Nod Kindle Edition

This book asks the question: what happens if (nearly) all of the world's population lost the ability to sleep, or, for that matter, doesn't appear to even be tired? It explores this nightmare through the first person narrator's journal as he tries to survive in a world where society, day by day, breaks down. It's exactly what you'd expect, as the population, their brains rubbed raw with mental exhaustion and dispair, act out their individual coping mechanisms (hint: it ain't pretty). The only issues I have is that it ends without any explanation of why "sleepers" share certain characteristics, and how some "awakened" managed to cope a lot better than others...for a while. Granted, the narrator is writing the experiences in his journal, but any thoughts or discoveries on this particular matter would have been refreshing, and some conclusion on the state of the world would be a delicious topic of discussion in book clubs😁. Either way it was a GREAT and interesting book with an original idea, and a LOT of fun to read. I know authors watch Amazon reviews so I am going to take this review to say: Mr. Barnes, I can't wait to read what you (pardon the pun) dream up next!

This book is a trip and a half! The concept of the book is sufficient enough to keep your interest and coupled with great word smithing by this author a fast and enjoyable ride is created. Definitely not a feel good book, in fact maybe the exact opposite of that. While giving a pretty fatalistic and depressing take on the minutiae of the human experience, the writing is done so well that it is enjoyable even in its darkness. Also there are several paragraphs in different places throughout the book that i would call extraordinary. Made me wonder if the author was perhaps under the influence ( in a most positive way) of some insight enhancing herbs. Loved the book and look forward to more from this author

Here's a story to keep you up all night. If insomnia is an old companion, you'll recognize its worn visage. If you've never spent time in its company, here's an intimate journey into that realm writ large and painful. I read it by fits and starts. The author does not offer us a *comfortable* acquaintance with his characters, and sometimes I had to put it down for a few days. The last 1\3, though... I stayed up late to follow it through to its conclusion. This book! I hated the story and loved the author for writing it.

This novel, while not without a few flaws, delivers what most novels do not: a well written play on words and a story that keeps you guessing. There are very few answers in this book, but that's part of the charm. The reader meanders through a wordy story told by an etymologist (a treat that I've never encountered in a book before). I think that it's the kind of novel that you either get or you just don't.

I really enjoyed this book. It was fascinating to contemplate what would happen to society if we all of a sudden lacked the ability to fall asleep. This was really well written and thought out.For those seeking an idea of what happens, the book is written as a daily journal written by the main character. One day, the whole world simply cannot fall asleep. Well, there are a tiny portion of the populace that can, the main character being one of them. He writes day by day on how society breaks down and collapses into complete chaos. This book deals with questions of what could happen if we were unable to fall asleep, and how critical sleep is to our functionality. What happens after one day, two days, seven days, etc???Anyway, I really enjoyed it, and highly recommend it. Perhaps it'll get optioned for a movie (if it hasn't already.) A

Although the beginning is a bit murky and slow the book heads off onto its way of sleepless insanity quickly enough to keep you enthralled. The last half of the book I couldn't put down and read it straight through. There are so many end of the world stories out there right now but this one works on a much more personal level. Written in the first person perspective and dealing only with what a single character has to overcome it rings more effectively than most. I highly recommend giving this book a shot.

Definitely a new spin on post-apocalyptica! I was thoroughly pleased with the writing style. Mr. Barnes was greatly descriptive and would show you a scene in your mind instead of just saying it (to take an excerpt from A.J. Flowers' book... to not just say someone is an assassin, describe her sleek figure fingering her sharp blade). This is exactly what Mr. Barnes did with his writing. Now, if you're one of those people that only likes the default story style of: Beginning - Problem - Climax - Resolution, then Nod isn't for you. Keep in mind that Nod is a recollection, in essence, a diary... and sometimes the authors of diaries don't always know the why's of everything going on around them, nor do they always finish their stories.

This tale is mostly action and largely a zombie tale, where the zombies are ordinary people who cannot sleep and therefore go crazy. It has some interesting introspective aspects as the hero observes wife and friend undergo changes, which recall better times in the past. Not much in terms of character development or story arc, however. It seems to have misfired relative to its potential, but isn't bad.

