Station Eleven: A Novel (National Book Award Finalist)

Don’t get the hype but to be fair, dystopian novels just aren’t my thing. It was just enough interesting for me to finish. Great narrator!

I don't usually like post-apocalyptic stories, but I really enjoyed this one, mostly because the focus was on the characters (who were all very interesting). I loved the back-and-forth in time, the interconnectedness of the characters, the subtle humor, the hope in the end. It was truly a unique adventure. The writing is stellar, and I've already added Mandel's other books to my queue.

I usually don't read stories about dystopias. There is already so much darkness and dread in the world we live in, so books about the collapse of civilization don't appeal to me. But, this one is written by Emily St. John Mandel, and so far I've liked, really liked everything I have read by her.

And, Station Eleven did not disappoint either. There is darkness in this book, but also much brightness. It's a story of surviving, and of all the people who didn't.

The characters are fleshed out. They are real people with flaws and strengths, fearful and brave, good and bad, fortunate and unlucky. Some of the connections among characters, some of which they were aware of and some not, could feel far- stretched. But, by the way they were written, I bought into every thing that happened.

Like Mandel's other books, there is much skipping back and forth in time, scenes before, during, and after the epidemic that caused the collapse. But the major storylines are clear to me.

Perhaps this wasn't the best time to read this book, but it was beautiful. The story is almost a meditation on the beauty and interconnectedness of life. While it is set in a post apocalyptic world, it is not really a science fiction novel.

This is a book that I should have read years ago but never got round to, but I was sufficiently aware of it thanks to friend reviews (that I can't see listed properly at the moment) that when I saw a cheap copy in a second-hand shop just before the latest lockdown, I had to pick it up.

I will keep this review short and impressionistic because there are already plenty of in depth reviews out there. I am normally rather wary of dystopian fiction, but I liked this one a lot, mostly because it stays focused on the personal and does not stray too far into pure fantasy.

Yes, it has some resonance and relevance to Covid-19, but the flu strain Mandel imagines is far more deadly, spreading more quickly, killing almost all of the human population and leaving the survivors with none of the infrastructure of civilisation. There is no dominant central character - the narrative is told in a non-linear way switching between different perspectives and points in time, but that does not mean there is no empathy with the cast. Rather cleverly, the death in the first chapter of Arthur, the actor who links most of the characters, has nothing to do with the pandemic, being a simple heart attack on stage.

There is also a book within a book element, as the title alludes to a graphic novel that one of Arthur's ex-wives created, two surviving copies of which are treasured in the post-apocalyptic world. I can see the influence of Mandel's compatriot Margaret Atwood in this, but this is a complement not a criticism.

Picked this up expecting a sci-fi novel. But the only "sci-fi" aspect is a flu pandemic that wipes out most of humanity which happens at the beginning of the book. The rest of the book is more of a sociological look at life in this post-apocalyptic landscape. Unfortunately, I found the characters neither relatable nor aspirational. And the writing felt uninspired. I'm puzzled by this book's high ratings. My guess is that the COVID era boosted the popularity of all pandemic themed books...

I find it hard to read books about pandemics ever since 2020. I couldn't help but think about how the world in this book could have been reality if Covid-19 had been just a little more vicious. I do love the concept of a group keeping music and theater alive.I didn't fully understand the importance of Arthur,_other than that most of the pov characters had a connection to him. Maybe I will need to read this again when the world is less tumultuous.

The writing was pretty but not enough to distract me from the errors and plot problems. The interesting staging of Lear wasn't enough, nor the conceit of referring to the symphony members by seat, rather than name. Shakespeare and plague: this could have been my favourite book.
But no, instead it tweaks a particular nerve that's lain dormant since Never Let Me Go. A sort of intellectual outrage comes over me and not only can I not enjoy the story, but I am incited to fisk. It's not pretty, nor is it kind to my family who've listened patiently to my random comments.
Usually it isn't a problem that others enjoy styles or genres or romantic predilections different from my own. There isn't even a passing desire to sneer or judge, I shrug off the difference of opinion, and will champion everyone's right to follow their bliss (as long as the parties involved are consenting adults). Then along comes a work of literary fiction that resembles science fiction, and I cannot get over it. Faster than light travel? Teleportation? Antigravity? I can suspend my disbelief with no trouble at all. But the position that there are no bras in space even though there is some kind of artificial gravity? That's just wrong, George. Embarrassingly wrong.

