Caveat: Audiobook, DNF at 80%

The themes of this book remind me of Down to the Sea In Ships, it really makes you think of the sheer scale of industrialization and the fact that every little thing you have ever bought from a shop had to be packed and moved and shipped and transported miles and miles (except, perhaps, local goods from a farm). It is a scary prospect, how invisible many of these processes are to us. I liked how uncomfortable it made me feel.

I listened to the audiobook version of this novel, and I would not recommend it. My problem with the audio book was not the narrator, as her narration was suitable and I do appreciate her effort to do different voices for each of the characters. The problem was with the nature of the first 2+ hours of the audiobook, where most of the airtime is taken up by lists of objects and their unique aspects. This happens every single time our protagonists see a new pile of items, and I do not understand why it could not be detailed maybe the first two times and then glossed over afterwards. I assume when you read this novel traditionally you can gloss over these areas, so in fact I am not sure why they are included at all if not to gloss over.

Some of the characters didn't resonate as more than caricatures; Bronski especially doesn’t seem real, like he is TOO annoying and stupid to be believable. The characters didn't feel very distinct much of the time. Sometimes I mixed up the characters, because they are all referred to with last names and/or the narrator could only do so many voices, I actually didn’t grasp who was who until at least 1/4 of the way through. The first half should be massively abridged for the audiobook, I think. It began to catch my attention more around the midway point, but by then I had run out of time to finish before the archive date.

Overall, I'd like to have given this more of a shot (as a paper copy).

This was another case of a book I thought for sure I’d love, but try, and try, and try again, I just couldn’t get into it. It felt dry and repetitive to me, more like a thought experiment than a story? But maybe I didn’t get far enough, I just couldn’t get past the 20% mark after months of picking this up and putting back down again.

If you like your Armageddon stories to be less active and more cerebral, this might be the book for you,

Thank you BH Panhuyzen, ECW Press Audio, and NetGalley for providing this ALC for review consideration. All opinions expressed are my own.

I like the concept of this book and I found it a over all enjoyable read. I really would have liked to learn more about the world and delve into it a bit more!

If I were to describe this book, I would do so as a series of lists connected by a series of interactions between members in an army unit. The narrative wasn’t terrible but it was kind of hard to get past the repetitive nature of all the lists.

***** I have received and read an e - ARC from NetGalley in exchange for giving my honest feedback. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.*****

I wanted to love it, as the idea sounds like it could really work, but it just didn’t follow through on the premise.

I wouldn’t have finished it if I had picked it up at a store or library, but I try to follow though when doing book reviews, and this one was a struggle.

I think that if the book had been edited another time or two, taken away 10-20%, and slimmed down the character list, it could have been an amazing read.

Overall, it was too long and too repetitive.

What happens after Armageddon? A group of forgotten Canadian soldiers emerge from a bunker into a new, highly organized world -- one where our everyday items are horrifically well-stacked into piles (how did the author research so many "things"??). The group sets out to discover what happened and find other people. The book is their journey as they come to grips with what's before them and determine a new future. Despite its setup, it's a mostly quiet book -- with a few points of high tension -- full of empathy for an eclectic group of people in a challenging situation. Like all good speculative fiction, you leave examining your own behaviors and that of the world around you. And it makes you want to change.

I wanted to love this quirky post-apocalyptic book. I wanted to thrive in the repetition, and come out the other side feeling like I'd read something subtle that crept into my soul and whispered things to me that I'd ponder for a lifetime. I thought I felt the potential for a significant message.

Maybe I wasn't listening hard enough. Maybe I got too frustrated with the constant lists of items and brands of items that had been accrued into massive walls mocking the 20th and 21st century consumerism on earth. Maybe I impatiently glossed over the wrong parts and missed the ideas that would have been the punch in the gut I needed, in order to "get it".

Or maybe I'm giving this "tidy" book too much credit.

This was my first audiobook. Sadly I just couldn't get into the story or narration. It didn't manage to keep my attention and it ended up feeling disinterested and lost so didn't finish the book.