I love good scifi. It is a tradition of ideas. The premise of Nod is excellent (particularly if you once slept like a log and are now an insomniac). I was pleased when this novel had solid characters and was written like literary fiction, with every philosophical idea included. I was pleased until I wasn't. When plot holes formed and were just ignored, when obvious avenues were never explored, when ideas were stunted rather than developed, I fell out of love with this novel. (Specifics are omitted because I don't wish to spoil this for you. You may love it!) This is not true scifi. This is not for you, if you thrive on what ifs and ideas.

I don’t think I’m intelligent enough to enjoy this book. It’s very philosophical, which is by no means a bad thing. It poses some great and often uncomfortable questions about humanity. However I like a book with a story and for me this lacked that. As a reader I want to know why the kids sleep and dont talk. Why the sleepers are drawn to there dream, what caused the beginning of the crisis. I don’t enjoy books that force you to fill in the blanks. However if you are a wordy person, enjoy poetry etc I imagine this would be a masterpiece. I’m not usually the type to reflect on flowery prose - I don’t enjoy poetry - I often can’t find the meaning in it - I just need a higher IQ I guess 😝 very sad to hear of the authors cancer and subsequent death this year.

A somewhat tedious read, due to the narcissistic narrator and lead character. So much time spent on introspection and thinking up odd descriptions for ordinary things to make himself seem clever, so little self realisation that being the nice person he purports to be when it suits him comes naturally to the many others he appears to gaze at distractedly from his own little pedestal. In that sense, the book is merely a metaphor for his own grandiose self worth and a very few others (all children with little challenge to his self-image), where he attains superiority over other mortals by that very ordinary achievement turned into a super-sense, of being able to sleep. There is little properly described drama, as all events are described from this rather odd point of superiority of the narrator, which makes the book dull and lacking in excitement.

This was a unique little book that was made compelling by the author crafting an immensely likeable yet erudite first person monologue for his misanthropic philosopher-etymologist-wannabe-writer protagonist whose unpublished work is stolen by an early, delirious victim of an insomnia epidemic that is ravaging the Vancouver (and the world) around him, with him subsequently devising means to escape the clutches of the sleep-deprived thugs, one day at a time.One doesn’t have to go very far in finding the humour contained within the fact that an opaque thesis on forgotten words (and by association the forgotten worlds suggested or contained within those words) is suddenly hijacked whole and seen as the Text with hidden Meaning to guide the circadian-rhythm deprived New Humanity.The peculiarity of a New Order-of sorts forged by the slumber-deprived, delirious-to-the-point-of-demented sleep zombies who mistake the epidemic for the Calling and elevate our still-able-to-sleep narrator, the book-creator to the pedestal of a Prophet is hilarious and made more so by him recounting it on the written page as a diary.While I don’t think this absurdist dystopian world was baroque enough or the speculation of the imagined sickness consistent enough to turn this into a convincing drama or thriller even if the author has structured it thus, the fact that the author was able to find comedy within a book being taken to be the Guide for Humanity was refreshing.I genuinely fell for the tone of the narrator too, was relieved that the book did not have the self-seriousness that plagues most speculative fiction. It was also of an inoffensive length which meant that even when its imaginative absurdia devolves and reduces into a risible escape mission with drowsy hooligans chasing and tailing our narrator, I could not put it down because of the flow in Barnes’ writing that for the most part had aspirations beyond delivering a genre piece. He is a wonderful new talent in fiction creation and I can’t wait for what he pens next.

I was drawn to this book by the premise of an almost zombie like state caused by an utter lack of sleep - an intriguing, although not entirely unexplored by other authors, concept.Unfortunately right from the beginning it just didn't grab me - the main character seemed a bit of a git and I had no feelings of empathy for any of the characters, I just didn't care what happened to them.While this is a short book, it isn't one I'd call a light read as it's exceptionally wordy. The philosophical tone to it came off as irritating rather than interesting and I wasn't overly compelled to keep turning the pages.Despite all those negatives, there were some moments of intrigue, primarily based around the interactions between sleepers and the sleep deprived who were slowly going crazy and often tried to hide their descent in to madness.Overall it was certainly a bit of a variation from the stock apocalyptic novel, but for me it just felt like it tried too hard.