The Ship
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3.7 • 12 Ratings
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
In this thought-provoking and lyrical debut novel, a young woman's only hope for survival in the dystopian future is a ship, a Noah's Ark, that can rescue 500 people.
London burned for three weeks. And then it got worse. . .
Young, naive, and frustratingly sheltered, Lalla has grown up in near-isolation in her parents' apartment, sheltered from the chaos of their collapsed civilization. But things are getting more dangerous outside. People are killing each other for husks of bread, and the police are detaining anyone without an identification card. On her sixteenth birthday, Lalla's father decides it's time to use their escape route -- a ship he's built that is only big enough to save five hundred people.
But the utopia her father has created isn't everything it appears. There's more food than anyone can eat, but nothing grows; more clothes than anyone can wear, but no way to mend them; and no-one can tell her where they are going.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
"I was born at the end of the world" is how 16-year-old Lalla Paul of London begins her story. Though civilization is rapidly dying around her, her parents mainly her wealthy and connected father, Michael, inventor of a major computer network censorship tool manage to keep her sheltered from the worst of it. Michael has a plan in the form of a ship that's large enough to carry them and 500 others, along with years' worth of supplies, out to sea and safety. But once aboard the ship, Lalla is traumatized by tragedy, unsettled by her father's slow transformation into a messianic figure, overwhelmed by love, and concerned about the long-term prospects for survival. Honeywell's lyrical descriptions of Lalla's thoughts and the ship itself are haunting, and quite grim when Lalla questions their plans and her father's influence. But Lalla's adolescent vacillating about different aspects of ship life can get tiresome, and the reader might eventually sympathize with the characters who are frustrated by her. This mixed bag of beauty and vexation has a gut-twisting epilogue that will appeal to lovers of psychological speculative fiction.
Customer Reviews
A princess adventure
The girl’s father is a leader in a dystopian world, and she’s his thoughtful but sheltered daughter. It’s not hard to read but somewhat interesting as she thinks about everyday things in her rather privileged life. Although there is some death, oddly enough there is little material suffering.
22% in and had to stop reading
The writing is bad. It regurgitates on itself , painfully documenting every emotion and opinion 5 times over and then repeats again. Countless pages of empty words and no actions. It’s like reading a scientific paper on the most boring subject you ever dared read.
Stay away from this. Clearly the promo paid endorsements are just that, fake. This is a bad author and the reason no one reads books anymore