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As every review mentions, We, written in 1921 and 1922 influenced Orwell's 1984. There sure were a lot of similarities.
Set 1,000 years in the future, the novel is set in the totalitarian city-state One State where the citizens live in glass houses and are constantly monitored. One State is ruled by a dictator referred to as Benefactor. There was a great war which wiped out the world outside the walls of One State, and nature has taken hold of the outside world. Individual names consist of a letter and numbers and the protagonist, D-503, is a scientist who works on the city-state's great creation - the starship Integral which will allow mankind to explore the universe. Well, like in 1984, the main character meets someone who doesn't quite toe the party line and the plot takes off from there.
Knowing the history of this novel and its importance in the science fiction genre I was really looking forward to reading this. I really slogged through the first half. I don't know if it was the translation or me (it was probably me) but at times I just couldn't follow the narrative at all. The writing just seemed muddled overall, and maybe too poetic for me in places. I don't know. About half-way through D-503 has a major revelation which piqued my interest but soon after I fell back in to what felt like a confusing slog. It just lost me in spots.
I really liked the different characters and what they represented, the interesting world Zamyatin created, and the dark dystopian feel of the novel. The ending was something else. But getting there was hard for me. 2.5 stars.
Set 1,000 years in the future, the novel is set in the totalitarian city-state One State where the citizens live in glass houses and are constantly monitored. One State is ruled by a dictator referred to as Benefactor. There was a great war which wiped out the world outside the walls of One State, and nature has taken hold of the outside world. Individual names consist of a letter and numbers and the protagonist, D-503, is a scientist who works on the city-state's great creation - the starship Integral which will allow mankind to explore the universe. Well, like in 1984, the main character meets someone who doesn't quite toe the party line and the plot takes off from there.
Knowing the history of this novel and its importance in the science fiction genre I was really looking forward to reading this. I really slogged through the first half. I don't know if it was the translation or me (it was probably me) but at times I just couldn't follow the narrative at all. The writing just seemed muddled overall, and maybe too poetic for me in places. I don't know. About half-way through D-503 has a major revelation which piqued my interest but soon after I fell back in to what felt like a confusing slog. It just lost me in spots.
I really liked the different characters and what they represented, the interesting world Zamyatin created, and the dark dystopian feel of the novel. The ending was something else. But getting there was hard for me. 2.5 stars.