Pod: SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION

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This is a tale of families, loyalty, survival, sacrifice, and the things that support survival and those that harm the community. Laline Paull

I found myself in a magical underworld and I was in awe. I appreciate all the research that Paull conducted for this book as I learnt so much. The ramora fish disgusted yet fascinated me! The effects of the dreamfish was mesmerising. As Ea ventures into the vast, she discovers dangers everywhere, from lurking predators to strange objects floating in the water. But just as she is coming to terms with her solitude, a chance encounter with a group of arrogant bottlenoses will irrevocably alter the course of her life.

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The Bees is one wild ride. A sensual, visceral mini-epic about timeless rituals and modern environmental disaster. Paull’s heart pounding novel wrenches us into a new world. Emma Donoghue The narrative story becomes so (predictably) awful as the end nears (“Finding Nemo” for adults is to do the children’s story a disservice.) Even if you are a reader who likes a conclusive wrap up, and unexpected twists, this book takes the reader on a journey of coincidence layered upon unlikely friendships, and predominantly happy happy conclusions. I didn’t buy into any of the relationships between the sea creatures described.

Misra, Ria (24 September 2014). "How Laline Paull Brought Real Science into Her Novel The Bees". Io9.gizmodo.com . Retrieved 21 April 2016. A changing ocean, becoming inexplicably hostile. The struggle for resources, the anxiety, the anger. The ocean is full of miracles, not least the fact that it gives us the oxygen for every other breath we take. Our survival is inextricably linked to ocean health, yet our species continues to degrade and exploit it. Terrible details to face, yet countless wonders. How could we do this to our world? How can we stop it?” At last the First Harem began to move. Fused into the greater motion and feeling the ocean again, Ea pushed forward alongside Devi [the number one female]. Up ahead was the massive kinetic power of the male alliance and she let it run through her whole body. She had never experienced this in the Longi pod, but here the male energy was so much stronger. Devi glanced across at her and speeded up. Keeping pace, Ea did not even notice. She was focused on the unfamiliar choreography of the Tursiops on the hunt. Her own peopled had never mentioned it and Ea could not help admiring how they constantly shifted into different patterns, a well-practiced team. (173) I jumped at the chance to read Pod, after having bought The Bees and been bowled over by the Mayan inspired beehive world the author created. In that respect, I thought I was prepared for what Pod might offer.

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The novel is peopled with wholly believable creatures embedded in the habits, language and culture of their species and group. A devastating and beautiful character, Google, is a dolphin trained by the US navy and sent on a mission he cannot survive. In a chilling and obscene truncation of these creatures’ rich social lives, the military dolphins share almost no language and are kept drugged in separate tanks, to bond only with their ‘anthrops’, i.e humans. Google is unusual as he refuses to harm his human in any training exercise. His essential – what we’d call ‘humanity’, elsewhere – is fundamental, even though he knows nothing about himself or where and who he comes from. He and all the creatures in Pod are driven to find and return to base, or home, in an ocean made increasingly unliveable by human activity. Tankers churn across whales’ migration paths – ‘song lines’ – and destroy whole families. Ships’ noise drives dolphins mad and makes them turn to eating soporific but poisonous fish to deaden the pain. A horrifying scene of dolphins being cornered for a massacre forms the crisis of the novel. Anyway, this is all to say that in 2022 one book swam swiftly through my system leaving no less than two :-0’s in its wake, and merits not just a proper write-up but a strong exhortation to consider getting your hands on a copy for yourself or someone else. On this final weekend before Christmas, I commend to you Pod, by Laline Paull, the most extraordinary, beautiful, dramatic and arresting novel I’ve read this year. However, whilst some of the book was very good (I loved Google, was interested in the Rorqual and really wanted the Wrasse to triumph) other parts were draggy or just a bit gross. Is the sea gross? Well, yeah, turns out it is, but that doesn’t mean I necessarily want to wade through its sperm-choked waves witnessing multiple gang rapes and shit-eating remoras, I’ll be honest with you. Humans are behind destruction of the ocean: plastic waste floats and creates a barrier in the ocean and interrupts the routes of animals and the spawning season; and there are some fishing fleets that hoover up the dolphins. Some of the bottlenose dolphins are able to escape thanks to Google and Ea and to join the survivors of the Longi to find the whale and his group of survivors. We know this because the prologue hinted at survival.

Straub, Emma (23 May 2014). "Sunday Book Review: Hive Mentality: The Bees by Laline Paull". The New York Times . Retrieved 21 April 2016. I read this novel specifically because it was shortlisted for the 2023 Women’s Prize for Literature. A brief glance at the publicity ‘blurb’ did not draw me to it in advance, and alas, despite going in with low expectations, the book managed to fall short of even my pessimistic outlook. I was drawn to this book because of how different the story was. Narrated by a dolphin called Ea, the book went into detail about what the life of the dolphin is like - both within and without its pod. Author, Laline Paull really utilises this unique perspective to humanise the struggle that marine life is having against the destructiveness of humanity, giving nature a voice in a way that I have not experienced before. Honestly, I’ve never resonated with a dolphin more than when I read this line. I enjoyed reading little Ea’s chapters in this book as she tried to figure out just exactly who she was and where she belonged in the vast ocean. The Rorqual was another character whose chapters I loved to read, and he had some amazing quotes about the ocean; As well an an over-arching storyline of love, family and being a dolphin with a difference, Pod covers topics of human-induced degradation of the ocean ecosystem. Many of these I studied for my degree so was particularly poignant for me to imagine those processes through the eyes of the ocean inhabitants. The ocean is such a beautiful, intricately connected web and we are really messing things up! In this book, as well as a dolphin, I have been a clam, a remora and a sea anemome, to name a few.She is taken by force into the megapod of 500 bottlenose dolphins, the Tursiops, the same dolphins that usurped her tribe. The dolphins are much bigger than Ea and she is easily captured by a teenage group. She is raped but makes some alliances within the hareem. This pod is large, noisy and the members are controlled through patriarchal bullying and violence. For example, here is the excitement of the hunt with the bottlenose dolphins. It would also have worked better for me if Ea had been a little more interesting herself. Mostly she’s indignant or guilty and, I GET IT, as that’s my general state of being, but I don’t think she achieved her potential. Or if she did, she did it off-screen, after the end credits. To spin like everyone else was the key to fitting in, and if she could only hear the music of the ocean like everyone else, she too would be able to tune in and do it.