Very readable. It felt like the language was the same, regardless of which of the 3 main characters was speaking, but the stories themselves were all fascinating. Enjoyed this book very much.

The story begins in 2098. The bees have long gone. We are introduced to Tao 2098, George 2007 and William 1851, and in some ways their lives are all connected to bees. At first I wasn't sure if the author was giving me enough literary tools to place myself in each era - speech, description, writing style, and also the fact that there were 3 different years (obviously past, present, future). I found it slightly overwhelming trying to assimilate each one at the same time. However, this is soon rectified as you become immersed in the converging stories., I certainly found that I was engrossed well before I was half way through and compelled thereafter as the stories converge into moments of enlightenment.

This is an interesting twist on an apocalyptic tale - it's connection to an eco system and in particular the bees and pollination. This dystopian story shows us their importance and the impact of losing what is often looked at, as a small insignificant creature in our world.

Themes: dystopian future, bees, pollination, persistence, family, importance of research, eco system, history

Fantastic and thought-provoking novel. Very good at weaving in everyday concerns with visions of the past and future. One for fans of David Mitchell.

Quality Rating: Three Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Two Stars

I got 27% through this book and gave up not because it was terrible, but because I was genuinely uninterested and was avoiding reading as a result. Nothing happened nor started to happen in what I read, so I was terribly motivated to carry on.

The big thing that turned me off of The History of Bees is how little worldbuilding we're given. I think it was so important to how well this book was going to be pulled off since we have only one story actually told in our historical canon, and the other two in progressively worse states of a dystopian-ish/sci-fi-ish future (the fact that I couldn't really work out which of those genres it was supposed to be similar to proves my point). It made it really hard to sympathise or even really follow the characters, as many of their dilemmas were circumstantial; providing for the family, dealing with a child who doesn't want to follow your footsteps, raising a child who you know essentially doesn't have a future. I wasn't given enough of an idea of how significant these things were in the context to feel anything for them.

You could rename this book 'Bad Parenting in Three Different Centuries'. From what I read, that was the crux of the story. I would like to think that it develops somewhat further than just that, but I wasn't prepared to carry on and find out. Everyone was dislikeable for me, and as such when mashed together with the lack of contextual information it became three family dramas in a world where I couldn't understand the motivations of anyone. It just felt like three sets of parents making questionable decisions and feeling sorry for themselves.
Another issue I found for the early parts of the book was the lack of cohesion between the stories. I'm all for split stories or multiple perspectives, but if you're going to do that there needs to be a link in situation, story or at least tone. You can't just use it as a way to cut somewhere else when things get boring or you want to extend tension. You start to feel cheated as a reader and have even less of a chance to connect with the characters.

This book gets comparisons to Station Eleven, understandably. Multiple stories across decades where humanity goes into a somewhat apocalyptic scenario, all linked (apparently?) and named after a book that happens to be in the story itself. Personally, I don't think The History of Bees has the spirit and imagination of Station Eleven, but perhaps if you're more into science than performance arts you might prefer it.

I enjoyed this, although it did slow down a little in parts, and it wasn't until near the end that I realised how the present-day and historical timelines connected. An interesting and scary imagining of what could happen if bees continue to diminish in numbers (as they are doing today) and the repercussions for the future of humanity.

Review of an advance digital copy from the publisher.

An amazing tale of three families through different centuries, really very interesting even for someone who knows nothing of beekeeping! A future best seller

I thought this was a fantastic read. It’s so lovely to read a book you’ve never read anything like before, and Maja Lunde’s ‘The History of Bees’ was exactly that. This book is not only the history of bees, but the present, the future, and the impact that bees can have on our everyday life.

The focus on the relationships between parents and children in all three of the stories that are interwoven in this book was one of my favourite aspects of the book in itself. The reader is shown the perspective of the parent, and the difficulty sometimes in connecting with their children, and also the lengths that they will go to for them. This was done in a way that I empathised with both the parent and the child, whilst simultaneously being frustrated with them.

