A review by filaughn
Ralph 124C 41+: A Romance of the Year 2660 by Jack Williamson, Hugo Gernsback

1.0

Worthwhile only as a glimpse at the history of science fiction - and even at that, I'd stick to the Wikipedia or other sources to learn about what's in this book rather than read it yourself (and I don't say that lightly). The writing is not good, sexism is rampant, and there is entirely too much tedious explaining of future scientific discoveries in a very pedantic way and not much interesting plot or characterization going on. This isn't just a case of someone who isn't into hard sci-fi - it's pages of didactic explaining of inventions that are not tied into the plot, are not explained in an engaging way, and often don't even sound all that well thought out.

I read this for Luxembourg in the read-around-the-world challenge, as Hugo Gernsback was born in Luxembourg and emigrated to the US as an adult. It was worth it for that because it's hard to find authors from Luxembourg (that can be read in English) but unless you desperately need to read a book by a Luxembourgish author, do not bother with this one.