Vonnegut, Kurt "Cat's Cradle" - 1963

Vonnegut, Kurt "Cat's Cradle" - 1963

We read this with our international online book club in June 2025.

While science-fiction is not really my thing, I would say this is more a dystopian novel. And a very good one. Granted, part of it is sci-fi though that is the case with a lot of dystopian novels. Here, the author even explained, how it happened that the world came into this distress.

I have only read one other book by Kurt Vonnegut before (Breakfast of Champions) and that was fantastic. So was this one. Kurt Vonnegut loves to play with words. And he always finds new ones that we haven't heard before but that makes a lot of sense.

As it says in the book description, our deepest fears are witnessing Armageddon and, even worse, surviviing it. My sentiments exactly. Should there be one, I'd rather not survive it than having to build up the earth again. Must be terrible.

Well, here we get the chance, We meet all sorts of different kind of quirky people who meet on a fictional Caribbean island where they witness the "End of the World". With his dark humour, the author manages to describe the encounters everyone has with Ice-Nine, a chemical that can destroy everything. And their reasons for getting engaged in the turmoil. His irony shows especially when he describes the fictional new religion Bokonon. So many witty insights that make us think about every existing religion.

He more or less ends with this quote: "Of all the words of mice and men, the saddest are, It might have been". One of the most true sentences there are.

If I haven't said it before, this is a great story. Definitely makes me want to read more of his books.

And here are some comments from the discussion:

• Most members thought it was really well written, and humorous in a satirical way. While at the same time having some underlying themes of criticism of religion, dictatorships, science, all in a writing style very unique to Vonnegut.
• I really liked the chapter layout, with short chapters of about only 1-2 pages, that as the chapter is read you realize the title of the chapter was really descriptive and inventive. While the end-of-world-science that happened was very quickly unfolding at the end of the story and not at all believable, it was written as a quite humorous conclusion to the story.
• I was prejudiced against it before I started reading it, so got pleasantly surprised that I really enjoyed it after all. I dislike reading about wars and horrors, but enjoy some dystopias, of which this one was a quite thoughtful fun version. I was happy we chose it as I would never have read it for myself.

From the back cover:

"With his trademark dry wit, Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle is an inventive science fiction satire that preys on our deepest fears of witnessing Armageddon - and, worse still, surviving it. 

Dr Felix Hoenikker, one of the founding 'fathers' of the atomic bomb, has left a deadly legacy to the world. For he is the inventor of ice-nine, a lethal chemical capable of freezing the entire planet. Writer Jonah's search for its whereabouts leads to Hoenikker's three eccentric children, to an island republic in the Caribbean where the religion of Bokononism is practised, to love and to insanity. Told with deadpan humour and bitter irony, Kurt Vonnegut's cult tale of global destruction is a funny and frightening satire on the end of the world and the madness of mankind."

Keyes, Daniel "Flowers for Algernon"

Keyes, Daniel "Flowers for Algernon" - 1959

This was our international online book club book for August 2024.

I wasn't really keen on reading this, you know how much I dislike science fiction. But this is a different one, yes, it's about science and it's about fictional science but it's got nothing to do with aliens or made-up planets, it wouldn't be an action movie with loud noises if the turned it into a film. Actually, they did turn it into one and it doesn't look like an action movie.

This is an interesting story about a young man who can hardly write his name let alone a decent sentence without any mistakes. They perform an operation on him and his IQ increases to astronomical heights. We see the change in Charlie. Phenomenal. As he understands more and more what they have done to him, the story reaches a different perspective.

Quite a good read.

From the back cover:

"Winner of both the Hugo and Nebula Awards, the powerful, classic story about a man who receives an operation that turns him into a genius...and introduces him to heartache.

Charlie Gordon is about to embark upon an unprecedented journey. Born with an unusually low IQ, he has been chosen as the perfect subject for an experimental surgery that researchers hope will increase his intelligence - a procedure that has already been highly successful when tested on a lab mouse named Algernon.

As the treatment takes effect, Charlie's intelligence expands until it surpasses that of the doctors who engineered his metamorphosis. The experiment appears to be a scientific breakthrough of paramount importance, until Algernon suddenly deteriorates. Will the same happen to Charlie?"

Daniel Keyes has received both the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award for this novel.

Shute, Nevil "On the Beach"

Shute, Nevil "On the Beach" - 1959

"It's not the end of the world at all," he said. "It's only the end for us. The world will go on just the same, only we shan't be in it. I dare say it will get along all right without us."

I like dystopian novels. They tell us about what could happen if we don't stop what we're doing. Everyone should read at least one of them. This one isn't such a long story (fewer than 300 pages) and thererfore something for everyone.

And yes, the quote I mentioned at the beginning is true. The world will exist, no matter whether the earth is still there or there are people on it. So, no worries. Nobody can destroy the WORLD. We can, however, destroy everything we loved and wish for our children to still be there when they and their kids and grandkids die.

This story makes us aware that we are all in the same boat, that we cannot get away from the evil others planned. The book is from 1959. Nevil Shute was a clairvoyant.

The book was much loved by the book club, especially the different views on the subject based on age and geographical location. It was all new information to many and much appreciated.

From the back cover:

"After a nuclear World War III has destroyed most of the globe, the few remaining survivors in southern Australia await the radioactive cloud that is heading their way and bringing certain death to everyone in its path. Among them is an American submarine captain struggling to resist the knowledge that his wife and children in the United States must be dead. Then a faint Morse code signal is picked up, transmitting from somewhere near Seattle, and Captain Towers must lead his submarine crew on a bleak tour of the ruined world in a desperate search for signs of life. On the Beach is a remarkably convincing portrait of how ordinary people might face the most unimaginable nightmare."

Apparently, the phrase "on the beach" is a Royal Navy term that indicates retirement from service.

L’Engle, Madeleine "A Wrinkle in Time"

L’Engle, Madeleine "A Wrinkle in Time" - 1962

I read this for the "1962 Club".

