Idlewild (novel)

Last updated
Idlewild
Idlewild (novel).jpg
First edition
Author Nick Sagan
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Genre Science fiction
Publisher Putnam (US)
Bantam Books (UK)
Publication date
2003
Media typePrint (hardback & paperback)
Pages295
ISBN 0-399-15097-8
OCLC 51652945
813/.6 21
LC Class PS3619.A36 I35 2003
Followed by Edenborn  

Idlewild is a science fiction novel by American writer Nick Sagan, published in 2003. It is the first of a trilogy, with sequels Edenborn and Everfree . The story is split between two settings: the middle of the 21st century (told through interludes and distinguished from the main story by italics) and a generation later. It is a picture of the last ten people on earth, a near-complete pantheon of gods and goddesses.

Contents

Plot

The backstory is revealed in interludes throughout the book. In the middle of the 21st century, a retrovirus called Black Ep renders all of humanity infertile, and causes people to die. In the lab of a major German-American genetic research facility, a group of scientists are working on a project to save humanity by raising ten genetically altered children in immersive virtual reality. To test the efficiency of the software, one of the scientists, Halfway Jim, uses a program designed to be as close to a real child as possible, to run through the virtual lives the children will lead. Out of sentimentality, Jim's dying act is to integrate this program, which he names Malachi, into the virtual reality environment.

The main story follows one of the virtual "students," a young man named Halloween, who wakes up with total amnesia and must piece together what he can of the world around him. Halloween meets nine other students: Jasmine, Mercutio, Pandora, Simone, Isaac, Lazarus, Vashti, Tyler, Champagne, and Fantasia. Fan, Mercutio, Hal, and Tyler are known as the "clods," who misbehave, while Simone, Isaac, Lazarus, Vashti, Champagne, and Pan are the "pets," who study and follow all of the rules. The digital teacher of the school is named Maestro, but the clods call him Mae$tro (pronounced 'Maeshtro') and do not respect him. Each student is given a digital world that they may edit to their liking and a "Nanny," a digital being that can help a student with anything they need help with.

Mercutio asks Halloween if he'd like some food, and they decide to dine at the Taj Mahal. Mercutio begins to order a steak, but halfway through his order, the entire world freezes up. Mercutio has triggered a jammer so that he and Hal can escape the virtual world, and they both wake up in their beds in the school. They decide to visit their favorite diner, Twain's, and enjoy a nice meal before Merc decides to head back to IVR. Halloween calls his parents and reports that he is dropping out. After a long discussion with both his parents and Ellison, the school's headmaster, Halloween is sent back to the virtual world.

Halloween "graduates" all of the remaining students, waking them up from the virtual world. They decide to fulfill Gedaechtnis' plans for them to rebuild the world, but Halloween rejects the plan. The book ends with Halloween standing in the woods of Michigan, angry at the world for robbing him of his illusions, the girl he loved and his two best friends.

Reception

Kirkus Reviews wrote that while the book "might seem a rather lumbering affair when laid out", it "nips along quite nicely, deftly sidestepping the overly drawn-out or too-fraught-with-meaning scenarios one might expect from this apocalyptic masquerade." [1] Publishers Weekly wrote that "Despite a compelling twist near the middle, the low tension and meandering plot will likely frustrate the primary target audience, mainstream fans of such futuristic action films as The Matrix and Minority Report." [2] Ann Kim of Library Journal wrote that despite "occasionally reading more like a drawn-out short story rather than a novel", the book is a "fine debut by a writer with potential to grow". [3]

Sally Estes of Booklist wrote that Sagan "captures perfectly the voice and actions of a rebellious, extremely intelligent teenager." [4] Gerald Jonas of The New York Times wrote that the book is "long on visuals, short on narrative logic and, surprisingly, weak on science." [5]

Sequels

A sequel, Edenborn , was published in 2004. A second sequel, Everfree , was published in May 2006. [6]

See also

Bibliographical information

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nick Sagan</span> American novelist and screenwriter

Nicholas Julian Zapata Sagan is an American novelist and screenwriter. He is the author of the science fiction novels Idlewild, Edenborn, and Everfree, and has also written scripts for episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Voyager. He is the son of astronomer Carl Sagan and artist and writer Linda Salzman.

<i>Farseer</i> trilogy Trilogy of fantasy novels by Robin Hobb

The Farseer trilogy is a series of fantasy novels by American author Robin Hobb, published from 1995 to 1997. It is often described as epic fantasy, and as a character-driven and introspective work. Set in and around the fictional realm of the Six Duchies, it tells the story of FitzChivalry Farseer, an illegitimate son of a prince who is trained as an assassin. Political machinations within the royal family threaten his life, and the kingdom is beset by naval raids. Fitz possesses two forms of magic: the telepathic Skill that runs in the royal line, and the socially despised Wit that enables bonding with animals. The series follows his life as he seeks to restore stability to the kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Libba Bray</span> American writer

Martha Elizabeth "Libba" Bray is an American writer of young adult novels including the Gemma Doyle Trilogy, Going Bovine, and The Diviners.

<i>Edenborn</i>

Edenborn is a 2004 science fiction novel by American writer Nick Sagan. It is the sequel to Idlewild, and takes place 18 years after that book. The sequel to this book and the final installment of the trilogy is Everfree.

<i>Activities of Daily Living</i> 2022 novel by Lisa Hsiao Chen

Activities of Daily Living is a 2022 novel by Lisa Hsiao Chen. Publishers Weekly included it in their list of the top ten books of 2022, regardless of genre.

<i>The Dark River</i> (novel) 2007 novel by John Twelve Hawks

The Dark River is a 2007 New York Times bestselling novel by John Twelve Hawks. The book is the second in a trilogy of dystopian novels written by reclusive author John Twelve Hawks. The Fourth Realm Trilogy has been translated into 25 languages and has sold more than 1.5 million books.

