Buy The Carhullan Army by Sarah Hall from Amazon’s Fiction Books Store. Everyday low prices on a huge range of new releases and classic fiction. Winner of the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize England is in a state of environmental and economic crisis. Under the repressive regime of The Authority, citizens have . The Carhullan Army, By Sarah Hall. Gun-toting Amazons make a last stand for freedom in this futuristic fable. Reviewed by Rachel Hore.
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I have no idea. The Electric Caryullanbut The Carhullan Army is as gripping – and shocking – a piece of writing as any you will read this year. And like The Ha “My name is Sister. Here, the narrative is sparer and the world-building much less sophisticated than in The Power. The plot has been done before, and better. She even falls in love — with another woman.
Dystopian novels are all disturbing, but this one is more violent than most. Books by Sarah Hall. If you think this looks interesting, I suggest just reading The Handmaid’s Tale instead.
The Carhullan Army: a near-future struggle that feels all too close | Books | The Guardian
I went and got the book, but postponed reading it for later. The protagonist, known only as Sister, has had enough of this treatment and decided to escape to a remote farm in Carhullan n the far north of Cumbria.
The idea of another near future dystopian novel attracted me and the lyrical descriptions of the landscape were as effective as in “Haweswater” but ultimately the unconvincing feminist element and its lack of detailed explanations of either the Authority or Carhullan philosophy left me rather disappointed.
This was not the dystopian novel I was expecting. It terrifies not because of its vision of a new world but because of its understanding of the cruelty and mess we make of our personal relationships. If the Authority is a totalitarian government, even a half-assed one, anyone who resists is a threat. There has been a census, and all citizens have been herded into urban centers. Rehoused cheek by jowl in the “terrace quarters” of decrepit and depleted towns, millions submit to an exhausted existence of cordons, curfews and censorship.
It was poorly fleshed out, and just made little sense. England is in a state of environmental crisis and economic collapse.
Reduced to tinned food and rationed electricity, Britain dispatches ever more troops to the wars in China and South America.
Our protagonist leaves her husband secretly and without warning. Some women are shown as seeing this for what it is, and they leave.
The Carhullan Army: a near-future struggle that feels all too close
I’m not sure that I liked it all that much, but the points it tries to raise could be intriguing to debate. Hall makes her survivalist women properly foulmouthed and uncouth. Lots of pretty writing propping up a bunch of very familiar dystopic tropes.
Looking back at it now, The Carhullan Army seems even more timely, more urgent than when it was first published 10 years ago. The last sentence carhyllan the book gave me goose bumps. The general standard of the prose was poor and inconsistent, the characterisation was very spotty and lacking in all of the important places, and the plot and background were unconvincing at best.
It had been so long since I had felt that.
Twisted sisters
Her plan is to sneak into Rith, the nearest town and where Sister escaped from to rally the citizens to overthrow Authority rule. Like both, Daughters of the North concerns a dystopian future in which women’s reproductive freedom is brutally curtailed by the ruling government. Course, since the author put so little thought into the Authority, you have no idea where the seat of power is, the identity of the people in control, and what their endgame is.
Oh, and they kill armt dog.
But she survives that. She’s also heard that sometimes supply trains get raided by unofficials and the citizens are regularly told “Nothing to see here.
The character of Jackie Nixon was intriguing and I found myself unwillingly admiring her ruthless flaws and all just like the narrator.