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smiorganbaldhead's review against another edition
3.0
This book can be hard to follow, particular in the early chapters and the very end. The journey through space and time in particular is very trippy. I didn’t particularly enjoy it at first, but I liked the middle chapters well enough to make my overall impression mildly favorable. I especially enjoyed seeing several points where this book might have inspired elements of the TV series Futurama, including suicide booths, robotic killers of people who step out of line, and a long series of rulers who always die quickly after taking the throne. The ending is confusing, but the more I think about it, the more I like it.
mjfmjfmjf's review against another edition
1.0
Yup that was terrible. I read this one because it is going to be discussed at Worldcon in Spokane. Perhaps I would have hated this less if say I were a fan of Thomas More or Utopia. But instead I found this book to be completely full of itself and essentially unreadable. In some ways it reminded me of Brave New World - but memories of that book is that it was good AND had a plot, was actually a story. Instead this book was primarily ludicrous speechifying to no end. Waster of time. I'm curious to hear what I possibly missed.
reasie's review against another edition
4.0
And done! With volume one. :) These are indeed some good representative novels from the time period, and they show some of the breadth of science fiction in the early sixties. High adventure and medievalism in "The High Crusade" -- hey were people pretending "humans are the badass warrior race of the galaxy" was a new concept? Pohl Anderson was a founding member of the SCA so is this the first SCA novel? Just a thought. ;)
"Way Station" was great to read in quarantine since it's about a man who lives alone in a sealed house. It peppers in all kinds of ideas, like do imaginary friends have souls? And can we use math to predict wars? Lots of "skiffy" things and all the varied aliens... and of course a "Force" that balances the universe...
"Flowers for Algernon" plays hard on Keye's background in psychology and you really get a feel for what was the state of the art back then. (And, sadly, how 'hard' SF often ages the fastest.)
"...And Call Me Conrad" is a picaresque adventure with heavy dashes of mythological references and a post-apocalyptic human diaspora that isn't as bad as most... sure there are 'hot zones' mutant monsters and cannibal tribes, but civilization continues centered on the islands of Earth, with a planetary capital in Haiti. (I like anything that has Haiti come out on top.)
This also showcased the limitations of the time period in what they have in common. Women are mysterious or petty or both... it's interesting how blind the narrators are to the pressures forcing these women into these roles. Wow, how was anyone sane in a world where she couldn't have ambitions of her own? I digress. Keyes tries to dig a little deeper, Anderson has his queen redeemed, and Zelazny at least has two female characters along for the whole adventure, one a spy, and the ladies do help out.
Of the four, "High Crusade" is the best plotted. The others all have passages that feel like digressions or filler. Possibly an artifact of these authors all starting in short stories?
I'm looking forward to Volume Two. The sixties were a dynamic decade and I expect the second four novels to have a very different feel.
"Way Station" was great to read in quarantine since it's about a man who lives alone in a sealed house. It peppers in all kinds of ideas, like do imaginary friends have souls? And can we use math to predict wars? Lots of "skiffy" things and all the varied aliens... and of course a "Force" that balances the universe...
"Flowers for Algernon" plays hard on Keye's background in psychology and you really get a feel for what was the state of the art back then. (And, sadly, how 'hard' SF often ages the fastest.)
"...And Call Me Conrad" is a picaresque adventure with heavy dashes of mythological references and a post-apocalyptic human diaspora that isn't as bad as most... sure there are 'hot zones' mutant monsters and cannibal tribes, but civilization continues centered on the islands of Earth, with a planetary capital in Haiti. (I like anything that has Haiti come out on top.)
This also showcased the limitations of the time period in what they have in common. Women are mysterious or petty or both... it's interesting how blind the narrators are to the pressures forcing these women into these roles. Wow, how was anyone sane in a world where she couldn't have ambitions of her own? I digress. Keyes tries to dig a little deeper, Anderson has his queen redeemed, and Zelazny at least has two female characters along for the whole adventure, one a spy, and the ladies do help out.
Of the four, "High Crusade" is the best plotted. The others all have passages that feel like digressions or filler. Possibly an artifact of these authors all starting in short stories?
I'm looking forward to Volume Two. The sixties were a dynamic decade and I expect the second four novels to have a very different feel.
reasie's review against another edition
4.0
"Past Master" - this book would not be published today, or if it was self-published, would be derided as evidence of how awful self-publishing is. I mean it was terrible, a slog, lazy rambling. I barely got through it. Near as I can tell the only thing it's trying to say is "Thomas Moore was a moral absolutist." Moore comes through as a character. Everyone else... meh.
"Picnic on Paradise" imagine the book about traveling to the south pole, but Science Fiction. The main character is a Magnificent Bitch... and must have felt more unique when it happened. These days we'd expect a little more, but back then... wow, yeah, warrior woman on the go! I wondered at the relationship between the protagonist and the boy... I thought Russ was a lesbian and I wonder if she had to sublimate her own preferences for commercial appeal. Anyway, the focus on drugs = enlightenment and the weird, war is war?
Very 1960s.
"Nova" -- this is among the best books I have ever written and reading it, enjoying it, showed me just how head-and-shoulders it was above all the novels of its time. It feels 20 years before its time. SO GOOD. The characters are nuanced, the world is nuanced, it feels REAL, complex, all the details in display. I can't gush enough.
"Emphyrio" -- would have been awesome if not after "Nova" which is head-and-shoulders above it. Still, I enjoyed the complexity of the world and the way it addresses issues of work and value. However, I feel it has a strong upper-middle-class bias which irritated me. Still, it was an enjoyable enough read, did not have to force myself to finish.
"Picnic on Paradise" imagine the book about traveling to the south pole, but Science Fiction. The main character is a Magnificent Bitch... and must have felt more unique when it happened. These days we'd expect a little more, but back then... wow, yeah, warrior woman on the go! I wondered at the relationship between the protagonist and the boy... I thought Russ was a lesbian and I wonder if she had to sublimate her own preferences for commercial appeal. Anyway, the focus on drugs = enlightenment and the weird, war is war?
Very 1960s.
"Nova" -- this is among the best books I have ever written and reading it, enjoying it, showed me just how head-and-shoulders it was above all the novels of its time. It feels 20 years before its time. SO GOOD. The characters are nuanced, the world is nuanced, it feels REAL, complex, all the details in display. I can't gush enough.
"Emphyrio" -- would have been awesome if not after "Nova" which is head-and-shoulders above it. Still, I enjoyed the complexity of the world and the way it addresses issues of work and value. However, I feel it has a strong upper-middle-class bias which irritated me. Still, it was an enjoyable enough read, did not have to force myself to finish.
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