5.0 stars. Okay folks, this is a must read alert. I was expecting this to be decent but I was blown away by how excellent it turned out to be. Focused, powerful and imaginative. This one is a keeper.

As many others have said (but it is certainly worth repeating) this should not be considered a YA novel. Yes, the protagonist is a teenage girl, but that is the only YA connection to this story. This has much more in common with 1984 than Harry Potter.

This is a superbly realized and eerily believa More...

Kindle edition is on sale for about $5 HERE!!

This is what I call an "experience" book.

You may not find yourself inside the world like in an "escapism" story, instead you feel as if your viewing it from the outside. It's intent is to help you reflect upon and experience your own life, not necessarily that of the characters. Another more well-known example of this type of book would be 1984.

You breath on your own instead of with the characters. You are able to see the story more objectively, with More...

I was getting smug thinking I figured out where this book was taking me. And then last few pages came, and I all I was able to say was, "Heh. Ummm. Okay. Well, then. Heh." I know, my eloquence is astounding.

"The only thing binding individuals together is ideas. Ideas mutate, and spread; they change their hosts as much as their hosts change them."

Normally I don't care much for spoilers. I can even pompously say that it's the journey I care about, not the destination. (Believe it or not, in the p More...

June 23, 2012

I strongly recommend Mel's beautiful and moving review of this book. We both loved it, and tried really hard to explain why without spoiling the story.

There are many other exceptional reviews from friends and others, and I would never have known about it without their guidance. My thanks to all.

June 19, 2012
(Pre-review) - Thanks so much to all who supported and commented on this (now slightly edited) lead-in! My full review follows this section.

I absolutely loved it. Plopped it stra More...

Well, this must be my lucky week. Reading two 5-star books one after another is not something that often happens to me. Of course, I love reading 5-star books, but the problem I have is reviewing them, because I always feel like what I say is not going to do the fantastic books justice.


Genesis was recommended to me about a week ago from a friend on Goodreads. I actually had never even heard of it until then. Usually when a friend recommends a book it takes me a few months to get to it. My friend More...

I don't even know how to begin reviewing this book. I fear that anything I describe about the book has the potential to ruin it for anyone reading this reviews. And to do that would be a huge disservice to this book. Because believe me when I say it was truly remarkable.

There are three things I believe I am safe to say. (1) The main character's name is Anax. (2) The book is basically her interview with a panel for acceptance into The Academy. (3) It is a dystopian type book. (4) It's not a long More...

What on Earth did I just read? Was that a speech or a novel? Was that a YA book or one written for adults? Was the character... Well no I can't give that away for prospective readers. This is a book that has to be read without anything spoiling the plot (I will still provide a non-spoiling summary). What I will say is that if you've read Planet of the Apes before then read this. This novel is something of a YA version of that with a bit of a twist.

Genesis is not written in the usual form of othe More...

Dystopia is the new cool kid on the block of young adult genre literature. Readers of this genre are familiar with the storylines and themes: teenagers struggling to survive in a scary society that sets kids against each other for entertainment; a creepy society sets kids against each other in order to determine the characters' roles and jobs in the world; the collapse of society by disease, zombies, or natural disaster and the survival during the anarchy of the collapsed society. Genesis is not More...

The founders of The Republic sought to deny the individual, and in doing so they ignored a simple truth.

The only thing binding individuals is ideas. Ideas mutate, and spread; they change their hosts as much as their hosts change them.

Ideas. Thought. Choice. Meaning. Humanity claims to have a monopoly on all these things, but is that really true? What, at the core, makes any individual human? And, even if that element can be narrowed down and captured, can it be replicated? Should it be?

Such are More...

EDIT: Read again and loved it even more, upping my rating to 4 stars.

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Old Review


Ok, so 3.5 stars actually. Maybe 4 but I've decided to be picky.

I was greatly torn as to my opinion on this book, it's a very confusing and weird read at times and not even remotely what I expected when I read the description.

The novel consists entirely of a 4-hour oral exam on a specialist subject of More...

I agree with my fellow Goodreader, Genesis has no business being marketed as a YA dystopia. It should have been published by Subterranean Press or Night Shade along with Ted Chiang's and Paolo Bacigalupi's works to find its most welcoming audience.

The setting of the novel is indeed dystopian and the main character is a teen, but other than that Genesis has little to do with YA dystopian genre. It is a novel of ideas, philosophical even. Its main focus is the genesis of consciousness in AI (artif More...

This is a one-of-a-kind gem I can't recommend highly enough. Imagine an isolated island preserved from world plague by its remote location. Now imagine the inhabitants creating a community based on Plato's Republic. Whatever you expect this book will be, it will surprise you.

Which came first, the mind or the idea of the mind? Have you never wondered? They arrived together. The mind is an idea. ~Genesis

In the end, living is defined by dying~Genesis

Wow, wow and more wow! I have been swept away and truly humbled by this little book that's filled with such big ideas. The blurb on my edition calls it "sinewy" and "cerebral" and for me, that hits it just right.

