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3.73 AVERAGE
3.73 AVERAGE
Author's Envy! I wish I'd written this book! Here's why: http://www.mark-hodder.com/authorsenvy/non-stop.html
De temps en temps, lire des classiques, ça soigne.
Ce roman en fait à mon avis partie, puisqu'assez ancien, traitant d'un sujet plus qu'intéressant, et ma foi fort bien écrit. Il a été chaudement conseillé par sf.marseille, et à bon escient.
Dans ce roman, on suit les aventures d'un chasseur dans une espèce de jungle assez improbable, qui va au fur et à mesure révéler toute son étrangeté et sa dimension assez terrifiante, avec une fin ouverte comme la sf dite, justement, classique, en a le secret.
J'ai beaucoup aimé la quête de sens de ce brave chasseur qui, tout en découvrant un monde plus complexe, abandonne sa vision simpliste du monde issue d'un environnement formatté pour commencer à se poser de vraies questions sur son environnement. J'ai d'ailleurs bien envie de rapprocher cette quête de celles qu'on retrouve par exemple dans [b:Le monde inverti|142181|The Inverted World A Novel|Christopher Priest|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1245646253s/142181.jpg|2226603] ou même, et peut-être plus encore à cause de la lutte permanente contre un environnement naturellement hostile, dans [b:La horde du contrevent|1397743|La Horde du Contrevent|Alain Damasio|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1183284699s/1397743.jpg|1387917], bien qu'il n'y ait pas vraiment de grande différence entre les deux(1).
Et puis bien sûr il y a ce vaisseau, très loin de ce à quoi du space-op de bas étage nous habituerait(2) , avec ses multiples pannes, son côté assez fantastique, mais authentiquement expliquable, et puis bien sûr l'explication en elle-même(3).
Bref, tout ça nous donne un univers saisissant, un personnage intéressant, une quête de soi absolument fascinant, et fort logiquement un bouquin vraiment réussi. Et en bonus, cette édition nous livre une postface retrançant à grands coups l'histoire du genre space-opera et de ses oeuvres les plus marquantes dans le genre de ce roman, qui même elle vaut le coup d'être lue.
(1) Je ne veux pas dire par là qu'il y a peu de différence entre les romans, mais plutôt que la proximité entre ce roman et les deux cités se fait sur un point de vue sur lequel ces deux oeuvres me semblent assez proches, ce qui bien entendu est loin d'être clair, mais me parait néanmoins évident.
(2) Ben oui, dans le space-opera, mis à part peut-être chez [a:Alastair Reynolds|51204|Alastair Reynolds|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1244781695p2/51204.jpg], les vaisseaux sont beaux, flaboyants, ultra-modernes, et propres sur eux
(3) J'ai d'ailleurs trouvé ce changement de paradigme absolument fabuleux. Passer d'un univers à la taille du héros à un autre, pour lui faire comprendre ses différences de perception, je trouve ça remarquablement bien fait. Bien sûr, c'est désormais un procédé courant, mais il est ici mis en oeuvre avec habileté.
Ce roman en fait à mon avis partie, puisqu'assez ancien, traitant d'un sujet plus qu'intéressant, et ma foi fort bien écrit. Il a été chaudement conseillé par sf.marseille, et à bon escient.
Dans ce roman, on suit les aventures d'un chasseur dans une espèce de jungle assez improbable, qui va au fur et à mesure révéler toute son étrangeté et sa dimension assez terrifiante, avec une fin ouverte comme la sf dite, justement, classique, en a le secret.
J'ai beaucoup aimé la quête de sens de ce brave chasseur qui, tout en découvrant un monde plus complexe, abandonne sa vision simpliste du monde issue d'un environnement formatté pour commencer à se poser de vraies questions sur son environnement. J'ai d'ailleurs bien envie de rapprocher cette quête de celles qu'on retrouve par exemple dans [b:Le monde inverti|142181|The Inverted World A Novel|Christopher Priest|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1245646253s/142181.jpg|2226603] ou même, et peut-être plus encore à cause de la lutte permanente contre un environnement naturellement hostile, dans [b:La horde du contrevent|1397743|La Horde du Contrevent|Alain Damasio|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1183284699s/1397743.jpg|1387917], bien qu'il n'y ait pas vraiment de grande différence entre les deux(1).
