Genesis: Amazon.ca: Bernard Beckett: Books

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Amazon Best of the Month, April 2009: If robots began to self-evolve, learning to feel and create as we do, what traits would set humans apart--and help us survive? Beckett isn't the first to dramatize this question, and his Genesis pays subtle homage to his predecessors (including Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke , and Philip K. Dick). But his near-future tale feels unique, and oddly credible. As the young historian Anax endures an examination by the Academy--an order of philosopher-rulers as imagined in Plato's Republic--we're brought up quickly on a catastrophic backstory: accelerating climate change, dust storms, rising fear and fundamentalism, the Last War, and the rise of a new Plato, who builds an island republic and seals it behind a Great Sea Fence. Plagues decimate human populations outside, while the Republic's surveillance society (thick with shadows of Huxley, Atwood, and Moore) flourishes under the Orwellian motto "Forward towards the past"--until it falls to forces led by the young rebel Adam Forde. The Academy interrogates Anax on Adam's period of imprisonment with the most advanced android of his time, and we witness their vicious sparring on the virtues of men and machines, the nature of consciousness, and what gives any life worth. It may not sound gripping, but Genesis reads like a thriller to the last word, propelled by the power of ideas longing to be unleashed. --Mari Malcolm

Review

"A taut, thrilling, thought-provoking dystopia. . . . Beautifully written, with an eye-popping conclusion."
—Maclean's

"A rich and intelligent examination of one way our world could potentially go wrong."
—Winnipeg Free Press

"If you have an appreciation for argument -- articulate, cogent, Socratic argument -- Beckett's apt dialogue . . . promises and delivers excellent and thorough debate. . . . The story has a surprising, well-paced plot with a challenging theatre of ideas."
—Globe and Mail

“Strikingly original.”
—Magpies

“Anaximander is a brilliant creation, one of the great characters of YA fiction.”
—New Zealand Books

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3.5 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Courtesy of Teens Read Too, Aug 12 2009

By

TeensReadToo "Eat. Drink. Read. Be Merrier." (All Over the US & Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Genesis (Hardcover)

Anax wants to become a member of The Academy. In order to be admitted, she must endure a four-hour interview in front of a three member panel. Anax has been working with a tutor in order to prepare herself.

It is through this interview that the reader learns the history of the world after a devastating plague killed most of the people on the planet. Safe behind the Great Sea Fence, her people keep their island safe by shooting any plane or boat that comes within sight.

The society is based on rigid rules: men and women living separately, parentage being kept from children, and at one year of age children are tested to determine what class they will be placed in based on their genomic reading (Laborers, Soldiers, Technicians, or Philosophers).

History is not what it seems.

Anax learns more about her world during the interview than she did during all her days of preparation. She realizes The Academy isn't what it appears to be, but is it too late to change her current path?

GENESIS is a fast-paced story. It is interesting to read about the post-apocalyptic world Anax lives in. Bernard Beckett does a great job of building the story without revealing too much too soon. The ending will leave you stunned.

Reviewed by: Karin Librarian

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3.0 out of 5 stars What Price Comes Utopia?, May 31 2011

By

Nicola Manning (Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME) (TOP 50 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Genesis (Hardcover)

Reason for Reading: I love dystopian literature and will read pretty much anything I can get my hands on as long as it sounds interesting to me.

The year is 2075, an island society lives behind a Great Sea Fence and is modeled after Plato's Republic. The society is Utopian to all those within, but watching over society very carefully is The Academy where the Original Sin has been concealed very carefully from this Brave New World.

Written in a unique format, we meet Anaximander as she begins her four hour oral exam to gain entry as an historian at The Academy. The book's chapters are divided into the four separate hours of Q & A followed by a stretch of break time between each where Anax is left to her thoughts. Anax's project is based on Adam Forde a great cultural hero who died before the Great War. Through her telling of his story and the questions asked of her we learn the history of this world: the global disasters, the Last War, the seclusion of The Republic behind the Great Sea Fence, the plague that destroyed much of mankind and The Republic's response to killing any who sought asylum with them, and finally, the beginning of the Great War which tore down the old Republic and established the New Platonic Republic. We are mostly exposed to Adam and his world, along with an Artificial Intelligence (AI) device that has been left with Adam after he ends up in jail, as all true great people's hero's eventually do. It is through Adam's and Art's relationship and lack of such that we really get to know this man and his society and eventually back to Anax's. The surprise reveal at the ending was a shock to me but now that I've thought about it I should have seen it coming, but I didn't.

The book is unusual. It wasn't a page-turner for me and took longer for me to read 185 pages than it should have. But it was interesting and never did I consider putting the book away, or *not* continuing on with it. The story lingers with me. The ending is certainly what makes the book worth the read and leaves one to ponder on many levels. Readable.

