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Badseedgirl
Posted 2015-05-28 1:06 PM (#10645 - in reply to #9162)
Subject: Re: The Definitive 1950s Reading Challenge		Quote Reply



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Location: Middle TN, USA		I read Man In The High Castle this year, and frankly I did not like it. The way PKD seemed to drop the main character 2/3rds of the way through the novel to focus on the wife was disconcerting to say the least. And then I'm not sure I even understood the ending. What were the wife and the author trying to say at the end, that they knew they were an alternate reality? I don't know, I'm not stupid and I don't need plots spoon fed to me, but the novel seemed to me to be a series of unfinished thoughts. PKD picked up and dropped story lines without any resolution to any of them.

Now this is the first PDK I have read and I have 2 more of his novel slated to read this year, Time out of Joint and Solar Lottery, which I may like more. I try not to judge authors by just one novel, especially a prolific writer like PDK, so as you said JW, I might find I like one of the others.

I just finished Bradbury's The Illustrated Man for this challenge, and actually enjoyed that one better than The Martian Chronicles. Although " There Will Come Soft Rain" may be my favorite short story of all time. I'm on to Player Piano by Vonnegut or The Demolished Man by Bester if it comes in from Interlibrary Loan in a timely manner. Sometimes waiting for the library to get the books is the worst part of a challenge!

By the way Mr. Harris I am enjoying your list very much. Although I have heard of many of the authors on your list, I have not read very many of them. This at least gives me a reference to start dipping my toe in some of these classic novels. I think it is important to see where the "roots" of a genre that I enjoy so much come from. Many of what are considered the sic-fi cliches, found their start in these very novels.

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