Book Review #57: The Arden by L.S. Popovich

Hello Dear Reader!

This week, I’ve got an indie read for you, and I received a free ebook copy in exchange for an honest review! Happy to say I enjoyed this book, but before I get into why, here’s a quick rundown of the book.

The Arden by L.S. Popovich is written in first-person point of view of Kaneda, a young man in his early twenties doing his best to live on the streets of San Francisco after destroying his father’s company with his expert hacking skills. After tinkering with a television and turning it on to a random, glitchy channel, he finds that it’s a portal to what he figures to be the future, one where trees have taken over and live in more than just the plant-like sense.

But before I get deeper into that, here’s the back-cover summary (from Goodreads):

In future San Francisco, Kaneda has been a homeless hacker for years. But his blog following has never been better.

Dodging flying cars and jam sessions with ragtag rockers keep him in shape. By the time they get a new condo he's almost forgotten the concrete jungle.

One day, while tinkering with the television, a portal appears on the screen. Stepping inside, Kaneda and his two bandmates discover trees as far as the eye can see. Soon enough they're lost. And a lot more bored than they'd planned.

That is, until they begin to hear the whispers.

Before long they bump into post-technological humans in thrall to arboreal Sirens. Staying means freedom from his checkered past. But, unwilling to sell his soul to tree-huggers, Kaneda ventures deep into the forest in search of the fabled technology to trigger a homeward portal.

Time for the review!

Main character Kaneda, while a little bit vain and selfish for the majority of the book, is very smart, observant, and resourceful. Also a bit of an opportunist, he’ll make logical and well-thought out decisions and risks to make his situation better than before. Fortunately, that usually doesn’t include making others’ situations worse. While I personally couldn’t connect with him well as a character, I did enjoy his character arc as he started opening and caring more about others in addition to himself.

Surrounding Kaneda are a unique cast of characters including the eccentric Gypsy, the socially anxious and artistically talented Gray, the wise and cryptic Saras, and the pigeon-loving Oswald. These characters and a handful of more minor characters help make this story what it is in such a uniquely dystopian future where an intelligent nature has taken over.

In said dystopian future, plants have taken over the planet, but not just your run-of-the mill normal plants. No, these are bio-engineered plants that were modified in a way that they’ve got what’s basically really close to a human conscious. Eventually, the forest that comes to dominate the planet is called the Arden, and it’s general strict philosophy is that all technology is bad. So, instead of a highly technologically advanced society, humanity has gone back a few thousand years, using more primitive tools and means of survival and dubbing any forms of electronics as taboo and evil. All forms of advanced technology are thrown into the forest so the Arden can make them disappear.

Popovich does a fantastic job of describing this future and making it as detailed as possible without making it feel like the story is info-dumping. Society in this world is so well-thought out, as are the individual characters residing in it. Also, the way this tragic future came to be is rather genius in my opinion. To avoid spoilers, the humans brought it upon themselves.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and don’t really have any criticism about it. The biggest thing for me is that the author’s style of writing isn’t exactly to my taste, so I didn’t enjoy it as much. I feel like the book itself went by pretty quick and could’ve been a bit longer, just to flesh out the characters a bit more. I never really connected with Kaneda or the other characters or had a favorite among them, but that’s my personal opinion.

So, The Arden rating:

3.75/5 and highly recommend if you like books that feature the fall of humanity and time travel! Though this book wasn’t exactly for me, the concepts explored and the worldbuilding were fantastic. It gives you a bit to think about.

Thanks for reading!