So, anyway, this is the book for this decade that I could not enjoy, or really tolerate even, because of factual errors in my areas of professional expertise. And also a lot of WTF moments which weren't wrong, just jarringly weird.

Feel free to share works of art that reflect a less-than-full comprehension of your fields of interest. Or, you could just mock me, if no one ever gets your (job, hobby, education, cultural history, local geography, etc.) wrong. And also, I'm curious: do you deduct stars if a work of fiction is wrong? It seems appropriate to my opinion, but also kind of punitive.

First sentence: The King stood in a pool of blue light, unmoored. This was act 4 of King Lear, a winter night at the Elgin Theatre in Toronto.

Premise/plot: There isn't 'one' central character in Station Eleven. It is a premise-driven novel. The premise: what if there was a pandemic that killed 99% of the earth's population. How would that surviving 1% live in the following days, weeks, months, years, decades following the collapse of life as we knew it. The book primarily focuses on two clusters of the population: a traveling troupe of actors and musicians known as "The Traveling Symphony" and a more sedentary bunch the "Museum of Civilization" located at Severn City Airport. Central characters are Kirsten Raymonde, Clark Thompson, Miranda Carroll, Elizabeth Colton, Arthur Leander, and the Prophet.

The novel opens and closes with Arthur Leander on stage. At least, I'm 98% sure that is how the novel closes. (It has been a day since I finished it.) "Dr. Eleven" is a graphic novel in two volumes that is rare, limited editions printed by the author, Miranda Carroll, to give to a select few. Kirsten, a child actor who is in Arthur Leander's play, receives copies of these two right before the collapse of civilization. Arthur's son receives another set. Kirsten does in some ways become fixated on the story and characters within the graphic novels.

All characters can be traced indirectly back to Arthur's life, though for some, the connection is extremely brief. (For example, a few vignettes of Jeevan Chaudhary who conveniently has many jobs: a paparazzi, a journalist, a paramedic, a 'doctor' post-collapse. He takes pictures for gossip magazines of Alexander and his wives; he later interviews Arthur for a magazine; he later attempts to save Arthur on stage while he's having a heart attack.) Two of the characters are his ex-wives. Another, Kirsten, is his co-star (though the role is small). He comes to almost be a symbol for LIFE BEFORE because celebrity really doesn't make the transition in this new world. Kirsten is obsessed with finding newspaper and magazine clippings about Arthur. Clark, another important character, is a 'friend' of sorts to Arthur who does survive and almost thrive in the new world. [In the book, he is not in any way villainous.]

My thoughts: I first read Station Eleven in January 2015. I recently watched the ten part mini-series from 2021/2022. The book and adaptation are SO DIFFERENT. There are things I absolutely LOVE about the book that were changed significantly by the adaption. There are things in the adaptation that I absolutely LOVE. The mini-series made main characters out of characters that were mentioned in passing a couple of times. This is particularly true of the Traveling Symphony. There were a few people in the book that were fleshed out significantly and made important. There were characters that were portrayed as being Kirsten's absolute best friends in the Traveling Symphony in the book that did not make it into the adaptation. Jeevan and Kirsten maybe spend five or six minutes together in the book. Maybe. In the movie, their connection spans at least a year, and, is one of the most emotional connections in the whole adaptation. In the book, as I mentioned, he's almost a footnote character. In the adaptation, he's IMPORTANT. However, the greatest change might be what they did with Clark Thompson.

The book is beautifully written. I liked the world-building. I especially liked Miranda's creation of the graphic novels Station Eleven. I liked what little description we get of Dr. Eleven and his situation. I wouldn't have minded more. It actually would be a graphic novel that I'd want to read if it existed. I liked what the two graphic novels meant to Kirsten.

I would definitely recommend this one.

This is one of those sprawling post-apocalyptic epics that have been done so many times before - but rarely as well. Despite the many-faceted, multi-character driven narrative, it's an easy story to follow - and the writing style is simply gorgeous. It's early in the year but this is the best book of 2015 for me, thus far.

It wasn’t bad, just wasn’t really what i was expecting and I’m probably not “literary” enough for it xD

Gorgeous and lyrical, Station Eleven is a life-affirming story of an apocalypse. Yes! As Emily St. John Mandel describes a virus that wipes out civilization, she affirms the value of art, music, and literature, and the wonder of human connection. The way she plays with time is breathtaking.

