Author: P.D James
Genre: Sci- fi
The book begins with an introduction to the Europe of 2021 where the entire human species has become infertile. The last generation to be born on the planet was in the year 1995, the generation was called the Omegas and they were studied beyond belief but humanities final hope of saving themselves proved fruitless. Instead they resigned to slowly die of as much of the pain of death had been removed. The older people going to the Quietus do commit suicide publicly, some against there own will. After the general information on 2021, Theo discusses his life with the reader and then it reverts back to current day oxford where he meets Julian. He then gets caught up in a small rebellion which ends with the saving of the human race.
There are several main characters in this book, in order of importance they are: Theo, Julian, Xan, Marian, Luke and Rolf. Most of the characters react as they should under the circumstances except for Theo, he displays a distance from the world around him and only starts to care about life near the end of the book. Some of the characters in the book are stock characters such as Xan who is a stereotypical evil doer who can only see his way or Julian, a person who can do no wrong. Out of all of the characters in the book children of men I would have to say that Xan would be my favorite character as he manages to rally the people of England to his cause and still get away with the horrible acts that occur daily. In the story, Xan is the new leader of England. He runs the country with a council of four members to control the different aspects of the lives of the people. He is the “villain” in this story and becomes a key character near the end of the book.
The book theme I would have say would be sci fi as well as human emotion. In the book the plot shows what would happen when all order dissolves in a society. Some examples of this in the book would be the painted faces who have turned to insanity and the mass suicides also known as the Quietus. This book makes me think about what would happen if the entire human race was about to be destroyed and what I would do in that situation.
I enjoyed the second part of the book more than the first as the second part of the book is the where the real rising action and climax take place. My favorite part of the book would have to be when Xan dies at the end and Theo claims the ring of the warden of England. I could identify with Theo’s position for the first part of the book as if the human race were in a crisis I would try to distance myself from the problem. I would have to say that I did learn something from reading this book, it would be the reaction to life when you know there is nothing left for the entire human race.
