What do you think?
Rate this book
Frankenstein desencadenado
"El tiempo y el espacio se han salido de quicio, por así decir. Ya no podemos ni siquiera confiar en el ordenamiento de la progresión temporal; quizá mañana sera la semana pasada, o el siglo pasado, o el tiempo de los faraones. El Intelecto ha hecho de la Tierra un planeta peligroso para el intelecto. Somos víctimas de esa maldición que cayó sobre el barón Frankenstein en la novela de Mary Shelley; por pretender dominar demasiado, hemos perdido el dominio de nosotros mismos."
The Times, 20 de agosto de 2020.
The Times, 20 de agosto de 2020.
221 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1973
46 people are currently reading
748 people want to read
About the author
Brian W. Aldiss
834 books671 followersPseudonyms: Jael Cracken, Peter Pica, John Runciman, C.C. Shackleton, Arch Mendicant, & "Doc" Peristyle.
Brian Wilson Aldiss was one of the most important voices in science fiction writing today. He wrote his first novel while working as a bookseller in Oxford. Shortly afterwards he wrote his first work of science fiction and soon gained international recognition. Adored for his innovative literary techniques, evocative plots and irresistible characters, he became a Grand Master of Science Fiction in 1999.
Brian Aldiss died on August 19, 2017, just after celebrating his 92nd birthday with his family and closest friends.
Brian W. Aldiss Group on Good Reads
Brian Wilson Aldiss was one of the most important voices in science fiction writing today. He wrote his first novel while working as a bookseller in Oxford. Shortly afterwards he wrote his first work of science fiction and soon gained international recognition. Adored for his innovative literary techniques, evocative plots and irresistible characters, he became a Grand Master of Science Fiction in 1999.
Brian Aldiss died on August 19, 2017, just after celebrating his 92nd birthday with his family and closest friends.
Brian W. Aldiss Group on Good Reads
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 83 reviews
September 10, 2018
”The monster at my feet said, ‘This I will tell you, and through you, all men, if you are deemed fit to rejoin your kind: that my death will weigh more heavily upon you than my life. No fury I might possess could be a match for yours. Moreover, though you seek to bury me, yet will you continuously resurrect me! Once I am unbound. I am unbounded!’”
Original cover art from the first edition in 1973. I like it.
Joe Bodenland is living in the midst of a dying Earth in 2020. A nuclear war in space has torn the fabric of the universe, and now everyone is experiencing timeslips. The future and the past are now blending. He might go to bed in 2020 and wake up in 1984 or 1432. The timeslips are unreliable. He might be in 1776 for an hour or twenty hours before he is snapped back into the present in 2020.
”By seeking to control too much, we have lost control of ourselves.”
When Bodenland finds himself in 1816 Switzerland, he can’t help but explore. He drives his 21st century nuclear powered car out from his temporarily relocated house to take a look around. Before he can return, the timeslip...slips again... and he is stuck in the 19th century. He is not that unhappy about it; in fact, he is rather giddy at the thought of meeting the Romantic poets who just happen to be vacationing in Switzerland at this very moment in time. Byron, Shelley, and his soon to be wife, Mary, are welcoming, but after meeting Victor Frankenstein over a stein of beer, Bodenland realizes that there is a mashup of the real and imaginary happening as well.
He sees the creature, the fiend, the Frankenstein’s monster, and feels that something must be done before this beast, already a murderer, kills again. He goes to Mary Wollstonecraft, hoping that she can give him insight into a book she hasn’t even written yet. She is not yet eighteen, a young mother, but at the height of her beauty, and at an intriguing stage of her developing intellect. Bodenland is starstruck. ”Seen in the soft green light of the window, speaking with her serious calm air, Mary Shelley was beautiful to behold. There might be a melancholy here, but there was none of Shelley’s madness, none of Byron’s moodiness. She seemed like a being apart, a very sane but extraordinary young woman, and a slumbering thing in my breast woke and opened to her.”
Bodenland knows more about Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley than she knows about herself at this point in her life. He is enamored with the woman she is going to be, as much or more as he is of the young girl she is at this moment. ”Let your sunlight and my moonlight mingle!” She says, which means exactly what you think it does!
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. Doesn’t a woman look sexy writing a novel?
I can think of a number of literary crushes I have on writers: Marguerite Duras, Clarice Lispector, or Daphne du Maurier to name a few. I may have to add Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley to the list.
Bodenland becomes obsessed with stopping Frankenstein before he creates another creature. Frankenstein feels compelled to comply with the Monster’s request, due to his own guilt and the very real fear that, if he doesn’t supply the Monster with a woman, he will be torn to shreds. Bodenland finds himself desperately chasing these creatures, taking the role that Frankenstein fulfilled in the original book. ”Nothing could refresh my soul; I was a Jonas Chuzzlewit, a Raskolnikov. I had lied, cheated, committed adultery, looted, thieved, and ultimately murdered; henceforth my only fit company was the two brutes who journeyed somewhere ahead of me, my only fit surroundings the frigid hinterlands of hell which I now entered.”
He has become worse than those he feels must be destroyed.
Will he himself be unhinged, unbound, unfit?