It's a difficult balance between an essential message that needs to be told repeatedly and how ubiquitous climate dystopias have become in modern sci-fi. We have mot yet reached a breaking point but originals ideas should certainly be applauded and Panhuyzen certainly achieves on that front. Stronger character work for this diverse cast would have elevated the novel greatly and that is my biggest critique. The true star here is the Stacks. And Panhuyzen does a great job exploring this aspect of his narrative and all its myriad implications.

𝗔 𝗧𝗶𝗱𝘆 𝗔𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗱𝗱𝗼𝗻 by BH Panhuyzen
Published: April 25, 2023 by @ecwpress
Reviewed by: Mel
Format: Audiobook

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗶𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗲𝗻𝗷𝗼𝘆
✽ Post-apocalyptic stories
✽ Taking a deeper look at human culture
✽ Adventure and action

𝗧𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀
At first, the cover of this book caught my eye [yeah, I know what you’re thinking…did she really just make a comment about judging a book by its cover?] but then, when I read the synopsis and saw that it was a study in human culture and consumerism…I was wildly intrigued.

Overall, I’d probably give this book a 3.5, but I bumped it up to 4 since it’s wildly unique and creative. Why a 3.5? Let me dive in…

Ok, so, it’s a post-apocalyptic book where [stop reading if you don’t want spoilers] a military squadron is trapped in a bunker and when they finally emerge…all of humanity is gone. Cities, towns, countries….everything is gone. Everything ever created by a human has been categorized, stacked, and organized into blocks in an area between Winnipeg, Canada, and the central USA. To say this book is shocking and really makes you sit back and think about this concept on a deeper level, is an understatement. It certainly made me take a hard look at my own consumerism and look around my house and literally every single thing that could be classified individually.

I listened to this on audio, so being able to close my eyes and imagine the scenes playing out was fascinating - especially the scenes where they entered human structures like lighthouses, famous buildings, etc. Sure…but why 3.5? It definitely lost some points because, while impactful and unique, there were definitely parts that dragged on, and at times I felt this may have been even more impactful as a novella.

I did enjoy it and felt it was entertaining, unique, and captivating — and I can certainly imagine it being a movie!

[Thank you to @netgalley and @ecwpress for providing me an ALC in exchange for my honest review #gifted ]

This was tough. I personally read a lot of rambling work that has not a ton of plot progression and much more focus on characters and feelings. So I’m not immediately adverse to that. However, I think one of the major reasons people read scifi/dystopian work is for plot? Yes? This had no real progression until maybe the last 1/5 of the book. And on top of that, I could not really distinguish character voice ever unless there was a stereotypical quip about race or sexuality thrown in. I did at one point stop reading to go check out the author’s blog because I was feeling a bit uncomfortable with some of the comments on sexuality and race, and I think I determined that they are not the author’s own thoughts convincingly enough that I felt comfortable going back into the book. Though I wish there was at least one character with a less “boomer” approach toward these politics. Especially gender/sexuality/religion. The racist issues mostly felt like they were there to serve a point, but I’m not sure the same care was taken to make that apparent with other politics.

Ultimately, as others have mentioned, at least 3/4 of this book is wildly repetitive descriptions of consumerism. I agree whole heartedly with the thought behind this book. The execution was just lacking for me. I really believe that more voice and character distinction would have made this so much more bearable.

Thank you to NetGalley and ECW for the reviewer copy

A small contingent of diverse soldiers emerge from a bunker in Canada to find the world changed utterly. All man-made objects are stacked and organised together; for example, every single plastic spoon in one giant, organised pile.

This is a smart comment on consumerism and environmentalism. Panhuyzen also tackles a large variety of issues included sexism and racism, particularly in the Canadian military. While obvious these comments never feel heavy-handed, i actually felt some things could have dealt with going more in depth. Characterisation could also have been more (admittedly, this is a literary novel so characterisation wouldn't really be the point).

Overall I enjoyed this book and will look out for Panhuyzen's work in the future.

