Yesterday I should have been doing chores around my house, but instead I spent several hours reading because I had to know where this story was going. That alone should tell you how much I enjoyed Stories from the End of the World.

This is one of the most interesting and creative books I've read this year. It has been compared to Cloud Atlas, and I can understand why because of the structure, but the comparison only goes so far. While Cloud Atlas spans vastly different time periods, this novel focuses on an eleven-year period that begins only a few years in our future. The result feels much more immediate and unsettling because it is easy to imagine many of these events unfolding within our own lifetimes.

I've also seen comparisons to Kim Stanley Robinson because of the inclusion of hard science. For me, however, the science in this novel is woven into the story far more seamlessly. Robinson's work can sometimes become so focused on scientific detail that the narrative slows down. Here, the science enhances the story and makes the world feel more believable without ever becoming overwhelming. In that respect, it reminded me more of Neal Stephenson. The ideas are ambitious, but the book remains a genuine page-turner. As a science lover, I was not disappointed! Several different scientific disciplines are represented including physics, chemistry, biology, and computer science. Some parts involving coding I didn't understand because I'm not a computer scientist, however, this did not detract at all from the overall story.

The writing style also brought to mind Emily St. John Mandel. This is not a novel that follows a single set of characters from beginning to end. Instead, it is a collection of interconnected stories happening during the same time period where some characters appear in each other's stories. As you progress through the book, gradually the full picture is revealed.

One thing I really appreciated was how much this book gave me to think about. I found myself reflecting on the questions it raises about technology, science, society, and the future. In fact, I wish I had read it with a group because there is so much here that would make for fascinating discussion.

This was a memorable and thought-provoking read that managed to balance big ideas with compelling storytelling. I highly recommend it!

I got this ARC from NetGalley and I just want to say WOW! This is my first scientific novel and I enjoyed every single page. Without giving any spoilers, the way the author is using comparisons between what we believe with events that formed our history, and then creating a futuristic storyline was amazing. One of my favorite parts was when the author mentioned works like Siddhartha, and places like the Library of Alexandria; and how, as humans, we’re literally never satisfied.

I will absolutely recommend this to my friends.

Very Cloud Atlas-esque and a smart take on the perils of AI and global powers having access to apocalypse causing tools. The idea of an alien entity helping mankind along up until the very end was well done and the inner story of a husband-AI-wife murder mystery was fantastic.

I absolutely loved this book. Couldn't put it down.

This was not an easy-breezy read, but it was the kind of book that kept me engaged, my curiosity constantly piqued. The writing has such elegance to it. Even when I had to slow down, I wanted to keep going, because the language, the ideas, and the atmosphere were so compelling.

Each character brought out a different facet of the human condition, and each perspective added something new to the bigger picture. I loved watching the different threads and characters come together.

It is exciting, thoughtful, unsettling, and beautifully written. I genuinely cannot stop thinking about it.

I would definitely recommend this to readers interested in AI, possible futures, technology, power, and humanity. Just know going in that it is not necessarily a light or effortless read. It asks for your attention, but it rewards that attention so well.

Thanks so much for the opportunity to read this book! :)

Thank you very much to the author and the publisher, and to NetGalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Stories from the End of the World is an episodic novella featuring eight distinct characters in the days and years leading up to the end of the world in 2042. As each character’s perspective unfolds, the reader uncovers more of the events that culminate in the world’s curtain call—with more than a few twists along the way.

This is a phenomenal novella. Each character’s voice is powerfully distinct, their uniqueness so tangible that I imagine the stories would be quite easily readable without any speaker tags. All the characters are beautifully nuanced, embodying the full range of humanity’s kaleidoscope of selfhood. The story itself bears a subtle mystery, unraveling to reveal a resolution the reader is subconsciously aware of, yet reluctant to acknowledge until it’s brought to the forefront as the existential reality it is.

My favourite voices were those of Genesis, Lali, and Joyce, but all of them were excellent. Even the characters whom I found reprehensible were ultimately human in their selfishness. There is a form of hubris and moral questionability that I believe only mankind is capable of, and regardless of whether it’s pretty, it remains a fundamental part of our reality.

Author Janine Shiota weaves a powerful tale, striking a poignant message into the reader’s heart that blossoms into hope like a rose from a thorn. The future does not come suddenly; it is the culmination of every nanosecond of action and inaction, of risk and regret, and of kindness and cruelty. I was also humbled and delighted by the author’s dedication to accuracy and realism, indicating the extensive research that went into the writing process.

