Pills and Starships by Lydia Millet

Pills and Starships Reviews

• 
  Carlos

  Meh..not a deep or fluff book. The elements of science fiction are there but not explored in an outstanding or novel way. The story would fall into the category of dystopian and futuristic saga. But the characters are weak and the plot has a lot of hole that needed to be explored . Read this one if you want an easy read but don’t expect a deep understanding of science fiction.
• 
  Joy D

  Dystopian novel in which climate change has wreaked havoc on the earth. The ice caps have melted, extreme weather is prevalent, and large populations of animals have become extinct. Sixteen-year-old protagonist Nat is fortunate to live in the First (basically the wealthier part of the world), where corporations have taken power and built protections from some of the fallout. The Poors must fight for survival as part of daily life. Adults a very long time, and Corps have monetized the process of dying. Nat’s parents decide their time has come, and purchase contracts to end their lives. Nat and her younger brother Sam accompany them on a week-long trip to Hawaii for their Corps-monitored “goodbye ceremony.” The process is eased by “pharms” (drugs) administered to the family during the week. While in Hawaii, Sam stumbles upon a clandestine community, and Nat must make a choice that will change their lives.
  
  The concepts are interesting, and the two teenage characters are easy to picture. I particularly enjoyed the reminiscences of the way life used to be – the parents are old enough to remember, which provides the necessary context. The part that does not work quite as well is the letter format in which Nat is writing directly to the reader as a space traveler of the future arriving on earth. It may sound grim, but it also offers hope. I picked up this book on the strength of Lydia Millet’s Dinosaurs, which I loved. This one is much different in content, but both address environmental themes. Millet is becoming one of my favorite authors and I plan to read more of her back catalogue.
• 
  E. Anderson

  I suppose we've all glimpsed a future -- either in fiction or in our imaginations -- in which the Earth is completely destroyed. That is not a new story, and Lydia Millet has no intention to sell it as such. What is new about her debut YA, PILLS AND STARSHIPS, is the solution that the government has found in order to deal with the wasteland that future Americans will call home.
  
  In PILLS AND STARSHIPS, the young are highly vaccinated and medicated for mood, and they often don't spend face-to-face time with anyone outside their families. The old -- those who remember life before the tipping point -- are depressed. They are sad enough that the pharms (recreational or otherwise) that everyone takes aren't quite enough. People can live healthily into their hundreds, so there's a new industry at play: death.
  
  When Nat's parents reveal that they have purchased a contract with one of the corps -- a contract which will bring the family to a resort of sorts to live out the last days with their loved ones before they pass -- she and her brother are shocked. Her parents are former "treehugs," having spent much of their life going against the norm. Not to mention, Nat and Sam aren't ready to let them go. And while Nat is just sad, Sam suspects foul play.
  Once at their resort in Hawaii, things only seem to get weirder. Sam, of course, is deep in his conspiracy theories. But Nat is trying her best to honor her parents' wishes. The problem is, Sam is starting to make more and more sense. Soon, she's worried that, if Sam is right, it's too late for all of them.
  
  The post-apocalyptic Hawaii of PILLS AND STARSHIPS is eerie and claustrophobic. Lydia Millet has constructed a landscape of horror against a typically beautiful backdrop, making the Huxley-esque society all the more disturbing. The innocence of Nat's voice makes for a sharp contrast to a world that seems to have lost a sense of morality, and her story, which reads almost like a terrible family vacation is hard-hitting. Sci fi readers looking for a new twist on classic themes are sure to enjoy this new novel.
• 
  J.G. Follansbee

  One of the great problems with discussions of climate change is the bleak future they tend to paint. In the worst cases, the ice caps melt, rising seas flood coastal cities, diseases mutate and run rampant, institutions value people by their carbon footprint, and mega-storms wreak havoc on what’s left. Add to this rising economic inequality and the domination of the poor by the rich and you have a pretty depressing mix. It’s no wonder most people would rather talk about the latest celebrity meltdown. Unless you’re a writer. In that case, climate change is a setup for a perfect dystopia.
  That’s what debut author Lydia Millet gives us in Pills and Starships, an engaging epistolary novel that’s part science fiction and part cautionary tale. It features Nat, a bright if detached 17-year-old girl living as one of the privileged few a couple of decades after the “tipping point,” when global warming finally pushes the earth over the edge. For the first half of Pills and Starships, Nat appears to take her world in stride, aware that things have gone to hell, compared to what the earth was like according to her elderly parents, but accepting things as they are. Don’t all old people claim that things were better in the past? All a young person knows is what they know. History is bunk.
  
