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This Fragile Earth

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This Fragile Earth

By: Susannah Wise
Narrated by: Susannah Wise
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About this listen

What would you do to protect your family if the world stopped working?

Not long from now, in a recognisable yet changed London, Signy and Matthew lead a dull, difficult life. They've only really stayed together for the sake of their six-year-old son, Jed. But they're surviving, just about. Until the day the technology that runs their world stops working. Unable to use their phones, pay for anything, even open the smart door to their flat, Matthew assumes that this is just a momentary glitch in the computers that now run the world.

But then the electricity and gas are cut off. Even the water stops running. And the pollination drones—vital to the world, ever since the bees all died—are behaving oddly. People are going missing. Soldiers are on the streets. London is no longer safe.

A shocking incident sends Signy and Jed on the run, desperate to flee London and escape to the small village where Signy grew up. Determined to protect her son, Signy will do almost anything to survive as the world falls apart around them. But she has no idea what is waiting for them outside the city....

©2021 Susannah Wise (P)2021 Orion Publishing Group Adventure Dystopian Fiction Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction Survival

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Critic reviews

"I absolutely devoured this book. It has everything I love - great characters, intrigue, action, heart, drama and hope. Cannot recommend it enough." (Aisling Bea)

"Poignant and perfect." (Christina Dalcher, author of Vox)

"[An] amazing futuristic novel.... Do yourself a favour and a pick up a copy now. It's fantastic." (Paul Bettany)
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One of the most captivating and thought provoking books I have listened to in a very long time!
Well written and narrated.
Highly recommended to anyone who enjoys post apocalyptic themes based around human impact on the earth.

Brilliant!

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I enjoyed this book and found the story gripping. In some ways the characters didn't always act as I would have expected but then again as they are being thrust into a situation akin to the end of the world I guess we can expect some irrational behavior! Overall I found it an interesting concept and I was totally absorbed, wanting to know how it would all resolve. The narration was excellent, I would thoroughly recommend.

Futuristic thriller

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This started promisingly with a credibly slow and subtle breakdown of social order in a slightly futuristic but recognisable version of London. What WOULD happen if all the smart devices we depend on started to malfunction? It's a premise that had me seriously thinking about how vulnerable urban living makes us. The characters - naive, trusting and helpless - are sympathetically drawn too, easy to empathise with. The author reads her own work - usually a bad idea - but Susannah Wise does it very well. The second half of the novel becomes a road trip and I also found that engaged me. In fact, I enjoyed most of the book until the ending which - without giving too much away - uses Deus Ex Machina in a very literal sense that was unsatisfying after the grittiness of the storytelling before it. The clue is in the title, I suppose, this all is about Gaia- a slightly fairy tale version, that smacked a little too much of wishful thinking for my taste.

Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace

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We are perhaps all rather familiar with the 'eco-disaster' narrative and its place in near-apocalyptic fiction but sometimes a writer just manages to do something much more interesting with the idea than the usual 'Oops - all those floods and forest fires must be telling us something' background story line. And that is what we have here - a looming something or other and all kinds of weird things happening as everyday life in the near future approaches some kind of critical moment. But the story is also about a woman and her reactions - a wonderfully drawn character who manages to bring together all of the hopes, capabilities, intelligence and versatility of a real person mixed in with all of the uncertainties and frailties which are always there lurking not very far below the surface. "Oh bugger - I've gone and done the wrong thing" could easily be words coming from her on a number of occasions. Great stuff - and a simple round of applause to the author/reader who makes the character seem so real.

Of course I have to admit that the musical harmony - counterpoint theorising along with the rather 'stunted' portraits of male characters could be seen as weaknesses but somehow this simply seems to be me trying to find fault. OK - the lads don't seem to get a very good spot in the chorus line and the 'science' flies far too far over my head but I wouldn't want to stretch either of these points. My only criticism of the book really - is that it ended too quickly. OK - 'Leave them wanting more' has its place I suppose.

An excellent read/listen and a truly enjoyable experience. I do hope that the author continues to look at things from her uniquely individual perspective - always steering herself away from 'accepted' or even 'orthodox' narratives. This book offered something truly original and was delivered with great energy and commitment.

Odd and strange and very very good.

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Overall this is a gripping tale however the child is so badly narrated that I found it irritating. The character of the child just seemed badly drawn to me. I had no empathy at all with him.
The other characters were not very engaging and the tragedy that happens early on doesn’t really seem to have any affect on the mother at all.

Great story spoilt by narration

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