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Apr 26, 2011

Stephen rated it:

First the Postives: The book was well-written had a nice “new book” smell. Okay, on to the ~~negatives~~ MEHgatives, beginning with the advisory label I would require if I was Emperor of Literature for the world:

There is not a whole lot more that I can add to that so, like the book, I will just sort of d.....r.....a.....w.....t......h......i.....n......g......s....... o....u....t. Or maybe I could just emulate the book and say the same thing several different ways. You know like you sa More...

8 comments like (24 people liked it)

Oct 01, 2011

Norman rated it:

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

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Sep 16, 2010

Osho rated it:

This is the funniest of Robert Charles Wilson's novels to date, but no less engaging. Imagine Samwise Gamgee as Watson. The tale's narrator, Adam Hazzard, is that man. He reports what he observes, and speculates about Julian, politics, and the world on this basis, but he doesn't understand everything he sees. In some ways, the best part of this novel is seeing precisely how the historian's perspective shapes his narrative, and what we as readers can discern (for example, Julian's romantic procli More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 28, 2012

Nzric rated it:

I had high hopes for this novel. The idea and the overall plot is very strong, and the world is well imagined, but overall this story has the feel of something that was outlined in an essay format and stamped out in a formula.

Likes:
- Consistent style of writing, the 'period' language is consistent throughout, with no noticeable slips in tone/style.
- General world building is ok - basic politics and some attempt at a timeline.

Dislikes:

- unbelievable 'futur More...

0 comments like

Dec 11, 2011

Hali rated it:

The future is bleak in this post-oil, post-democratic, theocratic dystopic America. America now has 60 stars on it's flag but still has the original 13 stripes, and the government still has three branches but now it is the executive branch, the church and the military, with the executive being the not so democratically elected Delkan Comstock. The story is told from the point of view of Adam Hazzard, the son of a Lease Holder on the Duncan and Crowley Estate, somewhere in the western reaches o More...

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Feb 15, 2011

Rexton rated it:

I thought the way the culture evolved was somewhat interesting, with a few interesting differences from the many stories where a neo-feudalism evolves (albeit one with laissez-faire capitalism) . In particular, there was an interesting mention of how the government decided how limited resources were allocated to the economy. While I'm not sure how plausible this culture was, I would really like more information to convince me. The cynical role of religion and the Owners brought back memories of More...

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Jan 28, 2011

Clay rated it:

Back in 1964, Gore Vidal wrote a very good historical fiction novel called “Julian”, which was based on the life of Roman emperor Flavius Claudius Julianus, whose brief reign was from 360-363 CE. Julian the Apostate, as he was known by his Christian enemies, tried to turn the empire away from Christianity, especially the church hierarchy, which was at that time doing its best to stamp out what it considered heresies.

Now, in 2010, Robert Charles Wilson has written “Julian Comstock” (Tor More...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Jan 03, 2011

Jeff rated it:

After The Efflorescence of Oil, the Fall of The Cities, and the False Tribulation, America is once again becoming a world power uniting most of the North American continent, from Panama to Labrador, under the thirteen stripes and 60 stars of the American flag and for the sake of the Dominion of Jesus Christ on Earth.

But all this is backdrop. The immediate story is of young Adam Hazzard,naive and trusting lease-boy, born and raised on a fuedal estate on the north-central plains of Ath More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jun 16, 2010

Nicholas rated it:

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1456594.html

Rather fortuitously I read this novel while also working through Gibbon's chapters in The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire on Julian the Apostate, the mid-fourth century Roman emperor who tried to reverse his uncle's adoption of Christianity and failed. (See here, here, here and here.) Julian Comstock, nephew of the 22nd century president of a post-apocalypse America, is modelled a bit on his namesake of 1800 years earlier, though there are More...

3 comments like (5 people liked it)

Apr 28, 2010

Porter rated it:

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0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 28, 2009

Ryun rated it:

Robert Charles Wilson’s books have been on my “must buy” list since he wrote THE CHRONOLITHS in 2002, and he’s gotten successively better without becoming a corporate retread machine. The ties of family, friendship and love in its infinite variations are central themes in his work. JULIAN COMSTOCK: A STORY OF 22ND-CENTURY AMERICA is no exception; it’s also Wilson’s best book yet.

