I have never read any of Coupland's novels before, so was not sure what to expect. The book is brilliant in parts, but as a whole I think it lacks a bit of coherency in its story-telling. For some parts the story felt dragged and in others confusing, but then it still worth a read because of the brilliant thoughts and emotions it evokes. It reflects what our society might become and make you think of your future. It touches upon religion, politics, greed, money, solitude, cults, power, communication and togetherness in a very unique way. Even though I am not a great fan of this book, I will surely read others by the author for he does write passionately! :) Sometime in the near distant future, bees have disappeared (along with other insects)and fruits such as crunchy apples have become a commodity. Then randomly five people in various parts of the world get stung by a bee and instantly get whisked away to a facility where tests are run on them to determine why a bee stung them. The characters were quirky and interesting and this was a real page-turner up until the point that Douglas Coupland decided to have the characters begin telling stories to one another later in the story that eventually leads to the revelation of why the bees disappeared and how these five people are connected to one another.The later part of this book just turned super tedious for me, but I didn't want to stop reading it because I wanted to find out how the story ended. I suppose this is a positive attribute to the book, but in the end there wasn't a need for the whole 'story within a story' because I thought the story was good in the first place.Sadly I won't be reading another Douglas Coupland book after this one - he jumped the shark for me.
