Player Piano
by Kurt Vonnegut
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 4365)
Read in November, 2007
Is it acceptable to call a soft sci-fi dystopian novel badass? Does that reveal the total nerd at the core of my character?
The only reason I can see for this book not to be mentioned as one of Vonnegut's greats is that it's edged out by the half-dozen or so outright masterpieces in his canon. But for a first novel, this is ace. It's Vonnegut's most conventionally structured novel, and possibly even his least original. The plot is more or less a tweaking of Huxley's 'Brave New World' (Vo...more
The only reason I can see for this book not to be mentioned as one of Vonnegut's greats is that it's edged out by the half-dozen or so outright masterpieces in his canon. But for a first novel, this is ace. It's Vonnegut's most conventionally structured novel, and possibly even his least original. The plot is more or less a tweaking of Huxley's 'Brave New World' (Vo...more
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Read in January, 2003
This one and Mother Night are my two favorite Vonnegut books. In 'Man without a country' he laughs about the fact that this book had him classified as a science fiction author, although it happens to be about Schenectady New York during the 1950's and contains barely any fantasy elements or speculative ideas about the future. It's about all the conflict and change that comes with technological development, putting great numbers of people out of work and leaving an isolated handful of others wi...more
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Read in June, 2008
It was actually kind of weird to see how outdated this book really kind of has become, that in Vonnegut's world of 1952 machines and industry were the menacing archnemeses of the future, when now (in the future), it's so much more of a computer-driven world (especially after the Matrix movies), and that we're in the throws of the Digital Revolution (I think that's what they're calling this). I mean, growing up reading SciFi, it was always "ooh, the machines, the machines, fear the m...more
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Read in June, 2007
Unfortunately, Player Piano has never been my favorite Vonnegut novel. In fact, if memory serves, it’s my least favorite of the grandmaster’s work.
The plot, for those who are unfamiliar, deals with a near future United States where machines have been allowed to take over almost the entire spectrum of human decision making. Not only is our industry run by computers, but the very course of a person’s life is mapped out based on a test score that’s graded by a machine.
Within this ...more
The plot, for those who are unfamiliar, deals with a near future United States where machines have been allowed to take over almost the entire spectrum of human decision making. Not only is our industry run by computers, but the very course of a person’s life is mapped out based on a test score that’s graded by a machine.
Within this ...more
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Read in March, 2005
Doctor Paul Proteus is a plant manager in Ilium, New York, with a lovely wife (no children. He is fortunate to have a job. For after the war and the Second Industrial Revolution, nearly all jobs are peformed by machine; the economy orchestrated by the mega-computer EPICAC. Most citizens are either relegated to the Army or the Reconstruction and Reclamation Corps ("Reeks & Wrecks").
The engineers and managers are the upper crust of society, with their own odd rituals, such as the ...more
The engineers and managers are the upper crust of society, with their own odd rituals, such as the ...more
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Read in January, 2008
recommended to Geoff by:
Dave Bowman
Vonnegut lived in Schenectady and this book describes a city and setting that essentially is Schenectady and General Electric. I feel that i derived most of my enjoyment from picturing the surrounding area and trying to place the action of the novel within the confines of the Electric City. In my mind the Country Club was the Mohawk Club on Upper Union St. and the bridge that connected the Ilium Works to Homestead was the route 5 bridge that leads into Scotia.
Aside from the kicks i got fro...more
Aside from the kicks i got fro...more
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Read in January, 2008
Except for the ones he hadn't written yet, I read Vonnegut's novels in 1985/86. I vaguely recalled Player Piano as one I particularly liked, as it was drier than most of the others and had a tighter structure. I suppose it is and does, though I now don't recall the others well enough to be sure.
It's concerned with a distopian U.S. in which almost all human labor has been replaced by machines. When I read it in the 1980s, automation was still a major fear; I don't know about 1952, ...more
It's concerned with a distopian U.S. in which almost all human labor has been replaced by machines. When I read it in the 1980s, automation was still a major fear; I don't know about 1952, ...more
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Read in July, 2007
This is my first experience with Vonnegut. Yes, yes, I know I'm a bit late to the party. But what the hell, at least I showed up. Anywho, I chose this one because it sounded suitably dystopian and oh what a glorious dystopia it was. Human beings (with their icky fallibility) have been marginalized by the glorious efficiency of machines and society has divided into two distinct sects: those with high I.Q.s and engineering skills (the haves), and those without (the have-nots). The story revolv...more
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in July, 2007
recommends it for:
people knitting sweaters for the revolution
Vonnegut recasts in his own style a fable all too familiar to the Anglophone palette: the horrors of a fully-automated society made slave by its precious technology. The allusions to Orwell's "1984" are obvious, to the point that Vonnegut's novel may have been more aptly titled "1985: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Works." Indeed, Vonnegut's attempt to inject smarm and self-inflated wit into a story about the quest for human dignity seems to strike a disappointing...more
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Read in June, 2007
I liked this book although it wasn't the type of book I am usually interested in. It had a very overt man vs. machine theme and I thought it was quite predictable... even up to the end when it actually began to climax in the last 50 or so pages. It was one of those books that forces you to think of what would happen if/when machines replace people and how it will isolate/oppress society as a whole. I do think Kurt Vonnegut masters dialogue exceptionally well, and his characters are incredibly we...more
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Read in May, 2001
Speculative Fiction. Man has been replaced by machine. In a society where everything is mechanized, there's a huge divide between the upper class (engineers and managers) and the lower class (everyone else), and social unrest is in the air.
