The Thing Itself

English language

Published Sept. 6, 2016

ISBN:
978-0-575-12772-2
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4 stars (9 reviews)

3 editions

reviewed La chose en soi by Adam Roberts

Ding an sich - what the fuck

5 stars

On se dit qu'avec une base d'astrophysique dans les années 1980, qui plus est en Antarctique, il va se passer des choses. On peut penser à Le problème à trois corps de Cixin, à The thing de John Carpenter (film cité) ou bien la mini-série La corde sur Arte. Et on n'est pas déçu, car en plus d'une bonne plâtrée de chose en soi, ce livre se pose en terme de what the fuck.

Si ce dernier terme n'est guère philosophique, ceux qui ont des restes de philo auront reconnu Kant à propos du titre. Le Ding an sich, si l'on veut briller dans les salons, on va en avoir à revendre dans une succession délirante et intemporelle, par définition.

Quand celui que vous allez devoir côtoyer dans un endroit coupé du monde est un peu asocial et fasciné par La critique de la raison pure ; et qu'en …

Review of 'The Thing Itself' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

Too smart for me, but it was well-written and pretty enjoyable. Dragged a bit towards the end when I felt that characters were starting to behave against their prior characteristics without justification. I enjoyed the vignettes more than the frame.

If you want to pick up your first Adam Roberts, I would recommend Yellow Blue Tibia over this.

Review of 'The Thing Itself' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

There are times I wanted to give this book 5 stars but I have to average that with the times I wanted to give it 1. It has a lot of interesting ideas but it needs to be more of a novel.

I could say things about the ideas but I don't like being too spoilery. Maybe I'll come back and do so later. Or maybe I'll get outside time and do it earlier.

Review of 'The Thing Itself' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Wow, well I’ll try and do The Thing Itself justice, but you’re better off just reading it and marvelling in its mind-blowing awesomeness. The blurb would have you think it’s a version of John Carpenter’s The Thing (a film I love) but really only the first part deals with the isolation and ensuing madness of Antarctica. There’s philosophy, a shady organisation, artificial intelligence, a shoeless man on the run and whole raft of stories throughout time.

At the heart of the book is the theme of how humans perceive reality. We can only experience things in a human way, describe things in a human way. The concepts of time and space are human constructs even if we perceive that we are measuring them scientifically.

Roy is obsessed with the works of Immanuel Kant, an 18th Century German philosopher, so much so that Charles blames Kant for driving his fellow researcher …

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