Rate this book

Álmatlanok (2014)

by Adrian Barnes(Favorite Author)

2.69 of 5 Votes: 3

languge

English

genre

Horror

publisher

Agave

review 1: What would happen if you never slept, not in an insomniac way where you doze now and then, what if you were alert all the time 24 hours of the day 7 days of the week? After 6 days psychosis will set in, after 4 weeks the body will die! Horrific in itself to think of. Now imagine the entire world's population couldn't sleep...ever, except say 1 in 10,000. How do you defend yourself whilst the human race descends into madness, you need to sleep you have the ability to sleep but is it safe? Imagine your partner could sleep, first night it is going to be OK, a little frustration whilst they ride the dream-waves, regenerate, relax. Night two with the realisation that 99% of the worlds population also cannot sleep and have to watch the very few that can. Scared, frightened the b... moreeginning of resentment creeping in, why them and not me. Soon the mind will lose all reason and you will descend into an irrational zombie who would do anything to gain the sweet sweet dream state. In Nod you follow one couples descent into despair. Tanya because she cannot, and Paul because he can. I liked the premise of the book. I liked the story and felt as I was reading the revulsion creeping into me as I watched (or rather read) about those unable to unwind and relax and sleep. When reading about those who were unable to sleep it was like watching someone stretch an elastic band so taught it was about to snap. As soon as the story would switch to a character who couldn't sleep I had the image of them, like that elastic band vibrating with that moment just before the snap but never quite managing to go beyond the tautness.At times I found there were too many unnecessary sentences but soon learned to skim these in order to return to the story. I understand the language was meant to be rich and have meaning as Paul the main character was writing a book about the origins of words, but to me this came across as pompous and did not liken me to the character immediately, He did however redeem himself later on for which I was grateful for.I would recommend this book, if only to feel how fragile we really can be. Sleep is something many of us will take for granted it provides us an escape from the real world. You do not have to imagine what it would be like to be deprived of this basic need, it is all there in a grimy, dark and deranged book.
review 2: Sleep. We do everything we can to avoid it when we’re young, and embrace it willingly when we’re older. But what if some of us could never sleep again? Adrian Barnes attempts to answer this question in his debut novel from Bluemoose Books, Nod.Nod tells us the story of Paul, a linguist who is writing a book on lost words called Nod, his live-in love Tanya, and Charlie, a mostly harmless local nut who looks upon Paul as something of a friend, even if the feeling is not exactly reciprocated. One night after running into Charles at a local eatery in the West End of Vancouver, Paul wakes to find Tanya cranky and restless – she’s been unable to get a wink of sleep all night. It turns out that she isn’t the only one, and soon people begin differentiating the “Sleepers” from the “Awakened”. At first, people take it all with a certain air of optimism – after all, if some people are still sleeping, there must be a solution. And it seems as though children are having none of the sleepless nights their elders are suffering from whatsoever. But that optimism soon peters out as people enter the early stages of psychosis, and the people who are able to sleep become not only rare, but endangered.The novel is set in and around Vancouver’s West End and Stanley Park, a true urban jewel of old-growth Northwest rain forest a proverbial stone’s throw from the city. Barnes plays with real locations, old mythology, and long-forgotten words to weave a world that dips in and out of reality, using a voice that at times plays with the reader’s sensibilities, reading more like a poetic tripping of the light fantastic rather than a straight narrative piece of fiction. This reminds me somewhat of Neil Gaiman’s ability to come across as an old friend in his prose, and also of some of Clive Barker’s best fantasy (Imajica and Weaveworld). On a classical note, Barnes’s wordplay also reminds me of some of D.H. Lawrence’s shorter works, such as “The Fox”; much like Lawrence, this novel is less interested in where the characters are going than in how they get there.While this kind of narrative goal can be frustrating (I was particularly disappointed that we are never given the keys to the “golden dream” dreamed by the sleepers – a tantalizing hint of some meaning behind the chaos that never quite materializes), there is, for me, more than enough going on to keep my interest, and it is deftly enough written that I will be looking forward to more of Barnes’s work in the future. Overall, a very strong first outing from a fresh voice – here’s hoping that Barnes continues with more of the same.Steve’s Grade: A-I found it somewhat ironic that Nod had no problem keeping me up late at night. Well worth a look for fans of post-apocalyptic or dystopian flavors of science fiction. less

Download links for: Álmatlanok

Advertising