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A Half-Built Garden
A Half-Built Garden | Ruthanna Emrys
9 posts | 7 read | 12 to read
A literary descendent of Ursula K. Le Guin, Ruthanna Emrys crafts a novel of extraterrestrial diplomacy and urgent climate repair bursting with quiet, tenuous hope and an underlying warmth. A Half-Built Garden depicts a world worth building towards, a humanity worth saving from itself, and an alien community worth entering with open arms. It's not the easiest future to build, but it's one that just might be in reach. On a warm March night in 2083, Judy Wallach-Stevens wakes to a warning of unknown pollutants in the Chesapeake Bay. She heads out to check what she expects to be a false alarm—and stumbles upon the first alien visitors to Earth. These aliens have crossed the galaxy to save humanity, convinced that the people of Earth must leave their ecologically-ravaged planet behind and join them among the stars. And if humanity doesn't agree, they may need to be saved by force. But the watershed networks that rose up to save the planet from corporate devastation aren't ready to give up on Earth. Decades ago, they reorganized humanity around the hope of keeping the world liveable. By sharing the burden of decision-making, they've started to heal our wounded planet. Now corporations, nation-states, and networks all vie to represent humanity to these powerful new beings, and if anyone accepts the aliens' offer, Earth may be lost. With everyone’s eyes turned skyward, the future hinges on Judy's effort to create understanding, both within and beyond her own species. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
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HeyT
A Half-Built Garden | Ruthanna Emrys
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Today in I always have a book: waiting for the concert to start.

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HeyT
A Half-Built Garden | Ruthanna Emrys
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Work is closed due to a power outage so I have a suddenly completely free weekend. Feels like a good day to not make the bed and read with the doggo.

I‘m enjoying the tagged so far but I am not in love with the size of the font lol. Both my current reads make me feel old with failing eyesight.
#DogsOfLitsy

20 likes1 stack add
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HeyT
A Half-Built Garden | Ruthanna Emrys
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#BookReport
I had an absolute stellar reading week. I don't think I've done this much reading since the height of the pando. Everything I read was a pick which was also nice.

#WeeklyForecast
This week my goal is to finish up the tagged as it's the last of my library stack. Then I'll make the final push for the Nantucket book. After that who knows?

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HeyT
A Half-Built Garden | Ruthanna Emrys
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Starting this while I‘m on break at work. It‘s the April pick for my book club.

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CampbellTaraL
A Half-Built Garden | Ruthanna Emrys
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Bailedbailed

I wanted to like this but it just didn't click. The weirdness of extraterrestrial life was fine. The extra weirdness of aliens trying to punt humans from their habitat out of the goodness of their heart (?) was meh. The thing that killed it for me though was the glib character narrative and the fact some everyday persons with an infant are allowed to make first contact is just... No. Not buying it. The blurb read great, the story not so much.

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julesG
A Half-Built Garden | Ruthanna Emrys
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Those pronouns and their rapid changes give me whiplash. And the two women are about to go to a party and need to tread that pronoun-minefield extra carefully.

Earlier in the book: 'sie' and 'hie' and 'hes'

"Pronouns are 'e' and 'em' and 'eir,'.... 'Tha,' 'thon,' 'thos'..."

Later on " 'hoi,' 'hom,' and 'hos' " are added.

Smrloomis Huh. Is that intriguing or just frustrating? 2y
julesG @Smrloomis I find it frustrating, especially when one character changes clothes within one scene and hence gets three different pronouns within as many short paragraphs. 2y
julesG @Smrloomis It somehow takes me out of the flow. Reading about "hoi" then "tha" then "e" - it indicates the person went from overly male clothing to naked and then some sort of unisex. If the story keeps piling on more pronouns, I'll need a notebook to keep track 2y
Smrloomis @julesG yeah I don‘t think I could keep track without some sort of guide! 😅 2y
37 likes4 comments
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underground_bks
A Half-Built Garden | Ruthanna Emrys
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Pickpick

In this near-future first contact story, the organizational realism of Contact meets the gender & interspecies sexuality of Becky Chambers meets the social change & eco-philosophy of Emergent Strategy 🤯 This book was a little more of a challenge than a pleasure to read for me but personally I would never count that against ambitious solarpunk with decentralized decision-making, climate remediation, polyamory, and matriarchal dual-species aliens.

23 likes4 stack adds
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LeticiaToraci
A Half-Built Garden | Ruthanna Emrys
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Pickpick

This book has a lot about first contact politics, near-future ways to cope with climatic change, and mothers changing the world for the better while carrying their babies around in slings and changing diapers too. The aliens are also extremely well fleshed out. It was original and different. I like when the first contact situation with its politics and conflicts is so well fleshed out.

It's so lovely!!! I need more books like this!

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Decalino
A Half-Built Garden | Ruthanna Emrys
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Pickpick

A first-contact story set in a near-future world where megacorporations have been exiled to man-made islands, nation states are in decline, and a network of communities devoted to restoring and maintaining the world's watersheds do their best to work toward a sustainable future. A hopeful contrast to my usual steady diet of dystopias, this novel focuses on the connections that make us stronger, and the work it takes to forge them.

12 likes2 stack adds