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Mar 05, 2011

Rico rated it:

The story as told by a reporter from the remaining United States visiting Ecotopia -- the seceded northwest bio-region of Northern California, Oregon, and Washington -- after 20 years of isolationism. His objective skepticism is quickly eroded by this green Utopian playground in which respect for living things is the society's primary value.

A bit naive. It is like Callenbach paved the way for our current silly belief in green capitalism. The message: We can do everything we do no More...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Apr 17, 2007

ryan rated it:

fun because it takes place mostly in the San Fransico bay area, this is an increadible vision of the future for people who have ever had a dream of living sustainably. California, Oregon, and Washington, seccede from the USA and become their own country. after 20 years of no contact and a small defensive battle for independence (hard to hear for pacificts that this is probably what would happen), a reporter from the East part of the remaining USA visits "Ecotopia" (the name of the new More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

May 23, 2011

Richard rated it:

Read this soooo long ago.

Good points I recall: the author presents an intriguing list of social, economic, environmental and technological changes that add up to, more or less, a progressive liberal fantasyland.

Bad points I recall: the political upheaval that made the forgoing possible was implausible at the time, but worse was that the same inventory, above — which was the raison d'etre for the novel — also became tiresome. Think of it as a staged tour of a Potemkin vill More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 09, 2009

Richard B rated it:

This is one of the most important books ever written -- no joke. Callenbach, writing in the early-mid 1970s, imagines that Washington, Oregon, and Northern California have seceded from the Union to form Ecotopia, a new nation based on "stable-state" (today, we call it "sustainable") practices in manufacturing, agriculture, construction, transportation -- the whole gamut.

Some of Callenbach's ideas are dated, and feel like they should have been -- and were -- left More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jan 25, 2009

Kelly rated it:

I'm a die-hard lefty and I still think this is a terrible book. It's poorly written, biased, and short-sighted propaganda. I read as much of it as I could before I just had to throw it down in disgust, and this was at a time when I was young enough to believe I had to finish every book that I read. For decades this was the only book I couldn't finish.

It's really not even worth my time to review thoroughly so I'll give you just one example of how stupid and ill-conceived it is: The p More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 22, 2011

Dylan rated it:

A) Ecotopia sounds like an awesome place, probably because I grew up in the Bay Area and I'm down with ecologically friendly sustainable living. A review blurb on the cover called the book "remarkably prescient." I think that's sort of baloney... it's like the most cliched thing you can say about a work of science fiction, which is what "Ecotopia" is. But science fiction is ALWAYS going to have a sense of prognostication about it! That's sort of the point, right? And just how More...

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Jul 13, 2011

Laurel rated it:

Probably one of the more inspiring (if rather lacking in literary prowess) books I've read. Yes, it's sexist. Yes, it's racist. I won't apologize for problems of that nature. But for a born-in-the-80s kind of gal, it's revolutionary talk. I've been dreaming of a world similar to this for months now, and read this voraciously in about a day. Possibly my biggest frustration with it, however, is the utter lack of any reference to a Hispanic population. Taken as an environmental piece, separate from More...

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Jun 25, 2011

Dmdutcher rated it:

It starts off ok. Weston is the first reporter allowed into the secessionist nation of Ecotopia. He writes his impressions into his notebook in a blend of straight reporting and a personal diary. He's smart, and at first views everything with a skeptical eye. If the book had continued this way, it would have been better.

But Will sleeps with an ecotopian woman and starts to go native, losing his skepticism and just being a pulpit. Ecotopia itself is stupid. You can tell this was writt More...

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Mar 24, 2011

James rated it:

Reading Ecotopia today is like watching men trying to invent a flying machine by flapping big finely crafted wings, as they did so for hundreds of years. Man can't fly that way! We are too much dead weight, we have to have a fixed wing and lots of power. We have to fire our jets against gravity. We need power, not a carapace of balsa wood and a bag of feathers. But oh, do I wish it weren't so! Ecotopia is hard evidence that good solutions only go as far as the people with good sense can carry t More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 27, 2010

Jack rated it:

I bought this book in the science fiction section of a used bookstore . Originally published Jan 1975 it tells the story of a journalist from New York City, Will Weston, going to the mysterious country of Ecotopia in 1999. It is 19 years after the states of Oregon, Washington and the northern section of California seceded from the USA and formed a ecological utopia.

