The World In Ruins

The World in Ruins, by Jamell Crouthers, is a bleak glimpse into what might very well be a sordid future for mankind. Based on a dream Derek, the narrator, has, in which he travels to the future in a time machine, the future doesn’t paint bright for Earth or humankind. We’ve managed to destroy or consume almost all of Earth’s resources, there’s almost no oxygen due to the lack of trees, the oceans and rivers are polluted, and countless species are dying or are already extinct. Society is a chaos where there’s no rule, no law, no order. War spreads throughout the whole planet, and the world is now ruled under one dictatorship, so to speak, where evil is the one rule to follow. God doesn’t seem to answer any prayers, and robots, clones and microchips have become routine. To add to it all, nature itself seems to be trying to get rid of humankind. Natural disasters, earthquakes, hurricanes, disease, seem to sprout in every corner of the planet. Told in prose, this book should be a wake-up call for us; if we do not act now and start caring for our planet, there might not be a future for our species. Picture the worst scenario possible for humans, and that’s where we’re headed for if we continue on this environmentally-unsafe path we are now. Crouther’s short book is grim, somber, and holds little hope. But, as the author states, perhaps that is what many people need to take heed of the call our planet is making. (3 stars)

There is something that I really enjoy about the poetry as prose set up in this book. I’ve seen it a few other times and always enjoyed it thoroughly. It really keeps me much more engaged. However, the thing that got me down was that from the start it seemed very preachy. I’m not one to hesitate with political or other hot-topic novels, but I really wanted the book to be more about the story so the lesson can present itself in a more convincing manner. On page one there are statements such as, “the present day is bad enough as it is to be brutally honest,… if we don’t start making changes.” Those for me are a turn-off because I’d rather see it.

I wanted to enjoy this book and with the point-of-view, tone, and the structure the author chose was a recipe for success with my personal taste. But there was something lacking in that it just didn’t sell me a story. I wish that the author would make me envision the sentences they put out there. Instead of putting it in black and white, “We worship people who were under mind control and sent agenda filled satanic messages.” Make me feel that those people are not making their own decisions, show me the messages that are clearly driven and crafted in the name of evil. A slight disappointment, although the author accomplished their purpose as I was thinking about these topics throughout the days that I was reading it.

The World in Ruins: A Travel into the Future was written by Jamell Crouthers. He is an author, blogger and poet. This is not a traditional book since it is written in poetry format. It is a fast, absorbing, creative and interesting story about a teenager, Derek, who observes how damaged the world is. One night, he has a nightmare in which he travels into the future and he sees that the world is completely ruined, so he realizes that he has to change something in his current life to prevent the destruction of the planet Earth.

I dare to say that this is the perfect moment to read this story; we are living a pandemic that changes everything, but the most important thing is that with so many humans staying at home to avoid Coronavirus, the air and the water are cleaner and animals are growing bold. As in the story we, as humans, have to change our habits to save the world. Part fantasy thriller and part drama, this book can easily make you feel lost in the fiction. I couldn’t stop reading it.

This book is a lengthy prose-poem that takes a look at the current world and projects a grim, terrifying future. Robert A. Heinlein said that one of the main inspirations for stories was “if this goes on.” Crouthers paints a grim picture of what the world will be like in the future if the trends that are beginning today are not stopped. Is his future possible? Perhaps. Perhaps not. Science and science fiction, particularly dystopian fiction has too often been proved correct. What is true is that this lengthy saga of what-might-come-to-pass is very much a story of “if this goes on.” It is intended as a wake-up call to people everywhere, asking them to look around them and begin to make changes that will prevent such a future from happening.

Futuristic fiction has a prophetic nature to imagine the future as it could be. We could as well label Author Jamell Crouthers as a prophet as the entire world is currently in ruins due to Covid-19 pandemic.
In this novel, a young protagonist named Derek is projecting the world, despite its current horrible state, to become much messier than it is for everyone. He time-travels to 50 years ahead and discovers a hopeless world thrown into perennial destruction.
Fast-forward to 2020, the entire world is in ruins, but the world Derek sees is far worse that what we are presently living in. This novel reeks of apocalyptic happenings. And the people who will live in such a mess must be strong to survive.
Very entertaining but scary at the same time.

“The World in Ruins” by Jamell Crouthers is a short novella about the future as it’s projected to look if we don’t step up and shape up. Derek, our protagonist, waxes poetic about a dream he had in which he visited the world of the future. Fifty years from his vision, the world is in ruins, as though an apocalypse had happened. Scarily enough, Crouthers wrote this before 2020, but a lot of his projections are very eerily possible after the events of this year.

“The World In Ruins: A Travel Into the Future” by Jamell Crouthers is a brilliant and eye-opening story that will truly make you think about the current course of events, and just what may potentially be in store for man-kind in the future due to the destructive nature of human beings and just how devastating our walk of life on this planet is for humanity, various species, and the world around us. This book is sad, it is smart, and it is entirely entertaining as well as enlightening. The only drawback for me was that it was only 78 pages, as I would truly have loved the opportunity to read more!

I was surprised by how much I liked World in Ruins, and how real it felt. It's an ambitious work and it's clear that Jamell Crouthers put so much work into creating the atmosphere, and that sense of urgency and fear that permeates throughout the book. It makes you think about the current state of the world in a new way, and really gives you more perspective which I appreciated.

Jamell Crouthers' The World in Ruins is a creative and courageous look at what could very well someday become our reality if we, as a society, remain on our current, self destructive course. The author artfully conveys poetic yet precautionary messages to readers while taking them on a potentially awakening journey through time with, main character, Derek.

This is a unique collection of poetry written in prose structure. The collection is dystopian, as the title implies. It was dark and depressing with strong religious undercurrents. A lot of the poems were well-written with the destruction of the Earth by mankind and the capitalistic greed in direct conflict with the concepts of idealism and morality. It paints a grim picture of hopeless sinners trapped in an evil and dying world. I found it very gloomy. Normally, you can find a strong thread of hope in Christ or faith in poems of this nature that focus on the black and white natures of life, but I found this collection was more hellfire and brimstone without much of any optimism in change or redemption. It seemed too much like faith by fear and fear by faith. Overall, the author did a good job of showing that gritty and ugly underbelly of humanity. It just wasn't for me.