The book isn't bad exactly, but I had such high expectations after the absolutely fantastic miniseries from Patrick Somerville (wonderful cast and production). I thought the book would bring me even deeper into this fascinating world, but wow...the book was just the inspiration for what the series was able to refine, organize, dramatize, and build in ways that the writer just can't do. In fact, the book really fails in terms of character development, scenes, dialogue, and overall vision. There's still a lot of imagination and some good ideas, but if only this young writer had found a good editor or someone to help coach the writing into more fruitful territory. I probably wouldn't try this writer again, but I'm still grateful for how this flawed work inspired some really excellent television.

After about a year of hearing my friend Michelle rave about her favorite book, I decided to give it a read so see what all the fuss was about.

I really enjoyed the journey this book takes its reader on. Mandel successfully executes an emphasis on the act of reading this book and the realizations that happen along the way, rather than her characters' ultimate destination.

It's intellectual and well written with clever lyrical prose. The pacing is super interesting and unusual, so it takes a minute to get used to. It's not very action heavy, and most everything is implied, which creates some tension and a sense of foreboding throughout the novel without the characters or narrator really saying anything.
I found myself constantly trying to draw connections and figure out how things were related between the past and present storylines. This book very much lends itself to analysis and seems to be asking the reader to draw their own startling conclusions about what it means to be alive, as good literature ought to do.
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​The implied and explicit statements are about human life, civilization, time, and whether “survival is inadequate”. Mandel plays with these ideas by illustrating the suddenness and sometimes meaninglessness of death and the circle of life.

What this felt like to me was like an author who writes normal "drama" fiction got bored and decided to branch out a bit, but they just couldn't get away from their roots. I have no information to back this up because I know absolutely nothing about this author. It really felt like I was hanging around some "normal" person trying to be a geek.

That said, the writing was nice, but sometimes repetitive. I didn't understand why the "graphic novel thing" was included at all. I didn't understand why half the book was devoted to life before the apocalypse AND most of those people weren't people who survived. So it wasn't like you were getting the background of the survivors, just dead people who had some link to the survivors and sometimes that link was very minor.

There's almost no action in the book until the end, there's a little tension in the middle for a couple paragraphs, then some more at the end. I did like some of the post-apocalyptic stuff, but I'm not sure I even want to watch the TV series now.

If you want to read a great post-virus/apocalyptic scenario book... The 5th Wave is fantastic. It handles the flashbacks better; it is written at a faster pace, with engaging characters.

This book introduces you to interesting characters and then does little with it, letting each of them peter out to an unsatisfying, awkward ending. Though this book is much more socio-political than The 5th Wave, yet it is only observational, with a long narrative structure and no real conclusions to be drawn.

This book was initially recommended to me by a professor who wanted to include it in our tragedy class, but cut it for time. And let me tell you, this book was not the easiest thing to read in 2022. The writing style and story were beautiful, but the content hit a bit close to home.

Emily St. John Mandel's writing style in this book is succinct yet elegant. She keeps it simple, but this never detracts from the emotions of the story. If anything, the reserved quality makes you feel the emotions more. I don't often cry over books, but one scene had me sobbing with only a few sentences and an implication.

She handles the multiple plot lines with just as much grace. The stories of Arthur, Kirsten (a traveling actress who was only a kid when the pandemic began), Jeevan (a former paparazzo who tries to save Arthur's life), Miranda (Arthur's ex-wife and comic artist), and Clark (Arthur's old friend) are beautifully woven together to create a rich narrative. And while I have seen some reviews upset that not of the plot lines and characters came together in the end, I think that its the mark of a mature narrative. Realistically, the chances of all of them meeting in the end is unlikely, and part of the beauty of this book is the harsh realism.

This book tackles a lot of hard questions. What is the point of art in crisis? How do we survive? Why do we survive? What do we know when everything we have known is gone? While COVID-19 is not as bad as the Georgian Flu, these questions still resonate for us, especially those of us who lost people or have been permanently affected by the virus.

This book can be a hard read for people, but I would definitely recommend it.

A book during a flu epidemic apocalypse in which most of the population (99.99%) dies suddenly. Modern life comes to an end.

