≡ [PDF] Gratis The Children of Men PD James 9780307279903 Books

The Children of Men PD James 9780307279903 Books

Download As PDF : The Children of Men PD James 9780307279903 Books

The Children of Men PD James 9780307279903 Books

I just finished this - my first P. D. James novel, after 40 years of dodging this author because she was one of my mother’s favorites (how rational is that?). I plan to spend a great deal of time in the immediate future correcting this mistake.
My mother told me about this book (the only P. D. James she HASN’T read - because it is “science fiction”!); she thought it would appeal to me for that very reason. And it did. And it does.
HOWEVER - this is NOT a science fiction book. I’m sure you’ve read the premise by now; the BACKGROUND is science fiction - the STORY is pure character-driven suspense, and it is one of the most gripping mysteries I’ve encountered in a long life spent largely between the covers of books.
You can read the synopsis elsewhere in these reviews; MY purpose in writing this is twofold: if you’ve never read P. D. James, START HERE. If, like my mother, you love the author but are wary of science fiction, do not fear: it is not the “SF” that controls this story - it is the P. D. JAMES. So if you’ve been avoiding the “SF” factor, again I say: START HERE.


Tags : The Children of Men [P.D. James] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Told with P. D. James's trademark suspense, insightful characterization, and riveting storytelling, The Children of Men</i> is a story of a world with no children and no future. The human race has become infertile,P.D. James,The Children of Men,Vintage,0307279901,Science Fiction - General,Thrillers,ENGLISH SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY,England,FICTION Science Fiction General,FICTION Thrillers General,Fiction,Fiction - General,Fiction General,Fiction-Science Fiction,GENERAL,General Adult,JAMES, P.D. - PROSE & CRITICISM,Monograph Series, any,Science Fiction,Science fiction.,Thrillers - General,United States

The Children of Men PD James 9780307279903 Books Reviews

MS. James is a better mystery writer, than a writer of dark dystopian tales. Who could love Theo? Who could not hate Xan? Who could not know Rolf was a fool? And poor Julian, but an empty vessel full of herself and the future. Almost worth a read that may exasperate you towards the end.
In the near future, for inexplicable reasons, humans have lost the ability to reproduce. The backdrop of this story is the slow descent of a dystopian decay. As others have noted, there is no cataclysmic event that sends this world into spiraling chaos. No asteroid has crashed into the planet and spread a galactic virus. Instead, people just stop having babies and slowly and steadily, things just get weirder and weirder. People are just going on with life with no youth about the place to inherit their progress and mistakes. Interestingly, the natural world is gradually creeping back into the life of man, squeezing in from all sides. The wilds of the world are returning.

We see the story through the perspective of the main protagonist, Theo, who is a professor. The author switches between diary entries by Theo and a third-person narrative. The flipping back and forth is a strange choice, and I'm not sure if I liked that element. The point of this was to build-up Theo's background and flesh out his relationship with the story's chief antagonist, his cousin, Xan.

Theo's whole life has been ineffectual, spending most of his childhood growing up in the shadow of Xan whom excelled at everything he set his mind too. Both Xan and Theo have sort of detached relationships with their families and people in general, however it's clear that Xan is even more detached. Xan's character seems to be ambitious merely for the challenge of it. As if Xan has sat back and observed society simply to figure out what people consider interesting and then decided that that is what he ought to do. Indeed his adept abilities propel him so far a front that he manages to get himself appointed dictator of England in this new world, taking the title "Warden".

Xan has managed to take power, but maintains some illusion of democracy by installing three goals for this government's last hurrah in the fading future freedom from fear, freedom from want, and freedom from boredom. He caters to the base needs of man. The Isle of Man becomes a dumping ground for prisoners and dissidents and nobody even dreams of forgiveness and redemption or second chances. People are forced to learn skills that will be necessary in the future. Fertility tests are mandatory for society's best and brightest in the hope that there might still be a small chance that someone will be able to reproduce. The old are encouraged to end their lives with dignity before they become too much a of a burden on society's waning population, a phenomenon called "The Queitus." Also, the state has opened pornography centers to cure boredom.

