Customer Reviews

Exodus

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Ah, here we go again. People loading a book up with 5 star reviews. 5 stars means best of the best, people. Average? 3 stars...and that's what I'm giving this book.

I really wanted to love this book...really wanted to...tried to...couldn't. I love reading books (YA and adult alike) that deal with a changed world. I find the premise interesting, and always a little eerie(in a good way).

But how were all those refugees managing to survive in the that camp outside of New Mungo's city walls?

If the citizens of New Mungo were as heartless as they were portrayed, why didn't they simply use their gun boats to push them away or gun them all down?

Why in all this time would only a fifteen-year-old girl discover the usefulness of the cyberwizz and the weave.

I also was annoyed at how the New Mungo citizens were presented...as some lifeless lump of meat concerned only with the present, and completely close-minded to all things in the past. If this dude, what's his name...Caledon had an office full of books, why would he create a world so devoid of them?

And the names...god, the names were so stupid. Gorbals? I laughed everytime I read that one.

Sorry...I tried.

Exodus is one of the best, most exiting books that I have ever read (and believe me, I've read quite a few). It is set in the year 2100 and in it, young Mara Bell, from the island of Wing (a lonely island that loses more and more of its land to the hungry ocean every year) sets out on a truly terrific journey to save her people (and then later the Treenesters and the slaves) and to find them a new place to live. In her fantastic journey she meets many new friends like the young orphan who she names Wing, after her drowned island, Gorbals, the Treenester and Fox, her greatest friend. However, she also makes many enemies, like Tony Rex the rook, Pollock Halfgood and, in a way, Caledon, the Grand Father of All. There are several unexpected twists and a brilliant, if heart-wrenching, ending. I am eagerly hoping for a sequel to come out. However I'm not giving anything else away so you'll have to read it yourself to find out what happens!

I read a review about how book this book is and how it was going to be the next "hunger games" so I read it. I must say that I am truly disappointed! I didn't enjoy the story at all.

I really wanted to like Exodus. I tried. But in the end, there were a few glaring problems that kept it from being really good in my opinion. There are some parts that really work well, but others that are just hard to get through.

First, I got the feeling that the author didn't really do her homework. The whole premise (not really a spoiler) is what would happen in a world where global warming ran rampant and all the ice in the world melted. In this case, that apparently means almost everything is covered in water, which just doesn't agree with science. (In reality, all the ice melting would only result in 250ft sea rises, leaving much of the land mass still above water). This irked me, but I pushed past assuming it was just a plot device. The problem was, I felt like the author kept beating the reader over the head with this idea, and how it's all my fault because I lived in this time period. And it didn't stop there...

The whole book became a sort of lecture to the reader about the failings of the modern world, without acknowledging the actual science. And when it wasn't telling me how terrible I was for global warming, it was telling me how terrible I was because I'm male. Apparently, all of the good people in this world are either women, or men who owe all of their success to the women in the story. Any form of masculine male was deemed pig headed, ignorant, or downright evil.

As for the setting, it seems the author would have been well suited to think the time line out better. The idea that this all occurs merely 60 years after a cataclysmic event, yet no one save for 3 characters have any history or knowledge of the time before it is odd. It may have been more suited to hundreds of years from now, which would have allowed for the more fantasy themed world to be reasonably believable.

The writing itself was decent enough in many parts, and for a young woman reader this is a decent story of empowerment and exploration. But it's unfortunate that it couldn't have been more believable. It's a quick read if you're wanting something in the genre, but it is unlikely to be memorable in the long run, and does a poor job of arguing the moral of the story.

In the end, it's nothing special. I had to suspend quite a few notions in order to make it through, and if you can do that it's a decent pulp read, but it will likely be forgotten in the near future as other books take its place.

This book is a decent young adult novel. I'm an adult who read it and some of the pages were a little young for me, but all-in-all the story was captivating. I was curious to see what became of the characters.

I think that this book Exodus is such a good book that all ages can read it, even if you`re only 9 like me. This book teaches you about how to help other people and not just yourself, and also how one kid can change everything.
I really liked all the characters in the book of Exodus.

I loved this book. It makes you think about what we're doing to our planet & what it may be like in the future. Definitely an interesting read.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed reading this book immensley although I couldn't help but feel it was somewhat poorly written.
The plot is very interesting, it is about a girl named Mara who's island is sinking into the ocean due to the effects of global warming (this story is set in the future) and it is almost frightening to see what the world may oneday become.
But I still think that the beginning of this book contained too much detail and the end had very little.
I got slightly bored of this book after a few chapters and was about to give up on it if a friend hadn't advised me against it and although I am glad I have read the book, I still think it lacks her emotion, feelings and realism.
Yes, I realise it's set in the future and I have to use my imagination but it wasn't the global warming that bothered me, it was the lack of deepness in the book.
Saying that, it was a fun read and I am sure, had this story been written with more care and emotion, this would have been a classic.

My first indication that this was a children's (or youth's) novel, came from reading the Amazon reviews. . .though one would think that the 15 year old heroine would be a clue.
However, my grown-up opinion of the book is. . .how captivating, well-written and ultimately plausible this futuristic fiction is! Mara, for all her fifteen years, possessed a strength, determination and will to follow through you would be hard-pressed to find in many adults today. Perhaps her and the Fox's idealism is a tad whimsical, and a sure indication of an undercurrent of pedagogic moral-instilling found in youth literature, but it inevitably raises them above the leaden-weight of adult neutrality and detachment represented by Caloden and his city in the sky.
The most personally-satisfying aspect of the novel, was the romance that was eventually intwined through the adventure and the desolation. The story's bittersweet resolution capped the underlying theme of self-sacrifice to the greater good, to raise Mara and her forever love beyond childhood and child's play, into the realm of adulthood.

A lyrical, sweeping, epic story of survival against the odds. It is 2099 - and the world is gradually drowning, as mighty Arctic ice floes melt, the seas rise, and land disappears forever beneath storm-tossed waves. For 15-year-old Mara, her family and community, huddted on the fast-disappearing island of Wing, the new century brings flight. Packed into tiny boats, a terrifying journey begins to a bizarre city that rises into the sky, built on the drowned remains of the ancient city of Glasgow. But even here there is no safety and, shut out of the city, Mara realizes they are asylum-seekers in a world torn between high-tech wizardry and the most primitive injustice. To save her people, Mara must not only find a way into the city but also search for a new land and a new home...