The Age of Miracles

Eleven-year-old Julia wakes up one morning to find that the sun is late. The earth's rotation speed is slowing, and soon clock time is out of sync with the procession of days and nights. At first there is panic, and people behave strangely. Julia's best friend, a Mormon, moves with her family to Utah. A Jewish family is not sure when to observe the Sabbath.

For a schoolgirl the problems of friendship, popularity and peer pressure are exacerbated by the changes in the environment. As nights lengthen, crops are threatened by the lack of sunlight, and people begin hoarding food. Animals begin to behave in strange ways, and some species become extinct.

The story is not altogether believable, as some things that one would expect to be affected by the changes appear not to be. Though the wheat supply is threatened, there seems to be no problem in ordering pizzas, and ice cream continues to be readily available, through fresh fruit is not. People in the middle-class suburb where Julia lives still appear to go to work every day, even though one would expect there to be massive unemployment in sectors affected by the changes.

The story is told through the eyes of a child, of course, and one would not expect a child to know of everything that was happening. Apart from a few discrepancies, it is well told, and a good read.

I know everyone seems to be reading this novel and I try not to follow the crowd, but this book sounded too good to pass up. The Age of Miracle tells the story of eleven year old Julia and her experience in a drastic change to the world that could be the start of the apocalypse. The world is slowing down and the days are getting longer, first be a few minutes and then by hours. Julia is trying to recount the events of this difficult time; both the end of the world and being a teenager.

This is a wonderful blend of a coming of age story with a back drop of a speculative novel. Amongst the chaos and people not knowing what to do, you have a Julia talking about her journey into adulthood. But does it work? Personally I would have liked to know more about the world slowing and the speculative fiction elements, but I think the blend between young adult and genre fiction was masterfully done.

My biggest problem with this book and it’s one of my literary bête noires in post apocalypse and dystopian fiction is that Karen Thompson Walker writes this book in first person past tense. Which gives me a sense of knowing what will happen in the end and there is no way to build tension. But this is only a minor issue in a book like this because this more a beautiful novel of self discovery and growing up.

Karen Thompson Walker’s writes with such elegance and beauty that I was surprised to find this was a debut novel. Her skill of mixing YA with Speculative fiction and then making it into something that I would consider literature was just done brilliantly. She has such skill of not over shadowing the coming of age elements with the chaos of the world around her. I was surprised at how fast I read this book, I was fully immersed in this book and the beauty of what I was reading I was a little sad to see it end.

I can’t recommend this book enough, Julia was a wonderful protagonist and her journey was delightful. The Age of Miracle doesn’t give you any answers but cleverly revels what is going on without forcing anything on the reader. It’s a fascination novel with really needs to be experienced firsthand. Sure the science of the slowing would be interesting to read about but it would never work in a book like this. I must admit I look forward to see what Karen Thompson Walker does next and would be interested to find a book similar to this gem.

Julia is eleven when the earth's rotation starts to slow down. No one knows why, but the extra minutes in the day soon turn to hours. Julia continues going to school, constrained by the 24 hour clock but otherwise getting on with life as best as anyone can.

The concept is an interesting one. It's not just that we would get more hours in the day (how many times have you asked for that?) but our entire existence would be affected. As the world slows, gravity is affected, animals governed by the tide and magnetic fields lose their way, crops fail under harsh conditions and human health, mental and physical is strained. There are lots of incredibly interesting snippets about what would happen throughout the story but they seem to be cut short every time. I wanted more in-depth science. Perhaps it wouldn't have felt genuine from a young narrator but the lack of it let me down.

The first person narration feels very much like an adult reminiscing on the past and not that of a child. It comes across as a bit distant. Julia, understandably, is more concerned with boys, best friends and training bras than the end of the world, yet it doesn't have any of the passion that a young adult narrative would have. Besides the slowing, she goes through plenty of things that should really be quite emotional at her age. It's also hard to picture the world where Julia grows old enough to look back in an objective manner.

I was also thrown off track from the start. We are told that it happened gradually and no one really noticed apart from a few night owls. That we gained nearly an hour before anyone said anything. That it was broken via television. I'm sorry, but I'm pretty sure some clever people would have commented on social networks if it had happened over time. There are people that pay attention to when the sun rises and sets, I even have an app for it. Yet from then on, it seems like the hours are gained quickly. I think the whole book is set over less than a year. Again, some scientific information might have helped me set things straight in my brain.

It is a short and easy read and I'm sure it will be popular this summer. There's enough of interest to engage those who aren't hungry for science but like to read about such scenarios. I'm not sure Julia's coming of age story is strong enough to carry the book by itself. I usually complain that books are too long, yet there is a part of me that thinks an extra 100 pages wouldn't have gone amiss here.