Maybe Station 11 has to do with hope and the desire for a better world? But we know so little about the actual contents of the comic “Station 11” that it’s difficult to pin down the purposes of including this setting element and what it has to do with the title, other than it sounds cool. It’s all very literary with the connections to Arthur. But why name the book that? I guess the exploration of the novel is more subtle than my action-packed Fantasy and Sci Fi preferences allow.

John Mendel explores this post-plague world–what it would look like, how it affects the characters, and how they move through it.īut what does “Station 11” have to do with it? The Arthur connection is that “Station 11” is a self-printed comic book written and drawn by his ex-wife, Miranda. They recall their relationships with Arthur as author Emily St.

The main POV (and some non-POV characters) characters have a connection to Arthur in one way or another. What connects all these people? Actor Arthur Leander was famous, but was spared living in a post-plague world by having a heart attack the night before the flu hit Toronto. He spends the next 20 years collecting the memorabilia of a past world. STATION 11 follows several characters after a plague wipes out most of the human population-and how they're connected in unexpected ways.Ĭlark was in his fifties when he found himself stuck at a quarantined airport with a hundred other stranded travelers. So after maxing out his credit card at the local grocery, takes the supplies to his brother’s apartment and they wait out the first months of chaos before emerging to find a new–and empty–world.

Jeevan got the news that the flu had hit Toronto from a doctor friend who suggested he hole up somewhere. Instead she has to learn knife skills in order to be able to protect herself. She vaguely remembers flying in airplanes, but now the rusted shells of cars litter the old asphalt roadways. Now, 20 years later, she travels with a roving symphony and acts in Shakespeare plays as they travel from settlement to settlement around the Great Lakes area. Everyone but her brother died, but she doesn’t remember that first year after everything changed, it was just too traumatic. Kirsten was 11 years old when the Georgia Flu hit Toronto. Just a little friendly neighborhood warning for you. On one hand, reading this after living through 2020 makes me grateful things weren’t worse but on the other hand the book may exacerbate any COVID PTSD y’all may be experiencing. STATION 11 was written in 2015, pre-COVID–and that’s an important distinction because the story revolves around events after a worldwide pandemic that kills more than 90% of the population, immediately plunging survivors into a pre-Industrial Revolution existence. Alas, those aren’t the kinds of things I look for in a book. If this is the case, you might just enjoy STATION 11. It may also be that you like books with elements that don’t seem important to the plot as a greater whole OR maybe you find satisfaction with plodding through 280 pages before you start seeing the connections between the characters and plot points. Or maybe plot isn’t so important and you like meandering through a setting that is both familiar and foreign. If you’re looking for a book that focuses on character development, then STATION 11 is the book for you.

Station 11 rating