This book challenge takes place twice a year and concentrates on one year and one year only. I call it "Read theYear Club". This time, 1962 was picked. For more information, see Simon @ Stuck in a Book.

I had already read seven books from that year (see here) and this was one we had in the house, one of my boys must have read it ages ago.

Fantasy or science-fictions are not really my genre but I find some from time to time that are still quite nice.

As was this one. I couldn't even tell what the attraction is to this book since the sci-fi is totally made up, kids are there to save the world (I usually detest both those parts in stories) but it was a nice read.

The style is certainly part of it, the way the characters are described, the interaction between them. There are many likeable people in this story.

Will I read the other books of the series? Probably not. But I am glad I read this one.

From the back cover:

"It is a dark and stormy night. Meg Murry; her small brother, Charles Wallace; and their mother are in the kitchen for a midnight snack when a most disturbing visitor arrives. 'Wild nights are my glory,' the unearthly stranger tells them. 'I just got caught in a downdraft and blown off course. Let me sit down for a moment, and then I'll be on my way. Speaking of ways, by the way, there is such a thing as a tesseract.' Meg's father had been experimenting with this fifth dimension of time travel when he mysteriously disappeared. Now the time has come for Meg, her friend Calvin, and Charles Wallace to rescue him. But can they outwit the forces of evil they will encounter on their heart-stopping journey through space?"

And here is Simon's list with all the books from 1962 other bloggers read.

Martinson, Harry "Aniara"

Martinson, Harry "Aniara - A Review of Man in Time and Space" (Swedish: Aniara: en revy om människan i tid och rum) - 1956

I have not read this book as I'm really not into poetry or sci-fi (of which we have read too much lately). The book was available online but I'm not into reading anything from the computer, so it was a double (or even triple) no-no.

So, this post is about the discussion in our book club. The comments are by other members but I thought they might be interesting for some of my blog readers.

The story really surprised me. It had many layers, about human psychology, power-dynamics and coping mechanisms in dystopias, very current themes about the passengers thinking back on how they got to where they are, the devastation of nature and thoughts about the life and death of humanity, while trying to somehow keep from sinking into despair.

The story was meant to portray far into the future, with the main character saying "those to blame for the destruction of humanity are long gone", which made me think that those are us, we who live now.

It was especially surprising in its verses and few different types of poetry rhymes and patterns, really beautiful at parts.

I had expected it to be a lot of action and rushing around in space, but it was the opposite, quiet contemplation, more about the mentality of the last people.

And Martinson had this great sensitive way of not saying much out loud, so we had to read between the lines, for example there must have been a few dozen ways how he described someone dying without actually saying it, or quite beautiful descriptions of how the last of humanity was floating away into space in the sarcophagus named Aniara.

Some normal quotes about it: "it is great, despite it being science fiction" or "the only science fiction worth reading".

Though it definitely took a lot more thinking to follow the story and what was really said, and that it definitely was out of my comfort zone and at moments I was not quite sure if this epic poem was genius or just weird, I would recommend it, it was a reading experience that again widened my reading world.

This was discussed in our international online book club in April 2023.

From the back cover:

"The great Swedish writer Harry Martinson published his masterpiece, Aniara, during the height of the Cold War - right after the Soviet Union announced that it had exploded the hydrogen bomb. Aniara is the story of a luxurious space ship, loaded with 8,000 evacuees, fleeing an Earth made uninhabitable by Man's technological arrogance. A malfunction knocks the craft off course, taking these would-be Mars colonists on an irreversible journey into deep space. Aniara is a book of prophecy, a panoramic view of humanity's possible fate. It has been translated into seven languages and adapted into a popular avant-garde opera."

Harry Martinson received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1974 "for writings that catch the dewdrop and reflect the cosmos".

I contribute to this page: Read the Nobels and you can find all my blogs about Nobel Prize winning authors and their books here.

Abe, Kōbō "Inter Ice Age 4"

Abe, Kōbō (安部 公房 Abe Kōbō) "Inter Ice Age 4" (Japanese: 第四間氷期 Dai yon kan pyouki) - 1959

This was our international online book club book for February 2022.

Before I start talking about the book, I must point out that I never liked science fiction. I don't mind dystopian literature, if it is something that could really happen or that would have happened, had a certain even not taken place or succeeded or whatever.

This is none of that. It really is more a fantasy of someone who would love science to do things that aren't possible. Maybe they will be in future. But a lot of times, we wouldn't even want that to happen.

Sometimes, a science fiction novel has interesting characters or a good plot. This one had neither. I couldn't warm to any of the figures, you hardly got to know them at all. And the plot, well, this was a very predictable novel, you could tell what was going to happen and it happened exactly as I thought it might. Strange and weird might be the most positive remarks I might give it.

I doubt that I will ever read a book by this author again.

Comment by another reader:
"For me the read was not very easy right now. It reminded me of the cold war while watching real war on the news ... so I ended up finishing the reading some days too late. The author was all new to me, but what really opened up the book for me was the afterword where he wrote about his intention to make people think."

From the back cover:

"A Novel of the Future

This is yet another of Mr. Abe's ominous configurations (Woman in the Dunes etc.) this time staking out its uncertain ideological imperatives in a grave new world submerged under water. In the beginning, however, Professor Katsumi who has a computer capable of making predictions, has no idea of the work undertaken in a still more dehumanized laboratory. But a double murder, an analysis of one of the bodies & some anonymous phone calls (this is all quite exciting) alert him to a traffic in human fetuses corroborated by his wife's enforced curettage. Witnessing the works in progress - growing rooms for human submarine colonies which will make human survival possible - he is also threatened with his own extinction betrayed by his own machine & he's made to consider various ethical conjectures & priorities: should one deny one's self - should the present be expendable in the interest of the future? While not everybody's book, Abe's conceptual startler has a chilly precision which makes the unthinkable only too threateningly possible. Kirkus"

Le Guin, Ursula K. "The Left Hand of Darkness"

Le Guin, Ursula K. "The Left Hand of Darkness" - 1969

I'm not the biggest fan of science fiction but my book club seems to select one every couple of months. What can I say, some of them are quite interesting, others not so much.

