P.D. James is well known as a mystery writer, but she took a departure from her usual genre with this apocalyptic story. The Children of Men takes place in a near future 25 years after people have stopped giving birth and are, as a result, facing the end of the species. No explanation is given for the sudden loss of fertility — it is presented as having baffled scientists and doctors — but James seems more interested in its effects on the characters living out the last days.

Read the rest of my review at http://scifemme.wordpress.com/2009/10/13/review-the-children-of-men-by-p-d-james-1992/

I don’t often say this, but I enjoyed the movie more than I did the book. The story and characters in the book are actually very different from the movie, and I thought the movie story was… just better. More thought provoking, more interesting, better paced. The book isn’t bad, far from it, but it’s very different from the movie.

James’ book is a great story of survival and redemption in a society that has given up all hope. In this story, the entire world has become sterile, and no one has given birth for over twenty-five years. James describes what England has become after 25 years of optimism followed by hopelessness.
I read this book because I enjoyed the movie, but I quickly found out that this book isn’t really related to the movie. It’s as if someone read the book and thought, “That gives me a great idea for a movie, but I couldn’t use the plot without getting permission from the author.” Nonetheless, the movie makes for a great movie and the book makes for a great book.