced, NC-17

The story is generally interesting, apparently an intentional twist on the biblical Cain vs Able... just on a starless planet. I could feel the planet's darkness throughout the book. The ending left me haunted, even though I knew it was coming. However, nowhere did the author deal with the effects of little to no light on the human brain, as in SADD.

The narrative convention of different characters telling their internal thoughts in different chapters was an interesting twist on the usual narrative from one person's point of view throughout a book.

The repeated words like "Bad bad" is reminiscent of Newspeak in Orwell's 1984, "double plus bad".

I'm surprised this won the 2013 Arthur C. Clark award - I don't recall any of Clark's books containing NC-17 "sex sex" content.

Overall good, but far too much explicit sexual content for Arthur C. Clark and most was completely unnecessary for the plot.

14 people found this helpful

Can I get my credit back?

No discernible plot? Check. Boring, undeveloped characters? Check. Crude and borderline perverted sexual content? Check. Faked Boston/ British accents and childish sound effects from the cast? Check. Yup seems about right. This is truly the worst book I have ever taken in to my brain. Lunacy not literature; imbecilic not insightful. Dear author Chris Beckett, I will see you in Eden because it sure felt like the depths of heck to me!

13 people found this helpful

More family drama instead of scifi

Five humans from Earth left on a space mission but due to their space craft breaking down, they landed on what came to be known as Eden. It’s been 150 years since their landing and of the five humans arrived on Eden, three of them decided to fix the spacecraft and go back to Earth. The other two decided to remain which led to them populating the planet. Now the 538 people/families are waiting to be saved by the people on Earth. Eden residents believe that the three who returned to Earth in the space craft will send someone to rescue them. After generations, it seems John Redlantern is the only who wants to think and be different, he wants to try something novel, he doesn’t want to wait, he thinks they themselves should try to find a way to go to Earth.

Redlantern is a rebel of sorts, he has definite opinions on what the family should be doing and going. Breaking the rules, he goes to the dark side of Eden to learn the planets secrets. Redlantern is a strong, heroic type of guy in a over the top way. Tina, a staunch supporter of anything Redlantern does, follows him everywhere. She is not portrayed as his sidekick or a main character. In fact, any or all women mentioned in the story do not have much of a significance.

The concept of another planet is nicely created and the human language is tweaked in such small and different ways that it takes time getting used to the “difference of language” while listening.

The differences are repetition and use of words differently such as: I was dreading dreading. I was so tired tired. Swearing is more like “Harry’s dick” and the humans have evolved so much that there are bat faces and club foots in the population.

Although, these linguistic modifications are interesting at first; they alone won’t keep you engaged for long enough. The sexual innuendos and the concept of women being just baby factories were not really imperative to the story so their presence didn’t add any new angles.

Although there are interesting revelations at the end, it is a little hard to get through as there is more of family drama and family fights rather than the sci-fi stuff with small chunks of mystery. Getting started with the actual story of undertaking the endeavor of going back to Earth is long and becomes banal.

Since there are multiple characters in the book, there are multiple narrators and all of them have done a fairly good job, although the production and the sounds of forests and trees, alarms and horns, is different and true to what is expected, they do not add to the story but rather takes away from it. The sound seems hollow throughout, the female narrators did put a great twist while expressing emotions but were a little squeaky.

Audiobook was purchased for review by ABR.

Please find this complete review and many others at my review blog

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12 people found this helpful