<i>Blindsight</i> (Watts novel) 2006 novel by Peter Watts

Blindsight is a hard science fiction novel by Canadian writer Peter Watts, published by Tor Books in 2006. It won the Seiun Award for best translated novel and was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel, the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel, and the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel. The story follows a crew of astronauts sent out as the third wave, following two series of probes, to investigate a trans-Neptunian Kuiper belt comet dubbed "Burns-Caulfield" that has been found to be transmitting an unidentified radio signal to an as-yet unknown destination elsewhere in the Solar System, followed by their subsequent first contact. The novel explores themes of identity, consciousness, free will, artificial intelligence, neurology, and game theory as well as evolution and biology.

<i>Odd and the Frost Giants</i> Novel by Neil Gaiman

Odd and the Frost Giants (2008) is a World Book Day book by Neil Gaiman. It draws on Norse mythology and also the historical Vikings.

<i>Dead Beautiful</i>

Dead Beautiful is a young adult urban fantasy novel by American author Yvonne Woon. The story follows Renée Winters, an orphan who is sent to a mysterious Gottfried academy. While enrolled, Renée discovers a series of enigmas, most surrounding her school, her boyfriend, and eventually herself. The novel was released to critical acclaim in 2010, with a sequel, Life Eternal, following in 2012.

<i>Strange Flesh</i> 2012 novel by Michael Olson

Strange Flesh is a novel by author Michael Olson, published by Simon & Schuster in 2012.

<i>Shadow Scale</i>

Shadow Scale is a 2015 fantasy novel by Rachel Hartman. It is the sequel and conclusion to her first novel, Seraphina (2012). It was released in hardcover, ebook, and audio book format on March 10, 2015.

<i>Out of Darkness</i> (novel) 2015 historical young adult novel by Ashley Hope Pérez

Out of Darkness is a historical young adult novel by Ashley Hope Pérez, published September 1, 2015 by Carolrhoda Lab. The novel chronicles a love affair between a teenage Mexican-American girl and a teenage African-American boy in 1930s New London, Texas, occurring right up to the 1937 New London School explosion.

Amie Kaufman is a New York Times bestselling and internationally bestselling Australian author of science fiction and fantasy for young adults. She is known for the Starbound Trilogy and Unearthed, which she co-authored with Meagan Spooner; for her series The Illuminae Files, co-authored with Jay Kristoff; and for her solo series, Elementals. Her books have been published in over 35 countries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nic Stone</span> American writer

Andrea Nicole Livingstone, known as Nic Stone, is an American author of young adult fiction and middle grade fiction, best known for her debut novel Dear Martin and her middle grade debut, Clean Getaway. Her novels have been translated into six languages.

Bethany C. Morrow is an American author. She writes speculative fiction for adult and young adult audiences and is the author of Mem (2018), A Song Below Water (2020), So Many Beginnings: A Little Women Remix (2021), and the editor of YA anthology Take the Mic (2019).

The Belles is a dystopian young adult novel series by Dhonielle Clayton, consisting of three books: The Belles (2018), The Everlasting Rose (2019) and The Beauty Trials (2023). The first two books are Junior Library Guild selections.

<i>On Such a Full Sea</i> 2014 novel by Chang-Rae Lee

On Such a Full Sea is a speculative fiction novel by Chang-rae Lee, published on January 7, 2014 by Riverhead Books. It is Lee's fifth novel, and the story uses the first person plural to tell the journey of the young fish tank diver, Fan, as she pursues her missing boyfriend. The novel takes place in a post-apocalyptic dystopian world ruined by environmental disaster where the population is divided between those who live in Charter villages, highly-regulated and self-contained labor settlements, and the open counties, land that is full of crime and unsupervised by the government. The entire population also is afflicted with "C," a disease affecting the rest of the population that eventually kills everyone who has it. The work deals with themes of capitalism, environmental concerns, healthcare, race, and postcolonialism. It received positive reception at the time of its release, and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction in 2014 as well as shortlisted for the 2015 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf</span> 2012 novel by Ambelin Kwaymullina

The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf is a 2012 speculative fiction novel by Ambelin Kwaymullina. Kwaymullina's debut novel, it tells the story of a nearly utopian world after an apocalypse, where some people have begun to have magical abilities, and are persecuted and detained for it. The book's protagonist, Ashala Wolf, attempts to fight these injustices in her system and save the group of runaways she leads.

<i>Babel, or the Necessity of Violence</i> 2022 novel by R. F. Kuang

Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution is a 2022 novel by R. F. Kuang. It debuted at the first spot on The New York Times Best Seller list and won Blackwell's Books of the Year for Fiction in 2022. Thematically similar to The Poppy War, Kuang's first book series, the book criticizes British imperialism, capitalism, and the complicity of academia in perpetuating and enabling them. Kuang drew heavily from history and her own experiences as both a translator and an Oxford graduate.

<i>All the Broken Places</i> 2022 novel by John Boyne

All the Broken Places is a historical fiction novel by John Boyne. It was published on 15 September 2022 by Doubleday and received mixed reviews from critics.

References

  1. "Idlewild". Kirkus Reviews . 1 June 2003. Retrieved 27 September 2022.
  2. "IDLEWILD". Publishers Weekly . Retrieved 27 September 2022.
  3. Kim, Ann. "Idlewild". Library Journal . Retrieved 27 September 2022.
  4. Estes, Sally. "Idlewild". Booklist . Retrieved 27 September 2022.
  5. Jonas, Gerald (14 September 2003). "SCIENCE FICTION". The New York Times . Retrieved 27 September 2022.
  6. "Everfree". Kirkus Reviews . 1 April 2006. Retrieved 3 October 2022.