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Dec 16, 2009

Aerin rated it:

This is one of those very rare cases where the film is much better than the book. I absolutely adore the movie, with its dark themes, breakneck pace, and stunning cinematography. Its only drawback is that because of how quickly the plot moves, there isn't much in the way of character development. I hoped the book would provide that.

And it does. Too much. The book is so wrapped up in character that it slows the story down to a crawl; even when the protagonists are running for the More...

7 comments like (26 people liked it)

Feb 22, 2011

Chris rated it:

I saw the film adaptation of P. D. James' dystopian tale on television last night - with Caine and Owen reliably excellent - for the third or fourth time; and it reminded me, yet again, how much I'd enjoyed the novel upon which it was (loosely) based. James is one of those middle-aged female British writers - Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine is another - who put their seemingly endless supply of interesting, somewhat dark stories to the page with a considerable amount of subtlety and elegance stuffed i More...

1 comment like (5 people liked it)

Jun 05, 2008

Patrick rated it:

I'm a sucker for apocalypse novels, so maybe I'm not the most objective reviewer, but this one rocked me. It's a beautifully written, very cleverly constructed novel of ideas that also features a well-developed main character. James is writing about alienation and estrangement (personal, political, social), but she also offers a really thoughtful, really interesting exploration of political responsibility in the face of tyranny. One star gets deducted from what would otherwise be a five-star rev More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Jan 27, 2009

Logan rated it:

I wanted to love this book, I really did. I have a very large soft spot for the P.D. James mysteries that I'd read and Alfonso Cuaron's adaptation of this book was beautiful, dark and easily the most wrenching apocalyptic film that I can think of. If only the source material lived up to the grandeur of the film.

Don't get me wrong, it's still a remarkably bleak book. It's set in the year 2021 and the last child born to humankind, twenty-five years previously, has just been killed. More...

3 comments like (5 people liked it)

Dec 24, 2007

Alex rated it:

I was disappointed by the film, finding myself unable to muster sympathy for the characters, but I was intrigued by the basic plot and so ventured out to explore the novel. PD James' original creation follows a plot significantly different compared to that of the movie, but I found it to be no less disappointing. The main character, Theo, was perhaps even less likable, due mostly to his lack of conviction about anything during the first half of the book. I was never able to develop an intense fe More...

0 comments like (7 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Trin rated it:

I loved the recent film version of this (which should have gotten WAY more Oscar nominations, dammit!), so of course I had to read the book, which I’d been told was very different. Is it ever! While the basic premise remains the same, many of the events—and pretty much the entire meaning of the novel—were altered for the film. While the movie is LOUD and VIOLENT, the book is quiet and desolate and lonely. The book explores themes of guilt and how men (er, mostly I mean humans here rather than ma More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Aug 03, 2009

Shanon rated it:

I found this story dull. I almost stopped at several times but pressed on based on the high ratings of friends. It wasn't until the final chapter that I really cared what happened. However, I have a feeling the story & the message behind it will stick with me a VERY LONG time. So often we refer to a birth as the "miracle of birth" but how often do we really see it as a miracle. Modern medicine and technology has removed so much of the risk for so many people. But the fact that we More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 11, 2008

Loren rated it:

From ISawLightningFall.blogspot.com

TWO-AND-A-HALF STARS

P.D. James’ The Children of Men is built around a single question: What would happen if women couldn’t conceive? That’s exactly what’s on the minds of everyone on earth in the year 2021, not least of Theodore Faron, historian and only surviving relative to the despotic Warden of England, Xan Lyppiatt. Sterility has held sway over the human race for 25 years, and outlying towns are falling into disrepair as the populat More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 26, 2008

Laura rated it:

I don't know what I think about this book. It's undeniably VERY well-done, but aside form that I'm unsure. I felt like at times she was patching a bit purple, but it was all right. The character of Theo is well-done, but there's little explanation for why he's become the way he is: he waxes all morose about himself for being unable to feel the emotion of love, but I seriously doubt that anyone would just so casually become that way. Albert Camus' Mersault didn't feel love, but we find that more More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Mar 21, 2008

Frederick rated it:

Often the appeal of science fiction lies in the genre's ability to extrapolate from the trends of the present and project them into the future. One novel exemplifying this tendency is "The Children Of Men" by P.D. James.

