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ClareR (5991 KP) rated The Garden in Books

Oct 14, 2025  
The Garden
The Garden
Nick Newman | 2025 | Dystopia, Science Fiction/Fantasy
9
9.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
I knew The Garden was going to be set in a dystopian future, but I didn’t fully appreciate just how much I was going to like it.

The story starts off very gently: two elderly sisters, living in the grounds of a big house, one working tirelessly in the garden in order to provide them with enough food, the other joining in here and there, but mostly she’s preoccupied with practicing her dance routine. Outside the gardens walls lies unknown danger. One mustn’t even look beyond the wall.

And then a young boy arrives and everything changes. The outside comes inside.

I loved this. The rules the women live by, set by their mother decades ago, are there to keep them safe, but there’s no room for manoeuvre. So when they’re faced with the unexpected, they don’t know what to do. There’s a climate disaster angle too, and gives the reader a scenario of what might happen if we continue on our current trajectory. Changing seasons, drought, sandstorms.

This novel is so atmospheric. There’s an undercurrent of dread and impending doom, and the descriptions of the garden, cottage and land are quite beautiful.

Wonderful writing and a wonderful story. Highly recommended!
  
10,000 Days (2014)
10,000 Days (2014)
2014 | Sci-Fi
2
5.0 (2 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Story: 10,000 Days starts as we enter the world 27-years after a comet struck Earth putting the survivors into a permanent ice age, we follow two groups of survivors, once together now at war, William Beck (Schneider) on one side, Remy Farnwell (Wingfield) on the other.

As the Beck’s discover moments of truth about the disaster and a potential cure, Remy is playing his attack to take their base, the race against time for human survival is on.

 

Thoughts on 10,000 Days

 

Characters – William Beck runs one of the clans in the frozen land, he has kept his people safe, always searching for the next way to survive, hopefully peacefully even against his enemy, he knew the world before the disaster and now he wants to return to it. Remy Farnwell leads the rival clan, living on the ice he fell out with the Beck’s wanting revenge for the betrayal as he sees it. He doesn’t mind killing people in the battle which he has made too personal. We do have a lot of characters in this film, William has three sons that all look exactly the same, we have the scientist figures which seems to be three different female characters, a pilot who failed to stop the comet who still lives with the nightmare. We get so many characters it truly is hard to keep up or invest in any of them.

Performances – The performances, well this is difficult because nearly all the actors and characters look the same, it is difficult to figure out who the lead is, nobody has any sort of emotional factor or strong moments to stand out.

Story – The story is the end of the world happened, we are now in an ice age which could be coming to an end, but two war driven clans want control of the best location. This sounds interesting enough, you would be wrong, we have moments of discovery, moments of war, though this just never knows which one is the most important. Sadly, this only ends feeling boring, we don’t get invested in the characters and for some reason the film kind of just ends with a massive cliff hanger.

Sci-Fi – The world has ended and now an ice-age has hit, well that is the sci-fi side of the film.

Settings – The film give us generic location which include ice area or cold looking warehouse.

Special Effects – The effects here are just terrible and look completely fake.


Scene of the Movie – The concept should work.

That Moment That Annoyed Me – The Effects.

Final Thoughts – This is a poor sci-fi movie that just doesn’t become interesting at any point in the film.

 

Overall: Boring throughout.

https://moviesreview101.com/2019/05/28/10000-days-2014/