Πιστεύω πως είναι δύσκολο να δεις το μήνυμα του Λίντσεϊ διότι ακόμα και αυτός κατά τη διάρκεια της ιστορίας δε το ξέρει κάνει ερωτήσεις και προσπαθεί να καταλήξει σε συμπεράσματα όπως και ο πρωταγωνιστής ο Μάσκαλ. Στο τέλος αυτό που πραγματικά σου δίνει είναι τροφή για σκέψη, σε ωθεί να βρεις μόνος σου τί σημαίνει η ιστορία. Πολύ καλό βιβλίο ωστόσο τραβάει παραπάνω από όσο θα έπρεπε ιδικά στη μέση, το προτείνω αλλά σίγουρα δεν θα αρέσει σε όλους.

This book is incredible! This should be on every essential Sci-Fi reading list. It seems so deep and complex, like it deserves its own course of study. Without question, I will be reading it again.

Unreadable.

I have always been interested in the rather old school sci-fi, like Lewis's Space Trilogy and such. Back when there was very little character development and the protagonist existed as a vehicle for imagining a world vastly different than our own. Lindsay's book is very much in that vein; an exploration of what it means to be human using aliens. He has the bright idea of creating humanoids with extra sensory organs that mutate throughout the story and are used to explicitly display that which we can only infer. Lindsay's theories are fascinating, if very bizarre, and he at least does not fall into the trap of having a clear and obvious moral.
This was read at C.S. Lewis's recommendation and I'm not sure whether i enjoyed it or not, but I was enthralled by it nonetheless.

Originally published on my blog here in August 2001.

A Voyage to Arcturus is one of the great eccentric novels which helped influence the development of science fiction without becoming part of its mainstream. (Other examples include [b:The Worm Ouroboros|13624|The Worm Ouroboros|E.R. Eddison|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1328863643s/13624.jpg|955522] and, more like Lindsay's writing, [b:The House on the Borderland|220937|The House on the Borderland|William Hope Hodgson|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348820158s/220937.jpg|3150114].)

The title alone would lead one to expect a story about space travel, like those written by [a:Jules Verne|696805|Jules Verne|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1322911579p2/696805.jpg], say, but the novel is not about the journey to Acturan planet Tormance at all. Instead, the subject of the novel is a psychological journey made by the central character Maskull, something which could be described as a post-Freudian [b:The Pilgrim's Progress|29797|The Pilgrim's Progress|John Bunyan|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1328865403s/29797.jpg|1960084], although it is much looser in structure than Bunyan's allegory.

The idea that travel towards the sound of the drums of Muspell is like a journey to the source of life is clearly present, but many of the encounters on the journey seem to be more or less arbitrary fantasy on Lindsay's part, even if the events are inspired by his ideas about the mind, particularly the battle between duty (and the pain which accompanies it) and pleasure (which brings guilt).

It is the strength of the descriptions which grips the reader, Lindsay conveying the complete otherness of Tormance vividly. It is a newly created world, with everything still in the process of developing towards the fixed forms equivalent to Earthly scenery (so that we have new colours, animals appearing out of thin air, Maskull developing new limbs and sense organs appropriate for each experience). Lindsay's writing is a tour de force of the imagination, a benchmark to aspire to for any would-be describer of the alien.

The novel was a flop when first published, but later picked up admirers including C.S. Lewis. His science fiction, which is rather more mainstream, is clearly influenced by A Voyage to Arcturus; both [b:Out of the Silent Planet|25350|Out of the Silent Planet (Space Trilogy, #1)|C.S. Lewis|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1310984018s/25350.jpg|879622] and, even more so, [b:Perelandra|100924|Perelandra (Space Trilogy, #2)|C.S. Lewis|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1171472708s/100924.jpg|3148586] bear clear traces of Lindsay. Maskull lacks the morality Lewis gave to Ransome, and so his actions are harsher - he kills a fair number of people in the novel, for a variety of reasons. It is hard to think of anyone else who has been directly or obviously influenced as much as Lewis, though any fantasy novelist able to create vivid descriptions would be a possibility.

Worth reading as a bit of a curiosity I guess. I didn't care much for the philosophising or the misogyny, but I was struck by the book's weird dreamlike quality - a bit like Alice Through the Looking-Glass, but without the wit and if Alice were more inclined to murder the characters she encounters rather than have them quote poetry at her.

This is a pretty strange book. It's famous for being (possibly) the first non-absurdist interplanetarian story but it bares little resemblance to work of Asimov, Vogt or Smith. Rather it is Christian allegory in the style of Bunyan or Dante, only set off-world. The writing style is a bit poor but the profusion of ideas is quite extraordinary. Whilst it is still stuck with Victorian hangovers, this could easily be a hippy manifesto, with asking if plants have life, where love can dictate movement and gender is fluid.
If you can get past the obvious shortcomings it is a great work of imagination.