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missdragon's review against another edition
dark
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.5
I will be honest, this book wasn't for me.
- Some of the writing of the main female character (Shirl) was badly done, it was hard to get through in this day and age. One line that stands out is
"Devastating female logic" . Harry Harrison cannot write women. - It took a while for the book to find its plot,
which was a cop murder story, though there wasn't a who dunnit aspect at all, and I found the main character quite annoying - I felt like this book ended up exploring the implications of poverty, rather than the implications of overpopulation. Some things also felt grim for the sake of being grim.
such as the mention of a baby being tethered to a dead man pretty early on. . It surprises me how hopeless the view of the future was even back then. - I found a large plot hole in the second half of the book.
There is constant rain during a water shortage, and the city is described lot as being wet, while people are thirsty. I don't understand why the rainwater couldn't be used as a water source, and this is never addressed. . This took me out of the story significantly and I struggled a lot with immersion. - The reason I have rated this book one star is because of Sol. He is by far the best character and
I actually was surprised but kind of impressed with his monologue about birth control, it mirrored a lot of pro-choice sentiment today, although it did feel a little bit like the author using a character as a speaking piece. He also ends up passing away, so I feel I have to deduct points away from the book because of that. - I also found the plot generally a bit all over the place.
Content Warnings
Minor: Death and Domestic abuse
bufobufo's review against another edition
dark
funny
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Read to see if it was fascist based on the back and the first few pages I read in this nice used bookstore. It was and wasn't. Despite being unrelentingly grim, there was something kind of pleasant about it as a vision of dystopia from the 60s, without our improvements or our fresh horrors. As relevant as it was regarding wealth inequality and authority and american consumption, you can tell it was written without thinking much about surveillance technology! That and its visions of racism and sexism-- e.g., some character tension in the book comes from women seemingly being able to work only as homemakers or kept women, and the city seems to be completely segregated (in the structure of the book, too-- Billy's narrative drives the book forward even as he stays very separate from everything else. All the other people of color briefly featured are resigned peons). The cranky old man sets out all the themes of the book pretty baldly: the big eating the small, the failure of america, a little environmentalism, the importance of birth control. Blessedly the latter did not enter eugenics territory.
I get the idea that perhaps one of the main characters had to be a policeman for there to be anything like a plot, and not with any one political message in mind like the rest of the book seemed to-- the 'thin blue line' concept is in there nearly word-for-word, and our guy is so overworked and everyone is ungrateful and the department is underfunded etc etc, but its also written outright that the police aren't helping anyone or solving anyone's problems, simply serving order and the wealthy and the white.
It's a funny read trying to divine the political and moral messages. It feels as if it was written to impart the author's feelings and ideas, but apart from the extremely unsubtle birth control passage I found them kind of hard to parse! In any case, don't read this if the concept of overpopulation distresses you (newer things may be soothing, tho, malthus was wrong!). Do read if you like grimy streets and depressing meals. I liked how there was a simultaenous sense of scale and claustrophobia.
I get the idea that perhaps one of the main characters had to be a policeman for there to be anything like a plot, and not with any one political message in mind like the rest of the book seemed to-- the 'thin blue line' concept is in there nearly word-for-word, and our guy is so overworked and everyone is ungrateful and the department is underfunded etc etc, but its also written outright that the police aren't helping anyone or solving anyone's problems, simply serving order and the wealthy and the white.
It's a funny read trying to divine the political and moral messages. It feels as if it was written to impart the author's feelings and ideas, but apart from the extremely unsubtle birth control passage I found them kind of hard to parse! In any case, don't read this if the concept of overpopulation distresses you (newer things may be soothing, tho, malthus was wrong!). Do read if you like grimy streets and depressing meals. I liked how there was a simultaenous sense of scale and claustrophobia.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Racial slurs, Police brutality, and Murder
Minor: Domestic abuse and Drug use
Domestic abuse doesn't feature heavily, is mentioned surrounding the one main woman character. I feel like there should be a content warning for just being real stressed and poor