From the Bookshelf of Apocalypse Whenever…

The Children of Men

P.D. James

Start date: January 15, 2016

Finish date: February 1, 2016

Discussion: AW BOOK CLUB (spoilers)

Discussion leader: Gertie

Why we're reading this: FEBRUARY book club, read by February 1st, then discuss here:
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[close] FEBRUARY book club, read by February 1st, then discuss here:
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AW BOOK CLUB (spoilers)

* Nominate books for the next discussions! (for late summer)
By Gertie , Please go nominate books for book club! · 22 posts · 64 views

last updated Aug 15, 2025 08:35AM

* August 2025: Mercy of Gods by James S.A. Corey
By Gertie , Please go nominate books for book club! · 24 posts · 37 views

last updated Aug 08, 2025 03:48PM

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PA scenario. Consider the dark and the quiet.
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(CLOSED) What are you reading right now? (book titles should be clickable TEXT links!)
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All PA fiction fans should have read these books by now...
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What are you reading now? (Use clickable TEXT book links please!)
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What Members Thought

Aug 18, 2009 Christy rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction-and-fantasy, dystopian

I must begin by saying that I saw the movie before I read the book and so my reading of the book was shaped by that fact. I loved the movie, in fact, found it haunting and compelling. The book does not have the same effect. There are always differences between a book and its movie adaptation, but in this case, the differences are substantial.

The pace is very different; where the movie moves forward constantly, the book inches along, spending chapters and chapters on Theo's internal life and chi ...more

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Dec 05, 2008 Mia rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

BRAVICIAMO! I will use my favorite made-up Italian word for expressions of great joy to speak of this novel. Yes: braviciamo. "Children of Men," gets a place in the imagined class on apocalyptic literature (and continues that literature's motif of canned peaches). It is both bleaker and more hopeful than the fine eponymous movie. Here the hope, interestingly, is born of treachery and is of a theological nature unlike the hope in the film which was largely held by a secret band of dear progressiv ...more

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Jul 29, 2014 Mia rated it it was amazing

Shelves: re-reading, apocalypse

I just re-read this book. I'd forgotten how wonderfully ambiguous the last scene is. I'd forgotten, too, that the structure moves between Theodore's journal and third-person close and does so w/ out messing w/ the pacing. So much more interesting than the movie version, and quite different. ...more

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Feb 04, 2019 Cindywho rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy-sf

I'd been thinking about reading the source material for the movie that had been haunting me for years. The movie caught some of the feeling of it with extra drama and a very different ending. Her style was luxuriously upper class British that was enjoyable enough to make me forgive her for yet another book in the POV of a creepy guy. ...more

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Feb 25, 2014 Aaron rated it liked it

Shelves: apocalyptic

Clearly apocalyptic. Very descriptive, many England refererences were lost on me. Somewhat different than the movie, but then again, what books are the same as the movie?

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