Thank you Netgalley for this review copy.
I had mixed feelings about this book and it took me going back to it twice before I got carried away with the characters. A slow burn beginning but original idea and a scarily prophetic storyline.

I am loving Maja Lunde's Climate Quartet, even though this, the debut, is the one that I have read latest. Here we follow the impact of bees and bee farming on humanity and on the planet. Lunde traces this impact through three characters, William, a nineteenth-century naturalist fascinated by bees who is desperate to make a name for himself but struggling to balance his ambition with the demands of a large family. There is George, an American beekeeper in the early 2000s feeling the impact of modern farming practices on his family beekeeping farm. And there is is Tao who hand-paints pollen onto fruit trees in China in 2098 following the worldwide collapse of bee colonies and the extinction of pollinating insects. Their stories are full of the same concerns; family, ambition, and societal pressures, all against the backdrop of increasingly desperate climate circumstances.

Lunde is a master if the intertwined narrative. The voices of her characters are clear and distinct and the closer links between them and the consequences of their personal actions slowly emerge through a narrative that is tightly written and full of detail without overburdening the reader with exposition. This is not quite as assured in this first book as it will become in later volumes but her deft writing brings poignancy and urgency to humanity's relationship with Earth.

The translation is wonderful in that there is no impression that it is translated. No awkward phrasing or metaphors that don't quite land. Diane Oatley has rendered Lunde's work perfectly in fluid, natural, impactful language for the English reader.

An interesting and thought provoking book. I liked how easily the book moved between different time frames and it was great how each character over the 3 time frames linked together. The book is sad at times and slightly scary, really makes you think about what we're doing to the planet and how our world could change.

I think this is one of those books I will be thinking about for a long time. It's been a little while since I read it and I'm still thinking about it, so that should say something.
Three stories connected through bee keeping and, maybe less clearly, ecology.
The progression of the three narratives in three different periods in time is done really really well; I was invested in all three storylines and hugely appreciated the nods to the previous in each progressive timeline.
Climate fiction ("cli fi") is a genre where it's hard to draw a balance between all out despair, or cloying optimism, with an actually good plot weaving in between it all. Lunde strikes almost the perfect balance, and the only complaint I've got is the slightly hollow ending that Tao gets. However, this is only because her story is easily the most captivating and easy to sink into; Lunde does an amazing job of making you feel the despair and physical emptiness of the world post Collapse.
I would absolutely recommend this book, both as a (slightly heavy-handed) moralising tale about bees, and just generally a really captivating good read. I don't even care much about the heavy-handed nature because I love bees.

Unfortunately I just couldn’t get into this book and didn’t finish it. The story wasn’t really of interest to me and I didn’t seem to click with the characters.

I found it very hard to engage with the characters in this book. I wanted to know what happened in the stories but I found it hard to care about what happened to the people in them

I was really attracted to the concept of this book, but frankly, it was kind of boring.

We follow three separate timelines: William, researching the life of bees and attempting to create a newer, better beehive; George, a bee farmer struggling to cope at the time of the disappearance of the bees; and Tao, a Chinese pollen-farmer (in the future) whose son is suddenly taken from her.

The three stories are intricately connected, which was very well done. In fact, the entire book was very well written. Despite the three separate story-threads, it was very easy to follow and the whole thing was woven together very well.

Unfortunately, it was all pretty dull. The History of Bees is, essentially, three separate stories of unhappy families with parents who are weirdly overbearing towards their sons (except for Tao whose son is only a child and is mysteriously taken away, so that’s kind of fair enough). The overarching theme of bees was overshadowed by the family dramas and personal issues of the main characters, which was disappointing because the bee thing was what really drew me to this book in the first place.

Despite the exceptional writing, I was, overall, underwhelmed.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The History of Bees is the story of three generations of beekeepers: William in 1852 England; George in 2007 Ohio; and Tao in 2098 Sichuan. The story and experience of each character is quite different, yet with similarities, and fundamentally intertwined as the fate of bees change over the centuries. In the UK, the bee is certainly beloved so I was fascinated by having this as a thread running through each story. I found all of the characters interesting and what each of them endures was rather touching. The book does jump from each different character and era, so I found myself wanting to continue on the path of that particular character before quickly becoming absorbed in the current focus; this shows well-written characters, and effective implementation of this technique (which doesn't always pay off but it did here!). I did guess some plot-turns but it didn't detract from them. I definitely enjoyed it and would recommend it to others who don't mind the story jumping between time periods (I appreciate not everyone does).

