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mad_about_books's review against another edition
4.0
Although an avid reader of speculative fiction, I was prompted to read THE COMING RACE after reading a modern-day Sherlock Holmes tale, "The Adventure of The Royal Albert Hall," by the writing team of Charles Veley and Anna Elliott.
THE COMING RACE, by today's standards, is not an easy read. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, born in 1803, was an English writer and politician. His writing reflects the somewhat florid prose of the time. There are several early chapters that are far too repetitive for my taste (so I paged through them quickly). As you might expected of a book originally published in 1871, there is a fair amount of disguised racism - not over skin color or religion, but where a character stands on the evolutionary scale.
Students of speculative fiction will be interested in the technology of the Vril-ya. I daresay, most modern readers will give this a pass.
THE COMING RACE, by today's standards, is not an easy read. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, born in 1803, was an English writer and politician. His writing reflects the somewhat florid prose of the time. There are several early chapters that are far too repetitive for my taste (so I paged through them quickly). As you might expected of a book originally published in 1871, there is a fair amount of disguised racism - not over skin color or religion, but where a character stands on the evolutionary scale.
Students of speculative fiction will be interested in the technology of the Vril-ya. I daresay, most modern readers will give this a pass.
kimberly28's review against another edition
3.0
A lot of people saying this is the worst thing ever, but I don’t think it’s markedly worse than other sci-fi of the time, Verne or Conan Doyle eg. And it’s good for thought, it does what it came to do.
4096qam's review against another edition
4.0
1886 edition, a bit difficult to read as I'm not used to reading such old books but once I got used to the style of writing it was a treat to read.
fil's review against another edition
1.0
Boring, dry, all-too-descriptive and, for lack of a better word, eek. Similar to Butler's '[b:Erewhon|337050|Erewhon|Samuel Butler|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1173853554s/337050.jpg|924128]' and Gilman's '[b:Herland|52298|Herland and Selected Stories|Charlotte Perkins Gilman|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1434563871s/52298.jpg|39898385]' but infinitely less tolerable. Stick a fork in me, I am done (with Bulwer-Lytton).
sophieguillas's review against another edition
1.0
My prof warned us that this was bad before I started reading and she was right! Inexcusably boring.
drakhan's review against another edition
5.0
So, this was the final book in my quick survey of Victorian classics. Whether the land of the Vril-ya is a utopia or a distopia is up to the individual. Science is revered. Everyone is equal. Everything important is free and prejudice has been eliminated by a homogenous society that turns to ash anyone who threaten its placid existence. It's the kind of book I'd expect college professors to enjoy because they don't realize it was meant as satire. Bulwer-Lytton created the perfect socialist utopia where art and poetry don't exist because people are just too happy to care.
kpasteka's review against another edition
3.0
This is an interesting book with a oddly influential history. The writing straddles the divide between the classic guided walk-through of an Utopian society as seen in Utopia and The Divine Comedy and the modern plot based Utopian novels like A Brave New World or the more contemporaneous The Sleeper Awakes. This results in a somewhat uneven read but a compelling one none-the-less.
Today, Edward Bulwer-Lytton is synonymous with bad writing but that association does not fully describe his work. He was a florid writer but, though that is crime in the literary world, he was also a very popular writer during his lifetime. Today we read and enjoy a number of popular and prolific writers that will be forgotten by the general public in a hundred years because their writing style will no longer be in tune with the masses. Personally, I don't think he's a "Great works" author but I have read many worse than him.
The plot is simple- boy finds Utopian society, boy learns about the society, boy is incompatible with the Utopian society, boy escapes home and writes his memoirs. It is the society of the Vril-ya that gives it a different flavor, I should say a much more Romantic flavor, than 20th century Utopian tales. I enjoyed the discussion how the Vril-ya evolved as a people over thousands of years, a reflection of influence of Darwin's work on Bulwer-Lytton.
I think the big thinking point that I took away from this was that a peaceful and free universal society cannot be created overnight. Our attempts Utopian societies fail because we are very imperfect beings but we have to keep striving for a better way in order to evolve as a society towards something that can sustain these lofty goals.
Overall, I am glad I read this classic of science fiction even though it straddles the line of essay and novel.
Today, Edward Bulwer-Lytton is synonymous with bad writing but that association does not fully describe his work. He was a florid writer but, though that is crime in the literary world, he was also a very popular writer during his lifetime. Today we read and enjoy a number of popular and prolific writers that will be forgotten by the general public in a hundred years because their writing style will no longer be in tune with the masses. Personally, I don't think he's a "Great works" author but I have read many worse than him.
The plot is simple- boy finds Utopian society, boy learns about the society, boy is incompatible with the Utopian society, boy escapes home and writes his memoirs. It is the society of the Vril-ya that gives it a different flavor, I should say a much more Romantic flavor, than 20th century Utopian tales. I enjoyed the discussion how the Vril-ya evolved as a people over thousands of years, a reflection of influence of Darwin's work on Bulwer-Lytton.
I think the big thinking point that I took away from this was that a peaceful and free universal society cannot be created overnight. Our attempts Utopian societies fail because we are very imperfect beings but we have to keep striving for a better way in order to evolve as a society towards something that can sustain these lofty goals.
Overall, I am glad I read this classic of science fiction even though it straddles the line of essay and novel.
aurorhex's review
3.0
Mi cabeza no puede con más ciencia ficción. Se me ha hecho suuuuuuper lento. Del resto, not bad.