For such a critically-acclaimed work, the plot is surprisingly flat and on occasions resembles a sloppy soap opera. While I was reading it, I couldn't resist the comparisons to Orwell's 1984 and more often than not, things weren't in Huxley's favor. Then I realized that this was a completely different book and as distracting as its shortcomings can be, the ideas behind it are fascinating and grandiose.

Huxley may not be good in dealing with characters but his ability to construct dystopian worlds, with all the bells and whistles that make them credible and believable, is staggering. At the same time, he doesn't offer a clear way out, something that I found particularly intriguing.

It's easy, at least for me, to imagine a better alternative to Orwell's Big Brother nightmare. However, the alternative to Huxley's Brave New World is a definite trade off, which makes the choice between the two a matter of personal masochistic taste. Where would you choose to exist? In a world devoid of emotion but full of comfort or in a world full of drama but ravaged by disease?

There is no middle ground here, you can't cherry-pick between the two and construct your own version. The vital ideas that help one of the worlds flourish become completely destructive when you transplant them in the other one. This is the real intrigue in this book and it's much larger than its plot. Had I approached the book with less preconceptions, I would have been able to spot it earlier and enjoy it more but nevertheless, it was an amazing experience, despite its faults.