The plot follows characters in three different time settings. The earlier two work with bees, the last set less than 100 years in the future in a world without bees. I have been signing petitions online to save bees from pesticides for some time and my daughter in law has recently taken up beekeeping, making the premise for the story line all the more compelling for me.
From what I've read so far the author is examining our attitudes to bees at different times and imagining the the effect a bee-less world would have on society and individuals within that society.
Unfortunately I didn't manage to finish this in the time available but I am hooked enough by the opening chapters to buy the book for my library so that I can!
I'm only giving this four stars because I haven't finished, the fifth star being dependent on how the plot plays out.

This book happened. Three stories, all with linear events that happened in order. I didn't connect, there was no lyricism to the writing and overall it just felt like it didn't really mean anything or go anywhere. I feel this would have been better served as a work of popular non-fiction than as fiction.

There are three linked stories set in England in 1852, America in 2007 and China in 2098 - in the first William Savage is a seed merchant and failed academic who is trying to develop an improved bee-hive while struggling with depression; in 2007 we meet George who faces the problems of keeping his hives going in the face of Colony Collapse Disorder and finally, in 2098, Tao is one of thousands of Chinese workers who have to pollinate fruit trees by hand. Because the bees have all died. This covers the history of hive development, the fight against the inexplicable death of millions of bees in the present day and gives us an in-depth look at a world without the unseen work all those bees do for us. For me the 2098 section is the most interesting because of this - the lack of various food crops is the obvious change but there are other things which were more surprising; cotton fabric, for example... Each portion of the story also has a human angle - specifically one exploring relationships between parents and children. In the 1850s William is investing all his hopes in his son, to the extent of missing how much one of his daughters, in particular, is supporting him: in 2007 George is, again, wanting to mould his son into his own idea of the perfect child (and again struggling with his own mental health) and feeling that he is failing. Tao's story is the saddest - her son is very young and she loses him. He becomes ill and is whisked away by the state; her mission is, initially, to find hm and then, as she looks deeper, to discover what happened to the bees...

These are fascinating linked stories which explore both our relationship with bees and with our own families. The balance which must be made between individuality and society - the bee and the hive - applies both to insects and to humans.

I had no idea what to expect when I picked up The History of Bees. The narration jumps from William in 1851: attempting to cement his legacy by building a new type of beehive, George in 2007: a modern farmer trying to reconnect with his son in the face of environmental issues threatening his precious bees and Tao in 2098: one of millions of workers completing the bee's work now that they have disappeared.

Although the narration jumps through three different time periods, the stories are smooth and it doesn't get confusing. All three stories are a combination of bees, family, male relationships with their sons and worries about what will become of the future. I knew practically nothing about bees or hives before starting A History of Bees but I was swept along by the passion of each character.

Does the vanishing of the Bees really indicate a coming ecological collapse? This book follows the lives of three people whose lives are interwoven with the domestication of bees and their disappearance.

In England in 1851 we meet William, a biologist and seed merchant, trying to gain fame by building a new type of beehive. Jumping forward to 2007 and in the USA is George, a beekeeper fighting an uphill battle against modern farming, and hoping his son will follow in the family footsteps. China is the home of Tao who hand paints pollen onto the fruit trees in 2098 when the bees have long since disappeared. When Tao’s young son is taken away by the authorities after a tragic accident—and is kept in the dark about his whereabouts and condition—she sets out on a grueling journey to find out what happened to him.

Well. There was a lot in this book for me to love but before we dip into that can we just have a moments appreciation for that cover! What a thing of beauty!

So what’s your preference? Historical fiction? Dystopian? Contemporary? Why choose? With this you’ve got it all! And unusually all three sections are written in first person with authentic sounding voices and a real sense of time and place. But all that is worth little without a good story to tie it together. Luckily this has four good stories, each arc could’ve been extended to a standalone book but I think they are better interwoven. They support a story that twists up through each of them and arches over them to create something better.