Sometimes, when I’m reading a book and I dislike one of the characters, I find the book becomes far less enjoyable for me and I am less interested in it. I need to like the characters to care about them! At some points in this book I found that I disliked George quite strongly; however, his reasoning was always clear and I always, always wanted good things for him, which I thought was well done by Maja Lunde. She provided real characters that sometimes make bad decisions, but without making them irritating or making me want to put the book down.

I feel that I learnt a lot from The History of Bees; about relationships, but also about bees themselves. Lunde writes about bees in a way that fascinated me, rather than bored me (I’m not a big non-fiction reader). I didn’t find myself skimming through the sections of the book that actually taught me things, which I often do. This book has made me realise, more than I did before, about just how important bees are! And not only important, but really cool – I’ll try my hardest not to run away from the next bee I see.

4/5

The History of Bees takes the reader on a journey through times when bees were plentiful (England 1852), in decline (Ohio, USA 2007) and nonexistent (China 2098). This story was powerful as it illustrated how much of our life, and that of most living creatures on our planet, is reliant on the hard work of bees and their pollination. A real eye-opening cautionary tale of sorts but it provided hope, as well.

Personally, I have a strong desire to support bees and that is what drew me to this novel. I felt empathy for the main characters in each time period as they struggled with their personal difficulties. Ok, less so for William and George but I do appreciate they were driven by forces beyond themselves, too, and their contribution to the story was necessary. Of the three, Tao in China provided the most fleshed out tale as she lived in a world painfully diminished without bees. It is frightful to imagine and worth fighting to keep that reality limited to fiction.

Yes, there are strong tones promoting a green agenda. The overarching message is that people need to support nature and stop interfering through the use of chemicals. We create more problems than we solve. If we leave nature untouched it would be better for us and the bees. I think this story, beautifully told, is a fresh way of sharing that message.

I can see this has been written with literature in mind - beautiful, self aware writing. I feel it is looking down on me while I appreciate the craft. Somehow I could not engage with the people, or get the connections between the different strands. So it felt fragmentary. I'm sure this is a matter of taste.

Bees are a handy symbol of the planet's environmental degradation, as you'll know if you've read anything by Dave Goulson – whose endorsement is featured proudly on the cover of this U.K. release of Norwegian children's writer Maja Lunde's first novel for adults. The creatures also provide subtle links between the book's three story lines.

First we hear from Tao, who in 2098 China has to perform the gruelling hand-pollination that's been necessary ever since bees disappeared once and for all in a worldwide environmental collapse around 2040. Next we're in 1851 Hertfordshire, where William Savage, a Darwin-like naturalist and seed shop proprietor, emerges from a deep depression to work on a new beehive design.

The final first-person narrator is George, a third-generation beekeeper based in Ohio. His near-contemporary account gives a clear sense of the hard, thankless work involved in beekeeping, especially when he's not sure his vegetarian, academically oriented son will take over from him. He also witnesses first-hand the onset of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD).

Although these three voices are extremely different – Tao is straightforward and determined; William is melancholy and observant; George is folksy and hot-headed – there is never any doubt that they belong together in this novel. For one thing, bees are a shared fascination, and there are a few bee-related connections between these specific characters that are only revealed late on.

But there's another theme that joins the three narrators: each of them is deeply concerned about a son. Tao's life is turned upside down when her only child, Wei-Wen, is taken ill during a picnic on one of her rare holidays, and she travels to Beijing and does desperate research to try to save his life. William has seven pretty daughters but is disappointed in his only son, Edmund, who lives a dissipated life far from what his parents want for him. George, too, feels that he and his son Tom have different priorities and never quite connect.

Lunde is pretty much equally skilled at evoking a dystopian future, a Victorian past and the American present. The only sections of the book that dragged for me were those in Tao's narrative that explain the world's collapse. I find that it's best for speculative fiction in this vein (by Margaret Atwood et al.) to leave the exact how of the environmental catastrophe to the reader's imagination, as a blow-by-blow can end up feeling tedious.