As the title explains, JULIAN COMSTOCK is set in 22nd-century America, a post-oil land run as an empire b More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Sep 23, 2009

Thermalsatsuma rated it:

At some point in the early 21st century the oil ran out leading to a catastrophic collapse of civilisation, mass starvation and the evacuation of the cities in a time now known as the false tribulation. By the second half of the 22nd century America has returned to a state of feudal theocracy with the aristo class voting on behalf of their indentured servants for a Presidency that is hereditary in all but name. The ruling president, Declan Comstock, has already hanged his brother Bryce as a trai More...

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Aug 18, 2009

Alan rated it:

Allow me to add my voice to the chorus of praise attending the celebrated Mr. Robt. Chas. Wilson's novel. For Wilson has done something truly extraordinary—he has taken the tired old subgenre of post-apocalyptic pastoral sf and revived it thoroughly.

Adam Hazzard, Wilson's narrator, is a pitch-perfect American voice, recreating the cadences of a 19th-Century orator in prose that brings to mind the elegant simplicity of a Mark Twain or a Nathaniel Hawthorne. It's a polished yet straigh More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 22, 2011

Robert rated it:

Wow, this book is long. Er, I mean sprawling. This is one hell of a sprawling book. It's like 600 pages sprawling.

OK, the good: Wilson's prose is impeccable. I wish I could write sentences like this. Also, he presents a very believable 22nd century America, as it might be after several major calamities and the rise of the Religious Right. The 22nd century, it turns out, is a lot like the 19th century. In fact, most of this book reads like the story of a country boy drafted to fight in More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 13, 2009

Jason rated it:

OK, first of all, reading goal for the year made. I suppose we will get to 7 or 8 books before the end of the year. That's really my typical pace.

If you've been following this blog in the usual voyeuristic manner, you will have noted by now my attraction to post-apocolyptic literature. I largely chalk this up to a Cold War childhood, where scraping life together in a post-apocolyptic world seemed less science fiction, and more like contingency planning. Anywho, I am also an occasion More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 11, 2010

Brendan rated it:

Julian Comstock tells the story of America after oil runs out, the modern infrastructure collapses, and we regress to a world of 19th century technology and 18th century agrarian social structure and economy. We follow Adam Hazzard, a lease-boy (child of lower-middle class artisans) who befriends, through happenstance, Julian Comstock, exiled nephew of the tyrannical "president" Declan Comstock. Adam follows Julian through adventures in the army and political life afterward, to great More...

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Nov 15, 2009

Jo rated it:

This book is written in the style of a 19th century novel, is set in the 22nd century, and deals with issues that are relevant today, in an amusing and thought-provoking novel . The author does a great job of extrapolating from current events to an all too plausible future. The world-building in the book is quite neat: our times are now known as the Efflourescence of Oil. Since then there has been The End Of Oil, The False Tribulation (apparently mass dying off after we ran out of cheap gas & More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 22, 2009

Liviu rated it:

This is just a superb book written in a very quiet and understated manner. I *had* to reread it twice, it was so compelling that I could not leave its characters and universe easily.

Set in a late 22nd century USA, essentially - 2172-2176 - with glimpses from the past and an epilogue some years later, we visit an America that is very familiar from the history books of the 19th century with some twists.

After the "age of Oil and Atheism" ended in catastrophe, wi More...

3 comments like (5 people liked it)

Mar 20, 2011

Laura rated it:

It was fine. Thing got great reviews, and it was certainly readable. Written by someone who Knew His Craft. The Story of the Revolutionary King Told From The Perspective of the Farmboy Sidekick is a classic, and he added some nice touches to it. I especially liked how oblivious our side kick POV character was to a whole lot of the subtext, though I felt a little uncomfortable being complicit in the author’s smugness towards him. We can’t all be Kirk. Our heroes live in a future where oil ran out More...

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Sep 03, 2010

Aaron rated it:

This review has spoilers in it further down, but the first several paragraphs are spoiler free. I will give another "spoiler" warning before I start discussing details of the events at the end of the story.

I loved this book. I would give it four and a half stars, if I could. Robert Charles Wilson is an amazing author. I've only read one of his other books before -- Spin -- which I also loved, and in fact, this one has some similar plot elements: the main character is More...