Et puis bien sûr il y a ce vaisseau, très loin de ce à quoi du space-op de bas étage nous habituerait(2) , avec ses multiples pannes, son côté assez fantastique, mais authentiquement expliquable, et puis bien sûr l'explication en elle-même(3).
Bref, tout ça nous donne un univers saisissant, un personnage intéressant, une quête de soi absolument fascinant, et fort logiquement un bouquin vraiment réussi. Et en bonus, cette édition nous livre une postface retrançant à grands coups l'histoire du genre space-opera et de ses oeuvres les plus marquantes dans le genre de ce roman, qui même elle vaut le coup d'être lue.
(1) Je ne veux pas dire par là qu'il y a peu de différence entre les romans, mais plutôt que la proximité entre ce roman et les deux cités se fait sur un point de vue sur lequel ces deux oeuvres me semblent assez proches, ce qui bien entendu est loin d'être clair, mais me parait néanmoins évident.
(2) Ben oui, dans le space-opera, mis à part peut-être chez [a:Alastair Reynolds|51204|Alastair Reynolds|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1244781695p2/51204.jpg], les vaisseaux sont beaux, flaboyants, ultra-modernes, et propres sur eux
(3) J'ai d'ailleurs trouvé ce changement de paradigme absolument fabuleux. Passer d'un univers à la taille du héros à un autre, pour lui faire comprendre ses différences de perception, je trouve ça remarquablement bien fait. Bien sûr, c'est désormais un procédé courant, mais il est ici mis en oeuvre avec habileté.
I actually loved it (except the ending, mixed feelings about it), even though it is rather an exuberant and hyperactive book than a really good one. IT IS though scifi in its most classic sense (there are lush dangerous jungles! adventures! kidnappings of women and tough men growling, even mutant bandits! dazers and lasers fights! rats on sleds armed with swords - wait, what!?!)... and a captivating one at that.
Critical response to Heinlein's 1941 Universe/Common Sense (published as Orphans of the Sky in 1963), Bliss takes the then slightly trodden generational starship trope to a new level exploring deeper social possibilities and extrapolating more on what would happen to the inhabitants and systems aboard a long-drifting generation-starship. Intriguing conclusion. Noteably Aldiss's first novel.
My review of the book: [b:Non-Stop|384579|Non-Stop|Brian W. Aldiss|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1321611598s/384579.jpg|2268003] by [a:Brian W. Aldiss|33297|Brian W. Aldiss|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1333457329p2/33297.jpg]. As ever, I'm not going to provide a summary of the story itself, rather this review will highlight some of the themes and aspects of the book which stood out for me personally.
Firstly, to understand the early weird chapters of the novel the reader has to have an understanding of the context in which the story is set. Most of this is on the back cover blurb (and the various covers published over the years kind of give the game away) but to reiterate, the characters are all descendants of the passengers and crew on a generation starship. The first generation have first-hand experience of Earth, the last generation will never see Earth and will only know their destination; all the generations in between will only ever know the starship. For them, the confines of the starship is their world. However, in Non-Stop the starship has had been involved in an accident and is now flying uncontrolled through space. The ship has been overrun by vegetation, the population don’t know that they are on a starship and since it is the only world they know they have slowly regressed into a more primal tribal existence. Also, due to the extended length of time involved on the journey certain creatures have had the opportunity to evolve with a higher level of intelligence.
The sociological situation of one of the tribes, the Greens, was particularly interesting. They accept the material world around them and their situation; they don’t question their existence. They live in the boundaries of a section of the starship called “the Quarters”; the Quarters are their small part of the small world of the ship itself. Each day is about survival and clearing away the vegetation which invades their life. They have little or no time to contemplate the past or future. They spend their time existing in the present. The habits, routines and social structures they have created reflect the environment they find themselves in and allow them to organise their lives in a way which maintains a degree of stability, reason and contentment. However, they are ruthless: for example, in their approach to children. They kill their offspring if they have mutations and detachment from parents is conditioned from an early age. The reason for this is not made clear but the religion they have adopted has roots in Freudian psychology. This psychological link is further evidenced by the fact that honesty along with eye-contact is avoided and the customary greeting is “Expansion to your Ego,” which is responded to with the phrase “at your expense”: these are all explicit manifestations of aspects of life which in normal society are normally left unarticulated.
