Hardcover, 326 pages
English language
Published by Octopus/Heinemann.
The Sirens of Titan is an outrageous romp through space, time, and morality. The richest, most depraved man on Earth, Malachi Constant, is offered a chance to take a space journey to distant worlds with a beautiful woman at his side. Of course there’ s a catch to the invitation–and a prophetic vision about the purpose of human life that only Vonnegut has the courage to tell.
Despite the entertainment of fully immiserating an Elon-esque failson, along with wealth and war and human timescales of happiness, the misogyny is heavy and the plot is pointlessly dulled along the way. Can't all be winners.
I am a Tralfamadorian, seeing all time as you might see a stretch of the Rocky Mountains. All time is all time. It does not change. It does not lend itself to warnings or explanations. It simply is.
I very much appreciated receiving this for my Jólabókaflóð 2023 book; it has been on my to-read list for over a decade. Kurt Vonnegut is also an author whom I’ve always wanted to read, expecting his work would be to my taste—and I was not wrong. This is a brief novel, but it is incredibly dense—it feels like Vonnegut sculpted each word precisely for its role. The core of the novel is about the bombing of Dresden, which is something that Vonnegut actually experienced; thus, the main character, Billy Pilgrim, does have some autobiographical elements. Though, of course, this is still a work of fiction. Occasionally, the veneer of fiction ebbs away, …
I am a Tralfamadorian, seeing all time as you might see a stretch of the Rocky Mountains. All time is all time. It does not change. It does not lend itself to warnings or explanations. It simply is.
It started off as a fun and weird scifi book, to a fun and cynical take on the human condition, to a beautiful take on the meaning of life. One of Constants last lines on Titan made tears come to my eyes.
Edit: The more and more I think on it the more I like this book. I will definitely be reading it again at some point.
8 days ago I picked up a different book entirely - one of the classics - and found myself really struggling to get into it. After an hour I'd read the same 20 pages 3 or 4 times. It was no good, I wasn't enjoying it at all - something must be done!
So I put it down and instead reached into the bookshelf for comfort and enjoyment and my hand came across Kurt Vonnegut, as it so often has before.
This book was what the doctor ordered.
This book took me through time and space but mostly just through humanity.
This book taught me everything and nothing - as all good books should.
This book had me laughing out loud in the OBA Public Library, Oosterdokskade, Amsterdam Centraal, Holland, Earth, Solar System, Milky Way.
And so it goes.
The thought that always dominates my mind when reading Vonnegut is the wish that I had read him when I was younger. I also wish that more young people come to read him and love his work. The reason for this is that he presents a way of looking at life and living that is kinder, gentler, and wiser than what our current society tends to teach us. He does not use any religious dogma to arrive at his wonderful perspective. He has a remarkable ability to put a smile on our faces, all the while criticizing our values and worldviews. He manages to do this in 'The Sirens of Titan' as well.
I did enjoy this book, and it did make me think of my own perspectives and values. I thought this book was the strongest towards the beginning and towards the end. The middle part is slightly sluggish …
The thought that always dominates my mind when reading Vonnegut is the wish that I had read him when I was younger. I also wish that more young people come to read him and love his work. The reason for this is that he presents a way of looking at life and living that is kinder, gentler, and wiser than what our current society tends to teach us. He does not use any religious dogma to arrive at his wonderful perspective. He has a remarkable ability to put a smile on our faces, all the while criticizing our values and worldviews. He manages to do this in 'The Sirens of Titan' as well.
I did enjoy this book, and it did make me think of my own perspectives and values. I thought this book was the strongest towards the beginning and towards the end. The middle part is slightly sluggish but not bad in any way. While I liked Slaughterhouse-five a bit more, that could be just because that book was my first introduction to Vonnegut. I heartily recommend 'The Sirens of Titan' to anyone, especially to the younger audience.
I don't know what I thought about this book. There were times where I thought it was too unfocused, but then I was enjoying the story. I may need to read up more on what it means, but taking it at face value, it's enjoyable.
I never met one bit of Vonnegut writing that I did not admire.
Having read a lot, some of the surprise factor related to Vonnegut’s core world view and message relentlessly conveyed wanes. Yet that very same deeply humanistic perspective, a world view built lovingly from the lowest depths of human depravity as witnessed by the author in oerson, only gains power as it gains familiarity.
A novel that is advertised as SF is so easily dismissable. I would argue against that bias, especially regarding Vonnegut’s masterpieces.
Very much a sister novel to Slaughterhouse-Five that had me well hooked by the end.
Is it possible to sort of enjoy a book when you finish it but also know that the next time you read it you're going to enjoy it far more? That's how I feel with this book and it makes rating it impossible.
