Which books/covers/authors intrigue you? Which have you read? Disliked? Enjoyed?

1. Player Piano, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (1952)

  • Uncredited cover for the 1974 edition

From the back cover: "Want the computer to solve all your problems? Want machines to give you everything you need? Want to be taken care of from cradle to grave by an industrial society that knows what is best for you? Want to find out what hell is really like?

Then you are invited to visit Kurt Vonnegut's funny and savage vision of a future that is somewhere between Animal Farm and Alice In Wonderland. You'll laugh until you cry."

Initial Thoughts: Of Vonnegut's SF, I've only read the magnificent Cat's Cradle (1963) and Slaughterhouse-Five or The Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death (1969) more than a decade ago. The latter has faded a bit from memory. I am intrigued by his first novel. Here's the synopsis from The Internet Speculative Fiction Database: "In the near future, when cybernetic automation has effectively separated people into two castes, the "engineers and managers", and the remainder of the population who can find work only in "recycling and reclamation" or the largely useless military, an underground movement arises with the intention of rolling back those changes and giving the masses the dignity of owning their own, productive, work once more."

Read more of this post "Updates: Recent Science Fiction Purchases No. CCLXXXIII  (Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Lisa Tuttle, T. L. Sherred, and Robert Bloch)"
Joachim Boaz | November 4, 2021 at 9:01 pm | Categories: SF Book Reviews | URL: https://wp.me/pLqP5-6yL
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