Is Zona believable?

Use this forum to discuss the July 2020 Book of the month, "Zona: The Forbidden Land" by Fred G. Baker.
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AlexisLib
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Re: Is Zona believable?

Post by AlexisLib »

I felt like there was plenty of description, enough for me. There are forbidden areas in our world (forbidden by govvernments, anyway) even in the US (area 51, the pentagon, langley, etc.).

I watch shows about supernatural and mysterious happenings, and I saw two shows about the skiing trip the nine college students took to a remote area in Russia in the 1950s that the author describes. They still don't know what happened to those people. And I watched another one about a national park and small town where something happened and they made all the people leave and then fenced the whole area off, and no one knows what happened there. Also, there's a mountain in Alaska that is off limits. So it is plausible to have forbidden areas.

But yeah, it's fiction, after all.
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Koketso1998
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Post by Koketso1998 »

Personally, I don't believe it, I'm sure that it's all fiction, I'd probably believe it more if real places were more described and the relationship between the animals and
humans were not that exaggerated.
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Post by Teele »

Its not believable to me. Probably because its fiction to begin with, and a lot of the scenes described are not realistic.
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rachna_r
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Post by rachna_r »

The book is really slow to start with. The curiosity and the interest in books falls . Since its a fictional character, so it makes it a bit mysterious. But still, the writer should have worked a little more on it .
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Post by Sjtoy »

I felt the author provided good descriptions in order for me to picture Zona and the beasts within. At first, I did find Zona to be believable. A place with little to no human interaction seems like it could harbor larger than normal animals and even those plants and animals that may not yet have been discovered. However, once we learned these animals included mammoths, saber toothed cats, and telepathic dire wolves, the world of Zona became less believable to me in the "real world". I enjoyed this book for what it was- a science fiction story.
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Post by Misty20058 »

Personally it seemed believable to me- as a place in a fiction book. While it did not seem like a real place he made it sound realistic in the book.
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Post by Sally_Heart »

Since it's fiction story I think the details given are really up to the author but having having a background story for the forbidden land would have made it a bit more entertaining and more realistic.
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Surabhi Rani
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Post by Surabhi Rani »

The idea of a fictitious forbidden land is appealing to me! It triggers wide imagination within me! I even find it relatable on account of what I learn from my life and surroundings!
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Post by lwahls2 »

I don't know if believable is the right question to ask about Zona. It's up to the readers imagination to fill in the gaps left by the author. However, I do believe it had a slow start as you mention. I almost didn't want to finish because my attention was wandering.
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Post by victoriasimons »

It's difficult to strike a balance between excessive and boring exposition and providing enough description for a place to be believable. Zona sits somewhere in this grey area. More worldbuilding would have been useful to create a convincing setting and answer some of the reader's questions: e.g. why is it forbidden?
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Post by AnonReviewer2211 »

No, in fact I found Zona too believable for my taste. Everything was just bigger and better than what we usually encounter in forests. A lot of established scientific knowledge was thrown out the window such as - how can Zona support so much wildlife typically found in warmer regions? Other than that, the descriptions are surely captivating.
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Post by Nelson Reviews »

The Novel is quiet an amazing read. I find it to be unbelievable;but, That's how it should be! Since it is a Fictional Tale.
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Post by Andra2005 »

Since it's fiction is full of very creative things, but at some points it was pretty unbelievable.
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Post by Officialboluwatife »

It is a fiction story so I won't blame the author if it is not believable. For me, it is not.
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Post by Kreads1 »

As a work of fiction, I don’t think we necessarily need to believe in Zona to enjoy the book. That said, much of our planet has yet to be explored, especially our oceans. From that point of view, one can argue that there are areas yet to be discovered and explored. While I would be shocked to learn of a present-day wooly mammoth, certainly these unexplored areas would hold interesting plant and animal life.

So, in my opinion, Zona is believable in the context it is shared with the reader, as a work of fiction.
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