  Nat’s own world is about to reach its tipping point, as she, her parents, and her precocious 14-year-old brother sail to Hawaii (no high carbon-footprint flying in this world) for a week-long ritual culminating in the planned demises of her mother and father. Apparently tired of life and ready to abandon their teenage children, mom and dad have purchased a death contract offered by a “service corp,” an iteration of a favorite dystopian bugaboo, the faceless corporation. We meet only the front-line drones of this organization, and Millet spends more time satirizing them than making them whole characters. Millet can be forgiven for a certain cynicism; she fights the current crop of corps during her day job for an environmental organization. Nat’s parents are better rounded, and true-to-form for teens and most adults, the youth barely knows her mom and dad until they’re nearly gone. Unfortunately, Millet reveals a disturbing, even violent past for Nat’s mother that the author appears ready to bless. Mom’s past behavior, no matter the good intentions, is something no one should admire.
  
  The strength of Pills and Starships is Nat’s own personal growth, as she begins to learn (passively, because her brother does most of the legwork) that the world is more than it seems, that the service corp isn’t as benign as it appears, that the ubiquitous “pharma” meant to protect against disease and ease the pain of everyday life is doing more harm than good, and that there are other ways of thinking about how to live. This is the job of every teenager, and Nat succeeds, leaving the reader of Pills and Starships with a sense of hope that we’ll get through this climate change gauntlet.
  
  This review originally appeared on
  Joe Follansbee's blog.
• 
  Katherine Moore

  I really enjoyed this ‘glimpse into the future’, because while this is indeed a dystopian novel, it sure seemed like I was reading a real journal (that of the main character, Nat, who writes it in the week leading up to her parent’s planned death). I chose this book for a group read on Litsy, where we send a book, marked up with our notes, along to the next person, and the other three do the same with their picks, so that we have a book mailing circle.
  This first caught my eye in my local indie bookstore, where it had a recommendation tag (and an awesome cover), and the premise is this: teen siblings named Nat and Sam, accompany their parents to Hawaii who together have decided to spend their ‘Final Week’ before the contract for their deaths is carried out. Nat and Sam are long to say their goodbyes. That’s right, in this imagined future, where global warming has finally made the world so unbearable and everyone gets through their days by taking moodpharms (ie happy pills because the world is so depressing), you can take out a contract for your death when you get old enough, and you can pay for assisted suicide on the Big Island (it’s not illegal anymore and quite encouraged, and rather embraced).
  The world that is in this dystopian future is so sadly believable that I read it as if I had some sort of special peek into what was going to happen if we continued with what we are already doing to this planet, and I have a feeling
  Lydia Millet has distinct opinions on what’s to blame for the ruin to come (I tended to agree!); it’s not hard to imagine much of our wildlife gone, whole states like Florida under water, a whole garbage vortex in the ocean....
  I can’t say too much about the plot but this was a great, thought-provoking, interesting story, and I will say there was some hope at the end. It’s not a long book but it packs in a lot to think about. I hope for everyone reading it, that it makes them think a little bit more about their carbon footprint and about how we really are lucky to have this Earth.
  *And I don’t care too much about a future without pet cats. That will be a sad day.
• 
  LibraryCin

  3.5 stars
  
  Nat and Sam are siblings and their parents have paid for a contract to take their own lives. The Coporations have packages one can choose and, although there are different settings to choose from, there is a set plan for that last week of their lives. The family is heading to Hawaii. As the week goes on, more “pharms” are given to all of them to make things easier on everyone. It’s sometime in the future, and Nat and Sam’s parents are in their 80s and 90s (it’s not uncommon for humans to live longer and longer now) and can remember when life was as we know it now: before things had to change as most species went extinct and nonrenewable resources are no longer available for human use/consumption.
  