Tidy Armageddon is an extremely creative take on the apocalypse -- with a small Canadian Army group emerging from a bunker to find all of the world's manufactured objects sorted in 9-story piles, forming a huge grid. This ranges from prosthetic arms to perfume bottles to helicopters to skyscrapers and even includes satellites plucked from space -- all by unseen and unsensed forces or beings.
There are a few living creatures and some vegetation and terrain like bodies of water, but otherwise it is extremely and eerily desolate and a huge test for the wits and psyches of the soldiers, who must try to explain the phenomenon for coping and figure out how to survive.
It's very ingenious and descriptive, though hard to fathom -- it would make an amazing VR experience or game!
Those looking for a tidy resolution or explanation my not find it, but for the appreciation of the sheer volume of human creations and their impact on the planet, it is a fascinating thought experiment.

This was all a bit lost on me to be completely honest. The premise is good, a group of Canadian soldiers in a bunker make their way into a post apocalyptic world, where all the human made stuff has been made into walls. Beyond (endlessly repetitive) inventory’s of all the human made things that have been constructed into said walls the story was all a bit lacking for me. I have to admit that I was looking for something a bit different to read and this kind of post apocalyptic fiction wouldn’t generally be my go to, but I felt it just didn’t really go anywhere. It was all a bit disjointed and I ended up really speeding through to try to figure out Why? How? Where did the people go? A lot left unsaid that I just found really confusing.

Thank you to NetGalley and BCW press audio for the opportunity to listen to this audiobook in return for an honest review.

Got through about halfway. Written very well and perform very well, but I just could not get into the story in the flow. A very interesting idea just a little too literary for my tastes.

I requested this one because it might be an upcoming title I would like to review on my Youtube Channel. However, after reading the first several chapters I have determined that this book does not suit my tastes. So I decided to DNF this one.

Is very hard for me to review this book without spoiling it to everyone who read this. For me was difficult get this book, because I don’t know if is something that was happening, is a simulation, is a fantasy, is collective histeria, dreaming or who knows what. Because literary none the characters or the reader know what is going on in this book. I adore the fact that I felt it is a critique to the humanity, the materialistic culture we have as a society and the signs of a environmental importance in this book is something I never discover en other modern book. The book may not be enjoyed for many since is a very slow pace one, and in the end there is a ending and a explanation but seems like is not very clear one. I like how diverse are the characters in this book. It is a post apocalyptic story, but is more a survival story. In the end I felt like desperate for
More answers and feel like okay I want more. I couldn’t put this book down and this is what make me give a good amount of stars when I review a book. Big shout out to NetGalley for the access to this ARC

I received an ARC copy of the audiobook release.

It's a unique concept that could have made for a really rich story.

Whilst I did enjoy it for the most part, the narrative felt a little empty, and it never quite got where it might have gone.

The world is as a maze of towers built of all the objects humans have ever made. For the most part, this is done using lists, which, in audio, got a bit hard to get through. I felt that more descriptive and emotive passages and fewer lists would have given the reader a better experience and allowed us to connect more with the sense of overwhelm that the characters must have been facing.

I would pick up another book set in this world as it feels like there could be a lot more the story!

All in all, it's a solid offering but perhaps needed a bit more time in edit and a sensitivity read for the diverse characters.

Thank you to @NetGalley and @ECWAudio for the audio-ARC

A group of soldiers in the prairies of Canada emerge from an assignment in a bunker to find that every manufactured item on the planet has been collected, sorted and stacked into nine story towers. In a story of survival the eight soldiers attempt to reconstruct what has happened to the human race while surviving in a new landscape.

This is an ambitious novel that is a little heavy on the message. A comment on consumerism is doubled, tripled and quadrupled down by long lists of items found. This novel without the lists would probably be at least 30% shorter. The message is clear, our consumerism will be our downfall. However, there is a lack of connection that makes this interesting, but not quite fully engaging.

The character development and world building are adequate, but never quite go far enough to make the reader really care about the individuals. Some of the characters are really thin, Bronski especially, is just a dumb racist sexist white boy. There is not attempt to build him into a three dimensional character. Instead he is there so the reader can scoff and feel superior. I want to understand and hate these kinds of characters.

Discussions of racism and misogyny in the military are poignant and necessary. The overall world this novel lives in, is interesting and surprising. Still a decent read, but it just could have been so much more.