Brian W. Aldiss is a huge fan of the novel Frankenstein. He ”has argued that it should be considered the first true science fiction story because, in contrast to previous stories with fantastical elements resembling those of later science fiction, the central character ‘makes a deliberate decision’ and ’turns to modern experiments in the laboratory’ to achieve fantastic results.” He certainly felt respect, maybe mingled with a bit of lust, for Mary Wollstonecraft, which I find to be charming and only slightly pervy that he fulfilled a sexual fantasy in fiction through a surrogate character. I wish that Aldiss had developed the interactions with Shelley and Byron more thoroughly. They are such dynamic, fascinating characters that I felt shorted by the drive-by moments that they appeared in the novel. It reminded me of how much I enjoyed Tim Power’s book The Stress of Her Regard
Interesting concept, so interesting in fact that I wanted more. I felt the idea of the book was sold short and could have been a terrific book if Aldiss had drilled down deeper into the thoughts and feelings this situation inspired. Recommended for fans of Frankenstein and his monster.
If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.com
I also have a Facebook blogger page at:https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten
Original cover art from the first edition in 1973. I like it.
Joe Bodenland is living in the midst of a dying Earth in 2020. A nuclear war in space has torn the fabric of the universe, and now everyone is experiencing timeslips. The future and the past are now blending. He might go to bed in 2020 and wake up in 1984 or 1432. The timeslips are unreliable. He might be in 1776 for an hour or twenty hours before he is snapped back into the present in 2020.
”By seeking to control too much, we have lost control of ourselves.”
When Bodenland finds himself in 1816 Switzerland, he can’t help but explore. He drives his 21st century nuclear powered car out from his temporarily relocated house to take a look around. Before he can return, the timeslip...slips again... and he is stuck in the 19th century. He is not that unhappy about it; in fact, he is rather giddy at the thought of meeting the Romantic poets who just happen to be vacationing in Switzerland at this very moment in time. Byron, Shelley, and his soon to be wife, Mary, are welcoming, but after meeting Victor Frankenstein over a stein of beer, Bodenland realizes that there is a mashup of the real and imaginary happening as well.
He sees the creature, the fiend, the Frankenstein’s monster, and feels that something must be done before this beast, already a murderer, kills again. He goes to Mary Wollstonecraft, hoping that she can give him insight into a book she hasn’t even written yet. She is not yet eighteen, a young mother, but at the height of her beauty, and at an intriguing stage of her developing intellect. Bodenland is starstruck. ”Seen in the soft green light of the window, speaking with her serious calm air, Mary Shelley was beautiful to behold. There might be a melancholy here, but there was none of Shelley’s madness, none of Byron’s moodiness. She seemed like a being apart, a very sane but extraordinary young woman, and a slumbering thing in my breast woke and opened to her.”
Bodenland knows more about Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley than she knows about herself at this point in her life. He is enamored with the woman she is going to be, as much or more as he is of the young girl she is at this moment. ”Let your sunlight and my moonlight mingle!” She says, which means exactly what you think it does!
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. Doesn’t a woman look sexy writing a novel?
I can think of a number of literary crushes I have on writers: Marguerite Duras, Clarice Lispector, or Daphne du Maurier to name a few. I may have to add Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley to the list.
Bodenland becomes obsessed with stopping Frankenstein before he creates another creature. Frankenstein feels compelled to comply with the Monster’s request, due to his own guilt and the very real fear that, if he doesn’t supply the Monster with a woman, he will be torn to shreds. Bodenland finds himself desperately chasing these creatures, taking the role that Frankenstein fulfilled in the original book. ”Nothing could refresh my soul; I was a Jonas Chuzzlewit, a Raskolnikov. I had lied, cheated, committed adultery, looted, thieved, and ultimately murdered; henceforth my only fit company was the two brutes who journeyed somewhere ahead of me, my only fit surroundings the frigid hinterlands of hell which I now entered.”
He has become worse than those he feels must be destroyed.
Will he himself be unhinged, unbound, unfit?
Brian W. Aldiss is a huge fan of the novel Frankenstein. He ”has argued that it should be considered the first true science fiction story because, in contrast to previous stories with fantastical elements resembling those of later science fiction, the central character ‘makes a deliberate decision’ and ’turns to modern experiments in the laboratory’ to achieve fantastic results.” He certainly felt respect, maybe mingled with a bit of lust, for Mary Wollstonecraft, which I find to be charming and only slightly pervy that he fulfilled a sexual fantasy in fiction through a surrogate character. I wish that Aldiss had developed the interactions with Shelley and Byron more thoroughly. They are such dynamic, fascinating characters that I felt shorted by the drive-by moments that they appeared in the novel. It reminded me of how much I enjoyed Tim Power’s book The Stress of Her Regard
Interesting concept, so interesting in fact that I wanted more. I felt the idea of the book was sold short and could have been a terrific book if Aldiss had drilled down deeper into the thoughts and feelings this situation inspired. Recommended for fans of Frankenstein and his monster.
If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.com
I also have a Facebook blogger page at:https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten
Read
March 2, 2019Meta fictional adventure, in which an earthquake shakes our main character and his car from a dystopian future into a past in which Mary Shelley's brain power, as some have long suspected, in a curious form of head birth even as Zeus strained to bring forth Athena has given real life both to Frankenstein and his monster. This leaves the main character with the curious task of returning the monster to a purely fictional status through violent means, a course of action which the monster finds objectionable. The one pursues the other, not simply in replication of Mme Shelley's story, but also as her narrative haunts our imagination, with its evergreen tale of our own neglected creations turning against us.
Want to read
November 29, 2016This hardcover book is number 40 of 300 copies for sale and is numbered and signed by:
Brian W. Aldiss
Michael Moorcock
Thomas Walker
Brian W. Aldiss
Michael Moorcock
Thomas Walker
July 27, 2009
Brian Aldiss has a mother complex.
There's no other way to explain his novel FRANKENSTEIN UNBOUND. In it, Joe Bodenland, a man from the 21st century slips back in time to the 19th century; specifically, to Switzerland, where he first meets Victor Frankenstein and his monster and then, after another displacement, Mary Shelley and her illustrious companions. He becomes obsessed with thwarting first Frankenstein, and then his monsters.