"The Left Hand of Darkness" can be fascinating in many ways. There is a different kind of life on planet Winter, it is a cold life, as the name of the planet already suggests. But it's also different to our kind of life as in all its inhabitants are ambisexual. They call it differently and anyone who is just one gender (like the inhabitants of our planet, Terra) is a pervert. Maybe this would help people who consider anyone who is not straight a weirdo. Though I doubt they would read a book like this.

So, other than making us understand the LGBTQ community better, what else is there to learn from this book. Well, the Ekumen reminded me a little of the United Nations or the European Union which have the same kind of problems because everyone wants a communion but it should, please, be moulded on their own culture.

Apparently, this book belongs to a series of novels called "The Hainish Cycle" but you are not supposed to read them all in order, they are published as single novels without any follow-up of one of the stories.

And it definitely gives us food for thought about our world and all the people living in it.

Some comments from our members:

• It gave much topics for discussion. Beside topics of what is Sci-fi, space travel, Mindspeak, gender difference, habitable ice planet, its people, politics and customs.
• I especially found the attitude towards time and societal progress interesting.
• Imo, her best book (not that I've read all of them) is The Lathe of Heaven. It's very different to her usual style. Highly recommend.
• While reading "The Left Hand of Darkness" I also reviewed Ursula Le Guin's rendition of Lao Tzu's "Tao Te Ching". It made for an enriched experience to consider the plot and characters of The Left Hand of Darkness through a Taoist lens. The shifting of Gethenian power and ways has a yin-yang quality that is very true to life.
  

We read this in our international online book club in August 2021.

From the back cover:

"A lone human ambassador is sent to the icebound planet of Winter, a world without sexual prejudice, where the inhabitants’ gender is fluid. His goal is to facilitate Winter’s inclusion in a growing intergalactic civilization. But to do so he must bridge the gulf between his own views and those of the strange, intriguing culture he encounters...

Embracing the aspects of psychology, society, and human emotion on an alien world, The Left Hand of Darkness stands as a landmark achievement in the annals of intellectual science fiction."

Urusla K. Le Guin has received many prizes for her works, i.a. the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award.

Gogol, Nikolai "The Overcoat. Stories from Russia"

Gogol, Nikolai (Никола́й Васи́льевич Го́голь, Nikolay Vasilyevich Gogol) "The Overcoat. Stories from Russia" (Russian: Шинел/Shinyeliь) (German collection: Gogols Mantel. Erzählungen aus Russland - 1842 et al.

This is a collection of Russian short stories, starting with "The Overcoat" by Nikolai Gogol. As with many of these anthologies, there isn't one with exactly the same stories. But, you can find all these in different other editions which I have tried to find for you.

I always love reading Russian novels. Even these short stories were fantastic. Funnily enough, my favourite was literally the most "fantastic" of them all, "Pkhenz" by Andrei Sinyavsky who wrote under the pseudonym Abram Tertz. Not that it helped him much, the KGB found out who was behind that name and sent him to a labour camp.

When I found the book, I thought it was a book with more than one story by Gogol. It wasn't, there's just "The Overcoat". But the others are all fantastic stories, as well. There was even a Nobel Prize winner among them, Ivan Bunin, who was the first Russian to received that prestigious award.

"The Overcoat" was discussed in our international online book club in October 2018. 

Gogol, Nikolai (Никола́й Васи́льевич Го́голь, Nikolay Vasilyevich Gogol) "The Overcoat" (RUS: Шинель/Shinel) - 1842
If you're not sure whether you like Russian literature, this is a perfect example. A simple story of a man who buys an overcoat yet there is so much in it about Russia and its soul. Unbelievable. A story I will probably read again and again.
Famous quote by Dostoevsky "We all come out of Gogol's 'Overcoat". Well said.
Blurb: "A sincere young clerk makes great sacrifices to attain an overcoat of untold value and power."

Dostoevsky, Fyodor "A Gentle Creature" (aka The Gentle Spirit) (RUS: Кроткая/Krotkaja) - 1876
Dostoevsky is one of my favourite Russian authors and this short story is just as great as some of his big novels. In this tale he explains the beginning and end of a relationship and how it all happened. Incredible how much you can put on so few pages.
Blurb: "In this compelling study of despair, based on a real-life incident, a pawnbroker mourns the loss of his wife, a quiet, gentle young girl. Why has she killed herself? Could he have prevented it? These are the questions the pawnbroker asks himself as he pieces together past events and minor incidents, changes of mood and passing glances, in his search for an answer that will relieve his torment.
In this short story, Dostoyevsky masterfully depicts desperation, greed, manipulation and suicide."

Tolstoy, Lew Nikolajewitsch (Толстой, Лев Николаевич) "The Death of Ivan Ilyich" (RUS: Смерть Ивана Ильича/Smert' Ivána Ilyichá) - 1886
I've read this before since it was in Tolstoy's "Collected Works". Again, a very Russian work. An observation about death and its impact not only on the person dying but also on those near to him. There are people who try to enjoy life as much as they can, live it to their fullest, others who give up and have nothing.
If you want to experience Russian literature at its best but don't like long stories, try this one. It's a great one by this brilliant author.
Blurb: "Tolstoy’s most famous novella is an intense and moving examination of death and the possibilities of redemption
Ivan Ilyich is a middle-aged man who has spent his life focused on his career as a bureaucrat and emotionally detached from his wife and children. After an accident he finds himself on the brink of an untimely death, which he sees as a terrible injustice. Face to face with his mortality, Ivan begins to question everything he has believed about the meaning of life. The Death of Ivan Ilyich is a masterpiece of psychological realism and philosophical profundity that has inspired generations of readers."

