This is a short book of interlocking short stories set in the same near future dystopia. It doesn't spoon feed you and allows you to gradually build up a picture of the world humans are now living in, where water is commodified and delivered by train. I feel like it would benefit from multiple reads to pull the pieces together. It's very lyrical and poetic in its writing style and was first heard as a series of short plays on radio 4. ( )

"People have always got on with it. Dystopia is as ridiculous a concept as Utopia."

This is a near-future post-apocalyptic/dystopian novel that, unlike many works of this genre, is quiet and lyrical. Climate change has caused water shortages, and water has become a valuable commodity. In a series of apparently unrelated vignettes we meet various characters, in various settings, each in more or less dire circumstances. The novel opens as a mercenary guard on the track carrying the "water train" to the city is sent to investigate a possible intruder along the tracks, with orders to shoot to kill if necessary. In other vignettes we meet a stray dog, two boys who adopt it, a nurse on a cancer ward, a reporter, an elderly couple who harvest limpets for food, the seashore now encroaching their home.

I liked this book a lot, and I think even those who are not fans of the dystopian/post-apocalyptic genre would find a lot to like here. The writing is beautiful, and part of the genius of the book is how it is put together with these unrelated parts that in the end, the author is able to pull together. A review on Amazon described it as "minimalist" and a "sparse apocalyptic slice of life," and these descriptions are apt. But it is very well-done.

And I learned a new word: "Stillicide--1. A continual dripping of water; 2. A right or duty relating to the collection of water from or onto adjacent land."

Recommended.

3 1/2 stars ( )

Cynan Jones most recent novel Stillicide is a short sketch of a world yearning. Yearning for the scarcity of water and in that very scarcity the immediate way it trickles down to relationships from families to governments to forces at odds with control. In Stillicide we enter a future where water trains bring water and glaciers are moved to collect water. Within this climate future story Cynan Jones has written deeply human. Humane stories. Of them all my favorite is the boy whose lost brother is searching for his, their, dog. In Stillicide everything is on the razors edge. All is uncertian. The primary constant is, as Jones tells it in these stories, is hope and love.

Stillicide is a short novel. It is earnest and honest. It is cinematic in its script-like brief but beautifully detailed sentences. Of it all the breaks on the page. Sentence. Word. Paragraph. Break. It all adds to the urgency the feeling and beauty of this stellar book.

Highly recommend. ( )

Fresh water has become scarce and is now a commodity. The Water Train brings water to the city, but is constantly being sabotaged and must be closely guarded. Glaciers are now being towed in as a source of fresh water. An Ice Dock must be constructed to support the giant glacier, moving entire communities in its wake. As news of the displacement from the Ice Dock spreads, the lives of several people become entwined by the element that keeps us alive.
Stillicide is defined as: a continual dripping or the servitude of eavesdrop binding a servient tenement to receive from the dominant tenement rainwater from the eaves of a building located on the latter. Stillicide is a collection of short stories all taking place within the same time frame around a future dystopian city in England struggling to receive fresh water. At first, the stories all seem a bit disjointed, but they do give a good sense of place. Through the eyes of the storytellers, a world where humans continue to live their daily lives as yet another catastrophe of our own making threatens to dismantle everything. To make coffee, we harvest the respiration from trees, protests emerge as the impact of the Ice Dock is made imminent. The writing creates the feeling of a slightly off-kilter normal or a boring dystopia. Despite the world crashing down and the inherent risk of running out of fresh water, people are continuing on with their own drama, motivations and human needs. As the stories continue, the connectedness becomes apparent and the power of nature over human life is shown.
This book was received for free in return for an honest review. ( )

It is the near future, not that far from where we are now, a place where water has become a scarce commodity

The city demands water, it is bought in on The Water Train and guarded by man and machine against sabotage.

Dry rivers mean that there is not enough water. Icebergs are calved and dragged south. A new Ice Dock is planned and then expanded, it will evict more people than was first thought. The city tenses as the protests start.

In this stark new world, people are trying to live; a marksman whose wife is dying, a woman meeting a lover. A man collecting limpets off the rocks, a boy looking for his brother who is searching for his dog.

All are uncertain about this bleak future.

This short dystopian novella is quite something. Jones writes with surgical precision, twelve short chapters fill in more detail about the harshness of this place through the eyes of his characters. He paints an outline sketch of a society that is on a knife-edge between surviving and failing, whilst still have very human and believable characters.

I thought it was a stunning book and I love the cover too. It has a sense of urgency in the writing. I think because it was conceived for radio first, and the limits of time in that medium, both constrain and liberate his writing. ( )