There's some good stuff along the way. Aldiss' portraits of Percy Shelley and Lord Byron are colourful and convincing. The narrator's various meditations on the scientific quest to learn more and improve on nature are occasionally though-provoking, raising interesting questions about, for instance, whether rationality has really done more for human dignity than religion, even when the points they make are debatable (did religion really protect the basic dignity of every human being more than reason-based capitalism? It seems unlikely). Aldiss' depiction of the monster and its mate (yes, Frankenstein Makes Woman in this pastiche) are pretty good, too.
But there's little sense to it all. The narrator is obsessed with destroying the monster and his mate, even though they seem to deserve it little enough. Bodenland himself becomes a bit of a monster in his murderous quest. There are one too many time-slips, and nothing is really explained or tied up.
Most egregious of all, the narrator sleeps with Mary Shelley, for little reason other than that he is there, and he makes her happy by telling her that he is a time traveller who can vouch for the eventual success of her novel. It seems highly out of character from what I've read of Mary Shelley, who was no libertine, and certainly the fact that the narrator is presented as an old man, a grandfather, at the end of his career, makes the liaison that much stranger. I think Aldiss just wanted to fantasise about making love to Mary Shelley, whom he has often described as the mother of his genre, and to hell with sense or plot coherence. Having written this bit of slash fic, he then built a fairly shoddy structure around it, and then, being of a thoughtful bent of mind, fleshed it out a bit with philosophical ramblings.
The end result is less than a novel, not quite an essay. An alogether vexatious and disappointing exercise. Aldiss is one of the more interesting and original literary SF writers, and one with a keen engagement with the genre's nature and history. I expected much more from his take on what he holds to be one of the first, if not the first, SF novel.
There's no other way to explain his novel FRANKENSTEIN UNBOUND. In it, Joe Bodenland, a man from the 21st century slips back in time to the 19th century; specifically, to Switzerland, where he first meets Victor Frankenstein and his monster and then, after another displacement, Mary Shelley and her illustrious companions. He becomes obsessed with thwarting first Frankenstein, and then his monsters.
There's some good stuff along the way. Aldiss' portraits of Percy Shelley and Lord Byron are colourful and convincing. The narrator's various meditations on the scientific quest to learn more and improve on nature are occasionally though-provoking, raising interesting questions about, for instance, whether rationality has really done more for human dignity than religion, even when the points they make are debatable (did religion really protect the basic dignity of every human being more than reason-based capitalism? It seems unlikely). Aldiss' depiction of the monster and its mate (yes, Frankenstein Makes Woman in this pastiche) are pretty good, too.
But there's little sense to it all. The narrator is obsessed with destroying the monster and his mate, even though they seem to deserve it little enough. Bodenland himself becomes a bit of a monster in his murderous quest. There are one too many time-slips, and nothing is really explained or tied up.
Most egregious of all, the narrator sleeps with Mary Shelley, for little reason other than that he is there, and he makes her happy by telling her that he is a time traveller who can vouch for the eventual success of her novel. It seems highly out of character from what I've read of Mary Shelley, who was no libertine, and certainly the fact that the narrator is presented as an old man, a grandfather, at the end of his career, makes the liaison that much stranger. I think Aldiss just wanted to fantasise about making love to Mary Shelley, whom he has often described as the mother of his genre, and to hell with sense or plot coherence. Having written this bit of slash fic, he then built a fairly shoddy structure around it, and then, being of a thoughtful bent of mind, fleshed it out a bit with philosophical ramblings.
The end result is less than a novel, not quite an essay. An alogether vexatious and disappointing exercise. Aldiss is one of the more interesting and original literary SF writers, and one with a keen engagement with the genre's nature and history. I expected much more from his take on what he holds to be one of the first, if not the first, SF novel.
June 29, 2023
I'm really torn on this one.. but i'm going to give it 4-stars based almost entirely on the last 40% which is very compelling.
This thing is just insane though. The first 40% is ok its a bit more focused on Dr. Frankenstein than the monster like i expected. The middle section is where the whole plot (if there ever was one) goes off the rails.
It just all falls apart and on top of that goes very 70’s, and by that i mean 70’s written by a man, because of course the main charcter has to have some random sex scene.. and its just the worst for multiple reasons.
Also what age is this guy? He was a presidential advisor i think and he’s a happily married grandfather...
The story also makes a number of attempts to use the novel Frankenstein as some sort of allegory for the state of the world.. it never really works.
Everything after that middle section just feels very quick and i don’t mean that in a bad way, its quite hard to put down. It doesn’t get any less insane though, in fact the author just embraces how little any of it makes sense and somehow makes that a positive.
This is just such an odd-ball, i’m really not sure how i feel about it but its certainly.. memorable.
This thing is just insane though. The first 40% is ok its a bit more focused on Dr. Frankenstein than the monster like i expected. The middle section is where the whole plot (if there ever was one) goes off the rails.
It just all falls apart and on top of that goes very 70’s, and by that i mean 70’s written by a man, because of course the main charcter has to have some random sex scene.. and its just the worst for multiple reasons.
Also what age is this guy? He was a presidential advisor i think and he’s a happily married grandfather...
The story also makes a number of attempts to use the novel Frankenstein as some sort of allegory for the state of the world.. it never really works.
Everything after that middle section just feels very quick and i don’t mean that in a bad way, its quite hard to put down. It doesn’t get any less insane though, in fact the author just embraces how little any of it makes sense and somehow makes that a positive.
