When the vuvv first landed, it came as a surprise to aspiring artist Adam and the rest of planet Earth - but not necessarily an unwelcome one. Can it really be called an invasion when the vuvv generously offered free advanced technology and cures for every illness imaginable? As it turns out, yes. With his parents' jobs replaced by alien tech and no money for food, clean water, or the vuvv's miraculous medicine, Adam and his girlfriend, Chloe, ha...
Details Landscape with Invisible Hand
| Title | Landscape with Invisible Hand |
|---|---|
| ISBN | 9780763687892 |
| Author | M.T. Anderson |
| Release Date | Sep 12th, 2017 |
| Publisher | Candlewick Press |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Young Adult, Science Fiction, Fiction, Dystopia, Teen |
| Rating |
Reviews Landscape with Invisible Hand
Futuristic satire so sharp I'm probably now bleeding internally in a few places. Novella-length short, would make a good YA classroom read - super discussable. And not 100% bleak. More like 80-20.
Terrifying in how timely this is. Aliens invaded Earth, sure, but it's really more colonization than invasion. They've brought technologies, and automation! They will help the economy! Except that automation means fewer jobs, which means higher unemployment, and everything goes downhill accordingly. (This is why the "realistic" tag, despite the aliens.)Adam is an artist. He's struggling to support his family and be true to his own ideals. Whether...
how is M.T. Anderson so good at writing every kind of bookis he a witchI just don't knowthis was beautiful and difficult and ultimately hopeful in just the best way
Woooooooooooooooooooooow"Feed" was the last M.T. Anderson book I read, and that was probably over a decade ago. Needless to say, I was beyond thrilled when I saw that he had some new material coming out in the fall. That said, it can also be a bit nerve racking when an author has been out of your life for so long. I mean, I loved "Feed" and Anderson's writing style is one of my favorites, but what if after so long, it just didn't have the same ef...
I got a copy of this signed for a friend who didn't like Feed. I loved Feed, so hoped that maybe he would like a different book by Anderson.After reading to page 57, I skipped to the end and am asking forgiveness from my friend. This was really quite bad.Setting/World. Takes place in the near-future, after benevolent, if business-minded (not benevolent if they only want $, just my two-cents) aliens come to Earth with amazing tech. That only the r...
A story of a deeply twisted, "worst case scenario" dystopian future. Adam and his family are turned from a white collar, comfortable society - to scrapping for rice and beans. This is an oddly unique and particularly interesting novella.
Favorite passage, and my vision for the librarian I want to be, from the desperate narrator of this bleak and beautiful novel about his favorite teacher:We all have our visions of crazy success.Mr. Reilly must have had his once, too. A kid my age named Dave Reilly. He went to art school. Maybe he still secretly nurses those private visions where he's discovered and suddenly he's the big shit. I don't know.And now he's thrown everything--all his t...
4.5One day aliens inhabited, not invaded, earth promising a better life but it was actually only for the 1%. The rest of the world is poor and starving and trying to find a way to get up to the sky to live like the wealthy. Adam and his family is unfortunately the 99% and their life is abysmal.Adam is an artist and paints everything he sees and I wondered how he could afford all his supplies when his ever optimist mother is unemployed. I know his...
Let me share a quote from the book before I begin my review.“We are tiny figures, pointing at wonders, provided for scale, no lives of our own, surveying the landscape that has engulfed us all.”This quote could describe many things. How we view the world around us. How we impact each other, our surroundings, this planet. It could also describe our incessant need for technology and social media. This quote is the last thing you read from this ...
Ever since I fell hard for Feed as a teenager, I’ve followed M.T. Anderson’s career. His repertoire is eclectic to say the least, regrouping children’s adventure novels, historical nonfiction, and award-winning YA. In Landscape with Invisible Hand, he returns to the lands of trenchant satire that I first discovered and adored so much in Feed. If he could write one of these tomes every single year, gradually taking on everything that ails us...
3.5 stars. Will be doing a full video review within the next couple of weeks.My Video Review
An excellent take on a dystopian future. I liked this way more than "Feed". A great story all around of a particular family trying to live in a world taken over by aliens who gave the Earth the answer to all its problems: world peace, cures to all disease, etc. On a serious note, without bias, it looks at both extremes. What happens to a civilization that is given everything they need to "survive" is that they can no longer survive without being ...