Theo, being Xan's cousin, enjoyed an advisory role on the Warden's special council. However, when the story begins, we learn that Theo has left this position because he discovered that nobody really cared what he had to say. We get the impression that even though, he had no real "voice" in things, Xan wanted him there-perhaps as a last vestige of human connection. Both of them are detached, but they have no real family relationships other than each other. That bond can't seem to die, however seemingly unimportant the two make of it.

The character of Theo is deeply flawed and it is difficult to completely give over to him. We learn that his life is marred by a failed marriage, one that he had entered into because his chosen mate seemed to fit all the necessary requirements. He was never motivated by love. He doesn't seem to know how to love. This trait is, of course, echoed ten-fold by Xan, whose decisions are based on reason, pragmatic rationality and ambition. However, Theo's past is further scarred by the horrible death of his own child, which he has disassociated himself from.

What is really deep and profound in this story, is the love that does motivate these two apathetic characters. Theo has not ever learned what love is and perhaps Xan's detached disposition has rubbed off on him. So, when Theo leaves the Warden's council he has an opportunity for personal growth.

Xan is driven by ambition and power and though his methods are cruel, he seems to lack a sadistic mindset or will. He doesn't have these kind of feelings. Steps are taken which will bring about the logical results he wants. If certain unpleasantness must be engaged to accomplish his goals, then that is just what is necessary-he takes no particular pleasure from this. Is Xan an amoral Vulcan?

And yet, there is still a thread of desire in Xan for something more. He hangs onto Theo as if the protagonist is his last chance at being a "real" person. Theo is his sole representative of family--of brotherhood--of connection beyond simply a means to an end. He is not happy that Theo has left the council, but he will not dismiss him outright--even when he suspects Theo is plotting against him. In the inevitable show down between the two, Xan loses himself. Although it is not immediately apparent, I feel that Xan has hesitation about ending their relationship, not simply by happenstance, but because there is some tiny, fractional, minuscule, infinitesimal part that wants to feel love and a true connection or bond with another human. Perhaps Xan knows that if Theo is gone, then so is his last remaining piece of humanity? This trope of evil incarnate is not necessarily new, but it is so very believable for this character. Darth Vader had trouble killing Luke even at the behest of his boss, the Emperor.

The somber mood pervading this story, the awful lingering question of "What's the point of anything anymore?" is well developed by PD James. How quickly would society devolve into chaos and struggle to hold order when the future is taken from it? This story is a strong exploration into the meaning of life. So much of living seems to be purposed on propagation, people's ability to leave something behind of themselves to share with the world. And yet, intermixed with this is mankind's self-awareness. Beyond reproduction-what then? Perhaps that is the back on which society is born--the building block of morals and values? Of mutual respect and dignity.

Theo's redemption from abject callousness begins with the Five Fishes. This small group of miscreants has formed as a counterpoint to Xan's puppet council of advisors. The group protests the apathy in which society is fading away. The lack of dignity in it all. They seem to cry out, that there is a point to life beyond the mere continuation of the species, beyond satisfaction of man's most base animalistic needs. Being a direct relation to Xan, the group seeks Theo's intercession--a last plea for change before things need to resort to violence. Theo is still floundering in his pointless existence and not particularly motivated to help them, so they urge him to see things as they really are. Here we learn that, unsurprisingly, Xan is not really meeting all society's needs as well as he could. People are baptizing pets and treating dolls with unnatural attachment. The solution to crime, removing all troublemakers to an island to fend for themselves, may not be so straightforward a solution as it seems. And of course the Quietus, Theo is finally turned to the rebel cause, when he realizes that these dignified suicides are not so dignified or voluntary as he was led to believe when he was employed by Xan.