Roy Complain the main protagonist in the story harbours thoughts about an alternative way of life; an existential yearning to understand the world and his place in it. These desires are realised when Marapper a priest who sermonized about individual self-preservation, gives him the chance to try to get to the control room, to pass through the almost legendary section of the ship called the Forwards and to possibly try to meet the Captain; the person who is in control of the whole ship. The journey questions his beliefs, his worldview, why he exists and who he can rely on and trust.
So in summary: I believe that the book is trying to say the following; we blindly accept our small piece of the world with little awareness of what is happening elsewhere. We create structures and routines to allow us to live as comfortably as possible, including implementing activities which condition social norms, certain worldviews and even the repression of certain thoughts and ideologies. Some of us may yearn for a different way of life, and may even pursue this by trying to find and follow a “Captain”; someone or something who can make sense of the world around us and get us to a certain destination, one which we perceive is important. However, in reality this person doesn't exist and making a journey to realise this is actually more important in terms of self discovery.
Firstly, to understand the early weird chapters of the novel the reader has to have an understanding of the context in which the story is set. Most of this is on the back cover blurb (and the various covers published over the years kind of give the game away) but to reiterate, the characters are all descendants of the passengers and crew on a generation starship. The first generation have first-hand experience of Earth, the last generation will never see Earth and will only know their destination; all the generations in between will only ever know the starship. For them, the confines of the starship is their world. However, in Non-Stop the starship has had been involved in an accident and is now flying uncontrolled through space. The ship has been overrun by vegetation, the population don’t know that they are on a starship and since it is the only world they know they have slowly regressed into a more primal tribal existence. Also, due to the extended length of time involved on the journey certain creatures have had the opportunity to evolve with a higher level of intelligence.
The sociological situation of one of the tribes, the Greens, was particularly interesting. They accept the material world around them and their situation; they don’t question their existence. They live in the boundaries of a section of the starship called “the Quarters”; the Quarters are their small part of the small world of the ship itself. Each day is about survival and clearing away the vegetation which invades their life. They have little or no time to contemplate the past or future. They spend their time existing in the present. The habits, routines and social structures they have created reflect the environment they find themselves in and allow them to organise their lives in a way which maintains a degree of stability, reason and contentment. However, they are ruthless: for example, in their approach to children. They kill their offspring if they have mutations and detachment from parents is conditioned from an early age. The reason for this is not made clear but the religion they have adopted has roots in Freudian psychology. This psychological link is further evidenced by the fact that honesty along with eye-contact is avoided and the customary greeting is “Expansion to your Ego,” which is responded to with the phrase “at your expense”: these are all explicit manifestations of aspects of life which in normal society are normally left unarticulated.
Roy Complain the main protagonist in the story harbours thoughts about an alternative way of life; an existential yearning to understand the world and his place in it. These desires are realised when Marapper a priest who sermonized about individual self-preservation, gives him the chance to try to get to the control room, to pass through the almost legendary section of the ship called the Forwards and to possibly try to meet the Captain; the person who is in control of the whole ship. The journey questions his beliefs, his worldview, why he exists and who he can rely on and trust.
So in summary: I believe that the book is trying to say the following; we blindly accept our small piece of the world with little awareness of what is happening elsewhere. We create structures and routines to allow us to live as comfortably as possible, including implementing activities which condition social norms, certain worldviews and even the repression of certain thoughts and ideologies. Some of us may yearn for a different way of life, and may even pursue this by trying to find and follow a “Captain”; someone or something who can make sense of the world around us and get us to a certain destination, one which we perceive is important. However, in reality this person doesn't exist and making a journey to realise this is actually more important in terms of self discovery.
Roy Complain escapes from the village that is his home with a renagade priest to discover the mystery of their world: the ship. This is a story of a generation ship gone horribly wrong. The story plays out slowly, too slowly, I felt. I got slightly frustrated at the slow pace of the early parts of the book, with things only really coming together enough to make sense in the last quarter or so. And the strange combination of a primitive society living in the remnants of a technological marvel never quite gelled for me. But there was lots to enjoy in the book: Aldiss is an excellent writer and the writing is very pleasant to read.