Appleseed

A Novel

By: Matt Bell

Narrated by: Mark Bramhall

A New York Times Notable Book
A Philadelphia Inquirer Best of the Year

“Woven together out of the strands of myth, science fiction, and ecological warning, Matt Bell’s Appleseed is as urgent as it is audacious.” (Kelly Link, Pulitzer Prize finalist and national best-selling author of Get in Trouble)

A “breathtaking novel of ideas unlike anything you’ve ever read” (Esquire) from Young Lions Fiction Award-finalist Matt Bell, a breakout book that explores climate change, manifest destiny, humanity’s unchecked exploitation of natural resources, and the small but powerful magic contained within every single apple.

In 18th-century Ohio, two brothers travel into the wooded frontier, planting apple orchards from which they plan to profit in the years to come. As they remake the wilderness in their own image, planning for a future of settlement and civilization, the long-held bonds and secrets between the two will be tested, fractured and broken - and possibly healed.

Fifty years from now, in the second half of the twenty-first century, climate change has ravaged the Earth. Having invested early in genetic engineering and food science, one company now owns all the world’s resources. But a growing resistance is working to redistribute both land and power - and in a pivotal moment for the future of humanity, one of the company’s original founders will return to headquarters, intending to destroy what he helped build.

A thousand years in the future, North America is covered by a massive sheet of ice. One lonely sentient being inhabits a tech station on top of the glacier - and in a daring and seemingly impossible quest, sets out to follow a homing beacon across the continent in the hopes of discovering the last remnant of civilization.

Hugely ambitious in scope and theme, Appleseed is the breakout novel from a writer “as self-assured as he is audacious” (NPR) who “may well have invented the pulse-pounding novel of ideas” (Jess Walter). Part speculative epic, part tech thriller, part reinvented fairy tale, Appleseed is an unforgettable meditation on climate change; corporate, civic, and familial responsibility; manifest destiny; and the myths and legends that sustain us all.

©2021 Matt Bell (P)2021 HarperCollins Publishers

Absolutely Brilliant

This is a brilliant addition to the emerging literature on climate change futures, or “cli-fi.” That said, I don’t think it is reducible to a single genre. In terms of the ambition and scale of the story, it can be compared with Neal Stephenson’s Seveneves, or Termination Shock. But where Stephenson’s stories seem recently to end with gun battles and chases (especially Termination Shock) and to focus disproportionately on the minutiae of various technologies, Bell explores the question of world ending and world renewal to the very end through an incredibly innovative mix of magic, myth, technology, and possibilities of the human and nonhuman body. Beautifully done.

Melodramatic

I’m not a fan of Kafka, so this book just really doesn’t do it for me. It’s categorized SciFi and fantasy, but really needs to be MUCH more weighted to fantasy. Mythic creatures, parabled story lines, emotive time dilation, and histrionic hand-wringing over some geoengineering boogeyman, it just got so romance-period melodramatic I quit about a third in.

If you want more upbeat, even-handed, readable and frankly better researched titles in similar subject matter, go with Neal Stephenson’s Termination Shock or Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Ministry for the Future.

If you’re into a more fantasy approach, literary style, and dig 19th century romantic sentimentality, this one might work for you.

Unique Tale

I read (listen) to a fair amount of post apocalyptic books. As well as a fair amount of historic fiction. And some fantasy/ SiFi as well... This story finds its way into all those genres. I found myself rewinding chapters a few times to re listen, as I thought I was lost. Mark Bramhall is a superstar and provides a mesmerizing narration. But I had trouble keeping the brothers straight and rewound frequently to grab the speakers identity again.

A complex story for sure. A well timed caution for us all as well. And I have found myself reflecting on this book many times since I listened last month. Worth a listen, but commit. Not a story for a casually listen.

Think Climate Change is a Joke? LISTEN 2 THIS!

