Welcome to Litsy!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ A completely engrossing and thought provoking novel on all levels. I almost gave up in the beginning, so glad I didn‘t. Once it grabs, it grabs hard.

I loved The Overstory so much that I tried to lower my expectations while reading this novel about a Canadian diver & ocean scientist, the founder of a wildly successful social media platform, & the inhabitants of a remote island, the proposed site for a seasteading venture. The novel is strongest when describing connections to the natural world, although the revelatory ending made me reassess my view of certain subplots. A thought-provoking read.

It took me a minute to get into this but I am absolutely riveted by the characters in this book (especially Eve the female diver)

This is a brilliant masterpiece. Powers expertly weaves culture, class, technology and nature together to allow the reader to understand the impact we all have. His diverse characters reflects different viewpoints, especially poignant to issues we are facing and having to deal with. Powers has a magical way of writing that few authors can achieve, making Playground one of his crowning achievements.

He's a great writer, this is the third by him I've read this year.
His weaving of narrators, love, science and culture is superb, and the msrine focus is of such importance.
It spanned a good length of time and has such truths.

A book about love. Love between friends, love between partners, parental love and the love children have towards their parents. Most importantly it‘s a book about the love of nature and the sea and all the creatures that live in the sea.

So my hubby had to drive to Bend, OR. For work and I tagged along… so he took me to two book stores and this was Dudley‘s Bookshop … so cute and I found the book I wanted and a few more 🤣📚

I started this on audio and struggled to connect so switched to physical. However, whilst I really enjoyed the book overall, I think the lack of human connection might have been the issue rather than audio.

Neither of the two male MCs was very relatable and there was too much distance between all of the stories - they sort of came together at the end but I didn‘t feel emotionally connected.

It would still have made my #booker shortlist.

My pup is out of this lion costume collar now. Surgery went well, recovering largely done.

Powers is an author determined to make quality fiction out of pertinent science. Here he tosses us a red herring, when a social media leader, author of AI-based Playground, suffering from a disease that affects his mind, looks at the oceans. I was waiting for the environmental hammer, but his focus is different. Thought-provoking. Not subtle.

#bookerprizelonglist

I loved it! I thought it followed a similar pattern to The Overstory, but focused on the ocean rather than trees. And, again, it's not so much about the plot as what it *means*. In short, it's a gorgeous "thinky" book that appeals to the heart (my favourite kind?). I'm disappointed it wasn't shortlisted.