Books: Station Eleven By Emily St. John Mandel

(Drivebycuriosity) - Post-apocalyptic books & movies are en vogue. Many of them describe life after a pandemic that killed most of the humans and destroyed the civilization. The novel "Station Eleven" by Emily St. John Mandel is one of them (amazon).

What make this books different is that the plot jumps frequently between different time levels. Some parts happen years before the pandemic, others around the time the catastrophe occurs and some episodes take place 20 years after the desaster. The plot also shifts between different characters who are somewhat connected with each other.

This pattern makes "Station" interesting, but the qualities of the different episodes vary much. I liked much the episodes which describe precisely how the characters are doing during by the pandemic. These parts are really thrilling. The post-apocalyptic parts are passable but I have read similar stories so often that I lost my interest, there are too many post-apocalyptic cliches. The episodes before the pandemic - and some of the characters  - didn`t work for me.

I would have preferred a shorter version, maybe a novella of around 100 pages (instead of 354 pages). "Station Eleven" could be a passable read for a beach vacation.