A review by jeremie
Anthem by Ayn Rand

reflective fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.25

Hey, at least it’s not Atlas Shrugged!

I knew going into Anthem that I wasn’t going to necessarily agree with what Ayn Rand had to say. What I was hoping for at the very least was a well-thought out story that could put me in a certain individualistic mindset so that when our protagonist comes to his philosophical revelation at the end, I can go “Yeah, I can see why someone in this situation would come to this conclusion.”  It fails to do this. The quality of the storytelling does not at all make up for its strange moral compass. It simply cannot be compared to other classics that were written around the time of its publication. 

There are some things that I liked (keep in mind that I am very easily pleased so these might bore you rather than interest you)
I liked the whole switch from ‘We’ to ‘I’ at the end. It was predictable, but well done.
It was short and I finished it in an afternoon, so while I didn’t like it all that much, I don’t feel like I wasted a big amount of my time. Though it hardly feels proper to commend a book for being short.

Here are some things I didn’t like: The usage of Capital Letters to make some Very Boring Concept sound Very Ominous definitely got annoying after a while. There’s a lot of repetition, especially the phrase “save…” (something I thought was intentional at first but upon reading further I do think it was just an oversight)
Gaea has no personality outside of Prometheus. She doesn’t even get to choose her own name. The protagonist choosing the name “Prometheus” also made my eyes roll into the back of the skull. Mary Shelley did it long before Ayn Rand and with much more subtlety.

You should read it anyway. But you won’t have fun.
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