"Children Of Men" by P.D. James; 7/10

This just goes to show that sometimes the movie is better.

I really liked this book. I loved the movie.  Imagine how surprised I was to learn that Cuaron's violent dystopian sci-fi mini-epic, which floored me in the theater, was based on a novel by the great mystery writer and English Baroness PD James.  Well, I was pretty surprised.

The novel's basic premise is that suddenly babies just stop being conceived.  I think, though I'm not sure, that in the movie the pathological fault was with women and in the book it was with men, but I might be completely mistaken about that.  Either way, this was just about the only similarity between book and movie, this basic premise, and after that the plot was completely different other than a scene here and a scene there.  There was a bit of dystopianism present, a slightly totalitarian regime come to power, if I'm not mistaken.  The main character was a highly flawed in both media for completely different reasons.


Now that I think about it, I actually remember this book tolerably well as a separate entity from the film. There are a few scenes in particular which stand out to my brain, some of which were interesting.

I just thought that the film made so much more of a statement, and was more visceral and compelling.  That isn't to say the book is poor- it isn't.  But given the choice between the two, I suggest the film, which is one of my very favorites.

PD James probably won't mind.