Chekhov, Anton Pavlovich (Антон Павлович Чехов) "The Lady with the Dog" (RUS: Дма с собачкой/Dama s sobachkoy) - 1899
Oh, the problems of the upper class (today we would say first world problems, I guess) who know nothing about the problems of the little man who has to work tremendously in order for his family not to starve. Often we read about the latter but this is a tale about the former. Great writing.
Again, I have read this story before in another collection "Summer Holidays".
Blurb: "This short story describes an adulterous affair between an unhappily married Moscow banker and a young married woman which begins while both are vacationing alone in Yalta. It is one of Chekhov's most famous pieces of short fiction, and Vladimir Nabokov considered it to be one of the greatest short stories ever written."

Babel, Isaac Emmanuilovich (Исаак Эммануилович Бабель) "Red Cavalry" (RUS: Конармия/Konarmiya) - 1926
"Nine prisoners of war are no longer alive."
A witness oft he civil war when Cossack cavalry invaded Poland after WWI, Isaac Babel describes the attack on a train and the subsequent killing of nine prisoners. This is only on of the stories from this collection which must all be great.
Blurb: "Based on Babel's own diaries that he wrote during the Russo-Polish war of 1920, Red Cavalry is a lyrical, unflinching and often startlingly ironic depiction of the violence and horrors of war. A classic of modern fiction, the short stories are as powerful today as they were when they burst onto the Russian literary landscape nearly a century ago. The narrator, a Russian-Jewish intellectual, struggles with the tensions of his dual identity: fact blends with fiction; the coarse language of soldiers combines with an elevated literary style; cultures, religions and different social classes collide. Shocking, moving and innovative, Red Cavalry is one of the masterpieces of Russian literature."

Kharms, Daniil (Дании́л Ива́нович Хармс) "Interruption" (RUS: помеха/Pomeha)
collection: Russian Absurd and Даниил Хармс. В двух томах. Том 1/Daniil Kharms. V dvukh tomakh. Tom 1
article: Three New Decrees (Авиация превращений/Aviacija prevrashhenij) (original: Собрание сочинений в 3 томах/Sobraniye sochineniy v 3 tomakh)
Another short story from a collection of stories. Very futuristic.
This is only a very small story, three pages long. I have found a few collections of short stories by Daniil Kharms and hope it is in one of them.
To my liking, this was far too short, I would have liked to read more.
Blurb: "A writer who defies categorization, Daniil Kharms has come to be regarded as an essential artist of the modernist avant-garde. His writing, which partakes of performance, narrative, poetry, and visual elements, was largely suppressed during his lifetime, which ended in a psychiatric ward where he starved to death during the siege of Leningrad. His work, which survived mostly in notebooks, can now be seen as one of the pillars of absurdist literature, most explicitly manifested in the 1920s and ’30s Soviet Union by the OBERIU group, which inherited the mantle of Russian futurism from such poets as Vladimir Mayakovsky and Velimir Khlebnikov. This selection of prose and poetry provides the most comprehensive portrait of the writer in English translation to date, revealing the arc of his career and including a particularly generous selection of his later work."

Bunin, Ivan Alekseyevich (Иван Алексеевич Бунин) "In Paris" (RUS: в Париже/v Parizhe) - 1943
collection: Dark Avenues (or Dark Alleys) (RUS: Тёмные аллеи/Tyomnyie alleyi)
Ivan Bunin was an emigrant, he saw a lot of Russian culture from the outside. "In Paris" is a story of Russian emigrants - exactly - in Paris, where he lived for a long time.
As someone who lived abroad myself for a long time, I could relate to many of his allusions. This short story is very interesting and I wouldn't mind reading more by this author.
You will find this story in his collection "Dark Avenues".
Blurb: "One of the great achievements of twentieth-century Russian émigré literature, Dark Avenues took Bunin's poetic mastery of language to new heights.
Written between 1938 and 1944 and set in the context of the Russian cultural and historical crises of the preceding decades, this collection of short fiction centres around dark, erotic liaisons. Love - in its many varied forms - is the unifying motif in a rich range of narratives, characterized by the evocative, elegiac, elegant prose for which Bunin is renowned."
Ivan Alekseyevich Bunin received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1933 "for following through and developing with chastity and artfulness the traditions of Russian classic prose." He was the first Russian author to be awarded this prize.

Tertz, Abram (Абрам Терц), Abram/Sinyavsky, Andrei Donatovich (Андрей Донатович Синявский) "Pkhenz" (RUS: Пхенц/Pkhenz) - 1959
collection: Fantastic Stories 
A science fiction story. Not normally my thing though I have read a few that I really liked. As I did this one. Probably the story that will stay with anyone longest who reads this collection.
I can see the comparison with Kafka though I really prefer this one.
Blurb: "Abram Tertz is the pseudonym of Andrei Sinyavsky, the exile Soviet dissident writer whose works have been compared to fabulists like Kafka and Borges. Tertz's settings are exotic but familiar and as compelling as those of lunatics and mystics. This edition contains the nightmarish 'Pkhentz', a story missing from the first English edition."

I contribute to this page: Read the Nobels and you can find all my blogs about Nobel Prize winning authors and their books here.

Lem, Stanisław "Solaris"

Lem, Stanisław "Solaris" (Polish: Solaris (powieść)) - 1961

If you research the author, it sounds like Stanisław Lem is one of the greatest science fiction writers ever. And I fully understand after having read this book. It is quite extraordinary and not at all like what you often find in science fiction stories.

First of all, you don't find the usual "aliens" in the book that are just humans in disguise. No, it's a completely different kind of species that Stanisław Lem comes up with. So unreal that it sounds more real than all the other science fiction stories.

There is a lot of psychology in this book, the memories of earthlings are sometimes more alien than any Babel Fish, Borg, Cat, Dalek, Droid, Ewok, Klingon, Vulcan or whatever the names of those extra-terrestrials in the popular sci-fi series are.

