Appleseed: A Novel

By Matt Bell

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK · A PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER BEST OF THE YEAR

“Woven together out of the strands of myth, science fiction, and ecological warning, Matt Bell’s Appleseed is as urgent as it is audacious.” —Kelly Link, Pulitzer Prize finalist and national bestselling author of Get in Trouble

A “breathtaking novel of ideas unlike anything you’ve ever read” (Esquire) from Young Lions Fiction Award–finalist Matt Bell, a breakout book that explores climate change, manifest destiny, humanity’s unchecked exploitation of natural resources, and the small but powerful magic contained within every single apple. 

In eighteenth-century Ohio, two brothers travel into the wooded frontier, planting apple orchards from which they plan to profit in the years to come. As they remake the wilderness in their own image, planning for a future of settlement and civilization, the long-held bonds and secrets between the two will be tested, fractured and broken—and possibly healed.

Fifty years from now, in the second half of the twenty-first century, climate change has ravaged the Earth. Having invested early in genetic engineering and food science, one company now owns all the world’s resources. But a growing resistance is working to redistribute both land and power—and in a pivotal moment for the future of humanity, one of the company’s original founders will return to headquarters, intending to destroy what he helped build.

A thousand years in the future, North America is covered by a massive sheet of ice. One lonely sentient being inhabits a tech station on top of the glacier—and in a daring and seemingly impossible quest, sets out to follow a homing beacon across the continent in the hopes of discovering the last remnant of civilization.

Hugely ambitious in scope and theme, Appleseed is the breakout novel from a writer “as self-assured as he is audacious” (NPR) who “may well have invented the pulse-pounding novel of ideas” (Jess Walter). Part speculative epic, part tech thriller, part reinvented fairy tale, Appleseed is an unforgettable meditation on climate change; corporate, civic, and familial responsibility; manifest destiny; and the myths and legends that sustain us all. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Jul 13, 2021
• ISBN: 9780063040168

Matt Bell

Matt Bell is the author of the novels Scrapper and In the House upon the Dirt between the Lake and the Woods, as well as the short story collection A Tree or a Person or a Wall, a non-fiction book about the classic video game Baldur's Gate II, and several other titles. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, Tin House, Conjunctions, Fairy Tale Review, American Short Fiction, and many other publications. A native of Michigan, he teaches creative writing at Arizona State University.

Reviews for Appleseed

[waldhaus1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I was put off at first by the way the story jumps between timelines. In the end they come together and I found myself caring about the outcome at many levels. The author refers to something called climate fabulist. Perhaps that is what this story is. It is also fundamentally an asking and answering the question of what does it mean to be alive and what is the purpose of life.This can be seen as a retelling an extension of the story of Johnny Appleseed as well as a cautionary tale about climate change. It is well written and the characters strange as they are in places do come alive for the reader.

[kewing_12 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Ambitious, striving for mythic, ultimately pessimistic about humans and optimistic about nature in the extremely long run. Three intertwined stories: that of Chapman, a faun (the internal conflict of his human and animal (natural) states and looking for his true nature) as Johnny Appleseed in the late 18th and early 19th C wandering Ohio with his human brother (looking for ownership and wealth) planting apple orchards. This section mixes tall tales (Johnny Appleseed) with myth (faun and witches carrying a singing head that can warp time) and Shakespeare (three witches); that of John (an obvious dependent of Chapman) set later in the 21st or perhaps early 22nd C, initially seen committing ecoterrorism across an abandoned western US, but also something of a tech genius who helped create Earthtrust, a global corporation that has forced governments to cede territory where it create bioengineered crops and animals capable of withstanding climate change; and C (a clone, a replicant, a shadow of Chapman) seemingly stranded in a new ice age in a distant future, roaming the glacier top seeking crevasses to descend to recover biomass (think of Sisyphus) until he (it?) is, to save his existence, replicated anew, using the recovered biomass, and becomes something different. The first two strands are pessimistic about humans, often diverting into didactic monologues (character sometimes, author other times) about ownership, consumption, progress, human dominion over earth and nature, and hubris. Of the two strands, I found the second the ore compelling. The final strand eventually ties the three together with, seemingly, the end of humans which caused the near destruction of earth to begin with and the eventual renewal through nature. I enjoyed the intellectual growth of the replicant in this latter strand. The various themes resonate with me, but I'd like to think that some humans (and here I think particularly of native peoples on every continent -- who are strangely absent, even in the Chapman strand on the frontier) who are more connected to nature, less concerned with dominion over it, less infected by ownership and the accumulation of wealth, will find a way to survive and restore a more sustainable relationship with earth.

[nancyadair-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

In Appleseed, Matt Bell gives me the kind of read that knocks my socks off, a novel of ideas couched in a story that grabbed hold of my attention and didn’t flag. It’s a novel that crosses genres, using all the tools in a story teller’s tool box.Three timelines take readers across American history, past and future, following the inevitable conclusion of the ideals of our colonizing forefathers: that the land was God-given for our use, that its resources were endless, that humanity is all-important and the individual the center of the universe.The story begins with the Chapman brothers, Nathaniel and Johnny (aka Appleseed), who journey across Ohio’s unsettled swamplands planting apple orchards for future settlers. Before the end, Chapman sees the bloodbath effects of ‘civilization’ on the verdant beauty of the land.Fast forwarded to the near future, the inevitable conclusion of human greed has created a world in crisis. A business is buying up both land and the rights of citizens in exchange for a comfortable home and food to eat. The visionary Eury has invented a way to defect sunlight in the atmosphere to allow humans further time to correct the damage. But her one-time friend and coworker John has joined a terrorist resistance group determined to intercede.And in a far future world encased in ice, a lone cloned being in it’s 434th lifetime sets out to understand what has happened and who, if anyone, is still out there.The chilling story asks will humans elect to change their lives to ensure our future? And even if we try, will we succeed or wreck more damage? Is the world better off without us?I remember back in the early 1980s when my boss, reacting to the whole nuclear winter scare, worried about the end of human civilization, the loss of all the arts. I love the arts, but I replied that the earth would go on, a new kind of life will flourish after we burn ourselves out. He was appalled.And in the conclusion, Bell does offer that kind of hope.Do we have time to change the course of the fire we are fueling? More importantly, do we have the will? Will we cling to old ideals, remain entrenched in our vision of being the most important thing in the universe?I purchased a copy from my local book store.

[johnxlibris · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I wanted the first book I read in 2023 to be a work of fiction. I wanted to become immersed and nothing pulls me in faster than post-apocalyptic stories. Appleseed: A Novel by Matt Bell is a story that takes place across three timelines: one in the pre-industrial North American frontier, one in the near future following ecological collapse, and one in the far future after a continental-sized glacier has taken over North America. The characters that inhabit each of these stories are connected, not only by name, but seemingly also in spirit. Interwoven thematically (and sometimes literally) with their stories are the myths of Ancient Greece. I found myself having to constantly slow down my reading. I wanted to speed through to see how it all ends: the plot driving above the speed limit. There are moments of wisdom throughout worth slowing down to catch. Each of the characters contemplating their place in nature, mirroring humanity's greater relationship with the environment. It is a profoundly sad book: there is loss, betrayal, and deep love. We watch as the sins of the fathers and mothers, from one Fall to the next, move humanity and its ecosystem toward its inevitable end, each still seeking for some way to regain paradise.