Colin's review of The Sirens of Titan
The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut
I have trouble with Kurt Vonnegut in general: I get sort of distracted with the almost comic fantasy in the books. It seems like an easy way out in a way, like in order to make the story work he needs to invent things like strange "chrono synclastic infudibula" or sound-eating harmoniums to fit in the themes that he wants. Part of it, of course, is the scientific knowledge of the times, that Vonnegut's guesses about giant birds on Titan's were as good as anyone's. Still, these are things that were generally known to be completely outside of physics as it was known even then.
That said, I think he's an exceptionally creative person (one would need to be to come up with a person who exists as a wave function) and the book is certainly creative. I guess I'd classify Vonnegut as awesome sci-fi for people who aren't fans of sci-fi. The elements I really enjoy in science-fiction are not well represented in this book, but the elements of the beat generation's strengths of story-tel...more
That said, I think he's an exceptionally creative person (one would need to be to come up with a person who exists as a wave function) and the book is certainly creative. I guess I'd classify Vonnegut as awesome sci-fi for people who aren't fans of sci-fi. The elements I really enjoy in science-fiction are not well represented in this book, but the elements of the beat generation's strengths of story-tel...more
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