This is just such an odd-ball, i’m really not sure how i feel about it but its certainly.. memorable.
September 27, 2013
This is the book that the Roger Corman movie was (loosely) based on.
I actually thought the film, although definitely a 'B-movie' did a better job in some respects of delineating the parallels between the sci-fi scenario that Aldiss sets up and the classic story of Frankenstein.
In the 21st century, nuclear war in space has ruptured the space-time continuum, causing bizarre 'time-slips.' Caught in one of these, an influential man finds himself 200 years in the past - but a past where it seems that the fictional story of Frankenstein is fact. We meet our infamous scientist, and our protagonist is soon caught up in trying to save an innocent woman from being executed for a killing committed by the monster.
Another 'slip' occurs, and our protagonist now finds himself some months later, in what may or may not be a different reality again, hanging out with Byron, Shelley and Mary Godwin (soon-to-be Mary Shelley).
Reality seems to be unraveling. Our protagonist becomes somewhat obsessed with tracking down the monster in his 21st-century car and killing it.
But is the real problem that humanity, in whatever century one may be in, seeks out forbidden and dangerous knowledge, as the original Frankenstein illustrates? Or is it the human hatred of and violence toward anything different and unknown?
This short, philosophical novel is really Aldiss' musings on these issues. It's OK, but perhaps could have been better executed. I liked how, in the movie, the protagonist was actually a scientist responsible for the device which caused the timeslips, setting up a nice parallel between him and Dr. Frankenstein. In the book, he's just a random guy, it seems.
I actually thought the film, although definitely a 'B-movie' did a better job in some respects of delineating the parallels between the sci-fi scenario that Aldiss sets up and the classic story of Frankenstein.
In the 21st century, nuclear war in space has ruptured the space-time continuum, causing bizarre 'time-slips.' Caught in one of these, an influential man finds himself 200 years in the past - but a past where it seems that the fictional story of Frankenstein is fact. We meet our infamous scientist, and our protagonist is soon caught up in trying to save an innocent woman from being executed for a killing committed by the monster.
Another 'slip' occurs, and our protagonist now finds himself some months later, in what may or may not be a different reality again, hanging out with Byron, Shelley and Mary Godwin (soon-to-be Mary Shelley).
Reality seems to be unraveling. Our protagonist becomes somewhat obsessed with tracking down the monster in his 21st-century car and killing it.
But is the real problem that humanity, in whatever century one may be in, seeks out forbidden and dangerous knowledge, as the original Frankenstein illustrates? Or is it the human hatred of and violence toward anything different and unknown?
This short, philosophical novel is really Aldiss' musings on these issues. It's OK, but perhaps could have been better executed. I liked how, in the movie, the protagonist was actually a scientist responsible for the device which caused the timeslips, setting up a nice parallel between him and Dr. Frankenstein. In the book, he's just a random guy, it seems.
June 14, 2009
In the year 2020 (so begins Frankenstein Unbound), a great war has created cataclysmic conditions on Earth. Nuclear warfare between warring nations has created - not an uninhabitable world, but - a condition wherein so-called "timeslips" occur. That is, the inhabitants of 2020 find themselves thrust into times and places throughout history and beyond, before the timescale corrects itself and reverts them to their proper time and locale.
This chronological dyspepsia is the direct result of the nuclear bombing of opposing nations' moon colonies. Heh, heh... no, hang on now.
Joe Bodenland, married father of two, finds himself propelled into the year 1816 - "the first man ever to be displaced in time" - along with his automobile. Within moments, he finds himself encountering the fictional Dr. Frankenstein in a pub in Switzerland. Obviously, Joe surreptitiously follows the man closely, watching as Frankenstein's Monster bursts forth from a thunderous mountaintop to do mortal battle with the good doctor. Fortunately for the storyline, he escapes.
Unfortunately, poor Joe Bodenland is no literary scholar, and finds himself having difficulty recalling the precise details of Mary Shelley's classic work. To rectify this, he seeks out Ms. Shelley herself (then known as Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, for she had yet to wed Percy Bysshe) to inquire as to the finality of her fictional creation.
As it turns out (ha, ha, ha!), Joe takes Mary Shelley to bed, and they fall in love! Joe then hunts down the mysterious Dr. Frankenstein in order to protect mankind from his abhorrent monsters - and yes, it is finally revealed that Joe's car is outfitted with a gun turret, just like all 2020 models will be - but winds up in prison for the suspected homicide of the missing Frankenstein. Joe, however, finds himself sprung from jail during the fracas of a freak flash flood, after which he begins his hunt anew.
Heh, heh, heh! No, really! This is just the first half of the book! Just wait until you get to the part where Frankenstein's Monster and the "Bride of Frankenstein" get into their little mating ritual! Or the torching of Frankenstein's stone-walled castle with the use of a dry butane lighter. Or the part where Joe finds his car again (powered on uranium, so it never needs refueling - just like all 2020 models will be), and drives it throughout the mountainous terrain of the Swiss Alps in hunting the murderous duo.
Have I ruined it for you? I'm sorry... Go read it for yourself. No, seriously! You've really got to read this for yourself!
This chronological dyspepsia is the direct result of the nuclear bombing of opposing nations' moon colonies. Heh, heh... no, hang on now.
Joe Bodenland, married father of two, finds himself propelled into the year 1816 - "the first man ever to be displaced in time" - along with his automobile. Within moments, he finds himself encountering the fictional Dr. Frankenstein in a pub in Switzerland. Obviously, Joe surreptitiously follows the man closely, watching as Frankenstein's Monster bursts forth from a thunderous mountaintop to do mortal battle with the good doctor. Fortunately for the storyline, he escapes.