It was called , "The novel of your future."

It was really a book promoting the political, socia More...

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Dec 02, 2010

Mike (the Paladin) rated it:

It would be very easy to make fun of this book, but I shall do my best to refrain from that. It would be like the proverbial shooting of fish in a barrel. Also, I'm sure that this book means a lot to many well meaning people. So... "bear" with me.

I suppose the book (for me) might be summed up in 3 words, "oh come on." From the opening scenes where our story teller rides in a "green" eco-friendly wooden train car, as everyone passes around legal marijuana a More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Oct 15, 2010

Kayla rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Mar 30, 2010

Stephanie rated it:

(Read this book for my Environmental Literature class) I was pleased to read a novel that I probably would have never found on my own. I got through it fairly quickly, but was disappointed to find that the sexual themes interested me most in comparison to any of the others. My major criticism is that this book clearly has an environmental agenda, which could explain why my mind resisted getting stolen by it.

At the same time, I like what Callenbach did. The alternating between Weston's More...

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May 17, 2010

Leon rated it:

"Ecotopia" consists of the notes and diary entries of journalist Weston, the first US journalist to enter Ecotopian land since the big secession.

This book is beautifully written, though it completely lacks a story: Callenbach focuses on the portrayal of the Ecotopian way of living, proposing a possible blueprint for a better society.

The utopian elements in this novel are numerous, ranging from bio-degradable plastics and constructive cooperative criticism to a whole More...

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Sep 01, 2010

Yesterday's Muse rated it:

An intriguing premise ably realized. Ecotopia explores what would happen if the American Northwest seceded from the United States to form a liberal, environmentally conscious country. Many of the specific ideas proposed are quite innovative, and the society as a whole is thought out well enough that this country seems to be not only an ideal, but a real possibility.

The technique of portraying the new community through the eyes of an American reporter is a good choice, as it allows the More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 15, 2009

Tim rated it:

Northern California, Oregon, and Washington secede from the US. What's not to like? Five stars for imagination, given that this was written back in the 70s. This is a flawed masterpiece, an original vision that sticks to the inside of your head (OK my head) for decades. Callenbach shows us an alternative to the corporate- and profit-dominated world we live in now. Having read the book, I can't hear pundits talk about rising GDP and the need to increase our standard of living without wondering wh More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Headphonerecord rated it:

The great thing about this book is it thinks through all your West Coast Succession dreams. There is a lot of fake future trivia you can relate to and all the Eco living standards are wonderful to think about. I rate it with a 3 because it is no literary masterpiece but I highly recommend it to anyone who has ever dreamed of West coast succession. Independent Eco living.

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Dec 18, 2008

Anderse rated it:

Coincidentally, I choose to re-read this for the first time since college (early 90s) a week before it was profiled in the NYT. I always
knew I was a trendsetter.

I'm a sucked for fake journals/ article type books. I even wrote my own in junior high as if I was stranded on a desert island and only had Campbell Soup labels to write on. Turned it in rolled up in a soda bottle. Anyway, on with the review.

This book MUST be read in the context of original publication d More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Citra rated it:

a story from the perspective of a journalist who gets permission to enter Ecotopia, a country that was seceded from the US. It is interesting to read a story of how people life in harmony with nature from a different view from what we have now. A must read.

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jul 28, 2011

Kerry added it

Having read similar utopian fantasies set in Ur-California, by Margaret Atwood and Starhawk, I found many of the ideas and idealisms very familiar. The projection of a post-oil society by Callenbach is eerily close to the kinds of intentional communities that have become known as eco-villiages, but many of the practices of the Ecotopians would be considered quite reasonable by today's standards - especially the communal recycling, composting and re-use of materials. Some of the emphasis on gende More...