I'm not a huge fan of science fiction though I have read a few books that were not too bad. But this one I found fantastic, exciting, gripping, captivating, intriguing, riveting. I couldn't find enough words to express my feelings.

I totally liked this quote:

"We have no need of other worlds. We need mirrors. We don't know what to do with other worlds. A single world, our own, suffices us; but we can't accept it for what it is."

I think the author managed this very well. I am very glad that my book club chose this novel because I doubt I would have ever found or read it otherwise.

Comments from other members:

• There was one chapter that I thought was a bit too wordy, but it's mostly an easy read.
• I really liked the book, especially how the author talentfully built up the feeling in the story and characters and the futility and frustration of understanding an alien being.
• We also had a good laugh about the faulty logic in the test of sanity made by Kelvin. And the possibility that the characters in the story were suffering from space-madness and possibly were a representation of high-IQ people.
• I hadn't read it before, but had read another book by Lem called Fiasco, which I am now going to reread (I own a copy). I really liked the book, and it's also interesting for me reading a book by a Polish author, as I lived there for a little while.
• When looking up books to read for us I always get side-tracked by a lot of articles about the book and authors. I especially thought it was interesting to learn about the different translations of the book. I read a Swedish translation made in the 70-s from French, while the Finnish translation was made from German.
  I feel the same, would love to know which translation is closer to the original.
• Our library was unable to obtain this book for me so eventually I reluctantly read it online. I like to hold a book to get into it. I got into this book in spite of myself. It triggered reflections on our elaborate defenses against understanding reality, and against reading novels on a screen.
• 
  
  
  We also had a good laugh about the faulty logic in the test of sanity made by Kelvin. And the possibility that the characters in the story were suffering from space-madness and possibly were a representation of high-IQ people.
  ******

This was our international online book club novel in August 2020.

From the back cover:

"A classic work of science fiction by renowned Polish novelist and satirist Stanislaw Lem.

When Kris Kelvin arrives at the planet Solaris to study the ocean that covers its surface, he finds a painful, hitherto unconscious memory embodied in the living physical likeness of a long-dead lover. Others examining the planet, Kelvin learns, are plagued with their own repressed and newly corporeal memories. The Solaris ocean may be a massive brain that creates these incarnate memories, though its purpose in doing so is unknown, forcing the scientists to shift the focus of their quest and wonder if they can truly understand the universe without first understanding what lies within their hearts."

Stephenson, Neal "Anathem"

Stephenson, Neal "Anathem" - 2008

"The expression anathema
(ancient Greek ἀνάθημα or ἀνάθεμα "the devotee, cursing"),
also anathema, spell ray, spell of the church or
- in connection with a curse - spell curse,
denotes a condemnation by a church
that is associated with the exclusion from the ecclesial community
and canon law is to be equated with excommunication."

I'm not a big fan of science fiction and this is certainly a book that falls under that category. However, I love dystopian literature end I think, we can easily put it into that category, as well.

It is the year 3,000 or so on the planet Arbre. All the names they use come from some earthly words, this one meaning tree, of course. People have split up into two different kind of societies, the "avout" (probably from French "avouer", to confess) who live in monastery-like world, but definitely rational, atheist, and the Sæcular, the more worldly people. The avout are the scientists who study all sorts of different things, any science we know about - and probably more.

We get to meet one of them, Erasmas, also called Raz, after having spent a year in the "concent" when they get to meet the sæcular and we can see how they usually live. After that, everything goes pear-shaped and Raz goes on the trip of a lifetime, to different planets

I loved this book. It's not about science. Or fiction. Although, if that's your preference, you might want to read this, as well. It's about philosophy, about imagination. Arbre is similar to the Earth but has taken different steps. So, you can fantasize about how we could live, how our society might look like. I also really liked digging out all the meanings of the "foreign" words.

A lot of these kind of books have it but I really appreciated the glossary in the back of the book because I could always go back to a word I didn't remember rather than having to flip to a page before where it might have been explained. Of course, it meant I read many more than those 1,024 pages because I must have read the annex about twenty times. At least!

There's even a Wiki Fandom page that explains the correlation between Earth and Arbre, links their people to famous people in our world, their languages to ours etc. and a video/trailer on YouTube.

An interesting book. I'll read more by Neal Stephenson.

From the back cover:

"Erasmas - Raz - is a young avout living in the Concent, a sanctuary for mathematicians, scientists, and philosophers, protected from the corrupting influences of the outside world by ancient stone, honoured traditions, and complex rituals. Three times during history's darkest epochs, the cloistered community has been devastated by violence. Yet the avout have always managed to adapt in the wake of catastrophe.

Now, in celebration of a week-long, once-in-a-decade rite, the avout prepare to open the concent's gates. Before the week is out, both worlds - the inner and the outer - will stand poised on the brink of cataclysmic change. Suddenly Erasmas finds himself a major player in a drama that will determine the future of his world - as he sets out on an extraordinary odyssey that will carry him to the most dangerous, inhospitable corners of the planet... and beyond."

Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft "Frankenstein"

Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft "Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus" - 1818

I always wanted to read this book, it's one of the classics that doesn't really fit into my usual genre but it is definitely a classic. Apparently, one of the very first science fiction novels. Mary Wollstonecraft spent some time in Switzerland with her later husband Percy B. Shelley and Lord Byron when they decided to have a competition. Who would write the best horror story? I haven't read any of the two other authors but I'm sure Mary won this one.

Like a said, not my usual genre but our book club chose it as a solution to the lockdown procedures which prevented many of us to use our usual library and therefore, we needed something we could find online. Luckily, my son still has part of his books in our house so that I even had the book.

Frankenstein is not the monster, as people often believe. He's the creator. Although, maybe he has the touch of a monster in himself as he doesn't really care what will become of his creation. He is so ugly that he can't socialize and therefore becomes a monster.

This book is not just a horror story, there's a lot of psychology behind the scenes. We can look inside human beings, their dreams and their ambitions.

