Truly a good book about what could happen when there is no future to look to

oddly disappointing towards the end. I kept waiting for things to make sense or resolve. And instead, we just wandered along.

An entertaining story. A little slow in places, and the narration switches from first person to third person every chapter, which is a bit distracting. Currently a movie with Clive Owen. A story that makes you think.

The premise of the book really makes you think. But the story started slowly and drug on and on. About 1/2 way through it began to pick up a little and then ended unsatisfactorily.But I did enjoy the prompt to my imagination as to "what if it really happened"

For thinking readers!

Very entertaining and thought provoking.

An amazing book and a change of pace for author P.D. James. It's a futuristic/religious/mystery/thriller (say that five times fast).
This book is being made into a film starring Clive Owen.
Highly recommended.

Great book. Not like most PD James' mysteries. This was a Book of the Month Club selection.

Pessimistic look at the future, much talked about in some political-fan circles.

Extraordinary novel of the future set in England 2021. This is a world where all males are sterile and no child can be born again. Theodore, an Oxford historian meets a woman named Julian who invites him to join a circle of revolutionaries. Do they hold the key to survival for the race?

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From Publishers Weekly
In her 12th book, the British author of the two series featuring Adam Dalgleish and Cordelia Gray ( Devices and Desires and An Unsuitable Job for a Woman , respectively) poses a premise that chills and darkens its setting in the year 2021. Near the end of the 20th century, for reasons beyond the grasp of modern science, human sperm count went to zero. The last birth occurred in 1995, and in the space of a generation humanity has lost its future. In England, under the rule of an increasingly despotic Warden, the infirm are encouraged to commit group suicide, criminals are exiled and abandoned and immigrants are subjected to semi-legalized slavery. Divorced, middle-aged Oxford history professor Theo Faron, an emotionally constrained man of means and intelligence who is the Warden's cousin, plods through an ordered, bleak existence. But a chance involvement with a group of dissidents moves him onto unexpected paths, leading him, in the novel's compelling second half, toward risk, commitment and the joys and anguish of love. In this convincingly detailed world--where kittens are (illegally) christened, sex has lost its allure and the arts have been abandoned--James concretely explores an unthinkable prospect. Readers should persevere through the slow start, for the rewards of this story, including its reminder of the transforming power of hope, are many and lasting. 125,000 first printing; BOMC main selection.

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