In the end, life is defined by its capacity for love. We are loving creatures, whether we love each other, our world, humanity itself, or even ourselves. We take it for granted, overlook it, languish in its insufficiency, and all the while remain ignorant of its latent power. When the world comes to its end, when there is no money to hoard and no power to gain, all that will remain of us is that which we loved. Perhaps it is that selfsame love that will also pull us back from the brink.

Overall, this novella is excellent for fans of the messages underlying films like Interstellar and Arrival. Readers who enjoyed Story of Your Life will also find a welcome taste of sci-fi and existentialism here. That said, I believe this novella would be an enriching, valuable experience for anyone at all.

As a series of interconnected stories, each part is written with a distinctive voice and character. Naturally, there will be stories that people will enjoy more than others.

For me, my least enjoyable was Lali's story, which is the first major one. So I didn't have great hopes for the rest of the book, but they far exceeded my expectations. The overall narrative is compelling and very cleverly written. By the last 20% the stories takes a bit of a turn and the narrative propels, bring all of the stories closer and linking them well.

I enjoyed the narrative note at the end as well - explaining the reality behind the novel (as well as bits that were specifically created for the story). The authors take on speculative fiction was refreshing and i think really bought the whole book into perspective.

Highly recommended.

Was a great book! I really enjoyed it. I thought the idea behind the way it was written was different. But I would definitely reread this book again and again. Now I'd love to read more books from this author

This book has a lot of similarities with David Mitchell's work, particularly Cloud Atlas and the Bone Clocks, both of which I love. It is similarly time travelling with multiple narrators and a strong theme of avoiding climate change, with the addition of the more current theme of AI taking over. A mysterious guardian has been observing and steering human history, and we hear multiple stories set after a great Q event, where all computer encryption is broken and societies collapse. I enjoyed the variety of stories that result, from mid American farming cults to Eastern European smugglers working at the border into the Indian/Russian/Chinese empire that becomes the new, rich hemisphere. The author had obviously done her research in lots of different areas and each part of the story was engaging.

A speculative book told through a series of 6 voices that read a little like interconnected short stories, this was an intelligent and thought-provoking read.
Each of these voices are unique, and point towards an end of the world event.

This was a book that requires a lot of concentration, and some of the science elements went over my head a little. What I really appreciated is how the author has incorporated science and technology that we can see today and imagined its use in the future.

This was a very interesting read and one I know I would get more out of on a second read.

This was a really cool & interesting read! I loved the format which follows multiple characters & points of view, as well as switching between two different times (I did need to re-check the dates a few times to make sure I was keeping the timeline straight). While each vignette seems isolated, simply capturing the experiences of unrelated people as they experience the same global event, the narratives are woven deftly together as the book progresses. The book is well researched & I enjoyed learning tidbits of history that I didn't know before. The fictional possibilities explored in Stories from the End of the World are founded on current knowledge & science, creating a very believable premise (e.g. AI agents are already escaping human control). It's an ambitious book that grapples with some large questions and captures the conflicting feelings of holding both fear & hope for the future. I highly recommend!

It took me a little while to get into this book. The first character introduced, without any context, seemed preachy and egoistic. I am glad I continued reading. As more of the story unfolded I was able to appreciate how human it really is. All of the characters, with their hopes and experiences, read as bright sparks drifting from a fire in the night sky. Even my perspective on the initial character evolved from that of a self important observer to a desperate caretaker. The story tied the characters together in a way that made sense and kept its empathy throughout. My main takeaway of the book as a whole was its humanity. Janine Shiota unfolds humanity, privilege, and the future of technology in a way that preserves empathy without shying away from some of its darker aspects. However, she does not browbeat or relish in gore. Rather, each scenario is presented as a vignette that allows you to make greater implications about the world around them. I appreciated that the more violent aspects of the end of the world were implied rather than drawn out or romanticized. I also liked that the author did not try to guilt people into action; rather she laid her vision bare and leaves it to the reader to take the final steps.

Vaguely connected thoughts:
Without revealing too much of the story, certain aspects reminded me very much of the New Age interpretation of Lemurians. My second thought reading it was that of starseeds.
As a child educator for eighteen years, the child character did not read to me as an eleven year old. The sentence structure read closer to a child of six or seven, but with some words that children generally don’t use (ie “larder”)
I was thrown right out of the experience when my high school was mentioned. That was a trip. I had to stop the book and try to find out why the author knew my school at all.
I would love to see more variation in punctuation. At one point I counted seven commas in one sentence. However, I see this as a conscious stylistic choice meant to emphasize the stream of consciousness style of the vignettes.
I appreciated the notes in the afterword. Overall an interesting read!

