| |
|
I've not really posted on the books forum so I'm not sure if this is appropriate, but following the orders of my favourite current dictator - Kit-Cat Club - I thought it might be worth a discussion. A lot of you have probably read it but...
I've been reading SF since I was knee high and to be honest there is a lot of shit out there. Fun shit, which I love, but shit nonetheless.
I came across this novel a little while ago by accident. I've since been told that most SF ideas can be traced back to this author. Where have I been?
This book (and Starmaker, which I am currently reading) is one of the most amazing books I have ever encountered. The scope is simply breathtaking. How often do you turn a page to find that a million years have passed and a civilisation has fallen to be replaced by a genetically distinct race and its own culture?
The man could think BIG. More than that, there is for me a real love of his insistence on spirituality in an essentially atheist, material universe. His aspiration to both morality and ethics for a species is particularly inspiring. And all this is set against a fatalistic and ultimately catastrophic backdrop.
It reads more like history more than fiction. But he transcends his own culture and has a vision of what we might become that made me weep by the end. Yeah, so I'm a big girl's blouse who has gone over the top. I liked this one.
[ 21-03-2002: Message edited by: Lurid Archive ] |
|
|
