Match Book
The New Wilderness
Diane Cook
2020 · Science fiction
How it reads
The New Wilderness is science fiction (ecological dystopian fiction, specifically), and its dominant mood is melancholy. It's quietly sad, wistful and reflective. It's a slow burn: character-driven, with a payoff that comes from accumulation rather than twists. It rewards attention and suits unhurried reading more than five-minute gaps.
It's set in the wilderness or at sea, in the future, told in the third person across several viewpoints. Its central concerns are nature, family and class and society. In weight it's heavy and literary — denser, more serious, and more demanding of you.
It stands alone, so there's nothing else you need to read first or after. The ending is left open, for you to argue about. It's moderately known: read by plenty of people, but not a household name.
Pick it up if…
- you're in the mood for something melancholy
- you have time to settle in
- you want something to chew on
Maybe not if…
- you need something funny or hopeful
- you're reading in five-minute gaps
All 15 dimensions
- Genre
- science fiction
- Author gender
- female
- Author experience
- early career
- Setting: place
- wilderness or sea
- Setting: time
- future
- Mood / feeling
- melancholy
- Pace
- slow burn
- Tone / weight
- heavy and literary
- Length
- medium
- Narrative style
- third person, several viewpoints
- Publication era
- recent
- Popularity
- moderately known
- Series vs standalone
- standalone
- Themes
- nature, family, class and society
- Ending style
- ambiguous
What these mean: the 15 dimensions of a book.
Books with a similar reading
The closest books in Match Book's catalogue across the same dimensions, and what they share.
The gracekeepersKirsty LoganShares: science fiction, melancholy mood, heavy and literary tone, slow burn- I Who Have Never Known MenJacqueline HarpmanShares: science fiction, melancholy mood, heavy and literary tone, slow burn
The Left Hand of DarknessUrsula K. Le GuinShares: science fiction, melancholy mood, heavy and literary tone, slow burn- SpinRobert Charles WilsonShares: science fiction, melancholy mood, heavy and literary tone, future setting
The dog starsPeter HellerShares: science fiction, melancholy mood, heavy and literary tone, set in wilderness or sea- The Drowned WorldJ.G. BallardShares: science fiction, heavy and literary tone, slow burn, ambiguous ending
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