Antonio Carioca
I just can't believe it took me so long to learn of the existence of this book, which has so clearly inspired both Orwell and Huxley in their most famous works.
An absolute fantastic read, specially in this latest, beautifully put together edition.
“There's no final revolution, there's no final number”
I had been familiar with the movie Solaris for years and thought it was reasonably interesting. Then one day I had to visit Lviv in Ukraine for work (the hometown of the author, but at the time it belonged to Poland) and decided to give the book a try. Man, absolutely incredible. He describes an encounter with an alien culture the exact way I always thought it should be - incomprehensible.
But while he does it majestically well, this is not even my favourite part of the book. What is really enticing (and just too close to home) is the fact that no “specialist” could come to an agreement whether the “alien” was even conscious or not. Again, exactly how I always suspected it would be.
A must read to any science fiction fan.
Vonnegut has over the past years become one of my favourite authors by far. His signature non linear narratives leaves you marvelling at his undeniable talent. His criticism on society and human beings in general precise, acid and yet, fun.
This particular book has to be one of my favourite ones by him.
Vonnegut never fails to deliver, this one in particular is incredible not only for being his first novel but also for remaining frighteningly relevant still today, over 70 years after it was written.
It blends two topics I've been rather interested in recently: what will the progress of AI do to the average man and his previous way of life and the cyclical nature of social revolutions.
As in Zamiatyn's We, Vonnegut reminds us we can't possibly foresee what the end of this whole process will be:
“And that left Paul. ‘To a better world,' he started to say, but he cut the toast short, thinking of the people of Ilium, eager to recreate the same old nightmare. He shrugged. ‘To the record,' he said, and smashed the empty bottle on a rock. Von Neumann considered Paul and then the broken glass. ‘This isn't the end, you know,' he said. ‘Nothing ever is, nothing ever will be–not even Judgment Day.' ‘Hands up,' said Lasher almost gaily. ‘Forward March'”
“I was a victim of a series of accidents, as are we all.”
The fact that Vonnegut is not hailed as one of the master's of the human soul is baffling.
His at first-sight chaotic and randomly woven tapestry of ideas soon proves to be nothing of the sort. No sentence in the entire book seems to have been written without a clear purpose, no event is untied to a relevant aspect of the whole plot. The experience of reading his books amounts to murmuring a series of pleasant “ahhhh”s and “ohhhh”s.
The man is simply a genius.
Fantastic little read, from a fantastic author. Camus and Vonnegut sort of invoke similar feelings in me, with their “and so it goes” and “life is just absurd”. Love them both.
It was particularly interesting to read it during the start of the Covid pandemic, with so many of the reactions on the book being replicated across the Globe.... very insightful...
It's definitely not a fluke that Dostoevsky is considered one of the greatest. This particular one is one of those rare books that equates to a solid punch in the stomach. I remember walking for hours on the streets of Kyiv ona very cold winter and going over bits of it over and over... Something that I ended up doing for days after finishing it.
And to this day it comes back to me every now and then and serves almost as a reminder and a moral compass.
Humbling.
I've known Chiang's work for years now (ever since listening to “Exhalation” on the EscapePod Podcast years ago) and have been a fan ever since. The movie Arrival, based on one of his short stories is a great example of how well he mixes thought-provoking science fiction with emotional themes that would ring true to most of us.
He has again delivered with this book of short-stories, with themes that would remind the reader of both Netflix's Black Mirror and Saramago. In particular, “The truth of fact, the truth of feeling” has now become my favourite short story of his:
“Digital memory will not stop us from telling stories about ourselves. As I said earlier, we are made of stories, and nothing can change that. What digital memory will do is change those stories from fabulations that emphasize our best acts and elide our worst, into ones that — I hope — acknowledge our fallibility and make us less judgmental about the fallibility of others”
I'm absolutely glad I stumbled onto this book. Not the type I'd normally pick up but being in Istanbul for a weekend motivated me to go for one of Pamuk's book.
The rich, deep and realistic tapestry he weaves of both human and urban development is bound to stay with you days and days after you put this book down.
An absolutely enthralling read, one that creeps in slowly and becomes more and more meaningful in its description of regular human beings and their (extra) ordinary lives.
AND SO IT GOES...
Every once in a while you are introduced to an author that many consider iconic and yet somehow you have never heard of. And when you finally read it you almost instantly fall in love with the style and can't get enough of.
This was my experience with Vonnegut and I am very happy that I started with Cat's Cradle. I went on to read multiple other books by him, but this probably has remained my favourite (closely followed by Sirens of Titan).
Incredibly interesting scientific (ice-9!!), anthropological (Papa Monsano!) and theological (Bokononism!!!!) concepts, unique literary style and just fun. I can easily recommend it to anyone.
I try not to have personal heroes, but there are no two ways about it, Carl Sagan is one of mine for a number of reasons. And among his many great books, documentaries and speeches, I hold this book in particular in very high regard.
As it is often the case, I came by this one entirely by accident (crashing at a friend's place and quite literally just finding it underneath his bed). I picked it up and could not put it down, becoming probably one of my top 5 all time favourites.
One particular excerpt, where he compares the consciousness of dogs to the way we think and act in dreams, never fails to come back to my mind every time I interact with a dog for more than 5 minutes.
Ah, Clarke, Clarke... For many years as a young adult, this was my absolute favourite author. And of all his books, this was my favourite. That was the first time I was introduced to the concept of a cylindrical multi generational ship. And I was blown away...
Interestingly enough, every other book in the series is beyond bad. I mean, BAD. Painfully hard to read. I can only imagine they were entirely written by the co-author, Gentry Lee (Clarke would never have done that!!!!)