It got me thinking, the Bees angle is good but that’s not all there is too it, there’s also a lot about family.

Four and a half bites

NB I received a free copy of this book through NetGalley in return for an honest review. The BookEaters always write honest reviews.

If there is anything more terrifying than colony collapse disorder which is likely to wipe out the earth’s bee population and by extension kill a large number of us because all our crops will fail? I can’t think of much that is. That aside this is a beautiful novel, a quiet mixture of historical and dystopian fiction that meditates on the nature of continuation. Both as one generation hands on custodianship of the earth to another and as parent hands on legacy and opportunity to child. I can see why its compared to Never Let Me Go and Station Eleven but this book is still very much its own thing. Spellbinding

I found this a slow burner which right now I'm struggling with so have been unable to finish but I hope to return and give it another try

Interesting idea for a book and to have the three stories. Past present and future. Personally I found I was only really interested in the present and future stories .

I felt at times the book was a bit fragmented because of these different stories. I was drawn the most t Taos story.

I liked the environmental message that the book was trying to get across and I think it did this successfully and not in a totally bleak way.

A thought provoking book - unfortunately even though I enjoyed the actual story, I did not actually 'like' any of the 3 main characters.

My goodness, The History of Bees is impressive. It is an intense, dark and meticulously well-executed story that seems primarily about bees and pollination. But it is a book that not only harbours a dreadful warning about our future, but also touches the heart with big themes of family, personal failure and legacy.

The book weaves together three storylines - past, present and future - that, together, give rise to a dystopian future where bees have died out causing global harvests to fail, widespread starvation, and the rise of dictatorial states and governments where individual expressions and freedoms have been suppressed to address the extensive mass poverty and dissent.

This sounds big and onerous but Maja's writing is far from heavy and cumbersome. Rather than hammer us over the head with these big issues, she instead focuses on the personal: three families in three separate countries across three different time periods - an English inventor in industrial England, a struggling farmer in present-day USA, and a mother working on a huge government-run farm in futuristic China.

These three stories are blended together throughout the book perfectly. The small struggles of each family battling against their own pressing issues of making ends meet, dis enchanted sons and daughters, the sacrifice parents make for their children... It is all very affecting. Yet, slowly but surely, these three seemingly separate plot lines start to come together to form a cohesive and coherent line throughout history.

This book is superbly executed, no doubt about that. It's series of small chapters interweaving the various stories make this a page turner. There are a few 'day-after-tomorrow' dystopias out there now and this one is surely one of the best. There is no doubt that this book, which uses the smaller issue of bee farming to examine a possible terrible future, hits all the right notes with its warnings on the actions of man. Yet it retains the personal, which is always what draws in the reader. Beautifully balanced.

A beautifully written book which delves into the world of bees and shows just how important they are to our ecosystem.
Told through three stories set in different eras through history, I’ll never look at these wonderful creatures the same again.

According to Greenpeace, human beings have bees to thank for one in every three bites of food that they eat. As we in the real world face a bee crisis, literature provides us with some potential scenarios as to how this could all end for mankind.
"The History of Bees" flits between the stories of three generations of beekeepers from the past, present and future. The past is represented by a Victorian English gentleman, William, who is unhealthily obsessed with creating the perfect beehive and cementing his place in the history books.
The present is represented by George, an American beekeeper, trying to keep pace with modern farming by providing an essential pollination service with his portable hives, but struggling to make ends meet in the increasingly competitive marketplace.
The future is represented by Tao, a Chinese worker who hand pollinates plants, as there are no longer any bees left. When her son is involved in a tragic accident and is spirited away by the authorities, she embarks on a desperate quest to find out if her son is dead or alive and where he is being kept.
This is a wonderfully woven narrative, as Lunde effortlessly jumps backwards and forwards in time, shining a light on the events of the day and slowly piecing together the full picture. There is mystery, suspense, disaster and truths to be faced.
This book should be read in schools as a stark wake up call to look after our bees, as they play such an essential part in our fragile ecosystem. Let this book inspire you to get involved.