I found this book rather lazy. The plot did not hold my interest nor did humor make me laugh. All of it was sort of dreadful. Worse still, I see an abundance of praise, apparently, for the genius of Vonnegut's ideas. But if you are familiar with any of the concepts Vonnegut is attempting to tackle in this work, you'd be forgiven to think that their presentation is quite superficial and that the insights are fairly trivial. I've read a few books from Vonnegut and looking back, I can recall very little from those works. In all likelihood, Vonnegut simply does not speak to me.
One of Vonneguts greatest books. A treat for the mind and a precursor to Hitchhikers Guide.
I have waited a month to let my mind mull over this book and I still don't know what the hell I read.
I'm going to reread this soon and maybe then I'll know what I think of this.
I had been meaning to read this book for years! Over time, I've read several Kurt Vonnegut books from Cats Cradle to Sirens of Titan and then some, but for some reason I had held off on this one. Overall, it seems to be a rambling but disturbed account of some of the most evil committed by men! In his introduction, he says that it all happened, and maybe it did in his imagination, but it paints a horrible, unimaginable psychological condition experienced by at least one man. But no, it doesn't concentrate on children going to war, but they did. I hate war! I wish that we humans could survive without it, and I fear that in the end it will be our downfall!
The fact that this was written in the '50's and was Kurt's second book blows my mind, it was way ahead of it's time. The satirical comments on the pointless of war were spot on, the science behind living on Mars/Mercury/Titan and travelling in space are way off the mark, maybe that was the point as it's absurdness adds to the reading experience.
You can see that this book possibly influenced the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy as the narrator has a similar voice. The insane attack by Mars on Earth was so funny and completely unexpected, it's madness did remind me at times of Dr. Strangelove.
I think the book's one weakness was the characters, they feel undeveloped and you don't really care about them, the plot is so strong that they seem to disappear at times.
This is the third Vonnegut book I've read and so far I've …
The fact that this was written in the '50's and was Kurt's second book blows my mind, it was way ahead of it's time. The satirical comments on the pointless of war were spot on, the science behind living on Mars/Mercury/Titan and travelling in space are way off the mark, maybe that was the point as it's absurdness adds to the reading experience.
You can see that this book possibly influenced the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy as the narrator has a similar voice. The insane attack by Mars on Earth was so funny and completely unexpected, it's madness did remind me at times of Dr. Strangelove.
I think the book's one weakness was the characters, they feel undeveloped and you don't really care about them, the plot is so strong that they seem to disappear at times.
This is the third Vonnegut book I've read and so far I've loved them all. Amazing writer.
Man, this book is good. Kurt Vonnegut has a way with words (a good quality in an author!) and his warm humanism appears fully formed in this, one of his earliest novels.
Plot-wise, it's a planet hopping space adventure with 50s-style scifi tech, but it's not really science fiction in the classic sense. That is, the point is not to speculate about a possible future, but to shine a kind light on the way humans behave in groups and the way we think about important things.
It's about what it means to be human, what it means to be religious, and what the meaning of life really is (or isn't). Vonnegut's answers to these questions are funny, pithy, and memorable. I recommend this book to anybody who has ever been amused or unsatisfied by the answers that life seems to give us.
“. . . but the Universe is an …
Man, this book is good. Kurt Vonnegut has a way with words (a good quality in an author!) and his warm humanism appears fully formed in this, one of his earliest novels.
Plot-wise, it's a planet hopping space adventure with 50s-style scifi tech, but it's not really science fiction in the classic sense. That is, the point is not to speculate about a possible future, but to shine a kind light on the way humans behave in groups and the way we think about important things.
It's about what it means to be human, what it means to be religious, and what the meaning of life really is (or isn't). Vonnegut's answers to these questions are funny, pithy, and memorable. I recommend this book to anybody who has ever been amused or unsatisfied by the answers that life seems to give us.
“. . . but the Universe is an awfully big place. There is room enough for an awful lot of people to be right about things and still not agree.”
Another book that proves why Vonnegut is a legend. It's one of his early works, so it may be a bit more of a diamond in the rough, but his themes and topics are already here. Time travel (ish), the existence of free will, the irony and cruelty of humanity... All of them colorful, playful and fun to read.
Thoroughly enjoyed this book, highly recommend it because it is fun but also deep. At times it felt a bit like reading Douglas Adams, but Vonnegut is way more into the bitterness and the cynicism of portraying humanity and questioning religions.
SO yeah, until trafalmadore needs us for anything else, give this book a read. Can't go wrong and it will no doubt have you laughing and asking questions...
Will definitely come back to it in the future.
