Reviews and Comments

"I am that part of the rainforest recently emerged into thinking." A profound and accessible introduction to the concept of deep ecology, presented in a relatively secular manner. This book is incredibly sincere and will likely provoke discomfort for those who believe any display of mourning for the environment is performative or melodramatic. If you can look past the occasional hint of spiritualism (or embrace it entirely if that works for you) then it will provide an enlightening framework for environmental thought crucial for anyone with a genuine love for our planet.

"I'll wait as long as all creation if only it will come again."

So many of my views have been radically altered by this book, and I adore the gorgeous typesetting and imagery in it. Neither a manifesto nor a work of fiction, Expect Resistance stands out as a dangerously attractive introduction to the theory and practice of anarchy. There was however a subtle vein of anti-intellectualism that pulse a little close to the surface at times, but if you view it as a revolt against dogmatic, capitalist "science" then I think you can forgive it.

We are drawn helplessly into the glamour of this world while knowing exactly how it turned out for those living in it. Reading this book is itself an exercise in how easily we can be manipulated by the promise of luxury under the guise of progress.
Somehow the CorpSlang came across as sincere and, ironically, almost organic - something few SF books manage to pull off.

This novel takes what could be rightly described as a stream-of-consciousness narrative and gives it substance, even something close to order. Concerned very much with the perception and passage of time, 'Autumn' may be mistakenly described as a novel without much of a plot, but I firmly believe that is exactly what Smith intended with it.

I was completely enamoured with this book for the first one hundred pages or so. I adored the cold yet philosophical musings of our narrator as she went about her rather squalid life, but at times I struggled to sympathise with A-Hu Li. I feel that Pelevin tries too hard at times to come off as Nabokov, the author that clearly inspired this novel, and ends up just writing in an overly vulgar manner with no redeeming features. Overall, my experience with this book was positive. I just wish that he has focused a little more on the bhuddist themes that he writes about so fluently in the last fifty pages.