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Amazon.com: 4.1 out of 5 stars (101 customer reviews)

30 of 30 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Rare, Jun 17 2009

By Amalfitano - Published on Amazon.com

I hate paying more than $10 dollars for a book. But I walked into Borders, saw this book sitting there, opened to the first page, and two minutes later I was out $20 dollars and happier than ever. From there I proceeded to read the book over a two day period, very dismayed every time real life asked me to put it down. Then I finished it. You should also know I also hate writing reviews on amazon (everyone else does such a good job, it's very intimidating). But this book was so good I felt like it'd be tantamount to sin not to go online and spend a few minutes giving it five stars and trying to convince the masses of their need to read it as well.

Not only is the quality of prose superb, but the style is elegant and the ideas hidden in the plot are both important and intelligent. I noticed another reviewer saying that the final plot twist was "out of the blue and not well built-up." That's generally one of my pet peeves when it comes to movies and novels, but fortunately for us, this book was not guilty of such a crime. I saw the elements leading up to the conclusion start appearing very early on and although I was happily surprised with the end, it all made perfect sense and fit nicely with the theories I'd had simmering in the back of my mind since before halfway through the book. It's not a very long book, so it deserves your attention as you read through the relatively small number of pages it asks of you.

All I can really say is that I really really liked this book. I'm not the pickiest of readers, but I do consider myself well read both in the sci-fi arena and in the literature of several countries. Still, I'd put this book among the best I've ever read. I feel like the ideas, plot, and prose are all individually good enough to merit a reading of a book this length, and together are so brilliant as to make not reading it nothing short of inexcusable laziness. You should really read this book.

42 of 46 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars "The only thing binding individuals together is ideas.", April 2 2009

By Luan Gaines "luansos" - Published on Amazon.com

This small book is inherently provocative as it plunges into the distant future, 2075, when the world as we know it has finally spiraled into paranoia and endless wars in an orgy of self-destruction. Even for the common good, countries have been unable to overcome their mutual distrust. The result is The Republic, an area separated from a disintegrating world by a great sea wall, intruders scarce after years of war and plague outside the barrier. The structured society of the Republic is based on a careful alignment of working principles, a combination of science and technology, four distinct classes meeting the needs of a secure environment: Laborers, Soldiers, Technicians and Philosophers.

In Genesis, Anaximander stands before a panel of examiners, applying for a place in the Academy that requires a four-hour oral question and answer session. Three years of intensive study with a mentor have brought Anax to this moment. Grilled by her impassive inquisitors, Anax recites her extensive knowledge of the history of the Republic, the evolution of her chosen subject and her careful dissection of the relevance of this subject to the formation of society. Anax's chosen topic is the subject of myth, a critical part of society's evolution.. Intimidated by the three examiners, Anax is nevertheless confident, replying to the questions with quiet authority.

Anax posits her theories through recorded dialog, focusing the distinctions between humanity and technology and the philosophy of man vs. machine, man's inherent superiority despite the advances of science and technology. In a brilliant exchange of ideas, logic dominates the discussion, with flashes of passion, even hubris. This is unfamiliar territory, the future in thrall to a carefully-orchestrated balance of science, technology and ideas.

Seduced by Beckett's persuasive prose, the reader gains access to an otherworldly future via Anax's responses to her inquisitor's questions and the significance of a shifting paradigm for survival. Like Anax, the reader is caught in the intricate web of plausible argument, a rejection of conspiracy and the vital energy of an engaged consciousness. All the more shocking then, the culmination of Anax's quest and the inherent flaws in the integration of individual and technology. Beckett's hook baited, the careful playing out of line draws the unsuspecting closer to an unexpected fate. Luan Gaines/2009.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars No spoilers here ----- fascinating modern science fiction, May 31 2009

By N. Ferguson "Two, Daisy, Hannah, and Kitten" - Published on Amazon.com

Pre-release customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program

Wow. What an interesting and unusual short novel!

To me, this has something of the feel of a classic early Isaac Asimov story (but with far more modern assumptions, challenges, and true emotional resonance). It is real, hard-core science fiction, a new and very original imagining of the future.

At less than 150 pages, this novel is short enough to encourage the reader to persist; the structure of the novel helps, too (it is divided into the 4 hours of Anax's "examination", with intermissions in the form of "breaks" she is given between hours). Still, this is an intellectually demanding book-- the reader has to pay attention and think about each paragraph.

I particularly valued one aspect of this book: it is almost unique in combining both deep emotional awareness and very complex ideas about ethics, philosophy, and technology.

******* A caution: this book will be absolutely wrecked by any spoilers. If you sense once coming in another review, stop reading! The twist in the final portion of this book is the essence of the book, and it would be soooooooooo sad if the reader knew it was coming in advance.

Overall, an absorbing, not-light, orginal, complex, fascinating, and emotionally engaging novel, written by a scientist who is clearly a passionate person who cares deeply about the dilemmas humanity faces. If you can appreciate a very unique story-telling style and unique imagining of the future you will enjoy "Genesis". (And as an aside, the cover of the book is brilliant-- provides clues to the puzzle of the book.)

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