However, from page to page this is a very readable novel that hardly seems like a translation. I appreciated the various symbolic uses of bees. For instance, William contrasts fatherhood and productivity thus: 'Like the drone, I sacrificed my life for procreation.' For Tao, raised in a country where individuals can feel swallowed by the vastness of the wider population, a bee colony serves as a reminder of the benefits of working collectively for the greater good. Moreover, bees represent a middle ground between wildness and domestication: 'bees cannot be tamed. They can only be tended, receive our care.'

Though it responds to the seriousness of recent and projected future ecological disasters, this novel is not a downer. On the contrary, its final word is 'hope'. It's also a very beautifully produced book, with an embossed bee on the dust jacket, a black and gold honeycomb pattern across the spine and boards, and a detailed black-and-white bee illustration featured in the corners of occasional pages. If you appreciate lovely physical books and have enjoyed work by David Mitchell, Margaret Atwood or Dave Goulson, I can heartily recommend this.

This is startling , dystopian fiction with a heart .
As a book its lyrical , emotional and very striking .
It is not a book to race through but to savour

"...in order to live in nature, with nature, we must detach ourselves from the nature in ourselves."

The History of Bees is a wonderfully written but sometimes slow look at the lives of three different beekeepers. It's also a truly terrifying examination of how important bees are to the world and our existence.

Maja Lunde seems to be good at writing dystopian, apocalyptic style fiction but also excellent at developing characters with very human traits and personalities. The History of Bees beautifully blends science fiction and literary fiction with a look at how the world would function if the bee population declines. It is quite terrifying as this is an issue that is happening right now and the Colony Collapse Disorder that George deals with in the 'present' is something real.

It's also really interesting learning about bees. Some of my family members keep bees so I know a little of the basics, but Lunde goes into detail of their society and how they work together not just for themselves but for the environment. At times the description of bees does feel a little text book heavy with the descriptions, but she manages to balance it quite well as you can tell she is passionate about them.

Bees are vital to the story but the characters of the beekeepers and their families keep you reading The History of Bees. They are very human and recognisable, and I found myself feeling frustration, pity, animosity, humour and empathy at different points throughout their stories.

I also liked that, even though they were set in different times, the main characters are subtly linked with each other. They also tackle similar issues, not just with the bees but also within their families, there is a lot of focus on parents and children and the relationship between them, which Lunde writes wonderfully.

The pacing of the book is a little difficult; at times I was addicted and at other points it felt like I was wading through the book. It is a little heavy going sometimes and it felt like a book I should read instead of wanted to. But this did shift as I reached different parts.

Ultimately, The History of Bees is an interesting and important novel and I think it will make waves with its subject matter, and if it doesn't, then it should.

My rating: 3.5/5 (rounded up to 4 stars for Goodreads and NetGalley etc)

I received a copy of The History of Bees via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My thanks to the author and publisher.

A world without bees is a dying world. Tao knows this. In the year 2098, she's one of the many many Chinese who spend their working lives painstakingly manually pollinating fruit trees to sustain the crop. Following personal tragedy, Tao seeks out the story of the bees. Alongside runs both George's story - a beekeeper from Ohio in the year 2007 who becomes one of the first keepers to suffer from the dreaded Collapse, and the story of William, who in 1851 battles with depression which he fights against by noting his observations on bees and new ideas about hive design. As the stories unfurl, the links between them become apparent. A beautifully crafted book, and the first in a promised quartet. I eagerly await the other three.

Very disappointed not to enjoy this book, very different to my expectations. Chinese girls pollinating trees with birds feathers etc.

Sorry I tried but gave up. This not usual for me.

It has taken me an age to plough through this book - I'll be honest, I've "parked" it several times in favour of other titles. I liked the premise - interweaving stories in different imelines - but found some strands more interesting than others. I didn't want to read some sections as I found them dull (won't elaborate as don't want to give away the plot), but soldiered on.

I will probably re-read this later and love it - but for now I'll just say that it's very well written and has interesting messages.

Thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for letting me read an advance copy in return for my honest review.

This is a wonderful, life-affirming, thought provoking book, that deserves to be widely read.
It’s also a great story. In fact, there are three stories.