  I quite liked this. It’s a fast YA read, and seemingly/possibly not that far off once we run out of oil and such. It is told in diary form from Nat’s point of view. She writes as if she is writing to “you”, the reader, as a space person of some sort, which I thought was a bit odd. The “you” part didn’t bother me, but I’m not sure where exactly space fit in. Overall, I thought it was good.
• 
  Vanessa Blakeslee

  This is speculative literature at its best. After disappointing encounters with dystopic novels such as "Pure," "America Pacifica," and "California" here's a book with a smart protagonist, believably-built, post-climate change world, page-turning plot, and finely crafted sentences, not to mention humor and hope. Adult readers need not hesitate that this novel is being marketed as YA; in the skilled hands of Lydia Millet, you'll be swept into a world as compellingly drawn as those of David Mitchell or Margaret Atwood. So many dystopian works that I've picked up are too dark and gritty, the authors apparently quick to forget that in even the darkest human scenarios, there is hope and humor -- often a dark humor, but a humor nonetheless. To forget that essential element of all great literature is to create a second-rate, implausible work. Kudos to Lydia Millet for hitting the ball over the post-apocalyptic fence, and crafting an intelligent, important work of speculative fiction that I'll happily be adding to my shelf next to the MaddAddam triology and Cloud Atlas, as well as heartily recommending to friends. And hat's off to Akashic for spotting this gem in a sea of market mediocrity and bringing it to readers. Terrific cover, too.
• 
  Edward Sullivan

  A provocative, absorbing, richly imagined story set in a near dystopic future brought about by global warming. There are echoes of other classic dystopian stories in this novel but Millet's prose is more elegant and storytelling nuanced compared to the many other YA novels in this genre.
• 
  Liz

  A very intriguing little book about the world when the environment finally bites us back. I didn't always like the writing style for this one and it grated on me. Saying "treehug" for tree hugger is one example of the type of futuristic speak I found strange and a little alienating at times. I also wasn't sure what to make of the author's attitude towards mood altering drugs until she makes a pretty clear statement at the end that clarified she's not anti antidepressants. I wish thus had come sooner though because the entire plot point regarding the "pharma" put me off since I take medication. I also find plots where the government is literally drugging you to be a bit boring. Please try something else.
  
  Overall I enjoyed it. It's an oddly soothing book considering the subject matter. It's a very hopeful message on the resiliency of the human race. Considering I just finished Oryx and Crake it was just the dose of medicine I needed.
• 
  Patty (IheartYA311)

  Another case of a unique idea flawed by poor execution. *sigh* I may be over-dystopianed after reading so many. I get the whole point of the book portrayed as a journal, but this style of first person POV infuriated me. I wanted to throw every "Anyway" back at her. Grrr. Combined with a simple writing structure and simple sentences, this book lacked a lot overall for me. I read it as part of a Litsy mark up swap group (sorry, Katherine) so I felt I had to finish it and was torn if I should leave an honest review but ultimately I couldn't find enough I liked about it to play nice. If I had chosen it on my own, I would not have gotten through the first 30 pages. The author really did try and I could sense she was passionate about her idea, that deserved 2 stars and not 1.
• 
  Lee-ann Dunton

  One of the best YA dystopians I've read, I think. The book truly focused on what would become of the world if we continue down this path of climate change denial. And there were no love triangles!!! I love a good, well-thought out dystopian novel, and this one definitely didn't disappoint.
• 
  Emma Johnson

  Audiobook: This book has been on my want to read list for years because of the fascinating and unique synopsis, but what poor execution. The dystopian world the author creates is confusing and wavers between things being over explained and under explained causing the plot to simply fall flat.
• 
  Jessie Potts

  3.5 stars
  *I listened to the audio*
  
  So I wasn't fond of the beginning of the book. It took a while to get in to and the constant 'oh my starship friend' was a bit irritating. I also didn't like that I had no idea what was really going on in the world. Nat, as our narrator, didn't really understand why the world was like how it was, why she took pills, why Sam was a hacker, what was actually going on and why people took out contracts, so I didn't either. I'm not really a fan of journal/diary writing to tell the story. It seemed a bit cumbersome.
  
