Book Description Review “This postapocalyptic slice-of-life novel…delivers big emotions by keeping the focus small…. By foregrounding family, Chen manages to imbue his apocalypse with heart, hope, and humanity. Sci-fi fans will delight in this lovingly rendered tale.” –Publisher’s Weekly, starred review, on A Beginning at the End “A Beginning at the End is the best kind of dystopian novel: one rooted deeply in the hearts of his characters and emphasizing hope and connection over fear. Chen has a true gift for making the biggest of worlds center around the most complex workings of hearts, and his newest is compelling, realistic, and impossible to put down.” —Booklist, starred review“Sometimes it is not the violent battles of post-apocalyptic stories that pull readers in; it is the emotional connection of humanity finding their way. Chen’s prose lights a brilliant, fragile path through the darkness.” —Library Journal, starred review, on A Beginning at the End“A slice-of-life at the end of the world, tender, character-driven, and gentle—which makes it feel all the more terrifyingly plausible…. profoundly subversive and honest… This book is never bleak. Instead, hope reverberates through every character and plotline.” –Tor.com on A Beginning at the End“An imaginative premise, likable characters, and an uplifting ending…. A refreshingly nondystopian end-of-the-world story.” —Kirkus on A Beginning at the End“Human beings are the worst, but they’re also the best—and A Beginning at the End is a brilliant story about how the best parts of ourselves won’t be stopped by a little something like the apocalypse.” —Sam J Miller, Nebula-Award-winning author of Blackfish City“A Beginning at the End is both an apocalyptic thriller and a timely reminder of what is most important in life—family, love, and hope.” —Peng Shepherd, author of The Book of M“If you’re tired of grim, grueling apocalypses with high body counts and bleak horizons, A Beginning at the End offers an intimate, surprisingly gentle vision of post-disaster humanity, less concerned with how we might survive than with why—and for whom.” —Alix E. Harrow, Hugo Award-winning author of The Ten Thousand Doors of January“With beautifully-drawn characters and an intricately imagined future history, A Beginning at the End tells an intensely human story about people reaching out through trauma and loss and discovering who and what to hold on to after the end of the world. Gripping, poignant, hopeful, and heartfelt.” —HG Parry, author of The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep“Strikes the perfect balance of dystopian collapse…and a fresh start for humanity. It’s science fiction with heart…you won’t be able to put it down.” –Meghan Scott Molin, author of The Frame Up, on A Beginning at the End“[The characters] all grapple with questions of identity and morality, of what it means to be part of a family, of what we’re willing to sacrifice and for whom. This is a story that’s as fun as it is moving…. Mike Chen has richly imagined every detail… A Beginning at the End is truly a special addition to the postapocalyptic genre, and it stands up right alongside heavy hitters like Station Eleven and The Last.” –Megan Collins, author of The Winter Sister“A subtly woven meditation about the fragility of time raises the bar in this smart, fun, and affectionate story.” —Kirkus Reviews on Here and Now and Then“Clever, thrilling and full of heart, it is an instant sci-fi classic.” —Hypable.com on Here and Now and Then“Chen carefully balances heart, humor, and precise world building to bring alive an emotional and genre-bending story.” —Booklist on Here and Now and Then Read more About the Author Mike Chen is a lifelong writer, from crafting fan fiction as a child to somehow getting paid for words as an adult. He has contributed to major geek websites (The Mary Sue, The Portalist, Tor) and covered the NHL for mainstream media outlets. A member of SFWA and Codex Writers, Mike lives in the Bay Area, where he can be found playing video games and watching Doctor Who with his wife, daughter, and rescue animals. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram: @mikechenwriter Read more Customers Review: Chen has achieved a feat I would have thought impossible: making a story about a global pandemic and the collapse of our infrastructure into a personal, emotional story about parenthood, family, survival, and trauma. It’s beautifully written, superbly executed, and gripping even as the core stakes are so personal and small compared to what the world of the book is facing. It puts an incredible new spin on this genre.
This book is just as fantastic as his last. A true introductory for me into Sci-Fi genre was Mike Chen. The way he cares for his characters comes through beautifully as they continue to strive for hope. This extremely character driven sci-fi novel explores how four people can change each other as the world continues to change around them and with each other, they redefine their idea of family saving each other along the way. Bottom line, buy this book and read it now!
A happy ending usually does not go with post apocalyptic tales. The characters are drawn out in a believable arc of change for the better. I guess this qualifies as hope lit.
