Alternate History

Review: Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

The alternate history Never Let Me Go follows the lives of several children who grew up in a strange, special school. It’s very well written (the author is the guy who wrote The Remains of the Day and won the Nobel Prize for Literature), but the real focus of the book is not really about the characters, but about the slow reveal of why the school and the children were special.

Once this secret is revealed, I expected the characters to react in a certain way (I can’t say how without spoiling the book). However, none of the characters reacted in that way at all, which seemed like such a bizarre and unlikely choice that it completely pulled me out of the story.

Recommendation: Get it at the library. If you’re already a fan of author Kazuo Ishiguro, you’ll probably like it. If you’re a writer, you should read it just to see what he does and how he does it.

Dan

Share
Published by
Dan

Recent Posts

Review: <em>Zoey Is Too Drunk for This Dystopia</em> by Jason Pargin

Author Jason Pargin has made a career out of hilarious and fast-moving books with surprisingly…

1 year ago

Review: <em>The Tusks of Extinction</em> by Ray Nayler

The Tusks of Extinction is a short novellette/novelito (smaller than a novella) where mammoths have…

1 year ago

The Best Silkpunk Books

There are a couple of science fiction books in this list, but right now, most…

1 year ago

Review: <em>Venomous Lumpsucker</em> by Ned Beauman

In the near-future world of Venomous Lumpsucker, everything has continued to get worse, to the…

1 year ago

The Best Dark Science Fiction Books

Calling a book "dark" can mean many things, and the books on this list mean…

1 year ago

The Best Science Fiction Books with Gas Giants

Gas giants are wonderfully weird, mysterious, and incredibly dangerous. It's surprising there aren't more gas…

1 year ago