  Then came the middle of the book. I saw more and more as Nat's eyes were open, I couldn't believe people actually paid the corporations to kill them. I didn't know what to expect and the I won't give any spoilers but I enjoyed the middle. There was suspense, heartache, her parents' death, a rebel camp, a category six hurricane and the truth about the 'real' world.
  
  
  Now the ending. It was really only the last chapter or so but I found that I had forgotten Nat had written in a journal so I was enjoying the story. Then she started back about how humans went back up to the moon, and 'oh astronaut friend maybe you don't even look human' and it was a bit irritating again. I also felt like none of the threads were tied up. We know Nat and Sam make it, but not what really becomes of them. It was like the author took the hardest parts of a dystopian: How the world got that way (just global warming doesn't cut it, I wanted to know how it went down and the people's struggle to survive) and rebuilding, and skimmed over it. We have no idea how the world healed and people got back into space. We have no idea if the corps were brought down or by who? Everything is just glossed over.
  
  I was also expecting a 'darker dystopian tale from other YA fare' and it wasn't dark at all. I'm not sure if that's because I just listened to it rather than read but there wasn't anything so dark and violent that I had read in other dystopian books. Having said that I was still interested in the author. I would like to read more of her, especially since a few of my friends have read and loved her adult books. Overall it was bad, it was just a bit... not enough... I wanted more.
• 
  Terri

  review also found at
  http://kristineandterri.blogspot.ca/
  
  I received an advanced readers copy of this novel from the publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review. The expected publication date is June 10th 2014. **warning to others who are reading this as an uncorrected proof. There are a lot of errors in this i.e. the letter F and the combination of TH is missing from the majority of the book. Try to get past this and you will be rewarded**
  
  This was a very interesting read for me. Told in the form of journal entries I found that it was a unique and entertaining way to tell the story. I also found this story was quite different from other "Dystopia" books that are popular in the market at the current time.
  
  This story tells of what happens after Global warming has ruined the majority of the world and how corporations take over to "protect" those remaining. The tale is not a cheery one and is certainly a little bit on the dark side. A world where drugs or "pharma" is a staple for everyone just to stabilize their moods. I enjoyed when the story would reminisce about how the way things in the world used to be which is in fact the reality we all live in today.
  
  Nat and Sam were both characters that were a joy to read. From Sam's need to break from the "corp" reality and discover something better to Nat's gradual awakening in the realization that things are not as they appear. Add to that the inconceivable notion of assisting death as a corporate money-maker, you get one messed up but interesting read.
  
  Although marketed for the YA audience I think this can be enjoyed by people of all ages. I would not recommend it for those that are too young as they may not understand all of the drug references etc.
  
  I'm not sure if this is meant to be part of a series or not. It very well could continue on with the way the book concluded or it could stand alone. I am personally hoping that there is another instalment so that I can see where the story goes.
  
• 
  Shelli Huntley

  Maybe I'm just tired of YA dystopian fiction. This book had a slow beginning, with a great deal of exposition. Once the author had finished explaining the world and its rules, the action kicked in and made the second half of the book more interesting.
• 
  Shauna Yusko

  Can't finish. Not clicking with me. Hoping Mike will read it so I don't have to. Great cover though.
• 
  Blodeuedd Finland

  It could have been good, but the writing was slow, and the whole writing to an imaginary friend thing, no. It dragged
• 
  Steven

  The gist of the book was decent, but there were a lot of flaws, even as YA fiction. I won't go through all of them, but some of the things which stuck out:
  
  - the protagonist was less interesting than her brother, and her "collecting" didn't really come through much in the text.
  
  - a few too many unexplained deux-ex-machina type events, like the hurricane (it also doesn't explain how, despite more advanced tech, why they only had a couple hours' notice instead of the couple days' notice we enjoy today!)
  
  - the protagonist's parents were not very well fleshed-out, and turning them into "heroes" at the end felt contrived and unearned. Could've been done better with more hints throughout the book.
  