In "The Children Of Men", the reader finds a world where the population has become inexplicably infertile and must deal with the stresses of a dwindling population and the psychological angst that results when many realize what's the point of life if More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Mar 12, 2008

Judy rated it:

Loved the movie and can't wait to read the book.

Well, the book and the movie are definitely two separate entities. They even have different endings. P.D. James' book lacks the action and excitement of the film version and P.D. James does go on about things like the decor of Theo's house and the political makeup of her futuristic England. And I would have liked the main character Theo to behave a bit more honorably. But I enjoyed the rendering of a world in which the last baby was bor More...

3 comments like (2 people liked it)

Sep 28, 2007

Adam rated it:

I ordered this book from Half.com in the wee hours of the morning, fresh from watching its 2007 movie adaption with my pal, Charlie. He'd already seen the thing, but kindly allowed me to experience and be moved by its intensity and moments of profound holiness without any running commentary or interruptions. Charlie's good for that. He gets excited about things you experience for the first time with him, even if he's experienced them several times before. I thought I'd return the favor of hi More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jul 15, 2009

Renee rated it:

The Children of Men, by P.D. James, the book on which the recent film was based, is a dire what-if tale of a world without a future, caused by sudden, inexplicable universal sterility. The story unfolds twenty-five years after the last baby was born, around a middle-aged university professor in London, who had become detached from life and humanity far before this crisis. Through his journal entries the reader learns how society is dying: the emergent pathologies, the devolutions, the apathy. More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Mar 25, 2007

Charlie rated it:

I think I was ten or eleven when my inner-skeptic matured and I realized that the words "based on a true story" or "based on the novel" more closely meant "has a vague relationship to...". This is definitely the case with P.D. James' The Children of Men, the source material for Alfonso Cuaron's 2006 film of the same (though article-less) title. The movie was my all time fav-film of 2006, followed by the less well-received The Prestige (by the director of Memento) an More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 28, 2007

Sansanee rated it:

This novel puts me in mind of The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. The near future is dystopic and humanity is facing extinction, having suddenly become infertile in 1995, the year that became known as the Omega. Britain, one of the few countries where civilization still seems to survive, although it is certainly crumbling into chaos, is now run by a dictator known as the Warden of England. People have resorted to watching old movies and television shows about the young, keeping dolls in pram More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 04, 2008

Robin rated it:

April 4:

On second thought, this is a great book. More than any sci-fi I've read, much of this one sticks with me, which I think is a testament to the clarity of the author's understanding of contemporary civilization (word used broadly).

January 29:

This is not a great novel, but it has some pretty good ideas about cultures of life versus cultures of death. It's also notable for its overtly, somewhat orthodox Christian elements. It was a bit silly in parts, with More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 30, 2008

Jami rated it:

The concept behind the book is fascinating . . . man has lost the ability to reproduce, end-of-the world scenario, and one woman discovered who is actually pregnant. P.D. James is certainly a gifted writer, but I found myself unable to put the book down during some parts and completely bored during others.

I think the problem is that the character development completely bogs down the plot. When it comes right down to it, the story line isn't very long at all because the descriptions More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 24, 2010

Katia rated it:

This is an interesting novel, beautifully written. I felt compelled by the story right up to the end, even if my "disbelief" was not always suspended. James takes at least one leap of faith that left me dangling. Also, by the end the story seemed to be a religious allegory which frankly came as a disappointment. Still, I would recommend this novel.

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Jun 03, 2008

Rebecca rated it:

Hm, I checked out this book because I saw-- and really liked-- the movie. This is one of those books-- like Chocolat-- where they author's brilliant premise and compelling world don't quite yield the plot and characters. Hollywood took this really fascinating universe where nothing really happens and made a fabulous and haunting story.
Even so, it was a good book-- the writing sucks you in. It's a vivid, psychologically dense world-- the middle-aged ladies with dolls in their prams, the des More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 10, 2009

Daniele rated it:

Un libro che va letto, dai significati profondi e non facili da interpretare ad una prima lettura. Ambientato nel futuro 2021 è un libro che fa molto riflettere sul presente e sul passato. Improvvisamente la razza umana ha perso la capacita' di riprodursi, la fertilita'; è facile immaginare che con un tale prospetto, le speranze e i sogni dell'uomo vadano scomparendo: le persone più anziane danno il via a suicidi di massa, i più giovani tornano alla violenza e alle barbarie dei rituali di sangue More...

