The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Sirens of Titan
Book Review: An all time classic
Summary: 5 Stars
Kurt Vonnegut is a humanist writer with an uncanny ability to see the human race from such an objective standpoint that much of our generally accepted beliefs and behaviour seem ridiculous when viewed through his eyes. The Sirens of Titan is one of his classic early works and is in my opinion a must for the educated bookshelf. This is not writing that is written intellgently, it is intelligent writing. Do not be put off by his use of the Sci Fi genre - he is merely using it to express his ideasBook Review: Essential.
Summary: 5 Stars
Kurt Vonnegut's ageless classic remorsely 'punches holes' in the vacillating mystery that is the human condition. Explicitly funny, implictly depressing, always imaginative - don't expect planet vapourising plasma cannons or en-suite teleporters just a rollicking good read from an author who's perspective on life at time of writing was probably in that twilight world somewhere between 'laugh, cry and fart.'Book Review: disappointing
Summary: 1 Stars
I'm a huge Kurt Vonnegut fan and I never thought I'd be disappointed by him. Tragically it's happened in this - the fifth novel of his that I've read.Frankly, I'm amazed that other reviewers enjoyed it so much. If this had been my first experience of Vonnegut, I wouldn't read another.
In the Sirens of Titan, Vonnegut is much more didactic than in any of his later books. The cynicism and irony is well in character, but this book entirely lacks the humour of his later works. It also utterly fails to draw the reader into Vonnegut's world. All right, we're all being used, we're all going to die, no-one gives a damn. There's no need to be smug about it.
Quite frankly, the whole experience left me cold. By the last few chapters I was wishing I'd never bothered.
I have to tell you to read Gallapagos, Slaughterhouse 5, Timequake, any of the others. But not this one.
Sorry.
Book Review: Good
Summary: 4 Stars
A good book. If you've read other Vonnegut, you might find it a little repetetive, and occasionally the writer can be a bit heavy-handed in his satire, but there are enough moments of genuine wonder to pull the novel into shape.Book Review: Not typical Vonnegut, but all the better for it.
Summary: 5 Stars
I have read five of Vonnegut's books now, and this is the best one, with Galapagos being a close second. A central theme to many of his books is the nature of free will, and the futility of trying to make sense of life with religion, or any philosophy at all for that matter. The Sirens of Titan is no different, and excels in advancing these themes in the context of an amazingly imaginative story. It does not suffer from Vonnegut's occasional tendency to over-indulge in random digressions and fragmentation of a story line (Timequake being a good example of this, albeit a good read nevertheless). Although I agree that these digressions can be very funny and even definitive of Vonnegut, by sticking to a slightly more structured orthodox story-telling route he has done himself no disservice. Like his other books, you can still appreciate this one solely on the level of farce, without necessarily getting into the philosophy of it.The prose is wonderful in itself, and seems more eloquently written than is usual for the author.
In short, one of my favorite books. If you are still not convinced, then hopefully you will be swayed by the fact that this book contains the term 'Chrono-Synclastic Infundibulum'. Need I say more?