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Reviews of GAIA - The Sky River
Library Assessment (Danish Library Centre, DBC)
The book is gripping, frightening and truly worth reading. Once again, the author has delved into a possible climate catastrophe and built a novel around it. This book ought to be required reading for those in power.
Recommended for purchase by all libraries.
Bogbobler, Instagram (5/5 stars)
Wow. Torben Mathiassen’s Gaia – The Atmospheric River really blew us away. A book that feels like a dystopian novel, but sadly isn’t. It hits hard and feels frighteningly real.
It is about our lack of respect for nature and all the life that comes with it. And all of it in the pursuit of money and progress – wrapped up in a really compelling plot.
You feel sad and angry along the way. Because it all feels so recognisable. Yet at the same time, it is exciting, beautifully written and incredibly well researched. You learn a great deal without it ever feeling heavy.
Although the book is classified as sci-fi/fantasy, that is far from how it feels. This could happen tomorrow – and thank you to the epilogue for underlining just how close we already are.
We follow several characters (yay for changes of viewpoint that actually work), and the main characters in particular stay with us long after finishing the book. They are all fighting for something better, either for themselves or for the planet. And just how far people are willing to go is really brought into sharp focus.
We weren’t bored for a single second. This is storytelling with something to say, and we absolutely love it. Take it from these two crime-fiction lovers: more people should read this book.
Cats, Books & Coffee (4/6 stars)
If you think a climate thriller sounds a little dull, think again. In Torben’s Victims of Hothouse Earth series, he puts a human face on the victims of climate disasters, so that you learn something while you read (perhaps you only realise it after finishing the book, but by then the reflections hit even harder).
In this volume, the focus is on the destruction of the Amazon rainforest and the terrible consequences this will have. (Did you, like me, think that major efforts were already under way to prevent this?)
José, his family and his friend Thiago are brutally affected by the consequences: the life-giving rain fails to come, and a fight for survival begins. The rich will manage somehow, but the poor die in large numbers.
Torben brings a wealth of relevant themes into the novel. The extinction of species, the way indigenous people are forced from their homes, and the enormous divide between rich and poor – and their chances of survival. As long as there is money to be made, selfish people behind the scenes will go to great lengths, regardless of the consequences it may have for the planet.