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Mar 31, 2009

Melanie rated it:

When a book inspects your views and finds them wanting, you know it is special. This one qualifies. It's a good yarn, and a poser.

Anyone who has seen the film or its trailers knows the premise: in the year 2021, 26 years after the last human was born, England has become the last holdout against the chaos that has engulfed much of the world. Its leader, Xan Lyppiatt, has been in control of England as the last Warden, and he has instituted changes to keep the aging population comfortab More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 15, 2009

Christopher rated it:

Though it's been sitting on my bookshelf for years (my wife's copy), and though I quite enjoyed the movie, I didn't get around to reading "The Children of Men" by P.D. James until recently. I found it to be an easy read, but enjoyable written. James has a nice command of the language and manages to put together fairly dense paragraphs that nonetheless don't bog the reader down. I read the book essentially in two sittings -- the first 100 pages on a plane, and the rest of it in an after More...

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Feb 08, 2009

Mike rated it:

I was a little confused by the book, and particularly the ending -- it had some more serious themes, but they were never completely developed; and it had a thriller plot, but a somewhat anti-climatic "deus ex machina" type ending where everything is solved in just three (yes *three*) pages -- but it was a very interesting combination of a standard thriller type book (which is the aspect I assume the movie centred around -- to be honest I hadn't even heard of the movie until I saw the " More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 01, 2009

Shirley rated it:

This short book has an interesting idea. What would people do if the whole world becomes infertile. There hasn't been a child born in the last 25 years. The storyteller is a Victorian history professor who is cousin to the Warden of Britain. The only thing that the Warden thinks people care about are comfort, peace, and order. There are too many old people, so the government sanctions suicide. There aren't enough workers so they import immigrants but they don't give them any civil rights.
More...

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Jan 21, 2009

Rachel rated it:

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Dec 09, 2008

Ryan rated it:

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Feb 03, 2012

Julie rated it:

I first read this book about fifteen years ago, and really enjoyed its exploration of what would happen to culture, religion, politics, families, etc. if there were no future generation to live for. Unlike many, I liked Theo, as repressed and cynical as he seems to be, because in those moments when courage and compassion are called for, they seem to well up from within him, despite his best intentions. I could even forgive the novel's switching from first to third person and back again, becaus More...

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Jan 25, 2012

Murray rated it:

Okay, so I'm not an ideal PD James reader. I don't do crime. I usually stick to the posher reads, preferably dead authors, preferably in translation, preferably from a language long dead too.

Tired of all that as Christmas approached, I wanted something real, something insightful about today and tomorrow. How a crisis could trip us into fascism. How we would go about resisting.

Look high, look low. There's none of that here. The characters are cut out of cardboard. Posh card, More...

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Jan 21, 2012

Karen rated it:

Wow. I had seen the movie a few years ago. It was good, but not great. It was sheer happenstance I recently discovered the movie had been adapted from a book by P.D. James. I was browsing the library shelves for an Adam Dalgliesh mystery I had somehow missed, and there stood "The Children of Men." At first, I thought it was simply a case of a duplicate title. (Stray fact for you - I also just recently learned that while the content of books is copyrighted, a title can not be!) He More...

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Jan 11, 2012

Genevieve rated it:

I confess that I had not read this or even heard of it until the movie starring Clive Owen came out a few years ago. I gather that James is mostly known for crime fiction (indeed, someone gave me Death Comes to Pemberley for Christmas) and that isn't a genre I really read, so while I'd heard of her, I hadn't intended on seeking out her work.

After watching The Children of Men again, however, I decided that it was time I read the book. I'm glad I did. This isn't whiz-bang science fiction More...

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