Greg
I didn't know what to expect when I started this book, but I found it very enjoyable. The characters are quirky and likeable, the story is unpredictable and engaging and it harks to a future dystopia that disturbingly, is not beyond the realms of possibility.
My only gripe was that the ending was too predictable. Also, I was a gamer kid in the 80s so I understand nearly all the cultural references, which the book revolves around very strongly, I don't know exactly how this book would fly if you didn't.
This is a P K Dick classic, you could almost compile a check list of dystopian sci-fi must haves and it would tick nearly all of them. But this would be doing it a disservice as it is much more more than that.
The only thing that I regret about reading this book, is that I like the film Bladerunner a little less. The book is deeper, more engaging and more complete and it makes the film feel shallow by comparison, but I guess that's books and films for you...
Very much a book of it's time, entertaining in parts, cheesy in parts but certainly quite sexist and a little bit racist by modern standards.
Contains spoilers
The message in the book is very valid, but it could be conveyed in far fewer pages. I didn‘t finish the book, this is the key message, if you don't want to know, stop now.
Almost every negative metric in society (drug use, obesity, crime, etc.) correlates with income inequality (not average income or GDP). And the US is the clear leader on economic and societal inequality.
Every chapter highlights a specific negative metric, demonstrates a correlation with inequality and talks about how it could be causative.
Evey chapter is the same, read one chapter and you've read it all.
The only caveat is people/countries below the poverty line. People that really can't afford to eat, people struggling to survive; they do benefit from increases in average income, but the benefit stops once they are out poverty.
I found the portrayal of a truly miserable dystopia quite compelling. However, the book is very light on story, without giving too much away, they get hungry, they find some food, they hide from someone on the road, repeat 3 or 4 times . The story only moves on right at the very end, literally the last page and it's predictable. Interaction between the man and boy is trying and repetitive and McCarthy's writing style for the dialogue is weird. Luckily the book is fairly short.
Sadly Asimov was not as good a writing mysteries as he thought he was. Of the multiple stories in this book I would consider only 2 of them good, the rest are decidedly sub-par. The thing that irked me most was that after most stories, he posted a letter from a reader questioning his reasoning in the story and his response to the question. They are framed in such as way as to illuminate the brilliance of Asimov's mystery writing mind, but the fact that the majority of the mysteries are neither illuminating, nor brilliant is just evidence of Asimov's huge ego and is at best, comical.
Like a lot of books of this genre, it could have been a fraction of the size and still got its points across.
For example homeopathy is pure quackery, people involved are, unsurprisingly, not interested in fair trials, since their livelihood depends on it. That's about it, but he manages to pad this out to nearly 40 pages.
For most chapters you will get his point after the first few pages, but you'll have to endure page after page after page of examples.
He writes with a kind of incredulity that people don't tell the truth, that pharma companies fudge trials, that the media perpetuates lies. They all make a living by doing this, so I'm not remotely incredulous.
I read this in 2022, so debunking Gillian McKeith was something I'm not really interested in.
I'm amongst the pages of fluff, he talks about some interesting topics. I think the placebo effect is fascinating and so does he.
It's not a bad book, overly wordy and a bit dated.
A very interesting book that illustrates how critical sleep is to our lives and how inextricably linked it is to everything we do. It is very informative, but I find the author often rambles off on a medical topic, or reals off lists of drugs that don't really having any direct bearing on the topic. Yes I'm sure he is a smart guy, but honestly, this book could have been half the length.
Fantastic book, the seminal root of popular cyberspace fiction. There is a lot of terminology that you will have to pick up and the end of the book feels a little bit psychodelic, so I found it a more concentrated read than average. I wouldn't stop mid-book for too long either, otherwise you are liable to come back and wonder what the hell is going on. I loved it, but I could understand why it may not be everyone's cup of tea.
This book portrays a intriguing view of the world and paints a vivid picture of the competing superpowers and the effect it has on the world and even more so, it's inhabitants. I have two issues with it though.
Firstly, there is too much navel gazing, nearly all the the characters seem to be weighed down with internal angst about their social position. This personal angst is a character trait common to Dick and is not in itself a bad thing, but there is too much of it in this book.
Secondly, there is no real story. There are the stories of a number of individuals, that you hope will be tied together in a coherent ending, but that doesn't really happen. Some of the stories overlap, but nothing comes to a meaningful conclusion, the book ends and that's that.