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Aug 23, 2009

Rob rated it:

This is about how the West Coast, that bastion of enlightenment, manages to break away from the rest of the Union. Callenbach was apparently as ignorant of history as Governor Rick Perry.

Ah, but that isn't the intentional/unintentional irony. It's that I couldn't be sure if Ecotopia was supposed to be a Utopia or a Dystopia. I think the former, and to me that was the irony. For this ecologically perfect community of free hot tub love is the heavy hand of the State. Those who didn't More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 17, 2010

Jill rated it:

After reading Callenbach's Ecotopia Emerging I was excited to see what the "future" looks like, twenty years later. Unfortunately it's what you would imagine from someone fantasizing about the 2000's back in the 1970's. So the technology they describe is sort of weird and lame (no internet!) and I'm just not sure that all the changes would fly.

This is what the character of William Weston says himself in the novel, supposedly coming from across the USA to check out Ecotopi More...

1 comment like

May 03, 2009

Bean rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

1 comment like

Mar 22, 2009

Carolanne rated it:

This book had an interesting concept, but yet again, it wasn't very well written. Aside from this being a fiction book, there is no way all of this could have ever happened in 20 years. AND a lot of the people in Ecotopia are older then 20- so they would have been America before OR, WA and N. CA succeeded from the union so they would still maintain their American traits. I mean, the book acted like these people were from Mars- they didn't posses any emotional American characteristics. It also wo More...

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Nov 22, 2010

Dawn rated it:

Ten Reasons why I don’t like Ecotopia:

1. It reads like a how-to manual for your VCR. The world, unfortunately is not like a VCR.

2. Consistency. Consistency killed the cat, killed the characters, and put a dull green wash on the earth.

3. The society was an ideal society. This wouldn’t be a problem if the book were simply an idea of a book. But, things as they are, the book was real. And the pages were put to sleep—I have an “idea” of what went on, but I experienced More...

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Aug 26, 2009

KC rated it:

Read most of this one a while ago, and, despite being a lifelong environmentalist, I just couldn't finish it (and I almost always finish books). I'd be tempted to give it fewer stars if it were fresh in my memory, but I want to be fair.

I'd be interested in a reread now that I'm more versed in environmental studies and feminism, but I can't muster the enthusiasm to pick it back up. One reviewer reminded us that it was written in the 1970s and should be read with that in mind, but I More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 09, 2009

Jeanne rated it:

I loved this book if only for the idea that CA, OR and WA kick out all of the planet killing types, secede from the Union and become our own "green" nation. In a very short time we clean up our water and air, get off the grid, get rid of our cars, go vegan, ... My only gripe with this book is that it tends to drag. It is written in two parts: the notebooks, which are the written accounts, are more clinical than the reports, which are more of a first-hand, "Alice in Wonderland" More...

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Aug 25, 2011

CandiAnne rated it:

This was assigned during I believe my Sophomore year of high school. I so enjoyed it that I kept it all these years. It's about how the world could be in a cleaner recycled type of society that is completely sustainable. Granted this "world" consists of the pacific side of the country in this book. I was in awe of such a world back in the mid 80s when reading this in high school and wondered if such a place could ever exist. Now I'm starting to believe maybe it should with the way More...

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Sep 05, 2010

Jake rated it:

35 years after it was first published, this eco/new age/sci-fi classic is a mixed bag of prescient wisdom and cloying hippy optimism. The narrator's articles about Ecotopian society generally hold up very well as social allegory, but the more personal journal entries don't fare quite as well as the narrator, William Weston, just isn't a very likable or interesting character.

Kim Stanley Robinson and Margaret Atwood, amongst others, have since done far better eco-centric social sci-f More...

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Aug 19, 2010

Pete rated it:

Interesting enough and kind of fun to read, but in the end I couldn't really get past some of the sex and gender related aspects of the book. Most of that part was kind eye-roll inducing, but there were some parts that were actually Atlas Shrugged-style disturbing. Also I wasn't crazy about the author's take on violence. Finally, the plot is utterly predictable, i.e. Dances with Wolves. But it was still interesting to read the parts about the "stable state" society and how that might More...

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