DNF @ p. 121I think if I stuck with this it could maybe wrest another pity star from me, but I’m really not feeling the book right now. On the one hand, I do appreciate what Mike Chen is trying to do with A BEGINNING AT THE END, a dystopian set in San Francisco after a plague has wiped out 70% of the population.I have read a lot of dystopians and pandemics are a favorite way to kill all the humans in these sorts of books. Rather than focusing on the chaos and breakdowns of social mores that occur in such devastation, however, this book puts four individuals under the microscope: Krista, a wedding planner; Mojo/Moira, a famous pop star; and Rob and Sunny, a father and daughter who were displaced from their home by the plague, and rather than tell Sunny that her mother is dead, Rob has told her that she’s getting treatment– a lie that is starting to cause his daughter to act out.It’s really great to see science-fiction with diverse characters, set in a reflection of San Francisco that is actually recognizable to those who live there. The grittiness juxtaposed against open-mindedness (with, yes, some sanctimonious– we are awesome, and we know it) is pretty typically San Francisco, and Chen did a good job portraying it in the setting.I just wish that more was happening. The pacing was really slow and even though there was nothing wrong with the writing, nothing was happening and I found myself terribly bored. Maybe this will appeal to people who like quiet books that are more introspective but I wasn’t really into it.Thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review!1.5 to 2 out of 5 stars
This is one of the few that got a 5 star rating from me. This would make an AMAZING movie in my opinion. The world has ended as we know it after the apocalyptic pandemic and the survivors are dealing with the fallout and fear. People are terrified to leave their home and the world has just changed and is at a standstill because people don’t want to leave their homes out of fear but they are being forced to come out and deal with it so life can go on. It’s just amazing and so rich in detail and intensity. I fell in love with the characters, the plot, and even the cover was beautiful. 5 BIG stars.*If this review helped you make an informed choice about this product in any way I would appreciate it if you take a moment of your time and let me know by hitting the Helpful button and letting me know. I appreciate that you took the time to read my review, Thank you!*
I really wouldn’t call this book sci-fi. It’s more of domestic literary fiction that is set in a sci-fi situation.In “A Beginning at the End”, a global flu epidemic has hit and many of the world’s population has died, but the book isn’t about the epidemic and population loss,, so if you are looking for juicy details of different outbreaks and people working to stop the spread of disease, you won’t find it. Instead, this book is about the people who emerge from the epidemic alive, and how they deal with what it means to exist with such a great loss, and what it will take to carry on.As people struggle to figure out what life in the new world means, one new priority emerges for humanity- family. Not strictly defined by traditional means, not just blood relatives, but the people you choose to surround yourself with, the people who support you, and the people you know have your back, whether they are part of your genetic family tree or not.This book focuses on three San Francisco residents – all strangers- who find themselves connected, and work together to help Rob and his young daughter Sunny remain together as a family unit, as the government is threatening to remove Sunny from his care.As the three try and prove Rob’s suitability as a solitary parent, a new epidemic (a mutation of the original) threatens the population once again, and they must truly figure out what binds them together and what could tear them apart.I enjoyed this book. At first I was a little bummed that it wasn’t more sci-fi focused, but I thought it is was clever narrative technique to use a sci-fi situation as a background story rather than the focus of the book. I really love the fact the author put so much emphasis on family being who really has your back and who you really connect with rather than blood relations. In so many sci-fi books, characters seem to either want to get back to their blood relations/legal families, or they end up randomly grouped with a bunch of strangers they have no emotional connection with and are FORCED to deal with- for example, it just so happens that the one guy that has a car with three wheels that still somehow works meets this woman has a rifle and knows how to use it, and they come across a young boy who has a connection with some underground organization that can help them all move through the country, etc.This book isn’t like that- the three adults come together because even though they are strangers, they create en emotional bond that goes beyond their circumstances fairly quickly. The bond doesn’t get built because of their challenges, it gets tested.I’m not articulating very well, and I apologize for that, but I appreciate that the bigger theme of the book isn’t “what would you do in this horrible situation?” but “who are *really* the people you consider family, and why is that?”Two final notes: if you listened to indie college rock in the early-mid 90’s, you will find a lot of familiar names in this book.Second- I REALLY hope this author might consider writing two more books (at least) from the perspective of both the “outlier” civilizations in this book- the reclaimers and the weird peripheral walking cult that’s alluded to from time to time the novel. I would LOVE to read about the experiences of individuals in both of those groups- what brings them together with others, and how they get through their particular challanges. I’m totally intrigued, which is the best way to feel as a reader. |
42 reviews