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Book Review: The Bees - Laline Paull

· 6 comments · 300 words

Book cover with a honeycomb pattern.This is an astoundingly delightful book. It takes Nagel's classic question "What is it like to be a bat?" and takes us in to the heart of the hive.

Humans can only understand our own lived reality. So here we have bees' behaviour translated into schemes and intrigues which would not be out of place in a medieval court. Bees wings are roaring engines, and their enemies are the hoards of traitorous insects and arachnids outside the hive. It wonderfully conveys the "alienness" of the bees' experience in a way that makes us empathise with the insects. This is billed as a "thriller" - but it is a lot more than that. Closer to "Pillars of the Earth" in that it takes us on an epic journey through the upheaval of a civilisation.

It is a first rate story, similar to Zindell's "The Idiot Gods".

Is it an allegory for life in a totalitarian state? Possibly. But I think it is so much more than that. A compelling vision of what a bee might feel as it bumbles its way through your petunias.

Verdict
Outstanding

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6 thoughts on “Book Review: The Bees - Laline Paull”

  6. @Edent book looks great! Trying the free samples of ebook and audio 🐝“Humans can only understand our own lived reality” - puzzled by this. How would things need to be for it to a false statement? Assuming there was a counterexample, doesn’t understanding something bring it into lived experience. Am possibly overthinking this!

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