What I liked about the science fiction part, there are no strange explanations about how the being is created. You see this so often in films that they make something that is absolutely impossible in a way that you know wouldn't work. This way, there is nothing we can say was done incorrectly. We just have to imagine that it happened.

And before I forget, this is great writing. Not just the plot, also the style and technique are wonderful. Beautiful classic.

This was our international online book club novel in June 2020.

From the back cover:

"Mary Shelley began writing Frankenstein when she was only eighteen. At once a Gothic thriller, a passionate romance, and a cautionary tale about the dangers of science, Frankenstein tells the story of committed science student Victor Frankenstein. Obsessed with discovering the cause of generation and life and bestowing animation upon lifeless matter, Frankenstein assembles a human being from stolen body parts but; upon bringing it to life, he recoils in horror at the creature's hideousness. Tormented by isolation and loneliness, the once-innocent creature turns to evil and unleashes a campaign of murderous revenge against his creator, Frankenstein.

Frankenstein, an instant bestseller and an important ancestor of both the horror and science fiction genres, not only tells a terrifying story, but also raises profound, disturbing questions about the very nature of life and the place of humankind within the cosmos: What does it mean to be human? What responsibilities do we have to each other? How far can we go in tampering with Nature? In our age, filled with news of organ donation genetic engineering, and bio-terrorism, these questions are more relevant than ever."

Dick, Philip K. "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?"

Dick, Philip K. "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" - 1968

Why would androids dream of electric sheep? I always wondered about this weird title. I didn't wonder enough though to want to read it but when my book club decided to take it on, I had to have a go, of course.

The story is primarily about the bounty hunter Rick Deckard. After a nuclear global war damaged the earth tremendously, there are hardly any animals left. Or humans. Those that survived, mainly emigrated to Mars or other colonies on other planets. The ones left behind, are divided into two groups, the ones that are damaged through the war are called "specials" being considered second-rate people. And the androids, well, they are supposed to be modern slaves and are mainly intended to accompany to settlers to the colonies and not return to earth. Those that do it anyway are hunted by guys like Rick Deckard. But the androids get smarter and smarter and the hunt gets harder and harder.

I don't want to tell the whole story. The reason I liked the book was mainly because of the way, the different inhabitants of earth are described, the empathy that is not there between the species, the understanding that other people also have their needs. Even if we don't consider the androids, wouldn't we try to help each other after such a disaster rather than splitting up in different groups? A very philosophic question.

The androids are the slaves of the future. If they don't do what they are supposed to do, they get killed, or "retired", as they like to call it.

Oh, and then there was one part that I really liked. When they describe "stuff". Both my husband and I are more gatherers than minimalists, so I could relate very well.

"Kipple is useless objects, like junk mail or match folders after you use the last match or gum wrappers or yesterday's homeopape. When nobody's around, kipple reproduces itself. For instance, if you go to bed leaving any kipple around your apartment, when you wake up the next morning there's twice as much of it. It always gets more and more."

Do I even need to mention that I never watched the movie? I tried to see who plays whom but it looks like the film is more than "loosely" based on the book. I could only find a few names that are in both.

From the back cover:

"War has left the Earth devastated. Through its ruins, bounty hunter Rick Deckard stalks, in search of the renegade replicants who are his prey. When he isn’t 'retiring' them, he dreams of owning the ultimate status symbol -- a live animal. Then Rick gets a big assignment: to kill six Nexus-6 targets, for a huge reward. But things are never that simple, and Rick’s life quickly turns into a nightmare kaleidoscope of subterfuge and deceit."

We discussed this book in our international online book club in September 2019.

Wells, H. G. "The Time Machine"

Wells, H. G. "The Time Machine" - 1895

I watched the movie of this book (the 1960 version with Rod Taylor) sometime in the sixties or seventies and really like it. Usually, science fiction is not my thing but this was fascinating. I suppose the dystopian side did it for me.

Then I read "The Map of Time" by Félix J. Palma a couple of years ago and was fascinated again. I knew I would have to read the novel one day.

And I did not regret it. Quite a story, even if the movie took quite a few liberties … but what else is new?

As I said in my other reviews about dystopian novels, they always mirror the fears and hopes of a generation. Did the Victorians fear we would all end up as Morlocks and Eloi? I can imagine, even though the appeal of the book at the time certainly must have been the time travelling. But, in any case, this was probably one of the first books that moved away from a utopian future, that tried to warn the people that things could also go wrong.

This is certainly a great book. And with just 150 pages, anyone could read it.

From the back cover:

"'Great shapes like big machines rose out of the dimness, and cast grotesque black shadows, in which dim spectral Morlocks sheltered from the glare.'

Chilling, prophetic and hugely influential, The Time Machine sees a Victorian scientist propel himself into the year 802,701 AD, where he is delighted to find that suffering has been replaced by beauty and contentment in the form of the Eloi, an elfin species descended from man. But he soon realizes that they are simply remnants of a once-great culture - now weak and living in terror of the sinister Morlocks lurking in the deep tunnels, who threaten his very return home.

H. G. Wells defined much of modern science fiction with this 1895 tale of time travel, which questions humanity, society, and our place on Earth."

Weir, Andy "The Martian"

Weir, Andy "The Martian" - 2011

"A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...." ... "Captain's Log, Stardate …" Oooops, wrong story! The star trekkers and star warriors went a lot further than our protagonist, Mark Watney.

I don't know why I decided to read this book because it is usually so out of my comfort zone, I'm not a fan of science fiction, I can't get over illogical assumptions or contradicting effects. This one seemed a little different. And it was. Mars is a planet that humans might get to land one of these days.

A great story, the third crew that ever lands on Mars is surprised by a dust storm and has to evacuate, leaving one of their crew behind, assumed dead. However, he isn't. Now he needs to survive until the fourth crew will arrive more than 3,000 km away from where he is situated at the moment. And, he needs to produce oxygen, water and food in order to survive. Luckily, he was the crew's botanist and engineer (what a coincidence!).

