Review: 2007 – Robyn Williams
January 1, 2007 | Filed under Reviews
This is such an outstanding novel in every way. Dealing with the breakdown of the world’s resources and the destruction of Mother Earth (referred to as Gaia throughout the novel, as per Greek mythology), Robyn Williams paints a very real and bleak view of the kind of world that we could quite possibly be faced with within a few years. I’m very much a fan of this genre of novel, the ‘Beware of human stupidity in causing the apocalypse and end of all human life’ type of stories, like Nevil Shute’s novel ‘On the Beach’.
Animals possess instincts that we homosapiens don’t, that much is scientific fact. In this novel, Williams envisions a situation where the storms, hurricanes and tornadoes are devastating the planet. Earth has been entirely taken over by animals, as human activity has been stopped entirely by these animals as they band together in a last ditch effort to convince humans that they need to mend their ways in order to save Gaia.
Whales are banding together to break hunting submarines. Cows have blocked highways and freeways in Australia, and commuters are all stuck. Birds are settling on the tarmac in airports all over the world, and planes can’t take off or arrive. Beloved pets are running away from home and joining up into gangs in the streets. And all the action comes to a head in New York where animals, both domestic and wild, take over Central Park as their domain. Life in the city has come to a standstill and resembles a warzone, with humans afraid to venture outdoors.
As secret plans by world leaders are revealed, detailing plans to exterminate all animals (both domestic and wild) using brutal force, the children of the world take matters into their own hands. Keeping in touch with the miracles of the Internet, these children all leave home, camping in the wild with the animals, as if to dare the world leaders to bomb Central Park or any other area of the world that the animals have taken over. ‘Kill the animals, kill us’, the motto is, and children as young as one have joined into this sit-in protest. Do note however, that it’s children only, no adults are allowed.
Having to admit defeat (murder of animals is one thing, genocide of children is another), the world leaders agree to take every measure necessary to save what’s left of Gaia. One by one, the children and animals return home, and things are returned to normal…but for how long? Can the human condition really accept a world without materialism and excess? That’s the main question that this novel poses.
The most compelling thing about this novel is that it’s all very real and very true…this is the type of thing that can happen, and will, unless we humans mend our ways.
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