Unfortunately, poor Joe Bodenland is no literary scholar, and finds himself having difficulty recalling the precise details of Mary Shelley's classic work. To rectify this, he seeks out Ms. Shelley herself (then known as Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, for she had yet to wed Percy Bysshe) to inquire as to the finality of her fictional creation.
As it turns out (ha, ha, ha!), Joe takes Mary Shelley to bed, and they fall in love! Joe then hunts down the mysterious Dr. Frankenstein in order to protect mankind from his abhorrent monsters - and yes, it is finally revealed that Joe's car is outfitted with a gun turret, just like all 2020 models will be - but winds up in prison for the suspected homicide of the missing Frankenstein. Joe, however, finds himself sprung from jail during the fracas of a freak flash flood, after which he begins his hunt anew.
Heh, heh, heh! No, really! This is just the first half of the book! Just wait until you get to the part where Frankenstein's Monster and the "Bride of Frankenstein" get into their little mating ritual! Or the torching of Frankenstein's stone-walled castle with the use of a dry butane lighter. Or the part where Joe finds his car again (powered on uranium, so it never needs refueling - just like all 2020 models will be), and drives it throughout the mountainous terrain of the Swiss Alps in hunting the murderous duo.
Have I ruined it for you? I'm sorry... Go read it for yourself. No, seriously! You've really got to read this for yourself!
October 11, 2014
Aldiss no sólo tiene buenas ideas, también escribe bien. Y lo demuestra en este homenaje a Mary Shelley y a su inmortal obra.
'Frankenstein desencadenado' comienza mostrándonos a Joe Bodenland en Texas, en el año 2020. El mundo está en guerra, lo que ha provocado la ruptura del espacio-tiempo, causando el deslizamiento de zonas de este mundo hacia el pasado. En uno de estos deslizamientos, Bodenland llega al siglo XIX, a 1816. En esta realidad, se da la circunstancia de que coinciden tanto él, como Mary Shelley, Percy, Polidori y Byron, así como Frankenstein y su Criatura. Una vez se da cuenta del entorno en el que se encuentra, Bodenland nos narrará mediante un diario todas sus aventuras. Al mismo tiempo, se encomendará una misión: acabar con el monstruo.
Mediante un lenguaje evocador y poético, Aldiss nos describe los encuentros con estos personajes, así como la figura atormentada de Frankenstein. También aprovecha para reflexionar sobre el progreso, el tiempo y la ética. Sin duda, nos encontramos, no sólo ante un clásico de la ciencia ficción, sino también ante una gran novela.
'Frankenstein desencadenado' comienza mostrándonos a Joe Bodenland en Texas, en el año 2020. El mundo está en guerra, lo que ha provocado la ruptura del espacio-tiempo, causando el deslizamiento de zonas de este mundo hacia el pasado. En uno de estos deslizamientos, Bodenland llega al siglo XIX, a 1816. En esta realidad, se da la circunstancia de que coinciden tanto él, como Mary Shelley, Percy, Polidori y Byron, así como Frankenstein y su Criatura. Una vez se da cuenta del entorno en el que se encuentra, Bodenland nos narrará mediante un diario todas sus aventuras. Al mismo tiempo, se encomendará una misión: acabar con el monstruo.
Mediante un lenguaje evocador y poético, Aldiss nos describe los encuentros con estos personajes, así como la figura atormentada de Frankenstein. También aprovecha para reflexionar sobre el progreso, el tiempo y la ética. Sin duda, nos encontramos, no sólo ante un clásico de la ciencia ficción, sino también ante una gran novela.
February 16, 2019
I admit I have had this on the to-be-read pile for close to 10 years. I add books to the top and never get to the bottom. The last time we moved house I flipped the pile and started to read them one at a time. I have just gotten to the Aldiss section and what a disappointment.
I had to read it, for completeness, and also because written in 1973 it focusses on 2020, at least that is where it starts and then it doesn't. I won't divulge the story because other reviewers have written more than enough. Suffice to say it is dated (to be expected and that isn't really an issue). But also boring waffle for the most part.
Not for me
I had to read it, for completeness, and also because written in 1973 it focusses on 2020, at least that is where it starts and then it doesn't. I won't divulge the story because other reviewers have written more than enough. Suffice to say it is dated (to be expected and that isn't really an issue). But also boring waffle for the most part.
Not for me
December 21, 2015
Pensé que estaba leyendo Frankenstein Educador, obviamente me equivoqué, pero como el libro no iba mal lo seguí. Me gustó un poco. ¿Qué pasaría si despertara en un tiempo donde la realidad y la ficción se entremezclan?
"El creador y las criaturas se encadenarán unos a otros en una relación de vida y de muerte."
November 20, 2022
“A record must be kept, for the sanity of all concerned.” Slipstreamy meta-ness with some interesting things to say about blind obedience to value-free scientific method. Nuclear war in space damages the structure of space-time which results in “time-slips” and Joe Bodenland (an ambassador so handily able to speak fluent German) finds himself and his weaponised super-car transported to Lake Geneva to meet lots of famous people.
