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lukerik's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Hugely entertaining. I would have five starred it but for several artistic failures. None of these failures affect the main artistry of the book though, which is a fantastic meld of theme and story. The themes are sex and religion.
A spaceship with an all-male crew returns to earth after eight hundred years to find that climate change has caused the civilisation that launched them to collapse. Society is now matriarchal and practices a fertility cult constructed out of a number of elements from religions past and present. We’re in dying-and-rising god territory. There are too many examples to go into where the story explores the intersection of sex and religion, but in the main plotline the captain of the spaceship is unfortunate enough to match the matriarchs’ concept of the son/lover who must fertilise the earth each year before dying. They enact this drama in literal terms by doing something particularly horrid to the captain. The captain is a ridiculous satire of a manly man and there’s some entertaining/worrying (depending on if you’re a male or female reader) gender reversal where the captain, no matter how manly, is still not good enough and must be sexually augmented in order to come up to spec.
A spaceship with an all-male crew returns to earth after eight hundred years to find that climate change has caused the civilisation that launched them to collapse. Society is now matriarchal and practices a fertility cult constructed out of a number of elements from religions past and present. We’re in dying-and-rising god territory. There are too many examples to go into where the story explores the intersection of sex and religion, but in the main plotline the captain of the spaceship is unfortunate enough to match the matriarchs’ concept of the son/lover who must fertilise the earth each year before dying. They enact this drama in literal terms by doing something particularly horrid to the captain. The captain is a ridiculous satire of a manly man and there’s some entertaining/worrying (depending on if you’re a male or female reader) gender reversal where the captain, no matter how manly, is still not good enough and must be sexually augmented in order to come up to spec.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexism, Violence, Alcohol, Animal death, Murder, Gore, Rape, Religious bigotry, Body horror, Death, and Injury/Injury detail
mrjoe's review against another edition
2.0
I'm being kind by giving this a 2. There are some creative ideas here, but overall this book is pretty cheesy and weak.
rgrove's review against another edition
4.0
I'm kicking myself for waiting so long to read Philip Jose Farmer. Flesh comes with a lot of gossip about the sex in the book. I was expecting something entirely different than a well-written fantasy/scifi mashup where sex is definitely a big part of the plot, but not nearly as explicit as I had imagined.
The opening chapter is what will separate readers. The depiction of a community wide mythical sex ritual on the steps of a future White Hose will certainly challenge many readers to continue reading. But if you do, you will be rewarded with a tightly written story of a returning space explorers who find an earth that has become tribal. Farmer combines humor, horror, myth and engaging characters (some very strange) into a novel that is unique and quite weird.
This is one of my favorite 60's scifi novels out of the dozen I've read over the last few months. This cover of this vintage paperback is a perfect match for the story.
Highly recommended. But not for every reader.
The opening chapter is what will separate readers. The depiction of a community wide mythical sex ritual on the steps of a future White Hose will certainly challenge many readers to continue reading. But if you do, you will be rewarded with a tightly written story of a returning space explorers who find an earth that has become tribal. Farmer combines humor, horror, myth and engaging characters (some very strange) into a novel that is unique and quite weird.
This is one of my favorite 60's scifi novels out of the dozen I've read over the last few months. This cover of this vintage paperback is a perfect match for the story.
Highly recommended. But not for every reader.
jeffw's review against another edition
3.0
More like 3.5 Stars.
I very quickly realized this was part dark comedy, part satire. If you read it from that perspective, it is an entertaining read.
I very quickly realized this was part dark comedy, part satire. If you read it from that perspective, it is an entertaining read.
dlbvenice's review against another edition
3.0
This was an interesting but seriously flawed attempt to speculate on a future American Dystopia. In in, an environmental catastrophe has wiped out much of Earth's population (and many plant and animal species as well), drastically altered the climate and geography, and a new order of civilization has begun to assert itself. The crew of a starship are delivered into this brave new world, courtesy of relativity and cryogenics, having been off scouring the galaxy for other potential homeworlds since the 21st century.
The new society is founded on the transformation of American historical figures and ideals into myth as the basis for religion, with a triune Goddess figure at the head. The stage seems to be set for the conflict between the all-male (but very internationally diverse) starship crew from the past, and a supposedly matriarchal society. Since the book was a product of the 1950's (published in 1960), it's hardly surprising that a great deal of it is utterly absurd to today's sensibilities. A starship sent off on a potentially generational journey - with a crew that includes no women! A matriarchal society in which the husband is still clearly the king of his castle. The female characters seems to rely on subterfuge and indirection, getting men to do what they want rather than openly wielding any power. In the end it felt like a stew of interesting ideas that had been thrown together without a clear understanding of how the flavors would complement one another (or not).
The new society is founded on the transformation of American historical figures and ideals into myth as the basis for religion, with a triune Goddess figure at the head. The stage seems to be set for the conflict between the all-male (but very internationally diverse) starship crew from the past, and a supposedly matriarchal society. Since the book was a product of the 1950's (published in 1960), it's hardly surprising that a great deal of it is utterly absurd to today's sensibilities. A starship sent off on a potentially generational journey - with a crew that includes no women! A matriarchal society in which the husband is still clearly the king of his castle. The female characters seems to rely on subterfuge and indirection, getting men to do what they want rather than openly wielding any power. In the end it felt like a stew of interesting ideas that had been thrown together without a clear understanding of how the flavors would complement one another (or not).
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