While nobody on earth knows he's still alive, he starts preparing his living quarters and a vehicle that will take him to his destination …

I don't want to give away too much but nothing turns out to go the way Mark intends it to go.

A fantastic story, well written. I really liked that the crew included two women, one of them being the commander, but also a German scientist and one with a very Spanish sounding name. Great mix.

While following Mark Watney's quest for survival, we get to know and love him. Besides being extremely intelligent, of course, he is a very humorous guy. You feel for him, you feel for everyone else, great writing!

There is a lot of technical detail in the book where the author explains how certain things function - not that I could follow them all - but it was great to see how this might work.

I also learned that Mars has two moons, Phobos and Deimos, well, I knew that before but I don't think I'll ever forgot it again.

"The Martian" was made into a film and received the Academy Award for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay.

From the back cover:

"Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars.

Now, he’s sure he’ll be the first person to die there.

After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive - and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive.

Chances are, though, he won’t have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment, or plain-old 'human error' are much more likely to kill him first.

But Mark isn’t ready to give up yet. Drawing on his ingenuity, his engineering skills - and a relentless, dogged refusal to quit - he steadfastly confronts one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next. Will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him?"

Palma, Felix J. "The Map of Chaos"

Palma, Felix J. "The Map of Chaos" (Spanish: El mapa del caos) - 2014

I usually wait until a book is available in paperback, lighter, cheaper, takes up less space etc. And translations, I prefer to read them translated into German though I was tempted to get this one in English when I found a reduced copy with only some minor damages in a German bookshop.

Anyway, I was glad I did. After reading the first two editions of this trilogy, "The Map of Time" and "The Map of the Sky", I was eagerly awaiting the third part.

Now, I'm not a huge fan of science fiction and these books are based on H.G. Wells' novels. But Félix J. Palma has created some marvels. In this novel, he doesn't just travel in time, he travels in worlds, parallel worlds that are slight copies of each other. The idea that there might be another world with exactly the same people in it but different destinies is quite amazing. The ideas for the story are so unique, I don't think I've ever read anything like that.

Whilst he based "The Map of Time" on "The Time Machine" and "The Map of the Sky" on "War of the Worlds", this last part is based on "The Invisible Man". I shall have to read all three of them, just to see where this author got his inspiration.

"Chaos is inevitable". That's the theme of the book and there is a lot of chaos to be found. We visit Victorian London, meet lots of real-life characters from the time like the prolific writers H.G. Wells, Lewis Carroll and Arthur Conan Doyle as well as some good old acquaintances from the former books.

A marvellous conclusion of a fantastic trilogy.

I know the author has written more books and I hope they will all be translated one day.

From the back cover:

"From the New York Times bestselling author of The Map of Time and The Map of the Sky, the final installment in the award-winning trilogy that The Washington Post called 'a big, genre-bending delight'.

When the person he loves most dies in tragic circumstances, the mysterious protagonist of The Map of Chaos does all he can to speak to her one last time. A session with a renowned medium seems to offer the only solution, but the experience unleashes terrible forces that bring the world to the brink of disaster. Salvation can only be found in The Map of Chaos, an obscure book that he is desperate to uncover. In his search, he is given invaluable help by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Lewis Carroll, and of course by H. G. Wells, whose Invisible Man seems to have escaped from the pages of his famous novel to sow terror among mankind. They alone can discover the means to save the world and to find the path that will reunite the lovers separated by death.

Proving once again that he is 'a master of ingenious plotting' (Kirkus Reviews), Félix J. Palma brings together a cast of real and imagined literary characters in Victorian-Age London, when spiritualism is at its height. The Map of Chaos is a spellbinding adventure that mixes impossible loves, nonstop action, real ghosts, and fake mediums, all while paying homage to the giants of science fiction.

It won the 2015 Ignotus Awards for Best Spanish Novel."

Zeh, Juli "The Method"

Zeh, Juli "The Method" (German: Corpus Delicti. Ein Prozess) - 2009

I read a few books by German author Juli Zeh, none of them have been translated into English. I liked them all and was surprised to see that she also wrote a dystopian one.

In this futuristic novel, we suppose that there are no more illnesses but that the state has taken over everything, something a lot of conservatives think the communists already did but this goes a lot further.

Being healthy is something you have to be, you can't even be a little depressed and you certainly shouldn't do anything that might make you sick. If you don't, that's considered treason. The biggest question is, however, does complete health make us happy?

Quote: "Health is a state of complete physical, spiritual and social wellbeing - and not the mere absence of disease."

I couldn’t agree more.

I have read more interesting dystopian novels but this one certainly gets you thinking.

From the back cover:

"Mia Holl lives in a state governed by The Method, where good health is the highest duty of the citizen. Everyone must submit medical data and sleep records to the authorities on a monthly basis, and regular exercise is mandatory. Mia is young and beautiful, a successful scientist who is outwardly obedient but with an intellect that marks her as subversive. Convinced that her brother has been wrongfully convicted of a terrible crime, Mia comes up against the full force of a regime determined to control every aspect of its citizens' lives.

The Method, set in the middle of the twenty-first century, deals with pressing questions: to what extent can the state curtail the rights of the individual? And does the individual have a right to resist? Juli Zeh has written a thrilling and visionary book about our future, and our present."

Fforde, Jasper "Shades of Grey. The Road to High Saffron"

Fforde, Jasper "Shades of Grey. The Road to High Saffron" - 2009

A dystopian novel about a future where colour perception rules the world. I like colours, I like Jasper Fforde's style I read a few of his "Thursday Next" books (The Eyre Affair, Lost in a Good Book), so I couldn't resist when I saw this book even though the title surprised me a little. When my son saw it on my reading pile, he looked at it curiously and I said "It's not 50 Shades of Grey", and he laughed and said "I wouldn't think you'd step that low". Oh, my kids know me so well. ;)

Anyway, I think dystopian novels (or "disturbian" as my husband likes to call them) are great. They show our society in a different way. What kind of fears are there, how do we imagine the world would look like if some of them came true. Or something else happened that made us give up the ways we live now.

