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3.73 AVERAGE
3.73 AVERAGE
adventurous
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I was torn between 3 or 4 stars. A great idea and plot but so much exposition, weak female character, and just too rushed at the end. It was better than my 3* reviews so far this year but wasn’t even close to any of the 4* ones so 3 it is. Still, I will say it’s worth a quick read.
Bolo to skvelé!
Príbeh má viac vrstiev, a ťažké rozuzlenie sa dalo čakať, a pekne gradovalo.
Príbeh má viac vrstiev, a ťažké rozuzlenie sa dalo čakať, a pekne gradovalo.
Regressed tribes of hunter-gatherers scratch out an existence along the corridors of a generation starship. Our protagonist, Complain, wants more from his life and teams up with a priest to go on a journey across the ship to uncover its secrets and maybe take control.
Aldiss does a stellar job of blending the architecture of the expansive ship with the rampant plant growth that has taken over and created a vivid mini ecology within which tribes of humans play out their short subsistence lives. The tribes' cultural difference is similarly well-realised; they're often shockingly callous with their psychoanalytically based religion, espousing the virtues of rage and letting desires out - a survival trait for their bottled-up existence.
Aldiss packs a lot into his first novel, nailing the world-building but falling forgivably short with some flat characters, insta-romance, and, at times, clunky dialogue. The plotting is fast-paced as our protagonist adventures across the ship, peeling back the mysteries, but sometimes the story feels like it's overloaded - I think the underdeveloped rats and psi side stories could have easily been dropped and made the story tighter.
Overall, a satisfyingly snappy adventure story packed with great world-building and mystery, which was foundational for developing the generation ship trope. A deserving classic that holds up well today.
Aldiss does a stellar job of blending the architecture of the expansive ship with the rampant plant growth that has taken over and created a vivid mini ecology within which tribes of humans play out their short subsistence lives. The tribes' cultural difference is similarly well-realised; they're often shockingly callous with their psychoanalytically based religion, espousing the virtues of rage and letting desires out - a survival trait for their bottled-up existence.
Aldiss packs a lot into his first novel, nailing the world-building but falling forgivably short with some flat characters, insta-romance, and, at times, clunky dialogue. The plotting is fast-paced as our protagonist adventures across the ship, peeling back the mysteries, but sometimes the story feels like it's overloaded - I think the underdeveloped rats and psi side stories could have easily been dropped and made the story tighter.
Overall, a satisfyingly snappy adventure story packed with great world-building and mystery, which was foundational for developing the generation ship trope. A deserving classic that holds up well today.
Absolute pellmell of ideas, pacing, and action. Some of the descriptions of women are cringe, and stylistically, the work shows its age. Lots of exposition—to be expected from sf of the 50’s. That said, it’s a fast, exciting read, and manages to channel adventure fantasy while wearing a mask of sf. Unique premise and setting, generic characters.
Ending was very quick, but very good exploration of cultural change over isolated generations
Holy crap, what a mind-frell! OK, so, somehow I never heard of this one growing up. I first heard it mentioned as one of the books that heavily inspired the "Metamorphosis Alpha" RPG way back in the day, and the "Mutant Crawl Classics RPG" now. I knew the basic plot going in - people on an interstellar generational ship descended into a state of barbarism and savagery, not really realizing that their world is an artificial starship, until somehow the truth is revealed. I didn't expect it to be so well written, or to have quite as many cruel twists and reveals. The truth is so much worse than anyone suspects, and though the careful reader will begin to suspect (I suspected much of the true scope of things before the "big reveal/s"), there is a real subtle creeping horror to it all. Great stuff, highly recommended, and best of all, the science still stands up pretty well (perhaps better than anyone could have expected, since our real world has since had crises that this book in some ways predicts).
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Solid sci-fi adventure. Kept my attention throughout the book. The end just kind of wraps things up a little too easily and the women characters are very 2D, but otherwise I really enjoyed the book. It’s the book that got me interested in Sci-Fi.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Violence
When you can not travel faster than light, then one of the solutions to this is to set ship's off where the crew live, love, are born and die over several generations, so that the original generation never gets to see the destination and any members that set off on the homeward direction never get to see the original home either. All sounds so amazing, but its sure to go wrong somewhere and that is what happens in Non-Stop. Somehow from leaving the destination planet as a ships crew they have become a tribal nations stalking the corridors of the ship which is now their world, battling 'ponic plants and hunting wild animals that roam the corridors. Mostly they have forgotten that they travel on a ship, and to some the whole idea is almost criminal. But there is always the promise of gold at the end of the rainbow and the forwards is where it is found. The adventure is set around the story of the hero being pushed and pulled towards the forwards - where there is no gold only the truth.
Written back in the 1950's this classic has aged well as the need for technology remains limited and the characters though not as detailed as some longer books are well fleshed, and unusually for the time this book was written includes a strong women character. Non-Stop is a good read that as it title suggests flies at a serious rate of knots towards a conclusion, though written in such a way that Aldiss could have picked one or two of the loose ends if he had wished to. Maybe not the number one classic sci-fi but worth an exploration or two.
Written back in the 1950's this classic has aged well as the need for technology remains limited and the characters though not as detailed as some longer books are well fleshed, and unusually for the time this book was written includes a strong women character. Non-Stop is a good read that as it title suggests flies at a serious rate of knots towards a conclusion, though written in such a way that Aldiss could have picked one or two of the loose ends if he had wished to. Maybe not the number one classic sci-fi but worth an exploration or two.