I just finished Station Eleven and I tried to pick up another book to read but I couldn’t. I really enjoyed this book and now I need some time to process and let the book swirl in my mind and in my heart for a bit. To me that is a sign of a great book. It doesn’t happen often.

I usually shy away from post-apocalyptic stories as they can be too depressing but this book didn’t do that. There were times that were dark and times that were light. They balanced each other out

One of the things I really enjoyed about the telling of this story is the way the different people, different places and different times wove throughout the book. It was like a master weaver was telling the story. Each thread was in place and in harmony with the others. Some threads were more important to the story but the rest were also needed to hold the story in place. I like how the story ended with it still on the loom. More could still be woven and I wanted to see how the pattern continued to develop.

I really want to see and enjoy the Station Eleven comic book. I want to read the story and see the pictures.
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I am forever changed
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Loved, loved, loved this book!!! Such a fantastic world that this author has created and such a gorgeous story. A favorite. ( )

This is a marvelous book. I feel like I did last year after I read [b:The Son|16240761|The Son|Philipp Meyer|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1355349098s/16240761.jpg|19110442]: it's going to take some beating for this not to be the best book I read this year. I've read and really liked all three of Mandel's previous books, and now this one soars to an even higher level.

I stood looking over my damaged home and tried to forget the sweetness of life on Earth.

Current day is Year 20. Twenty years after a new swine flu variant swept over the Earth with a 99.9% fatality rate. Things have mostly settled down in what used to be the upper midwest, survivors living in small settlements among the decay and wreckage of human civilization. The Traveling Symphony, motto "Survival is Insufficient", moves through its territory like the old circuit riders, performing Shakespeare plays and classical music with its band of about thirty members.

We have been lost for so long. We long only for the world we were born into.

Kirsten Raymonde is the link between the Symphony, Year 20, and the life of Arthur Leander, star of screen and stage, who died on Day Zero, in front of this child actor. The novel moves back and forth between Arthur's life and, later, Kirsten's, with more links rising to the surface as the novel crescendos in a violent confrontation involving Kirsten and the Prophet, leader of a violent religious cult who alternates quoting from the Book of Revelation and a comic called Station Eleven.

Mandel has always combined interesting and thoughtful plots and structure with richly drawn characters who provoke great empathy from the reader. This she does again. It feels as if this world and these people are actually out there, still existing. Just a terrific, terrific novel.

Dr. Eleven: What was it like for you, at the end?
Captain Lonagan: It was exactly like waking up from a dream.
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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. ( )