In this case, Something (always capitalized) happens and the world changes, the people change. Everyone is only able to see certain kinds of colour and even there is a difference in how well they perceive "their" colour. Families even have their last names showing what colour they can see, like our hero Eddie Russett, who - obviously - belongs to the Reds. Then there are the deMauves, the Ochres, the Magnetas, Mr. Yewberry, Mrs. Lapis-Lazuli, etc. The Greys don't see any colours and are therefore just given a number.

But here's the thing, people manage to get racism even into this, you are not judged by the colour of your skin but by the colour you can see. The ultra-violets are the highest, the Reds come second last, just above the Greys.

What I liked about this novel is not just the author's style, he does write interestingly and his novels always contain a lot of humour, but the way it makes you think about how we really perceive this world. That is my favourite part not just about this novel but of any dystopian one.

From the back cover:

"Hundreds of years in the future, after the Something that Happened, the world is an alarmingly different place. Life is lived according to The Rulebook and social hierarchy is determined by your perception of colour.
Eddie Russett is an above average Red who dreams of moving up the ladder by marriage to Constance Oxblood. Until he is sent to the Outer Fringes where he meets Jane - a lowly Grey with an uncontrollable temper and a desire to see him killed.
For Eddie, it's love at first sight. But his infatuation will lead him to discover that all is not as it seems in a world where everything that looks black and white is really shades of grey . . .
If George Orwell had tripped over a paint pot or Douglas Adams favoured colour swatches instead of towels . . . neither of them would have come up with anything as eccentrically brilliant as Shades of Grey."

According to Wikipedia: "Fforde's books contain a profusion of literary allusions and wordplay, tightly scripted plots, and playfulness with the conventions of traditional genres. His works usually contain elements of metafiction, parody, and fantasy."

Atwood, Margaret "The Blind Assassin"

Atwood, Margaret "The Blind Assassin" - 2000

A book within a book within a book. Three stories for the price of one. Sounded good. Plus, it is written by Margaret Atwood. I wanted to read more of her writings ever since I discovered "The Handmaid's Tale". It was worth the wait but I know I won't wait that long to read her next novel.

This novel is a love story. No, it's a science fiction book. Or is it a murder mystery? It's a mystery for sure. We get snippets of the narrator's life through newspaper articles, she is telling us her life as it is today and what it was when she was young. But then there is also the book by her sister in which two lovers meet and tell a third story, this one is definitely science fiction. Anyway, you have the feeling they belong together and it didn't take me that long to find out who was who but it still was terribly exciting.

It is hard to describe the book without giving too much away, so I will just say this:

Margaret Atwood has a certain style where she makes everything mysterious, she can linger on a story in order to build suspense as well as using the most wonderful words and notions in order to make her work beautiful.

Need I say more? I loved the book.

From the back cover:

"The novel opens with these simple, resonant words: 'Ten days after the war ended, my sister Laura drove a car off the bridge.' They are spoken by Iris Chase Griffen, sole surviving descendant of a once rich and influential Ontario family, whose terse account of her sister's death in 1945 is followed by an inquest report proclaiming the death accidental. But just as the reader expects to settle into Laura's story, Atwood introduces a novel-within-a-novel. Entitled The Blind Assassin, it is a science fiction story told by two unnamed lovers who meet in dingy backstreet rooms. When we return to Iris, it is through a 1947 newspaper article announcing the discovery of a sailboat carrying the dead body of her husband, a distinguished industrialist.
What makes this novel Margaret Atwood's strongest and most profoundly entertaining is the way in which the three wonderfully rich stories weave together, gradually revealing through their interplay the secrets surrounding the entire Chase family - and most particularly the fascinating and tangled lives of the two sisters. The Blind Assassin is a brilliant and enthralling book by a writer at the top of their form."

Margaret Atwood received the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade (Friedenspreis) in 2017 and the Booker Prize for "The Blind Assassin" in 2000.

Ballantyne, Tony "Dream London" - 2013

Ballantyne, Tony "Dream London" - 2013

I love London and I love reading about it. I also love dreaming about it but this book was not my thing. Too much fantasy, too little of anything else, the plot goes all over the place and makes no sense at all. Not my type of book.

I doubt I will read another book of "The Dream World" series, looks like Paris is the next one. I think I rather read something historical about them, like anything by Edward Rutherfurd.

From the back cover:
"Captain Jim Wedderburn has looks, style and courage. He's adored by women, respected by men and feared by his enemies. He's the man to find out who has twisted London into this strange new world.

But in Dream London the city changes a little every night and the people change a little every day. The towers are growing taller, the parks have hidden themselves away and the streets form themselves into strange new patterns. There are people sailing in from new lands down the river, new criminals emerging in the East End and a path spiralling down to another world.

Everyone is changing, no one is who they seem to be."

Adams, Douglas "The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy"

Adams, Douglas "The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy" - 1979

As everybody knows, I am not a huge fan of science fiction, neither on paper nor on the screen. But I thought that "The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy" belongs to the classics and should be read by anyone who is interested in literature.

Yes, a nice little story about the "Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything", certainly a brilliant story if you like this genre but not enough to tempt me to read the four other parts of this "trilogy". Mind you, I love Martin Freeman, so I might even watch the movie.

From the back cover:

"One Thursday lunchtime, the Earth gets unexpectedly demolished to make way for a new hyperspace bypass. It's the final straw for Arthur Dent, who has already had his house bulldozed that morning. But for Arthur, that is only the beginning .In the seconds before global obliteration, Arthur is plucked from the planet by his friend Ford Prefect - and together the pair venture out across the galaxy on the craziest, strangest road trip of all time. book."