The story goes back and forth in time before and after the epidemic with narratives from different characters that you find later to all be connected in some way to Arthur Leander (an actor portraying King Lear) who dies at the beginning of the book with a heart attack on stage.

This isn't your normal apocalyptic book. It is more a study into humanity with questions about life and our search to conquer loneliness. Is there a God or meaning to life? All of the characters are searching for connections with others and the world they live in unsuccessfully. Yet, even at the end of the book, there is a combination of sadness over past mistakes and hope for a better future.

I really liked the book, but am stuck between 4 and 5 stars. I might hesitate due to reading so many good books lately that I want to give five stars. Whatever the actual star award, I recommend the book to fellow readers. You will not be disappointed.

This is a really well told speculative fiction account that starts in Toronto during a snow storm. An influenza virus brought to Toronto on a flight from Moscow (the Georgia flu) wipes out the majority of the people on earth within hours of exposure.
This is the story of those who survive and rebuild their lives during the decades after the big event.
The main character, middle aged Arthur Leander is acting as King Lear when he suffers a heart attack and dies on the stage. His life as a stage actor and then Hollywood movie star forms the background story for the remaining characters as every main character was a small or large part of his life.
Those who survive the pandemic are left without modern technology, no Internet, electricity, water, agriculture and security. They survive by banding together, ensuring the security and well being of others and finding small pleasures that make their lives worth living. The author does a remarkable job of tying up all the loose ands and character connections by the end. It has a hopeful ending.

One of a slew of post-pandemic dystopia that now are starting to seem far-fetched again, but in truth we really were only a mutation or two away from this scenario.

An air-borne virus spreads rapidly with high lethality and fast transmission. By the time the first warnings are in place, instead of hospitalisations there are deaths, then lots of deaths, infrastructure fails and the world falls apart. The story mostly picks up twenty years later, where the few survivors are mostly huddled into communities getting by without all the amenities they're used to. But as one of the more profound lines from Star Trek (acknowledged) has it, and is inscribed on their wagons, and tattooed on one of the heroine's arms "survival is insufficient". The Traveling Symphony is a collection of actors and musicians touring Shakespeare plays to keep some from of Culture alive. Not un-alike David Brin's Postman from decades beforehand.

The story is achronisitic, flashing back and forth between times and places, and around a few different characters and their interactions. The style is dreemy almost poetic and languid, very little of the tension and action come through. But poignant for all of that.

I generally don't like disconnected story-lines, I'm not a big fan of flashbacks and jumping between characters, but somehow this works. The coincidences that mean that people who's lives only barely interacted in the old world, get to cross paths again, are allowable, and gives a coherent theme that holds the book together. The title comes from a series of comics written in the 'old world' by the ex-wife of a famous actor and given to a young child prodigy. Only a few copies were ever made, and the remaining ones are precious. It's the child (mid 20s current timeline) story we mostly follow.

I'm not sure I'd want to read more in the world, or even by the author, but it was very well done.

a story set in the first few years after a deadly flu variant caused the swift and sudden end of civilization (starting from the night the virus first landed in north america). i believe this was first published around 2015 and caused a sensation, and its easy to see why. however, reading it for the first time in the post-COVID era ups its sense of surreal-ness, in ways i dont think the author originally intended. its sometimes creepy, sometimes ominous, sometimes downright upsetting. i'll have to read this again some time (perhaps after reading King Lear).

Station Eleven was one of my favorite books read in 2023 for the writing and the way the author wove the threads of the characters individual stories together. The story is not told in a linear fashion, but goes back and forth in time, sharing the perspectives of multiple characters and their life experiences. The novel opens in a theater during a production of King Lear. The lead actor collapses on stage and a paramedic in training rushes to his aid. A young child actress looks on as efforts to save the man fail. That same night, a pandemic spreads rapidly across the globe and society crumbles. Fifteen years later, society is barely a shadow of what it once was. People are surviving as best they can. Our once young actress is now grown up and a part of the Traveling Symphony which roams across the wasteland, hoping to spread art and humanity from place to place. We also follow the man who tried to save the actor on stage that fateful night, the actor's first and second wives, and his oldest friend. There is an underlying tension within the novel as the threat of a self-proclaimed Prophet and his followers grows, and as troupe members from the Symphony begin to disappear.

