Anne Charnock

In Sleeping Embers of an Ordinary Mind, we get three parallel stories, all of them have something to do with Antonia Uccello, or her father Paolo Uccello, the famous painter.

In the past we get to follow Antonia Uccello as she is preparing to a life in a convent. Her father decided that's the best solution for her since there she will have a chance to continue to paint since if she would get married, painting would at all probability be denied her.

In the present time, a copyist is getting a commission from a rich Chinese businessman to duplicate a Paolo Uccello painting. He is visiting China with his teenage daughter. They are recuperating from a loss and in a way will this journey will be a new starting point for them. Something good after all the pain.

In the 2200-century is a painting found that could be painted by Antonia Uccello. This discovery is very important for art historian Toniah. She has for a long time wanted to bring light to Antonia Uccello life.

I think one thing that really appealed to me with this story was out of the three parallel stories in this book one was set in the future. I found the idea of time, just around 100 years in the future interesting. The world, almost similar to ours, yet with some differences. And, the largest difference is of course that the families can look a bit different from now. Because of technology, there are now partho families. At first, was I a bit confused about what that meant, then it was explained that thanks to parthenogenetic a woman can have a child without a man. Basically, this is cloning. I found that very interesting. Toniah, the main character in this story is actually a clone.

My biggest problem with this book is that even though all three stories were interesting to read separately didn't they feel linked together that much. I think I wanted something more than a small link, I mean what has the second story, the one about the father and the teenage daughter to do with Antonia Uccello? It felt more like it was linked to Paolo Uccello. I mean I liked the story, but I would have liked it even better if it had been separated from the others. If it had just been one story and not part of three stories. The same can be said for the other two.

Also, the book ended way too abruptly. I felt that the stories never got a closure. Like the last pages of the book was missing. That bothered me to be honest. It didn't feel like an ambiguous ending. It felt like the stories ended when they started to get good.

On the plus side was it interesting to learn more about Paolo Uccello and to learn that he had a daughter that was considered a paintress. Too bad that none of her paintings seem to have survived to present days.

I want to thank the publisher for providing me with a free copy for an honest review.… (lisätietoja)

The review first appeared on scifiandscary.com
I’ve not read a book like ‘Dreams Before the Start of Time’ in a long while. It’s that kind of insightful, subtle, human-centred science fiction that sticks with you despite its lack of aliens or spaceships. It reminded me a lot of PD James’ excellent ‘Children of Men’, with its similar focus of human reproduction. Charnock’s writing might not quite be up to James’ standards, but she certainly has the ability to convey complex and challenging ideas in an engaging way.
That’s good news, because ‘Dreams Before the Start of Time’ is much more about concepts and people than it is about plot. There are stories here, lots of them in fact, but they are woven together into a book without a single narrative thread. In the hands of a lesser writer that might have been a problem, but here it works almost perfectly.
The book takes place over almost a century, starting in 2034, and following multiple generations of the same family. Its focus on both the culture and the science of human reproduction is resolute and fascinating. As the decades progress, Charnock explores a range of possible alternatives to traditional, monogamous, heterosexual childbearing. Platonic co-parenting, artificial wombs, single parent reproduction and more all get considered through a series of stories. Charnock considers the emotions of the characters as they make decisions about how to build their families, as well as the impacts of those decisions on the children they parent.
One of the things that makes the book work so well is that so much of it is recognisable. The London setting gives it a great sense of place, and the familiarity of borough names and landmarks makes it all the more real. Current brands are included as well (in an early chapter a character drinks London Pride beer), which makes it feel less alien than much sci-fi. There is advanced technology here, especially later in the book, but it’s all credible and often feels like a natural extension of current consumer electronics. Home medical consoles and virtual assistant bracelets don’t feel like a huge leap and help to build a vision of a future that is believably similar to our own. Most importantly of all, the tech is treated as just a detail of everyday life. What matters in this book is the people and the way in which science and evolving cultural norms impact on their lives.
Despite the lack of a strong plot to pull the reader through it all, Charnock has written a book that is extremely readable and compelling. The ideas were the thing that kept bringing me back, my curiosity desperate to see what changes the next generation of characters would experience. Too much modern sci-fi is just stories from other genres set in a future world. Detective stories with robots, horror stories in space, thrillers on alien planets. ‘Dreams Before the Start of Time’ is sci-fi as it should be. It’s fiction about science, full of ideas and inventions and wonderful possibilities.
And it’s about people too, living characters whose stories are told with affection and emotion. Whilst there isn’t a central storyline as such, there is a satisfying looping back, with the connections between the characters becoming more apparent as the book progresses. The end result is a book that is satisfying despite the fact that it has more questions than answers. It’s a book with a blend of mind and heart that is rare and precious and that should be applauded and savoured. I loved it.

… (lisätietoja)

I might have enjoyed this as a discussion more than a novel. The brief character sketches were too brief for me. There were some refreshingly unlikable folks in the line up but sadly no one who I felt invested in or could root for. The last bit wrangles with inequality issues but it's too little, too late. Most of the book is deep into the issues of the well off and excludes any mention of the implied mass population of poors. I like the language and the imaginative strides even if I couldn't warm to it.… (lisätietoja)