This was an interesting, enjoyable read, often thought-provoking but also edged with barminess. I got the impression Aldiss – probably while writing The Billion Year Spree – had done a lot of thinking about Shelley and the centrality of “Frankenstein” to SF and science in general and was consequently jumping through a fair few plot hoops to be able to discourse with both Mary Shelley and Victor Frankenstein under one cover. Shelley – spoiler: a real person – is fictionalised here by Aldiss and therefore appears real to Joe. Victor Frankenstein on the other hand is both fictional to us and Joe until he appears as a real character to Joe. Aldiss therefore has his cake and eats it, Joe having heated intellectual discussions with both Mary and Victor with Joe – and, by extension, Aldiss – drawing a direct line from what Victor is getting up to of a night directly to the nuclear Armageddon which has damaged space-time. A lot of coincidences ensue, not least Joe’s tricked out car accompanying him on his jaunt and Joe is lucky he is time-dumped down into such a benign locale. The overall effect is snooker loopy but well-written and Aldiss is at pains to point out both the pros and cons of the scientific method. Post-COVID and the super-fast roll out of life-saving vaccines it’s fair to say the 2022 zeitgeist isn’t quite on “Unbound”’s side but the questions Aldiss asks remain pertinent. His treatment of Mary Shelley, on the other hand…
We meet Mary Godwin as a silent attendee at pow-wow between Percy Shelley and Byron, her submissiveness reflecting the position of women in society in those days. Joe then stumbles upon her breast-feeding little William, a glimpse of cleavage going not unnoticed by the randy ambassador who has long-since forgotten his wife and grand-children back home. Mary and Joe go for a swim, as you do, and then – hullo – make nineteenth-century love. Mary Shelley is then…absent from the rest of the novel. She exists as a “Frankenstein” delivery device and to give Joe the horn. Colour me bemused. This sexualisation of Mary, coupled with an early scene of children playing and a boy showing off his private parts, made me wonder whether Aldiss was saying something about the social values attached to the living body compared to the (well-described, horrifying) abattoir tower of horrors Victor experiments in. In Victor’s world flesh is a prop, there is no value attached to it outside of his experiments whereas for everybody else the body is freighted with meaning. It’s possible I’m being a bit too generous with my reading here and other readers may not parse such scenes similarly but Aldiss is such a towering figure in British SF it’s just possible he’s being quite deliberate. However, it’s interesting to contrast this fairly chaste (and straight) speculative romance featuring a female historical figure who then gets jettisoned with that of Mary Anning in 2020’s “Ammonite” which put that Mary far more admirably front and centre of the film but which was then castigated for suggesting she liked ladies and pissed off those who just wanted two hours of trilobites (a larger audience than you might expect).
In the end Victor’s attempts to master destiny lead to poor old Joe at the mercy of a technological Armageddon in a sort of reality goulash and no, I don’t mean back home in 2022. Aldiss doesn’t bottle out of the right finale and for all its eccentricities (“With Victor’s assistance, it might be possible to retrieve my car”) the novel lives as an odd but thought-provoking creation. It also sounds like Aldiss took in good spirit the irony of living to see his creation lurch out into the world courtesy of a cobbled together movie adaptation by fiendish reanimator Roger Corman. “Be warned—desist from your experiments!”
This was an interesting, enjoyable read, often thought-provoking but also edged with barminess. I got the impression Aldiss – probably while writing The Billion Year Spree – had done a lot of thinking about Shelley and the centrality of “Frankenstein” to SF and science in general and was consequently jumping through a fair few plot hoops to be able to discourse with both Mary Shelley and Victor Frankenstein under one cover. Shelley – spoiler: a real person – is fictionalised here by Aldiss and therefore appears real to Joe. Victor Frankenstein on the other hand is both fictional to us and Joe until he appears as a real character to Joe. Aldiss therefore has his cake and eats it, Joe having heated intellectual discussions with both Mary and Victor with Joe – and, by extension, Aldiss – drawing a direct line from what Victor is getting up to of a night directly to the nuclear Armageddon which has damaged space-time. A lot of coincidences ensue, not least Joe’s tricked out car accompanying him on his jaunt and Joe is lucky he is time-dumped down into such a benign locale. The overall effect is snooker loopy but well-written and Aldiss is at pains to point out both the pros and cons of the scientific method. Post-COVID and the super-fast roll out of life-saving vaccines it’s fair to say the 2022 zeitgeist isn’t quite on “Unbound”’s side but the questions Aldiss asks remain pertinent. His treatment of Mary Shelley, on the other hand…
We meet Mary Godwin as a silent attendee at pow-wow between Percy Shelley and Byron, her submissiveness reflecting the position of women in society in those days. Joe then stumbles upon her breast-feeding little William, a glimpse of cleavage going not unnoticed by the randy ambassador who has long-since forgotten his wife and grand-children back home. Mary and Joe go for a swim, as you do, and then – hullo – make nineteenth-century love. Mary Shelley is then…absent from the rest of the novel. She exists as a “Frankenstein” delivery device and to give Joe the horn. Colour me bemused. This sexualisation of Mary, coupled with an early scene of children playing and a boy showing off his private parts, made me wonder whether Aldiss was saying something about the social values attached to the living body compared to the (well-described, horrifying) abattoir tower of horrors Victor experiments in. In Victor’s world flesh is a prop, there is no value attached to it outside of his experiments whereas for everybody else the body is freighted with meaning. It’s possible I’m being a bit too generous with my reading here and other readers may not parse such scenes similarly but Aldiss is such a towering figure in British SF it’s just possible he’s being quite deliberate. However, it’s interesting to contrast this fairly chaste (and straight) speculative romance featuring a female historical figure who then gets jettisoned with that of Mary Anning in 2020’s “Ammonite” which put that Mary far more admirably front and centre of the film but which was then castigated for suggesting she liked ladies and pissed off those who just wanted two hours of trilobites (a larger audience than you might expect).