This is very much a character driven story. It is less science fiction and more literary fiction, encapsulating the individual experiences of the characters and their daily lives. The pandemic wiped out about 99.9% of humans and those that remain are scattered all over. People are doing what they can to survive amongst the lawlessness. The sense of despair is all too real. There are those who remember the past--what time was like before and try to hold onto it as best they can--and those who do not remember at all. It was hard not to think of how much we take for granted as I read this novel. Flipping a light switch to turn on the lights, for example. Then there are the things or situations that seem big in the moment, but are meaningless when the world falls apart.

I would not have thought I would be invested in Arthur Leander's life as he rose from obscurity to fame as an actor, but I was. I think it was more because of the other characters and their connection to him. I was particularly taken with Kirsten, the young actress, and also by Arthur's best friend. And then there was the first wife, Miranda, whose story touched me most of all.

I cannot help but wonder how differently, if at all, this novel would have impacted me had I read it pre-real-life-pandemic. The fear and panic in the early days of our current Pandemic came back to me as I read Station Eleven. Fortunately, our world did not fall apart the way it did in this novel, but it is hard not to imagine that it could.

Fabulous.
Quite terrifying in this pandemic time but a tale of a society broken down after the invasion of a fast-killing virus. The characters who survive the first sweep struggle through loss of everything of modern life, live through fear and cold and attachment and loss. Every single character in this book becomes someone you care for.

Years ago after SARS1 flew about Toronto, I was part of “pandemic planning”, a round table discussion that played like a war game. We’d postulate around fatality rates, around what we would/could do as people died around us. It occurred to us fairly early on that a fatality rate of anything over 30% would lead to total societal collapse.

In this book the fatality rate is more like 99%.

The actual deaths are passed over lightly; we are not treated to anything other than mentions of smells, for which I was grateful. The dead have a presence in the book; you sense their weight.

The author ties several story lines in together in a way which could seem contrived but doesn’t because of her skill. It all seems possible. And the relationships between the people open a glimmer of hope.

I’ll be reading more of her work, and soon.

This was a fantastic book. So original and all character arcs and storylines tied up nicely. Beautiful ending. Better than 5 stars.

I liked this well enough, but Arthur and the comics just didn't resonate with me.

This was beautiful. People and their stories moving back and forth in time and through each others lives. From the end of the story looking back it's like a great delicate spider web.

I can see why people got so worked up over this book. I tore through it, despite its reflective and thoughtful pace. I thought I knew what it was about, after the first section, but it turns out I was wrong.

I bought this book the end of January 2020 but once the pandemic hit reading about a plague that wipes out most of the world’s population felt a bit too close to home.

Finally this year I was able to delve into the fictional world St. John Mandel has expertly weaved. From the opening paragraphs I was captured... perhaps because everything was so much more plausible now. Ignorance and disbelief, yup. People devolving into panic buying, yup. Lines like 'Plague closed the theatres again and again, death flickering over the landscape.' reflected our society and 'Hell is the absence of the people you long for.' reflected our reality having not seen friends or family for months.

But what I want to talk about is not the plot or the characters - you can read any other review for that - instead I want to focus on the two things that stand out in the novel. How precious and fleeting life can be in a world where stepping on a rusty nail could mean death but also how important, life fulfilling and ultimately essential art is. How even in the depths of what appears to be a dark history we need art to survive.

We strive for art and creativity because in that we find hope. And for me within the pages of this book hope can be found.

A top-notch flu-pandemic end of civilization novel that reminded me of similar novels by David Mitchell, with linked and mirrored relationships between pre and post apocalyptic characters, ways of life, and an imagined graphic novel with the same title as this novel.
The standard tropes and tensions of the apocalyptic novel that we are so familiar with, mostly from the surfeit of zombie TV shows, are used, but downplayed a little by the author's interest in a more wistful and nostalgic look at what would be lost. The literary angle of the book leads to a more positive outlook than something like Cormac McCarthy's masterpiece, The Road.
It happens every day, but I found the idea of a fragment of a long lost book affecting different people in different ages and scattered places to be both moving and encouraging.

This took me nearly a decade to get to, but what a time to read it. The pandemic is cooling off but still very recent in our minds. So many people were lost, but we still have civilization in tact. A look at a world where a pandemic wiped out so many people that it's now post-apocalyptic certainly makes you think. This feels like it could be a thriller at certain points, but it's much slower paced and concerned with examining the lives of people before and after the plague. I really enjoyed this as much as it was bleak.