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elanienneco's review
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
one of the first books written in the "cli-fi" genre -- interesting premise, writing is clearly from the 1930s so it's fun to see how Laurence Manning was imagining the distant future. Across each of the "awakenings", there are a few similarities: focus on young people as the leaders of new societies, youth constantly held in higher regard than age, sort of vague explanations of new technology but more of a focus on the commonly held beliefs of "the world" (as one society). i find it interesting that Winters didn't reject immortality at the end, personally i would have not wanted to keep living, but i guess that was his whole thing, he wanted to experience as much of humanity as possible. at the end, he's involved in a seemingly infinite process of creating a higher power, a God, who can tell them the purpose of life............................................. cool read.
kb_208's review against another edition
5.0
This is a really great classic sci-fi novel from even before the golden age. It seems to have aged really well. It's a more obscure author, but probably because he didn't write much aside from this, but I would put it up there with some of the best classic books. It follows Norman Winters, so invents a drug that will allow him to sleep for thousands of years at a time in an underground chamber. He resurfaces every 5,000 years to see what the future has in store. Oftentimes he is confronted with societal decay and hostility and must race back to his slumber to awaken 5,000 years later. It's a good and fairly quick read and well worth it.
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