0 comments like

Jan 28, 2010

Lightreads rated it:

A very cool book, mildly disappointing. Post oil crisis United States, with a constricted population, Presidential-military-religious government, nineteenth-century values. Country boy Adam Hazzard tells the story of his life with the President's nephew, Julian, in the army and in the capitol of New York.

What's great about this book is that it's post-apocalypse specfic written as a boy's own adventure nineteenth-century novel. And that makes it kind of awesome. The world building is More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Nov 30, 2009

Cindy rated it:

1 part Tom Sawyer
+ 1 part Handmaid's Tale
+ 1 part Thucydides

Stir contents vigorously. Serve with eggs on hard tack with maggoty butter.

Sounds implausible, doesn't it?

The narrator, Adam Hazzard, tells the story of the rise of Julian Comstock, nephew and unwanted heir to the current President Deklan Comstock in 2172.

The world has survived an almost-apocalypse with the End of Oil and the Plague of Infertility. By the start of the story, More...

4 comments like (8 people liked it)

Sep 25, 2010

Mark rated it:

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0 comments like

Jul 09, 2010

Catherine rated it:

Set in the late 22nd century, Julian Comstock has an oddly nineteenth century feeling. That's because, after the oil economy has come to an end, the United States (which now incorporates most of Canada) is ruled in part by Presidents elected by a monoparty system, and in part by the Dominion, a fundamentalist Christian coalition which polices morality as well as the cultural remnants of the past. Adam Hazzard, the persistently naive narrator, is a lower middle-class boy who's befriended by ari More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 05, 2010

Roger rated it:

This book had an impact on me. It elicited feelings from a deeper place than usual. The only other books to do that recently were Stephen King's Dark Tower series. It is Roland Deschain describing his world in that series which perfectly captures the feeling I got reading Julian Comstock.

The world has moved on.

The world has moved on and I felt sad because Robert Charles Wilson was describing a possible future of my country. I didn't like the glimpse he provided because I More...

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Apr 27, 2010

Craighayden rated it:

Hard to encapsulate what is great about this book - since it is wonderful for so many reasons. I suppose its setting is "post-apocalyptic," for it imagines an America after oil that has refashioned itself as a kind of 19th century developing industrial nation, caught in the grip of crushing industrial feudalism and an oppressive church hierarchy. It also is written as a kind of 19th century novel, which adds to the world-building flavor. Yet while this novel excels in its truly inventi More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Mar 11, 2010

Sarah Pi rated it:

This is the funniest and most charming dystopic novel I've ever read. The setting in some ways seemed to be extrapolated from the events of Kunstler's World Made By Hand, though this book took itself far less seriously. It still raises some great questions about religion and war and the possible future toward which we are heading, but it does so in subtler ways.
Wilson's genius was in choosing Adam Hazzard as the narrator of Julian Comstock's story. Adam's innocence (bordering on obtuseness More...

5 comments like (4 people liked it)

May 02, 2010

Chad rated it:

My quest to read all of this year's Hugo nominees continues. 4 down, 2 to go.

Julian Comstock is an entertaining adventure story set in post-collapse America of the 22nd Century. The world ran out of oil, and regressed to a mid/late 19th century level of technology & society with a bit of medieval feudalism thrown in for good measure.

(Incidentally, the end of oil seems to be the new Apocalypse du jour in SciFi. It's popping up all over the place.)

This is pri More...

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Jun 03, 2009

Stefan rated it:

Robert Charles Wilson's new novel "Julian Comstock" is set in a vastly changed 22nd century USA - after the end of the age of oil and atheism has ended in disaster. Technology is mostly back to pre-20th century levels, and the population has been vastly reduced due to social upheaval and disease. Society has become fully class-based, divided in a Eupatridian aristocracy, middle-class lease-men, and indentured servants. The country - which now stretches across most of the North Ameri More...

3 comments like (12 people liked it)

Jul 01, 2010

Alice rated it:

A terrific mish-mash of speculative fiction and post-apocalyptica (one reviewer called it 'the tired old subgenre of post-apocalyptic pastoral sf,' which I didn't know even existed, and which I now must seek out!), written as a 19th century adventure story. Set a few hundred years in the future after the collapse of a fossil-fuel dependent world, the US has reverted back to the norms of the 1800s: a primarily agricultural society where indentured servitude is common, Victorian morality is promot More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)