This is Vonnegut's first novel, and not his most accessible. It's dense and kind of slow compared to his other books, though it still has moments of brilliant absurdity.
If you've never read Vonnegut before, this is not the place to start. If you're fa...more
This is Vonnegut's first novel, and not his most accessible. It's dense and kind of slow compared to his other books, though it still has moments of brilliant absurdity.
If you've never read Vonnegut before, this is not the place to start. If you're fa...more
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Read in February, 1997
recommends it for:
kids who aren't into huffing
i dunno. i read all of his books when I was a kid. they were allright then. So i gave him an extra nostalgia star. Good story, though: I was dating a woman who "hated to read", so I gave her this book thinking it would be non-threatening and fun. A few weeks later I asked her what she thought of the book, and she said "it was good, but I didn't like the ending". Well, I hadn't liked the ending either! So it was a great bonding moment! Then I found out months later tha...more
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Read in May, 2003
recommends it for:
Make, working class
This is my favorite Vonnegut story! I know its hard to pick a fave, but this one really speaks to me.
A parable about the state of society when we allow computers to do all the work and leave the people without a sense of purpose or pride. Not only do the machines make everything, but they have also been programmed to choose what we watch, read, eat and collect. Throw into that some class war and you have a story built just for me!
The story of one man's dissatisfaction with his bland uppe...more
A parable about the state of society when we allow computers to do all the work and leave the people without a sense of purpose or pride. Not only do the machines make everything, but they have also been programmed to choose what we watch, read, eat and collect. Throw into that some class war and you have a story built just for me!
The story of one man's dissatisfaction with his bland uppe...more
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Read in May, 2001
There was a period in my life when I read all the Vonnegut I could get my hands on, which is mostly a very rewarding experience, but oh man, this is terrible. It's his first novel, and it really should've been a short story - even as a short story, it would've been forgettable. Classic scifi man/machine themes unleavened by the irony I would usually expect from Vonnegut, drawn out far too long, with characters who lack depth or interest. Read, I dunno, anything else by Vonnegut instea...more
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Read in August, 2007
recommends it for:
Fans of Sci Fi and Vonnegut
I love the sense I get from Cold War-era, futuristic novels. Kurst's images of automated lifestyles and the related human dilemma of having to recalibrate one's sense of self-worth are not too far off, attitudes towards smoking not so much...
I especially enjoy the description of vacuum tubes and punch cards being the way of the future for computers. I like that slice of history- it reminds me of the Twilight Zone, and it helps me to better imagine what the mood of the time was.
I especially enjoy the description of vacuum tubes and punch cards being the way of the future for computers. I like that slice of history- it reminds me of the Twilight Zone, and it helps me to better imagine what the mood of the time was.
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Read in June, 2007
Not bad, not one of my favorites by a long shot, but it definitely has a sense of absurd humor. Something about it reminds me a bit of Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, though I can't put my finger on it. The bar scenes remind me a lot of Spider Robinson's Callahan's Crosstime Saloon. I can't help but think Robinson was influenced by Vonnegut's early work. The whole thing is a sort of dystopian indictment of the automated assembly line and big government.
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This is the book that started it all. It is the first book I ever bought on my own.
I was ten, and having finished the Lord of the Rings trilogy I found sitting on my father's bookshelf I thought, 'Well these book things are kind of fun. I should go find some others. There next to the Tolkien books in B. Dalton's were a slew of books by a guy with a really strange name, 'Vonnegut.' I found the earliest I could find: Player Piano.
Nothing has been the same since.
I was ten, and having finished the Lord of the Rings trilogy I found sitting on my father's bookshelf I thought, 'Well these book things are kind of fun. I should go find some others. There next to the Tolkien books in B. Dalton's were a slew of books by a guy with a really strange name, 'Vonnegut.' I found the earliest I could find: Player Piano.
Nothing has been the same since.
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Read in June, 2008
This definitely has become my favorite Vonnegut book that I've read so far. Yes there are certain items that make this feel dated and unfamiliar, but not in a far-flung, alien future way like the classic sci-fi masters. Instead the conflict of the book is the struggle of a man against his own conscience and nature set within a societal struggle of man against machine. I was amazed at how well Vonnegut captured the ennui that can accompany over-education.
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Read in May, 2007
recommends it for:
People who read the other Vonnegut books/fans of George Orwell
I breezed through this book in about 3 days. It's like a "1984" comedy. I suppose the ending is somewhat of a let down. Being a first novel, I think he had this great premise for a book and then as it was being written started to wonder how he would end it. I don't think that a really great ending would be possible unless it was about twice as long. Somewhere after the first 240 pages the plot completely shifts. You kind of just have to go with it.
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an amazing story of one man's place in the society he helped create, and climbing the corporate ladder to the top and back again. dr proteus, one of the most unlikey protagonists, as are most of vonnegut's heroes, finds his place as a leader of the common man from his perch among the elite. the journey there is sad, frustrating and amazing. vonnegut proves once again he is the voice of the regular joe.
let's meet in the middle of the bridge.
let's meet in the middle of the bridge.
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