Matt Bell has written several Novels having to do with environmental issues & how these issues can & will eventually effect our planet! Thogh his Novels are written as Science Fiction, they'll open your eyes to what is happening to our planet as a result of the 100's of years humans & their constant need to use up all the Earth's resources, while simultaneously destroying our planet with those same resources! If one works at the earth as a living thing, humans are like a cancer, first, slowly eating away at the planet, then, as we continued to expand & spread out across the globe, tearing down rain forests & replacing them with unnatural Infrastructures, until one day, when the cancer completely takes over & the Earth dies! The reason why I didn't give a 5-star rating across the board was because the narrator that was chosen, wasn't able to do much in the way of being able to change his voice, making it difficult understanding a lot of the dialogue. Other than that, it was a phenomenally, thought provoking story about humanity & the way it has effectEd our planet! I honestly didn't think I was going to enjoy Appleseed as much as I did, in fact,, I almost didn't bother purchasing it, but I'm so glad that I did! Never hearing about the author, Matt Bell before was the main thing that had me on the fence about getting this Novel, but now I plan on looking into getting some of his other Novels as well!

One of the more powerful science fiction novels I’ve read in years

This book is very human. Even as mythical fawns are used as metaphor, as post human variations scramble for survival on a long dead world, as the human world ends for millennia, it’s still a profoundly human book. This is not space opera, this is not a cyberthriller. This is an exploration of what people do to cope when the world they love is gone. People with the most power and people with the least. Usually literary minded science fiction finds its technological ideas suffering for a shift in focus toward a more personal experience. But this author manages to adeptly weave the two together. The only critique I’d make is a listing pattern that occasionally is employed to drive home a sense of loss. You’ll know it when you come to it. Otherwise, this is pretty close to my ideal form of science fiction.

Fascinating

Part fantasy part reality. This story captured my attention right away. Regardless of which genre you are partial to, it has almost all of them. It’s long but I was great enough that I will enjoy it again.

Appleseed - The World is Already Enough

I like to joke with my kids that before I die, I’m hoping to download my consciousness into the cloud, but in Matt Bell’s Appleseed, to live without a body is not to live - nor is living without the natural world. The world going to environmental hell is kind of the theme of the 2021 summer and a lot of my recent reading list -- Hummingbird Salamander, Migrations, Vesper Flights, even Donut Economics. But maybe Appleseed says it the best - “Chapman doesn’t know how to say ... this world is already enough .. that it is enough to be a mere part of it ... taking nothing more than the one real moment constantly renewed - the present in which it might be possible to stay rooted simply by ceasing your craving for more.“ It was easy to like Appleseed, but it was hard to love. I appreciated the audacity of the book and built up some momentum as I got in, but it was a bitter pill at times and perhaps too close to our what seems like our inevitable future. Inevitable? Bell’s fawn asks why the gods give him a voice when it was too late to change the ending. The book beautifully weaves in three separate timelines and worlds with plenty of parallels. I listened to the audiobook narrated by Mark Bramhall. I thought Mark’s central voice was very good, but wished for more differentiation of some of his other characters. Appleseed is very descriptive and I could easily imagine the scenes rendered into a movie. Highly recommended,

Awesome

3 story lines seems alot but they connect well. This book and narrator were a perfect blend....like nothing you have read before oh Johhny Appleseed!

Unique, creative but writing a bit tedious

Narration was perfect for this book. Content--climate change, bioengineering, the future of our world's plants and animals, food and water inequality and resource wastefulness--can be contentious for many readers so be forewarned. I always love a good, thoughtful book on the future of earth and author Matt Bell does this as he weaves mythology, fantasy, fiction and apocalypse together in an unexpected story line. I loved that. But here comes the "But." I found myself hitting the fast forward 10 second button quite a bit. I so often wanted to say, "okay, okay, got it, got it," just so I could get back to the story. At one point, there is an extremely long list of plant and animal species that are no more. It went on and on and on and on and on. Yes, I get the point of that exhaustive list. But listening to it for many minutes almost made me give up entirely. And yet, I'm glad I endured to the end as the book was overall a good story and so unique it is worth a listen.

Bizarre and breathtakingly frightening

Mark Bramhall as ever is hypnotizing. The frightening nightmare of the world order as envisioned by E seems terrifyingly possible. In a world, already contaminated by a few ‘haves’ living off of the sweat and labor of so many ‘have nots’, and a world dying from the greed of humanity, we are signing our own death sentence.