Like all Ben Elton books, "This Other Eden" is cynical and sharp, but unlike most of his more recent books, it has a note of hope. "This Other Eden" has many laugh-out-loud moments and I highly recommend it.

This is Ben Elton at his sarcastically funny best. The fact the subject matter, our dying planet, is so topical only makes the book a better read. I would certainly recommend this to anyone who enjoys ironic humour. Elton is one of my favourite authors and this has to be one of my favourite of his books.

What would happen if a rich media mogul and business man decided to try and market the end of the world? Well this is Ben Elton's take on it.

The book opens with a supertanker running aground spilling its contents on the sea and coastline killing everything in its path but it soon becomes clear that this is no accident or a simple environmental tale. Elton, in his own inimitable style, is having a pop at mass marketing and the popular media. There are inflatable boobs, spray on condoms, free liposuction for anybody who eats 20 doughnuts and of course Claustrospheres, self contained survival domes where families can safely live when the end of the world comes. There is big business,ineffectual Politicians and Green groups, nothing and nobody is spared. Hitler has even been cloned and brought back to life so he can stand trial for crimes against humanity, he gets community service. In many ways it is anti-US but then Britain and the EU also come out of it pretty poorly as well.

The book is full of great characters, a media mogul called Plastic, a wannabe English scriptwriter called Nathan who is trying to make it big in Hollywood but is always depressed about the loss of his wife to another man continually reminding himself of the fact, an FBI agent called Judy who happens to be a male, Max Maximus a Hollywood A-lister who as well as being very vain and is pretty stupid failing to even recognise his own wife because she has had so much cosmetic surgery, and an unlikely environmental terrorist called Rosalie. It is when Max falls in love with Rosalie that things really begin to happen and spiral out of control.

This is not the first of Elton's books that I have read but definately my favourite. His writing style is easy to pick but hard to put down and had me in tears of laughter on more than one occasion. This is one of the funniest books that I have read for a good while.

Great themes but about double the length it really needs to be.

I’ve been a fan of Ben all my adult life - I loved The Young Ones, Blackadder & (latterly) Upstart Crow, & he’s one of my very favorite stand-up comedians.

I’d never read any of his books until 2019’s Identity Crisis. It was great, but I did find it slightly hard work - Ben seems keen to press a point, cram in lots of ‘right-on’ narrative, and leaves the reader feeling slight short-changed & befuddled by his meandering story-telling... which often seems to take an age to get to the point.

The same seems true then of this much earlier book, which I thought I’d try to see if it faired any better.

This Other Eden’s story of an impending armageddon caused by human’s mistreatment of the Earth, and a big bio-dome corporation (& ultimately a Hollywood film company) eager to exploit this situation is a great idea on the surface (coupled with the opposing force of the ‘green’ rebels trying to stop them).

As with the other book, Ben populates it with a cast of bizarre and oddball characters and, as I’ve said, the actual story takes a while to get going and take shape.

If you’re able to stay the course, the book does gain some pace in the second half and, to be fair, reaches a fairly satisfying and smart conclusion when it eventually gets there.

If you’re a fan of his other books, you’ll probably love this - for me though, I don’t really feel I’m getting the enjoyment as a reader that I had maybe hoped for.I felt more like a ‘Beta Reader’ - as if I’m doing the author a favor by reading it, as opposed to the other way round.

I do love Ben, and this story did have some great ideas - but sadly this will probably be the last book by him that I’ll pick up.

This is an example of the type of book that Ben Elton writes really well; an issue which you can sense that he cares passionately about. The satire is there and the wit through the characters (Jurgen Thor; a God in name and a God in almost every nature of his body/demeanor). But it's his passion for the environment which shines through and how big business, not only ignores concerns about the future of the planet, but openly tries to profit from its demise. Excellent stuff.

Clever, funny and cynical as usual - classic Ben Elton

Absolute shite.

Very entertaining book

An excellent book. A full five stars. Some things about the book may be a little dated- such as the use of faxes and no suggestion of an internet. These things aside- this was brilliant. Interesting characters and an interesting plot. Wonderful.

The only Ben Elton novel I have read which I didn’t enjoy


Incredibly boring just repeating the same diatribe over again

I haven't read much humor books so this one was something else for me. I liked the environmentalist theme of the book but the writing and characters not so much. The book had the same style of satire, as Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to Galaxy, that I don't find too funny. Special mention for the least sexy sex scenes ever, even they were not very funny.
A traveler staying in my house left this book to me. It's been at least in a hostel in Salta, Argentina by the stamp on the first page. I think I'll add my stamp and pass it on to next victim.