The Children of Men

By John M. Gottman

Book Overview

Told with P. D. James' s trademark suspense, insightful characterization, and riveting storytelling, "The Children of Men" is a story of a world with no children and no future. The human race has become infertile, and the last generation to be born is now adult. Civilization itself is crumbling as suicide and despair become commonplace. Oxford historian Theodore Faron, apathetic toward a future without a future, spends most of his time reminiscing. Then he is approached by Julian, a bright, attractive woman who wants him to help get her an audience with his cousin, the powerful Warden of England. She and her band of unlikely revolutionaries may just awaken his desire to live . . . and they may also hold the key to survival for the human race.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0446364622
• ISBN13: 9780446364621
• Release Date: February 1994
• Publisher: Vision
• Length: 351 Pages
• Weight: 0.42 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 4.2" x 6.7"

Customer Reviews

New Genre of Dystopia., 13 Oct 2007

Fantastically written. It describes a future dystopia with so much enigmatic character and charisma that you feel like you are literally on the brink. Character development is not slow or contrived; neither is the emotional impact. The characters have apparent flaws, stern resolve and lovable quirks, you know them, you grew up with them, you love them. The film however is not the abysmal accolade it's made out to be; harsher...

Perfect for this genre...

I say "Perfect for this genre", but I'm not really sure where I'd put this book. With the "end of the world" stories probably, but without the good vs. evil power struggle such as in The Stand: Expanded Edition: For the First Time Complete and Uncut (Signet) by Stephen King. I guess I could compare this to The White Plague, but I feel that PD James created more realistic and richer characters and left out Herbert's science...

not at all like the movie but a good read

If you are looking for a written version of the movie, you will be disappointed. There is very very little overlap, except in a very general sense, between the book and the movie. That said, I read the book in one day....it's well written and not the usual best-seller fare. If you enjoy literary fiction, this will suit. If you prefer dumbed down best-seller stuff, you will probably not enjoy this work.

Here's a real dystopia

Note: for those who have seen the movie, remove your preconceptions when starting to read this book. It is quite unlike the movie. The premise is simple - the entire human population has been rendered infertile. Any scientific attempts to find or fix the cause have failed spectatularly. And so, the world is heading to a very quiet and desperate extinction. The population ages and diminishes as people await the inevitable...

No children born in over 25 years, only a miracle will save the planet

Reader beware, this book is very different from the film not that it stopped me from enjoying reading it however. For starters the pregnant woman in PD James novel is a white woman called Julian, in the film she is black. In the book Theo Faron isn't the estranged husband from Julian Taylor, he's the first cousin of the Warden of England who goes by the name of Xan and in the book it is Julian who is the miraculously pregnant...