Cover Image: Sea Change

Sea Change

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Member Reviews

My only previous experience reading the author was with her short story collection Fountain of Age, which had led me to expect smart literary science fiction with well developed greyhaired characters of a certain age and maturity level. To be fair, Sea Change was very much along those lines. A novel of climate themed science fiction, a subgenre very popular now in the way the good science fiction has always mirrored the world around it, offering occasionally all too prescient scenarios, to educate, to warn or (as it seems to do lately) land on obstinately deaf ears. The latest report from United Nations states that the world has failed to lower its poisonous emissions, in fact some countries are stepping it up, yes, that would be US and China. So plenty of reason to be alarmed. Although in this book, the author takes on another controversial subject…GMOs. The entire book and its greyhaired protagonist are dedicated to advocating for GMOs. Mind you, she wasn’t always greyhaired, our protagonist, the story jumps around enough so that we follow an entire life’s trajectory for decades, from college years to present day, set in a near distant future. The trajectory, however, has always been more of a straight line, for she of many names, but originally Renata Black, has always been determined to save the world. The causes have changed over the years, finally landing on promotion of GMOs. To that end, Renata joins an environmental group, whose methods range from education to more aggressive measures. It is when this nameless Org gets threatened by exposure, that things get especially complicated and dangerous. So the main scenario is that in the near future America undergoes an economic and social collapse, following refusal to utilize GMOs. There’s been some poisonings, GMOs get blamed, the kneejerk reaction ensures they are banned, which avalanches into all sorts of terrible things. Renata means to fight the system. She’s willing to sacrifice her marriage or any prospects of future relationships on that altar. And
her son’s tragic death from poisoning is what really sets her on a one way train to radicalization. She becomes something of a fanatic, understandably in a way, but also (for me, anyway) offputting. Kress is a master of mature characters, sure, but this isn’t one of her best characters. I didn’t really like Renata at all and, because she carries the entire story, it affected my enjoyment of the book. I found her singleminded zealotry and self righteous convictions to be distinctly unpalatable. And I know, she can’t help it, it’s how she’s written, she fits the story, the story fits her, but for me it’s difficult to impossible to separate the narrative from the narrator. This is, after all, a Renata’s story. Theoretically her moral rigidity, her lack of personal engagement, her determination are essential to her character’s zealotry, but it might have been more interesting had Renata showed more complexity and dimensions. In fact, outside of her one love affair and her son, who immediately eclipsed that, there just isn’t much to her as a person. And then there’s a fact that the message is so heavy handed in this book. I mean, in a way it almost reads like an elaborate GMO promotion. You know, how some magazines have articles that are essentially sponsored material dedicated to promote a specific product, well, this is a book version of this. The message (loud and clean and neon lettered) is this…use GMOs and feed the world or abstain and starve. So it’s somewhat divisive, depending on where you stand on this, but also reads all too much like proselytizing. Unlikeable protagonist and heavy handed message don’t really make for great reading, despite objectively good writing from an objectively talented author. I suppose, this book would work for some, though, since my opinion on it was so colored by subjective preferences. It reads well and is slim enough to quickly get through. Environmentally minded audience might enjoy this dystopian take on the near future. Or maybe it’d be great for some original activists from the 70s, which if what this book reminded me so much of. The same sort of dogooder at all costs, black and white, mentality that can often lead to dangerous actions. Anyway, this review has gone on long enough. Read the book and judge it for yourself. For me…it didn’t quite work. I wanted more. I wanted to like the plot as much as the writing, etc. Or to care more. Thanks Netgalley.

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It was my first novel by Nancy kress though I heard the name in some recommendations. I had quite bigexpectations to this one, but unfortuately I didn't much like the novel. While the whole concept of a book is great, for such a short story it was too much tell and too little show for me. First few chapter are most a lot of information throwing at us with not much happening. And there were flashbacks chapters that could be reduced to lesser amount in my opinion.

I expected something fast-paced with a lot of future theory and there are some interesting question asked, but all is overwhelmed but a lot of words and details that not good for a book that is not even 200 pages long.

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