In 1851, in England, William is trying to find a scientific discovery that will make his name and impress his mentor. He is fascinated by insects. He has one son and many daughters, and wants to leave them a legacy.

In 2007, in America, George, who keeps bees as a business, and builds his own hives, is trying to make a living, in order to pass the business on to his son, Tom. He faces ruin when bee colonies suddenly start to die.

In 2098, in China, there are no longer any bees, and Tao spends her days painting pollen onto the flowers of pear trees. There has been an economic and social collapse caused by the loss of the bees, and she and her family live in poverty.
When her beloved son is injured, she follows him to Beijing, and there, finds some hope.

As each story develops, the book is as much about the relationships between parents and children, especially fathers and their sons and how we all want to secure our future, as it is about bee-keeping and the importance of bees.

Towards the end the three stories come together in a very satisfactory way, leaving hope for the future, but a lot to think about.

Thanks to Netgalley and Simon and Schuster UK Fiction for the opportunity to read this book.

I'm always rather dubious of translated books, but this story has flowed seamlessly from the original Norwegian text, published in 2015, into this English version. It follows the lives of three people, spread over a period of 250 years. The accounts are intermingled, but instead being jarring that this method often causes, the tales mix and build with every page.
In Victorian England, William is beset by a crushing depression caused by his perceived failure as a natural scientist. Concerned more with making a name for himself and his son than anything else, he embarks on a quest to build the perfect beehive.
An American honey farmer, George's tale is set in 2007, when he first begins to experience the effect of Colony Collapse Disorder in his bees. The family farm is barely surviving, but he is determined that his son follow in his footsteps, regardless of what his son wishes to be.
Tao's arc is set in 2098 China, long after bees have become extinct. Pollination of crops is done painstakingly by hand with a feather brush, resulting in less variety and less output. Humanity has taken a downturn, and the loss of the bees has caused worldwide ecosystems to crash from the bottom up. None of this matters to Tao when an accident causes her son to be taken from her, and her only concern is finding him and getting him back.
My decision to read this story was based purely on the title, having become increasingly interested in bees over the last couple of years. Bees are what link the three stories together, but the book is concerned just as much with the human relationships as it is with the fate of the bees. It was slow to get going, but soon picked up, and I'm thoroughly glad that I chose to read it.
I received an ARC in return for an honest review.

Three narratives follow three generations of beekeeper, from nineteenth century William, building a new type of beehive, through twenty first century George, struggling against modern farming methods to keep his bees alive, to Tao, in 2098, painstakingly hand-pollinating fruit trees, after the bees have gone. When her adored only son is taken away by the authorities after a tragic accident, she sets off on a quest to find out what has happened to him.

The terrifying thing about this novel is that, like so much speculative fiction, it could happen. Read it and shiver!

Three stories set in different times but linked by their themes of parental expectations and man's relationship with the natural world. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, the stories wound around each other perfectly, and the bees were fascinating to learn about.

Let see it as a coincidence: a big egg insecticide scandal in Germany that has spread to food stores across Europe, "emissionsgate", Trump's energy policy and me, reading The History of Bees. Actually I can add many other scandals to this list, those that are happening because of our reckless behavior or indifferent attitude to flora and fauna, those that lead to damage which can never be made good.

The History of Bees is a book about bees. One could guess. It is Well not really. But it is so clever framed, so beautifully told that it is impossible not TO think about what will we leave to our future generation.

We follow the stories of three different families living in three different periods of time: in the past, in the present and in the future. Three different fates, three different lives, three different places, three different social backgrounds. cultures, mentality. There is a connection between all these fates, but which one? It couldn't be only bees, it has to be more.

You won't get the answer up to the end. Truly clever solved. I had many theories and partly I was right, but still I had a WOW-moment waiting for me.

What I really enjoyed, along with a melancholically beautiful way of telling, an enthralling story with an unusual building and interesting characters was a strong feeling of hope.
A single, unifying feeling: hope. And this is a good thing.

Very recommended.