  - the world they inhabited doesn't feel like it was far enough into the future for the tech/infrastructure and the language (godbelief for religion, "face" for interface, etc.) to have changed like they did, especially given that it had changed within their parents' (albeit long) lifetime.
  
  - Hawaii didn't feel real, and there were some minor flaws that really pulled you out of a suspension of disbelief (e.g., a single person taking a ship across the ocean and them hiding it from the corps? being worried about the resort's thousand or so ppl, but not the slum city from which many of the workers were taken? were the latter all part of the resistance (doesn't seem so, given the size of the camp) or did they just end up getting forgotten about? etc.).
  
  - the central premise of population control to stem GHG emissions makes little sense, as it's not *people* that emit carbon, it's their lifestyles (driving cars, eating meat, etc.). You can restrict those lifestyle choices without having to resort to killing people, especially as the footprint of people in the developing world is a small fraction of the people in the developed world.
  
  - the title was absolutely terrible compared to what the book was actually about.
• 
  Kim

  I read this and it matches Popsugar prompt 41 "cli-fi"
  An interesting dystopic YA novel set in a future world created primarily because the past people (us) didn't take note of the climatic tipping point.
  Nat (17) and her brother Sam (14) are with their parents on the Big Island of Hawaii because their parents have bought a contract to end their own lives. It is their Final Week and the family go through a series of ceremonies, all of which Nat records. This is how life ends in this future and they are not alone - there are a few families doing the same thing, as there are every week. When people live into their mid 100s on a planet starved of food and water, having death contracts available from the ruling Corps is not that unfeasible and idea.
  
  Except that Sam is a hacker guy and knows things others do not. Put that together with Nat's unhappiness at her parents'decision, and you get a curiosity which has to end in something interesting.
  And so it does.
  Cracks to start to appear in the facade created by the Corp that sold the death contract to the family, and the kids see what is on the other side.
  
  I think it is in interesting look at both a possible future world and how people might rebel against that.
  
  I was equally interested in the Corp-created life (and death) situation and in the alternative options the teenagers explore.
  
  Dystopic writing is becoming more and more realistic and likely as we really do hurtle towards a world with limited water and food, and much too big a population for the planet to sustain.
  Something is going to happen and the future Miller suggests is as likely as any other.
  
  I am not usually a fan of YA but I thought this book look at some very interesting adult ideas even if the character development was a bit thin.
  Still worth reading though
  
  
• 
  Douglas Gibson

  Trying to read lots of YA this summer so I can have plenty of recommendations for my students in the fall! This one cooperated nicely, bc I read it in two days!
  This book was written in 2014, and I think it was most likely lost in the backlash against the flood of dystopian YA being cranked out in the years previous, and that's a shame bc it's a great book. If George Orwell and Margret Atwood had a baby, that baby could have written this darkly haunting story and our not so impossible future.
  The premise of the book is that most of the doomsday scenarios about climate change have come true. The extreme wealthy, The First, live in the best of what's left, and the poor just make due with whatever they can. There is still a figure-head type government, in which leaders are elected through Facebook (here called just Face) elections where people mostly vote according to a candidates videos, pics, and likes and dislikes that are posted on their pages, but Corporations actually rule what is left of the world. The narrator says, "They just do what they always did, but now they are more out in the open about it." To keep hysteria down to a minimum, everyone is keep drugged, and if you remember the old days, and can't handle the current situation, the Corporations will help you peacefully end your life- for a fee. The plot of this book involves the narrator, and her little brother, accompanying their parents on a Corporate retreat to die.
  I give this book a high recommendation, bc the first half is near perfection in its description of this new world, but the second half does dabble in some action movie cliches, but not enough for me to lower my rating.
  
  
• 
  Alicia

  short and sweet...really loved the heartbreaking concept of being able to set an appointment for your own death, especially in the futuristic setting of a world undergoing drastic sea level rise. themes of corporate greed, hope and grief, and the desires of older generations being at odds with younger ones. I definitely cried whenever Nat was observing her parents and the depth of their despair.
  
