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3.3 AVERAGE
3.3 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Well, that was very strange. In no way science fiction, it's more of a philosophical enquiry by means of a space-travel narrative and apparently brings in Gnostic ideas as well as some kind of Norse gods reference towards the end. It also depicts a descent from a kind of Eden into murderous darkness because after all "Humans are bastards."
Somehow it is well ahead of the curve on issues of gender, with much discussion of the aspects of male and female, and one character who is genderfluid and has their own pronouns (in 1920!), and later on a caricature 'manly man' who appears to defy gravity by his balls.... I chuckled at this bit but that was about the only laugh after the first chapter or two as Maskull becomes more and more drawn into the long war between pleasure, duty, pain, and all the rest of the archetypes that I am sure litter this very peculiar narrative.
But at least it isn't written in a false-archaic style such as William Hope Hodgson used to affect. That would have made it unreadable, and although I didn't want to spend more than a couple of days on it, it wasn't unreadable.
Somehow it is well ahead of the curve on issues of gender, with much discussion of the aspects of male and female, and one character who is genderfluid and has their own pronouns (in 1920!), and later on a caricature 'manly man' who appears to defy gravity by his balls.... I chuckled at this bit but that was about the only laugh after the first chapter or two as Maskull becomes more and more drawn into the long war between pleasure, duty, pain, and all the rest of the archetypes that I am sure litter this very peculiar narrative.
But at least it isn't written in a false-archaic style such as William Hope Hodgson used to affect. That would have made it unreadable, and although I didn't want to spend more than a couple of days on it, it wasn't unreadable.
great early science fiction/philosophy written just after WWI. it takes a while to adjust to the language, but hold till the end it is worth it.
fast-paced
Plan to read again in 5 years to see if there is less confusion.
adventurous
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I would need to read this a second time to understand what I just read, but I don't intend on doing that. This book reads like Homer took mushrooms and rethought The Odyssey. I think I'd recommend it, but I'm not positive I comprehend it. No, I'm sure I don't comprehend it. Still, I enjoyed a lot of the passages. There were some Buddhist themes and interesting thoughts on masculinity vs. femininity. For a book that was published 100 years ago, I was surprised I didn't find anything uncouth or culturally insensitive. The author goes into a ton of detail describing what the protagonist is seeing on the alien world. He really painstakingly paints a picture with words. Some people might enjoy that level of description. I think it's excessive a lot of time.
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This was an extremely weird book that I would absolutely have DNFed if I weren’t reading it for a book club. I’ve never taken acid, but this book is what I imagine an acid trip must feel like. Or a fever dream. On the upside, Lindsay is extremely imaginative in his worldbuilding: the flora and fauna are unique from anything I’ve ever read, and I’ve read A LOT of speculative fiction. The decision to name two or three new colours, describe them once by the way they made the protagonist feel, and then just drop them into the book as descriptors is certainly a bold move. On the downside… well, everything else. The book feels like a 0-draft in heavy need of editing. There are long stretches of dialogue with no action or dialogue tags. The protagonist (Maskull) bounces from one motivation to another at the drop of a hat. Things that seem important early on are abandoned and never revisited. The names feel like what would happen if I asked a 6-year-old to name things for me. (As just a few random examples: Joiwind, Spadevil, Sullenbode, Earthrid.) We never really get a sense for any of the characters before we’re whisked away to something else. I was confused for the whole book, and the ending didn’t do anything to resolve my confusion. At least I have a lot of ranting I can do at the book club meeting?