The Stone Gods (novel)

The Stone Gods

First edition
Author	Jeanette Winterson
Publisher	Hamish Hamilton
Publication date	2007
Pages	224
ISBN	0-241-14395-0

The Stone Gods is a novel written by Jeanette Winterson. ^{[1] [2]} Published in the year 2007, the novel is a post-apocalyptic, postmodern, dystopian love story, with themes of corporate government control, the harshness of war, artificial intelligence, and technology. The novel is self-referential as characters make inter-textual references, while certain characters’ story arcs repeat. ^[3] The novel aims to warn against history's tendency to repeat itself, as well as humanity's inability to learn from past mistakes. ^[4]

A novel in four parts

• "Planet Blue" – Set in a futuristic past where humanity's destruction of its homeworld, Orbus, seems to be inevitable, they discover and terraform another viable planet.
• "Easter Island" – Set in the 18th century, when Easter Island's inhabitants destroyed many of the moai statues, and the last tree, on their island.
• "Post-3War" – Set in "Tech City" after World War III, with Billie educating Spike, a Robo sapiens.
• "Wreck City" – Once again set in the "Tech City", now a derelict, trash-ridden city where those abandoned by the corporate-controlled society struggle to survive.

Reception

Ursula Le Guin, while criticizing exposition and sentimentality, thought the novel a worthwhile and cautionary tale. ^[5] Andrew Milner, a literary critic and author of Science Fiction and Climate Change, notes that this book is an early example of 'doomer' climate fiction. ^[6]

References

1. Cokal, Susann (30 March 2008). "She, Robot". The New York Times. Retrieved 13 July 2016.
2. "The Stone Gods Book Review" . Retrieved 13 July 2016.
3. Jennings, Hope (1 October 2010). ""A Repeating World": Redeeming the Past and Future in the Utopian Dystopia of Jeanette Winterson's The Stone Gods". Interdisciplinary Humanities. 27 (2): 132–146.
4. GradeSaver. "The Stone Gods Summary | GradeSaver". www.gradesaver.com. Retrieved 23 October 2023.
5. Guin, Ursula K. Le (22 September 2007). "Review: The Stone Gods by Jeanette Winterson". The Guardian.
6. Knibbs, Kate (17 February 2020). "The Hottest New Literary Genre Is 'Doomer Lit'". Wired. Retrieved 28 April 2020.