"You know, it's economical not to have a storyline, cause then you can just film people saying things." ~ Crow T. Robot talking about the movie Werewolf on MST3K. I sure got that same vibe here.

Honestly, this is a three point fiver to me. But it's hard not to admire the pure batshit ambition that went into the creation of Tormance. Maskull goes on a sci-fi version of Dante's Divine Comedy or Pilgrim's Progress -- the alien world is populated by groups of oddly shaped humans each with super hard opinions about philosophy and genders, which they are more than happy to talk about [and then usually die for].

Lindsay's work is pretty revolutionary for gussying up a buckshot of philosophy as a science fiction/fantasy yarn. It's all fascinating to think about, but as a book, its fiery momentum putters out about halfway through, when it becomes clear that there will be no really satisfying answer to what the hell I've been reading (the ending is still pretty cool though).

One of the strangest books I’ve ever read. The textbook definition of “sheesh there’s a lot to unpack here”.

Ultimately pretty enjoyable but also quite baffling and impenetrable at times. And it’s also not really science fiction or a novel, more like an allegory or philosophical psalm. The closest thing I can compare it to is the film The Green Knight. I’m going to think about it for a while though.

This is one of the stranger books I've ever read. It came highly recommended by Jim Woodring and it did not disappoint. The protagonist, Maskull, travels to an alien planet and in each land he traverses, the landscape and people are different than the last. He encounters things like green snow and people with third arms growing out of their chests. Indeed, Maskull often wakes up with the same type of new sense organs as the natives he meets. The differences in each place even extend to the morals and philosophies of the people and Maskull often finds himself in agreement, even being driven to murder in lands where pity is rare and the strong prevail. Yet through it all, he is driven to meet the god(?) Surtur and so walks on and on, finding different ways of looking at the universe but none of them quite right to his thinking. It reminded me a bit of Gulliver's Travels but it's not satirical like Swift's tales.

Lindsay really seems to be working on a personal philosophy and the effect, combined with the unhinged reality in the book, is quite disorienting. There are some wonderfully written passages but a lot of the writing and characterization is quite odd and clumsy. Still, the book fascinated me and I'm glad to have read it.

La reseña completa http://inthenevernever.blogspot.com.es/2016/12/viaje-arcturus-de-david-lindsay.html

“Siempre enterrados en el pasado o en el futuro, ignorando sistemáticamente el presente… y ahora resulta que aparte del presente no tenemos vida alguna”.

Acompañada con una maravillosa Carta de la editora, que nos invita no a interpretar la obra de Linday sino a devorarla, un apartado dedicado a la traducción, a cargo de Susana Prieto Mori, donde se nos explica lo complejo de adaptar al español los nombres que el autor da a sus personajes y a los lugares, ya que ni siquiera en inglés es evidente su significado, y por una increíble introducción de Alan Moore, donde nos cuenta, entre otras cosas, que el libro al publicarse en 1920 vendió menos de seiscientas copias, llegamos a la novela sintiéndonos preparados, pero realmente no lo estamos, nada nos puede preparar para explorar Tormance.

Take Jainism, sprinkle in a bit of Scandinavian mythology, add a pinch of Buddhism, get into a pipe, and ride the cosmos to Arcturus where the only trueth is that reality is as an illusion.

A Voyage to Arcturus is a surreal heady trip about a somewhat detatched protagonist, Maskull (Masculine? Mask-skull? both?) and his journey to the Final Pennance (the ultimate goal of Jainism.)

Readers will readily recognize the great influence this book has had on Director Luc Besson (Velerian, 5th Element), the Incal graphic novel series, the movie Circle of Iron, C. S. Lewis's Space Trilogy, even JRR. Tolkien said he read it "with avidity".

Although you will not find engaging characters or a gripping plot in this story, you will find many wonderful ideas and situations.

This early speculative fiction novel is over 100 years old and you definitely see it in the text. It recalls early space opera works like John Carter, with a protagonist involved in a quest on a weird, distant planet. John Carter though is a romantic, noble hero and the challenges he needs to tackle are immediate. Maskull's story is more philosophical, with a lot of death, sacrifices, discussions of philosophical concepts and so many weird names and characters.
The novel is definitely imaginative and describes very different cultures in broad strokes.
There a lot of discussion of gender roles, and even non-binary characters, which I did not expect in such an old novel.
Still, my main issue is that I still don't understand what the novel was discussing. The novel is mostly allegorical, and I was not able to grasp what the author was trying to say.

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.

Plan to read again in 5 years to see if there is less confusion.