Books like this always grab my attention, to the point to where I already ordered it for my library and recommend it to my co workers
6 people, 6 lives, they never meet, yet they're all connected. If you enjoy short stories, try this one out. It does include some science elements, so be aware of that. Good fast paced story.

The subtitle of this book is "Six Lives - One Signal Beneath Everything," however there is some overlap of characters and stories. The timeline hurtles back and forth, but it works in a way that isn't too confusing. I don't read much sci-fi, and generally try to avoid quantum- or philosophical subject matter, but here Janine Shiota manages to present all that in her story-telling so it is captivating, not confounding.

First there are children in a tiny post-apocalyptic village; then we meet Malcolm the scientist presenting at a global conference just as the modern world ends as we know it; then we go back to the future before the crash to the scene of a murder but when the grieving widower uses AI to investigate, it leads to the rogue AI threat everybody is dithering about today. The next life we see is The Smuggler's, a fixer named BenBen who is uniquely positioned to procure and deliver whatever is needed, even in the end times; and then we meet Joyce an extreme marine biologist whose near death saves Earth's future. The final story differed from the others in that it wasn't so much the story of a life but more like a tying up of the relationship between AI and human entities, among other things.

Corrupt politicians broker deals with enemy nations, urban cities war against rural populations, and ultimately there is no more electricity, water, currency, or government. Throughout the book there is trauma and compartmentalization and disassociation, there is a thread about beauty and power and social class structures, all of it fascinating. I did kind of feel like the ending was actually a vast series of endings, but it all works. My experience reading this book was similar to first learning about the California Billionaires Tax Act: illumination, the alleviation of fear with a commonsense path forward via justice and moral rectitude.

If you are looking for a work of speculative fiction that doesn't fall into the trap of tired stereotypes around apocalypse, economic collapse, and the all-consuming evil of artificial intelligence, this book is for you.

Relentlessly placed while quiet in its poetic moments, Shiota presents us with the paradox of a novel which is bleak and yet hopeful. With a style rife with mystery and deliciously sleek, she presents a world eerily parallel to our own, troublingly so. The ideas and theories presented are meticulously and extensively researched, while beautiful prose ties together science, politics, ecology, machine learning, and the plight of a humanity that has become a victim of its own creation.

It brings into question what means humans will go to for their own convenience, and at what cost? Will there always be winners and losers, or do we as a species have any chance of unity?

This quote from the author below encapsulates the spirit of the world she has created.

"This novel was written in the belief that speculative fiction at its best is not escapism but a form of serious attention — a way of looking at where we are going by imagining where we might end up."- Janine Shiota

Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC.

Stories From the End of the World by Janine Shiota.

This is a remarkable book of big ideas. Spanning from human pre-history to the near future, and trying to make sense of what we humans are doing here on Earth.
Most of the action takes place in that near future, and concerns the consequences of the rise of AI.

So there is some serious data dumping that the author needed to get done, but I thought she paced along well enough that I didn’t give up.

Then when the focus zooms in to the lives of a few actors in the hectic AI/political/environmental mess that many of us worry about, the stories become a tight sci-fi thriller.

Do I think our future will play out exactly this way? Probably not, but it doesn’t matter. Janine Shiota centers her story around some real issues that we had better get busy dealing with.

A novel that spans the past and the future. It’s an interesting look at what the future world might look like.
The stories move through different worlds as it were- the “analog” world a seemingly post apocalyptic world. Then there are the advanced Eastern countries which was an interesting twist. The book feels at times like just exploration of various thoughts and ideas the author had about the future and has a rambly feel. But it’s still interesting and engaging.

From the epilogue, "speculative fiction at its best is not escapism but a form of serious attention - a way of looking at where we are going by imagining where we might end up." I believe Shiota succeeds in her attempt to shine attention on many of the concerns of today while presenting a story that holds interest as it jumps through the timeline and shares perspectives of what is, was, and could be. I'm often not the biggest fan of too many POVs because I find it hard to really get into the story and care about the narrators/characters and this was a bit of a challenge with this read; but I feel it was all tied together nicely by the end and each individual POV was long enough to feel almost like a collection of short stories that contribute to an overall narrative. The story wrestles with both the worst and best of humanity and, I feel, lands on hopefulness of what and who we can be. The prologue ends with the statement of "I have felt your goodness as the dominant framework to overcome any fears that point you to the contrary. We hope you come to know that you are in a loving universe."

An enjoyable journey overall which I would recommend to those interested in this type of book.