In the end Victor’s attempts to master destiny lead to poor old Joe at the mercy of a technological Armageddon in a sort of reality goulash and no, I don’t mean back home in 2022. Aldiss doesn’t bottle out of the right finale and for all its eccentricities (“With Victor’s assistance, it might be possible to retrieve my car”) the novel lives as an odd but thought-provoking creation. It also sounds like Aldiss took in good spirit the irony of living to see his creation lurch out into the world courtesy of a cobbled together movie adaptation by fiendish reanimator Roger Corman. “Be warned—desist from your experiments!”
November 1, 2021
For Halloween I wanted to read about Frankenstein's monster and immediately remembered the 1973 novel Frankenstein Unbound by science fiction master Brian W. Aldiss. I've never read him before and had never read this book because my public library only carries the ebook form. I don't enjoy reading ebooks, but finished this one just now. Aldiss has also written Dracula Unbound and maybe thirty other books or stories. The only one I recognized was An Island Called Moreau because I watched the movie.
The novel presciently starts out in 2020 when the narrator Joe Bodenland (rather similar to Joe Biden, hmm?) lived with his little family. There seems to have been nuclear war and it has caused a “timeslip” where his world slips into the distant past, making them very nervous. Joe drives off to see what's going on with some strange scenery and he finds himself in England in the early-ish 1800s.
Joe parks his twenty-first century car away from prying eyes and goes exploring. He has no idea what's happened. In a tavern he meets who would turn out to be Victor Frankenstein drinking his sorrows away, learning that his servant Justine was being tried for murdering Victor's young brother.
So Mary Shelley's Frankenstein characters were alive in this world.
Then he learns that Lord Byron, Percy Shelley, and unmarried Mary Godwin lived not far away, so he goes to see if they know Mary's characters live and if Mary has written her book yet.
Mary was terrified when he told the petite brunette. She was taking a break from writing the book and didn't know if she should continue. When Joe reported that he was from the future and she was still famous for her book and considered the mother of science fiction, she was skeptical at first, but his talk about how her book changed the world into a more scientific one, rather than a religious one, she was entranced. Both were entranced and when they were alone with her baby and he was titillated by the sight of her breast as she suckled the babe, they end up making love.
It's a man's fantasy.
Joe claimed to want to find the monster and kill it so it wouldn't change the way people thought of humanity, of human nature, and the presence of the soul, but didn't it occur to him that he simply had to convince Mary to abandon her book?
I won't go into much more detail, but to note that time keeps skipping ahead and his mind or consciousness keeps disintegrating so that he doesn't remember the future he had lived in.
Joe meets Victor again by accident and things happen that make Joe realize he needs to kill the mad scientist who has deluded himself into believing his research will make humanity less confined by the limits of their mortality, but when Joe finally catches up with the monsters after pursuing them over an expanse of ice, the monster tells Joe that he may unbound him, but he'll remain unbounded.
The descriptive, disorienting writing reminds me of Shelley's book. Aldiss speculates that there are many different universes where Joe interacts with people who are fictional in some and real in others, just as he could be fictional in some. Even a character in Shelley's book!
It's a clever, amusing book with suspense building to the end. Enjoy it for Halloween!
March 23, 2012
First, some quotes I liked from this book:
"When childhood dies, its corpses are called adults."
"Flesh without spirit was obscene. Why else should the notion of Frankenstein's monster have affronted the imagination of generations, if it was not their intuition of God that was affronted?"
I think there would have been more, and I wish I would've thought to highlight them as I as going, but, like most often, I didn't.
Anyways, this was a fairly short science fiction novel that takes place in 2020, which when it was written was considerably more in the future than it is now, in which the wold has had world wars with nuclear powers, and as a result, the continuum of time and space has ripped, allowing for "time-slips" where people can be transported to different times and places, sometimes they return, and sometimes they don't-some times the landscape changes permanently, sometimes it returns.In one of these time-slips, he narrator travels to a time when both Victor Frankenstein AND Mary Shelley (though not Shelley yet-she's not married yet). So he becomes both part of fiction and history. A kind of cool idea, but one that maybe would've served more interest as a short story? I'm not sure-though it's fun to see and return to the Frankenstein novel that I love, I don't think he served much of a purpose in it that the original Frankenstein didn't serve. This narrator did DO much, even if he tried. Moreover, he didn't remember very many details about the Frankenstein novel, which is sort of appalling-if you're going to meet the author and be a part of the story, and say your're a huge fan, you should remember the book, man! On the other story line, where he meets Shelley, it feels more like a fantasy fan-fiction. In other words, he and Shelley have sex and he tells her how wonderful she is, and that's about it (he also doesn't seem to care that before the time-slip he had a wife and he is currently recording all of this time-slip for her, but hey, since Mary's so famous, I guess she'll have to forgive him for sleeping with her).
Also, to me, this author/narrator feels like he got part of the message of Frankenstein wrong. Or maybe I did. But honestly, in my eyes, Frankenstein isn't a monster for creating his monster; he's a monster for creating and then completely abandoning it, and not just abandonment, cruelly HATING it and refusing to treat it with any compassion what so ever. The theme of fault in this novel is with his creating the creature and "by seeking to control to much, we have lost control of ourselves". And, overall, this novel was written with a pretty male chauvinistic and "holier-than-thou" air-like "I Am Legend" and "Planet of the Apes" and a lot of the older science fiction novels written by males.
Also, there seems to be a movie made of this a while back? I'd like to see it, but Netflix doesn't have it...
"When childhood dies, its corpses are called adults."
"Flesh without spirit was obscene. Why else should the notion of Frankenstein's monster have affronted the imagination of generations, if it was not their intuition of God that was affronted?"
I think there would have been more, and I wish I would've thought to highlight them as I as going, but, like most often, I didn't.