A sci-fi satire on class where the uncaring ultra-rich are subbed for uncaring aliens. Ridiculously bleak (I'm a fan of bleak but it was tough). 3 stars for me because I couldn't ultimately see what Anderson was going for besides the basic metaphor. I like satire to have an extra layer of bite, and never found it here.
I love this book. Through generous donations, I am receiving a class set to teach to my ninth grade English students. I cannot wait to analyze and discuss the many relevant themes within this novella.
3.5 stars. An interesting book that looks into colonisation (by aliens), capitalism, and class, but that felt distant/detached. At times it felt like it had been written specifically to be analysed for themes in a classroom, raising or alluding to topics and then dropping them again.It's a short, easy read, suitable for ages 13+
This was an entertaining book that slyly pokes fun at material culture with a sci-fi framing.Earth has recently been colonized by Vuvv aliens, and at first their medical and technological advances seem like a boon, but soon it puts people out of work and society starts to collapse. Teen Adam’s parents are out of work and struggling to hold on to their home and dignity. When another family moves in to share with the bills, Adam falls in love wit...
M.T. Anderson is a wizard who writes sharp, dark, painful visions of terrifying futures (and pasts) that are nevertheless hilarious and infused with heart and hope.
Another brilliant dystopian science fiction that hits pretty close to home. Sly, satirical, bleak and believable.
I adored this. It was a quick read, and should appeal to teens who like dystopias or bleak stories.
As usual, I found Anderson's writing tough to read but well worth the pain.
In Landscape with Invisible Hand a teenager attempts to help get his family out of debt by entering an art contest. There are also aliens who look like tables and communicate in a variety of mechanical clicks. And unfortunate bouts of diarrhea. Reading Landscape with Invisible Hand I thought of M.T. Anderson as George Saunders, Jr. Anderson has thrown his characters into a strange, otherworldly scenario -- in this case worldwide alien occupation ...
"We thought there was a great distance between the future and us, and now here we are, falling through it." This book was was a unique comparison to Catcher!
"We are tiny figures, faceless, pointing at wonders, provided for scale, no lives of our own, surveying the landscape that has engulfed us all".After hearing so many great things about the author M.T. Anderson, we were just so excited to be asked to review 'Landscape with Invisible Hand'. This is the first novel we've read by the author and we are just honestly glad to say that we were pleasantly surprised.This novel has so many important and ins...
MT Anderson does it again! I've been so eagerly awaiting this book and was not disappointed in the least. In fact, I kept interrupting my reading to say to my hubby (also an MT Anderson fan), "This is so good!" and "Just wait until you read this, it's amazing" and "I mean, he's just so good with dialogue!" I think he got a bit tired of it after a while and rarely do I gush about a book while I read it. I'm too in the zone. But wow. The premise: a...
Well frak, this is some bleak shit. But it's also great! But it's so GRIM. But it's so good! But ....I could go on for a while.M.T. Anderson kicks ass. With words. With beautiful, beautiful sentences. Which involve "necking" and "gee" occasionally. And characters behaving believably in an outsized, colorful future. I just want to give Adam's art teacher a hug. Poor guy. Having to eat that steak off the floor. With a smile. Dear gods that scene ma...
Oh my, although fictional futuristic, this book nails the disillusionment and disenchantment of our present day. In this book the environment has been degraded, the water is bad to drink, health care for the poor is a commodity, unemployment is rife, people are bitter/depressed/violent, and the wealthy just keep getting wealthier and living far above the lowly people in poverty. Social media also creates ugly implications in this book. The ending...
This is such a great 'now' book. Or 'always' book. Aliens land and peacefully offer us schmucks tech and cures, and it ruins us, creating a have nots economy that certainly mirrors our own. A stinging indictment of capitalism that's never didactic. Instead, the novel is funny, infuriating, and sad in the right ways.
I can see where the appeal comes for some, but for me it just wasn't there. I kept going because it was short and also because I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. The "and..." that would bring it all together and give me some sort of reason for having gotten to the end.An impulse check out that I'm sort of wishing I had left sitting on the shelf.