T. Coraghessan Boyle

Als experiment worden vier mannen en vier vrouwen na een strenge selectie voor twee jaar opgesloten in een enorme broeikas om te testen of de mens biologisch en sociaal in staat is te overleven in een kunstmatige biosfeer mocht het klimaat op aarde onleefbaar worden.

The Terranauts

T.C. Boyle

A deep-dive into human behavior in an epic story of science, society, sex, and survival, from one of the greatest American novelists today, T. C. Boyle, the acclaimed, bestselling, author of the PEN/ Faulkner Award–winning World’s End and The Harder They Come. It is 1994, and in the desert near Tillman, Arizona, forty miles from Tucson, a grand experiment involving the future of humanity is underway. As climate change threatens the earth, eight scientists, four men and four women dubbed the "Terranauts," have been selected to live under glass in E2, a prototype of a possible off-earth colony. Their sealed, three-acre compound comprises five biomes—rainforest, savanna, desert, ocean, and marsh—and enough wildlife, water, and vegetation to sustain them. Closely monitored by an all-seeing Mission Control, this New Eden is the brainchild of ecovisionary Jeremiah Reed, aka G.C.—"God the Creator"—for whom the project is both an adventure in scientific discovery and a momentous publicity stunt. In addition to their roles as medics, farmers, biologists, and survivalists, his young, strapping Terranauts must impress watchful visitors and a skeptical media curious to see if E2’s environment will somehow be compromised, forcing the Ecosphere’s seal to be broken—and ending the mission in failure. As the Terranauts face increased scrutiny and a host of disasters, both natural and of their own making, their mantra: "Nothing in, nothing out," becomes a dangerously ferocious rallying cry. Told through three distinct narrators—Dawn Chapman, the mission’s pretty, young ecologist; Linda Ryu, her bitter, scheming best friend passed over for E2; and Ramsay Roothorp, E2’s sexually irrepressible Wildman—The Terranauts brings to life an electrifying, pressured world in which connected lives are uncontrollably pushed to the breaking point. With characteristic humor and acerbic wit, T.C. Boyle indelibly inhabits the perspectives of the various players in this survivalist game, probing their motivations and illuminating their integrity and fragility to illustrate the inherent fallibility of human nature itself.

A Novel

Amulya Garimella

an overall kind of mediocre experience — this book had nice style but little substance. it pulls punches repeatedly: in terms of characters, message, and entertainment value. characters that could be well-shaded are left to rot with only a few (bad) character traits (and even these flaws are not fully picked apart tbh), there's really no thought-provoking content to chew on or message to walk away with. i'd be fine with these things if the book delivered on entertainment value, but it didn't — plot shenanigans could easily have been far, far crazier for maximum soap-opera fun. the ending is particularly disappointing on this front — the story seemed to kind of reach for meditative reflection when i wanted it to go off the rails, full-on lord of the flies.

saving graces are a very!! nice and smooth writing style, semi-interesting and semi-immersive plot, and semi-convincingly done multiple perspectives.

recommendation: read with someone else to commiserate about how annoying each character is, but eventually you will get bored of this because you'll keep complaining about the same exact annoying traits.

The Terranauts

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