Station Eleven
by Emily St. John Mandel · first published 2014
64% recommend36% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Post-apocalyptic novel with interlinked stories and a distinctive writing style, suited to readers who like character-driven dystopian fiction; also pairs well with the author's Glass Hotel and Sea of Tranquility.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
One snowy night Arthur Leander, a famous actor, has a heart attack onstage during a production of "King Lear." Jeevan Chaudhary, a paparazzo-turned-EMT, is in the audience and leaps to his aid. A child actress named Kirsten Raymonde watches in horror as Jeevan performs CPR, pumping Arthur's chest as the curtain drops, but Arthur is dead. That same night, as Jeevan walks home from the theater, a terrible flu begins to spread. Hospitals are flooded and Jeevan and his brother barricade themselves inside an apartment, watching out the window as cars clog the highways, gunshots ring out, and life d
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…https://www.dropbox.com/s/om9xdox53rcl1g9/Screenshot%202015-... Some of the notably awesome books on that screen: The Son, Spin (and really, almost anything by Robert Charles Wilson, but especially Spin), The Dog Stars, Blindsight and Echopraxia, Station Eleven, Seveneves and REAMDE, Nightwoods. Bonus: gut-wrenchingly awful books I started reading and aborted (or worse, read to the end on the misguided hope that somehow they would redeem themselves): California,…
on ““Tsundoku,” the Japanese Word for the New Books That Pile Up on Our Shelves” ↗…A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki Sea of Tranquillity by Emily St. John Mandel Children of Dune by Frank Herbert Turtles All the Way Down by John Green The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2022 and recommend for 2023” ↗…(series) https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Ninefox-Gambit/Yoon-H... * Will Mess With Your Heart - The Broken Earth (series) https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/n-k-jemisin/the-fif... - Station Eleven https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/239452/station-elev... - This Is How You Lose the Time War https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/This-Is-How-You-Lose-... - The Poppy War Trilogy https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-poppy-war-r-f-kua...…
on “The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Books of the Past Decade” ↗…I'm now partially through the 3rd book in the series. And amazing portrait of the friendship between 2 girls as they grow up and try to escape the violence and poverty of their small town in Naples. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel - My guess is that plenty of people here have read it. Great read about the fall of civilization due to a massive flu outbreak. Room by Emma Donoghue - Beautiful, heartbreaking,…
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2015?” ↗…my mind that one person can come up with so many out there ideas. I know OP wasn't looking for dystopias, but if you like Parable of the Sower, I recently read two excellent new scifi/dystopia books: Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, and American War by Omar El Akkad. American War was really cool - it's by a journalist who covered military trials at Guantanamo Bay and the Arab Spring, who transposes the stories/atrocities…
on “Ask HN: What are the best Sci-Fi books you've ever read?” ↗> I was introduced to sci-fi last year and pretty much stuck to it throughout 2018. If you're looking for additional science fiction suggestions: 1. American War by Omar El Akkad 2. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel 3. Artemis by Andy Weir 4. Daemon by Daniel Suarez 5. Old Man's War by John Scalzi 6. Dark Matter by Blake Crouch 7. Red Rising series by Pierce Brown
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?” ↗https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/mar/15/books-to-read-... I'm enjoying Station Eleven: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Station-Eleven-Emily-John-Mandel/dp...
on “Ask HN: Good sci-fis about post-pandemic futures?” ↗Hard to pick a favourite so I’ll recommend the latest, which I thought was fabulous: Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. It has also been turned into a limited miniseries that I am excited to watch. I enjoyed it so much I’ve just started another of her books, The Glass Hotel.
on “Ask HN: What is your favorite fiction book?” ↗Fiction -------- Termination Shock - Neal Stephenson Station Eleven - Emily St. John Mandel Shards of Earth - Adrian Tchaikovsky Project Hail Mary - Andy Weir Gnomon - Nick Harkaway The Gone Away World - Nick Harkaway The Apollo Murders - Chris Hadfield Nonfiction…
on “Ask HN: What is the best thing you read in 2022?” ↗On A Red Station Drifting - Aliette de Bodard: a wild mixture of a station, run by a failing AI and strict Vietnamese behavioural rules. Station Eleven - Emily St. John Mandel, plot: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Station_Eleven Nine Fox Gambit: Yoon Ha Lee: disgraced officer of space fleet must capture fortress protected by complex mathematics. Theatre…
on “My favorite cult sci-fi and fantasy books you may not have heard of before” ↗Fiction: A Little Life - challenging to read but exceptional Sci-fi Three Body Problem trilogy - forget the Netflix series the books are excellent, in my opinion #2 was the peak. The Glass Hotel, Station Eleven, Sea of Tranquility - anything by Emily St. John Mandel - hard to place but her distinct writing style transports me. Non-fiction: American Moonshot - fine The Path to Power - anything Caro writes is…
on “Ask HN: What did you read in 2025?” ↗…you like mysteries or are willing to give mysteries a try: https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/agatha-christie For the near future, I've got some of Emily St. John Mandel's books loaded up (I liked the Station Eleven series a lot), as well as Peter Heller's The River.
on “Ask HN: What are you reading?” ↗"Exit Party," Emily St. John Mandel's ["Station Eleven," among others] new novel. It's her best yet which is saying A LOT.
on “Ask HN: What are you reading?” ↗…but I don't pay for re-runs. I finished The Witcher but the writing took a step back from season one. Meanwhile, HBO had multiple quality series release this season both new and old. Highly recommend Station Eleven. [0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Netflix_original_progr...
on “Netflix raises prices on all plans in US” ↗Might be worthwhile to read this after Station Eleven and The Glass Hotel. While not a formal trilogy, there are a lot of connections and quite honestly they are each totally amazing. Last Night in Montreal, by the same author, is also great, and totally…
on “Ask HN: What is the best thing you read in 2022?” ↗