I want to start by first giving a shout out to Stephen; his unbridled enthusiasm for this book is what brought i More...

First of all, I'd like to draw your attentions to Jim's fantastic review of this book. It's well worth a look, I assure you; especially since he has included some of the more beautiful quotes from the book (something I was too scared to do myself!). Both of us read the book at roughly the same time, and enjoyed it immensely. Now, let's move onto the actual review.

.............

This must have been the easiest five stars I’ve ever given a book. And that includes Stephen King’s works of genius, too. More...

This is a very short, easy-reading story that took me in immediately. It's extremely thought-provoking, and touches on many philosophical themes. The names of the characters (Plato, Thales, Anaximander) give clues about the philosophical themes that run through the story. But--it's difficult even to outline the story without spoiling it, so I won't even try. And--it is really best to read the book without reading any in-depth reviews--it's best to start reading it without any preconceptions. As More...

This is the best post-apocalyptic novel I've read since The Road. I started reading it the moment it arrived in my mailbox and was not able to put it down until I'd finished it. It's an intensely cerebral and philosophical read for a young adult novel. And just when I thought I'd discovered the secret of the book, I was completely caught off-guard by the true secret.

A girl named Anax has been given the chance to take a 4-hour oral exam to interview for entrance into The Academy. The book is the More...

Cleverly constructed as an oral entrance exam, the history of a destroyed world’s recovery and reshaping is presented in a student’s thesis and in answers to The Academy examiner’s questions. It reads like an adventure story, not a history lesson. Still, the biggest adventures are not about reconstruction of a destroyed world, but rather about the pursuit of what it means to be a conscious being in a world of sophisticated technology and carefully directed loyalty to the Republic.

I was really r More...

First, a couple of good reviews with which I mostly agree: http://tinyurl.com/dyysp6d and http://tinyurl.com/cdc2cco . Beckett tells a good story in an unusually spare way. The setting is academic, almost sterile, but familiar to anyone who, like the main character Anaximander, has undergone an oral examination. During the course of her four-hour exam, Anax carefully navigates the perils of thinking through, dissecting, analyzing, and interpreting what to her are historical data about the establ More...

Anaximander has spent countless hours preparing for the test that may change her life. If she performs well, then she will enter the Academy, the most prestigious institution in her society. Through her examination, the story of Adam Forde unfolds showing exactly what happened to create this post-apocalyptic world that they now live in.

This book was much more than I thought it would be. In the beginning, I was put off by the setting of a test panel as I thought that the book would not have much More...

This is one of those books that I can never make my mind up for. Do I like it or do I not? Does it deserve three stars or four? And in the end, does it even matter?

I finished this book one or two years ago, so the little details are a little foggy, but from the lasting impressions I got from it, I would say that it definitely sent me into the Zone for a while. No, I didn't have any great epiphanies about the meaning of Life (that topic is on permanent hiatus) or our Society (we'll be shaken off More...

Anaximander, with the help of a tutor, has been studying in order to take the four-hour exam she must pass in order to become a member of The Academy. This book is mostly a transcript to her oral exam before a three judge panel.

I found Mr. Beckett's writing style unique as the whole story is told mostly through Anax's interview with The Academy elders and through several flashbacks. Through this interview we learn what has become of the world after wars and a deadly plague have ravaged the plane More...

Reviewed by Karin Librarian for TeensReadToo.com

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 More...

DO NOT READ ANY REVIEWS BEFORE STARTING THIS LITTLE GEM. And certainly don't look at the last page.
All I will say is that I'm so, so proud that a Kiwi author produced this exploration of what it means to be human.

http://www.hmhbooks.com/books/genesis/

SOS PLEASE! SOMEONE HELP ME! ITS NOT HEALTHY, I HAVE BEEN READING CRAP. BUT THEN I FOUND THIS BOOK.

Dystopia lovers this is a must. Its told strangely but it is awesome. Just wish they didnt charge me the price of a novel since this is a novella though.

Going to read this very slowly because I dont want to finish it.

I can't breathe. Reading "Genesis" has been an absolutely shocking experience. It is a good book, designed to make its reader think, wonder and freeze. I only distribute four and five stars, when I thoroughly enjoyed reading a book. "Genesis" did not entertain me at all, but it fulfilled its purpose.

This, then, is dystopia.

A short, but compelling story that will make you think and question the world you've come to know and trust. Actually, no, let me correct myself. It is not so much a story as a subtle revelation of the fragile existence of mankind which throws a harsh light on just how much we think we know and how much we actually do, on how everything we think or say or do has consequences but how largely ignorant we remain of that fact, and how we still fear that which is unknown and t More...

In Genesis we learn about the society's history as told through budding historian Anax's eyes as she completes a four hour oral exam. But as Anax continues on in her exam she learns that what she thinks she knows isn't the whole story.

This is labelled as a Young Adult novel, but for all that it's a very short novel at only 150 pages, I don't think I would have considered it to be intended for teenagers. Anax is a teenage girl, of course, but the subject matter of the novel is not what I would ex More...