  Nat's perspective around hope and finding art and beauty in the mundane really resonated with me...in general I really liked being in her POV and seeing how she perceived the world. the book being written as her "diary" and being directed towards a hypothetical, future spaceperson was a bit corny, but I didn't mind it since I enjoyed Nat's voice. although at times she read almost too young to me, with her younger brother feeling much older.
  
  while I liked it overall, some parts felt a little off the mark for me. especially Xing, I think her character could have been fleshed out a lot more, especially since we never really find out what happened with her parents?? like, was she okay with them dying like that? she kind of just serves as a plot device more than a character in her own right, and I think something more interesting could have been done with her given that she goes through the same program Nat and Sam did.
• 
  Barbi

  Though, this novel was published in 2014, it is incredibly prescient to our lives now, but isn't that the purpose of dystopias in the first place? In the novel, climate change has ravaged the earth, and illness disease runs rampant. The characters live in isolated conclaves, taking pills to manipulate their emotions. Nat, the protagonist, lives in a manner that keeps her safe by separating her from the world around her. And she's not one to rock the boat. But this wou be an interesting novel if that didn't change. Nat's parents decide to end their lives with the help of the corporations who run the world, and this is the onus of Nat's development. While reading this, I was reminded of Plato's Allegory of the Cave. Nat's development is, in a sense, like the development of the prisoner in Allergory of the Cave. At one point she takes refuge in a lava tube, and when she emerges, Nat is like the prisoner in the allegory: she's exposed to a whole new world, one that's worse in a different way than she previously believed.
• 
  Sharon

  I'm a fan of Lydia Millet's adult novels and I read a fair amount of climate change fiction, so I had high hopes for this one. Nat's future world is fairly standard dystopian fare—wealthy people thrive while the poor scrabble for scraps; corporations rule; climate change is making the world unlivable—but my main problems regarded format, character, and plot. The book is written in journal format, which leads Nat to describe the world in large info-dumps that quickly become tedious. When when the action does pick up, the journal conceit feels strained and awkward. I was also annoyed that most of the difficult choices and actions are done for Nat (often by adults), which makes her feel pretty flat. So while I appreciate the few glimmers of hope this book ultimately offers, the story itself didn't quite work for me.
• 
  Kriska

  Though the book was released in 2014 it's not too far off I think from a possible future. A few things though I disagree with is they made their ages sound very old which it really is not. I was thinking at first people might be living into their two hundreds. Not just their eighty's and ninety's. The one thing that did surprise me was Xing being born from her mother at age 68, pg 186. I also feel like Sam was more realistic and mature then Nat. I like his character more because of this fact. She went into things not even knowing the full plans. She just did as she was told where as me I'd be asking more questions wanting to know more about the plans. It's a good book and definitely a good read.
• 
  Jessica King

  Cool ideas.
  
  I was put off by the teenage speak. It seems like the author really wanted to get it right - to let you know that someone young was writing in her journal, but you can see the author through it. I can probably guess how old the author is by the words she used.
  
  It took an awful long time to get to the plot - the world took so long to be created and explained before any action took place. The pacing wasn't great and the timeline didn't quite work - because of the wording.
  
  Still - I do love reading books in which people wonder about the end of times - what would cause, what would happen, and how people would rise above.
• 
  Katyak79

  The ideas behind this are truly excellent as is the visualization of a future where earth is decimated by climate change. We see a lot of stories that are based around this, but here we see what it looks like to live in a world like this, and how it might play out in a world where big pharma has pretty much taken over every aspect of day to day life. While the ideas are top tier, the narrative choice where the main is speaking to "you", a misc. space person, doesn't really work and the narrator's voice is more juvenile than it needs to be, even in a YA.
• 
  Gordon Gravley

  There are plot-driven books. There are character-driven books. This is the first setting-driven book I've ever read. The story revolves around a single event - the last days of a mother and father as their children watch the parents' engineered end-of-life, a necessary phenomenon of an over-populated, dying planet. The very richly drawn setting encompasses everything that happens as we experience the (possible) results of a precarious future affected by climate change. A unique work.