What do readers think of Appleseed by Matt Bell? Write your own review.

Matt Bell's Appleseed took some time to read. Covering three different time periods, 1800's America, 2070's America, and a 1,000 years from now. The connection between the three times took almost to the very end to figure out. The 1800's lacked verisimilitude. The reader is lead to believe that Johnny Appleseed was a Faun, and traveled with his brother to plant apple trees across the Ohio River Valley. This part was difficult to understand, why was the faun being pursued by the three witches of fate? The other two times periods eventually meshed but the science seemed beyond what would be possible. At first I wanted to just put this book aside, but the mystery of how it would all go together kept me reading. The message Matt Bell is sending in this book is, though, a true one and we should heed it "we need a million small efforts, emplaced in localities, rooted in specific land and water and air of the particular places where people lived". His message and lessons are noble and for that reason I am glad I continued reading to the end.

Matt Bell has truly written an epic story of climate change, man's relationship with the world and its resources, and ethics in science. I appreciate the genius of his imagination, but I often found myself confused as he used elements of fantasy, dystopia, AND science fiction. I had to work harder as I read to make connections, I also spent way to much time asking myself "Why a faun?" If Bell provided the answer, I sure missed it! I felt there were a few gaps in Bell's storytelling; he rushed through some seemingly important parts while providing excruciating details in other sections that didn't necessarily add to the story for me. His characters' ideas/problem solving to combat climate change and save the world was incredible! (But I sure hope we don't have to rely on their plan!) 3.5 stars

I confess that I could only get through 200 pages of this book. I was interested in it and am in agreement with its statement on climate change and industrial abuse, but the timing for reading it is not good, at least not for me. It is a very "heavy" read and these times are "heavy" times, so perhaps that is the reason I had to stop. In the 200 pages I read, there was no joy, no comfort, no good feelings derived from the reading. I gravitated to C432 until I read of his destruction and regeneration. I almost stopped at the almost 4 pages of extinct species, but kept going because I was actually interested in the story. I applaud the author's passion around these issues, and I share some of that passion, but, at some point, everyone needs a light at the end of the tunnel. When I got to page 200 I just assessed that I'd put the book on the side and perhaps, in better social times and conditions, I might go back to it.

Ugh. This book. I almost stopped reading it a dozen times but I trudged on thinking it had to get better. Nope. The book is in three parts. The first part is about two brothers in 18th century America planting apple trees and hoping to make their fortune selling them to settlers. Great, I thought. Sounds interesting. Unfortunately one of the brothers is a Faun, which even after reading the whole book I don’t understand why. Most of the brothers early chapters were musings about nature, living as a Faun, witches (!), etc. I honestly skipped a lot. The second story is more interesting. America now in the second half of the 21 st century only exists in the East. People have been forced out of the West to be volunteers in the East working farms for the good of a company run by one woman. A group of people who helped her start the company decide to sabotage it. The story is actually quite interesting until it too, morphs into the unbelievable. The last story of the three I won’t even bother to go into. The one redeeming value of this book is that it made me question whether it’s better to mechanically create extinct flora and fauna or whether it’s better to leave it all alone. That’s it

Where to begin? While this book had some good intentions, and a different view, try as I might, I could not get past what I consider to be its major flaws, It’s style of prose and focus. By page 54, I was counting the number of words contained in sentences rather than be patient with the author. When I reached 87, yes in one sentence, i wanted to bang my head on the floor. Way more info in one way, and not enough in another. Descriptions don’t need to be that detailed, I understand that fauns have fur and hooves and one can then assume I don’t need it explained many times again. However at the same time not enough info. (How were they able to fuel their vehicles much less how they charged their communications systems? I am not a big fan of sci-fi. I just could not get thru the long drawn out explanation of the obvious while was left wondering about what the book was supposed to be about, destruction of our planet as we know it due to the irresponsibility of humans.
Sorry I did not finish this book. I gave it two stars for originality only.