The second part of the book becomes a sort of "Lord of the Rings" quest, when Theo wholly throws his lot in with the Five Fishes and they must race against time to fulfill their destiny. They scramble through the wilder parts of the world and attempt to do this one thing that might change everything, if only they can be left alone long enough to let it happen. It's not so difficult to suspect what this might be, or where this story will end up. Yet, what is heartfelt is the sacrifices that the characters must make to accomplish their goal. Even more important is Theo's discovery that he can actually feel real empathy and genuine love. The protagonist's progression from his apathetic beginnings, devolution and surrender into ultimate detachment until at last he finds redemption for his soul and a purpose for all the buried pain is heartfelt. This is the real story. The imperfection of love and life and society, and how these pieces do not fit so cleanly together. In the end, Xan's more rational, more calculated and more reasonable stratagems cannot win. Theo's character is well-crafted and perhaps masterfully developed in his faults, and faltering growth.

This book is the sort of thing that moves along at a decent enough pace. I'm not familiar with PD James' other works, but I suspect this one differs from her more "thriller" type background. Initially, Theo's career as an Oxford professor and his strange relationships in this dystopian future are stuffy and not overly interesting. That said, the setting is intriguing enough to peak your interest from the outset and the story finds its legs as it progresses along. However, the deeper themes and questions and evolving relationships are such that you don't get a sense of what's happened until you've finished reading. Then you set the book down and later it hits you. Wow.

Podcast If you enjoy my review (or this topic) this book and the movie based on it were further discussed/debated in a lively discussion on my podcast "No Deodorant In Outer Space". The podcast is available on iTunes or our website.
I started reading Children of Men expecting something deep and insightful, because the movie based on this book, staring Clive Owen, is really good. Unfortunately, it seems to me that Ms James had a wonderful first idea (what would happen in a world without newborns) but didn't have the stamina to develop it further. Her solution was to blend her original idea into a discussion about power and how people get seduced by it, but that doesn't really work well (and on the seduction of power, Vonnegut's Cat's Craddle is much better). The rest of the book is really a conventional dystopic plot, but one that is frequently implausible and for the most part boring. All through the second half, the characters just wander around, completely lost (and on that, The Road is much more poignant and strong). The last chapters are really difficult to read because they sound like a reprise of old TV series. Because of all these flaws, Children of Men seems to me much weaker than Atwood's Handmaid's Tale. Here, in my humble opinion, the text lacks strength to be up to its first insight, it makes too many wrong decisions. For instance, the idea of mixing Theo's diary with a third-person narrative (which is questionable even in Handmaid's Tale) seemed to me a technical mistake (more so because it doesn't get nowhere, or maybe, it gets to the bottom of the lake...) I know I'm being really harsh, but, maybe the movie had raised my expectations too high, credit, of course, to the screenwriters who amended all the plot traps Ms James unfortunately fell into when writing the book...
P. D. James is undeniably a master of the detective novel, so why she decided to stray from her forte and write this futuristic dystopian novel is a mystery to me. I suppose she saw it as an opportunity to say something fundamental about power, governance, and political resistance that couldn't be done in format of a policiere. The story struck me as being pointedly allegorical.
If it's a heart-pounding thriller you want, watch the excellent "Children of Mem" movie, which is based rather loosely on this novel. The movie is great science fiction although it lacks the novel's powerful political allegory. If you're a fan of James' stately manner of story-telling and trenchant insights into the characters who populate her story, you'll also want to read this book.
I just finished this - my first P. D. James novel, after 40 years of dodging this author because she was one of my mother’s favorites (how rational is that?). I plan to spend a great deal of time in the immediate future correcting this mistake.
My mother told me about this book (the only P. D. James she HASN’T read - because it is “science fiction”!); she thought it would appeal to me for that very reason. And it did. And it does.
HOWEVER - this is NOT a science fiction book. I’m sure you’ve read the premise by now; the BACKGROUND is science fiction - the STORY is pure character-driven suspense, and it is one of the most gripping mysteries I’ve encountered in a long life spent largely between the covers of books.
You can read the synopsis elsewhere in these reviews; MY purpose in writing this is twofold if you’ve never read P. D. James, START HERE. If, like my mother, you love the author but are wary of science fiction, do not fear it is not the “SF” that controls this story - it is the P. D. JAMES. So if you’ve been avoiding the “SF” factor, again I say START HERE.