Anyways, this was a fairly short science fiction novel that takes place in 2020, which when it was written was considerably more in the future than it is now, in which the wold has had world wars with nuclear powers, and as a result, the continuum of time and space has ripped, allowing for "time-slips" where people can be transported to different times and places, sometimes they return, and sometimes they don't-some times the landscape changes permanently, sometimes it returns.In one of these time-slips, he narrator travels to a time when both Victor Frankenstein AND Mary Shelley (though not Shelley yet-she's not married yet). So he becomes both part of fiction and history. A kind of cool idea, but one that maybe would've served more interest as a short story? I'm not sure-though it's fun to see and return to the Frankenstein novel that I love, I don't think he served much of a purpose in it that the original Frankenstein didn't serve. This narrator did DO much, even if he tried. Moreover, he didn't remember very many details about the Frankenstein novel, which is sort of appalling-if you're going to meet the author and be a part of the story, and say your're a huge fan, you should remember the book, man! On the other story line, where he meets Shelley, it feels more like a fantasy fan-fiction. In other words, he and Shelley have sex and he tells her how wonderful she is, and that's about it (he also doesn't seem to care that before the time-slip he had a wife and he is currently recording all of this time-slip for her, but hey, since Mary's so famous, I guess she'll have to forgive him for sleeping with her).
Also, to me, this author/narrator feels like he got part of the message of Frankenstein wrong. Or maybe I did. But honestly, in my eyes, Frankenstein isn't a monster for creating his monster; he's a monster for creating and then completely abandoning it, and not just abandonment, cruelly HATING it and refusing to treat it with any compassion what so ever. The theme of fault in this novel is with his creating the creature and "by seeking to control to much, we have lost control of ourselves". And, overall, this novel was written with a pretty male chauvinistic and "holier-than-thou" air-like "I Am Legend" and "Planet of the Apes" and a lot of the older science fiction novels written by males.
Also, there seems to be a movie made of this a while back? I'd like to see it, but Netflix doesn't have it...
March 10, 2012
This is a rather silly tale...it reminds me of Woody Allen's "Midnight in Paris " where the protagonist travels back in time to visit his heroes who were living in Paris in the twenties. Here the protagonist is transported back in time from 2020 to 1816, and the banks of Lake Geneva where he might conveniently meet Mary Shelley and her creation Frankenstein and his monster.
The protagonist,Joe Bodenland, manages this time travel feat through a time slip which results rather improbably from the nuclear bombing of opposing nations' moon colonies. Joe has trouble remembering Mary Shelley's original book and seeks out Mary Shelley to find out more details of the story, having already encountered Dr Frankenstein and his monster.
After meeting Mary Shelley, her lover, the poet Percy Shelley and Lord Byron, Joe goes off to try to destroy the monster and the "Bride of Frankenstein", which the Doctor created to appease his monster. Joe has managed to bring with him from 2020, a uranium powered Felder, a car which conveniently doesn't need refueling...although this is less convenient when he wants to burn down Dr Frankenstein's castle.
The author is clearly a big fan of Mary Shelley, as the founding mother of science fiction and attempts to give us a new take on her original story. As a science fiction reader, I would have liked more exploration of the time-slip idea itself or possibly more exploration of creating a monster from spare body parts and a lot of electricity.
The protagonist,Joe Bodenland, manages this time travel feat through a time slip which results rather improbably from the nuclear bombing of opposing nations' moon colonies. Joe has trouble remembering Mary Shelley's original book and seeks out Mary Shelley to find out more details of the story, having already encountered Dr Frankenstein and his monster.
After meeting Mary Shelley, her lover, the poet Percy Shelley and Lord Byron, Joe goes off to try to destroy the monster and the "Bride of Frankenstein", which the Doctor created to appease his monster. Joe has managed to bring with him from 2020, a uranium powered Felder, a car which conveniently doesn't need refueling...although this is less convenient when he wants to burn down Dr Frankenstein's castle.
The author is clearly a big fan of Mary Shelley, as the founding mother of science fiction and attempts to give us a new take on her original story. As a science fiction reader, I would have liked more exploration of the time-slip idea itself or possibly more exploration of creating a monster from spare body parts and a lot of electricity.
January 6, 2014
I teach Frankenstein in college classes quite often, and I love books in various genres that reenvision the Romantic poets, so I figured this would be right up my alley. But the whole thing seems to exist to show that its protagonist, 21st century man Joe Bodenland, is the only sane one of the lot (except Mary!), fictional or historical, as both Victor Frankenstein and his creature are portrayed as essentially evil and insane. Byron and Shelley, likewise, are shadows of their real selves, leaving Mary Shelley open to a torrid affair with Bodenland. While Mary Shelley's Romantic-era prose comes across as OTT sometimes, Aldiss kicks it up another couple of notches, while not making use of the potential depth of the characters. The thing I enjoyed most (from my 2014 perspective) was seeing Aldiss's 1975 imaging of where we would be in 2020.
December 28, 2013
I've had this book for decades and I was going to toss it, but then I had to go on a business trip to the Arctic Circle and it seemed the perfect book to take along. It's a quick read, fun, well-written and would score more highly (much as I abhor giving books star ratings at all) if it added anything substantial to the Frankenstein story. As it is, a solid entertainment.
September 21, 2007
The best alternate telling fo the Frankenstein story. It is a wonderful book of the destructiveness of Science unchecked. And amazingly, the movie is better. Great Read
June 4, 2012
This is Aldiss at his best. Beautiful, lyrical writing and a great twist on the Frankenstein story.
November 28, 2018
It seems that I am allergic to time travel. My copy is so poor it couldn't afford the Michael Moorcock introduction, alas.
Read
June 21, 2024imagine time traveling and going back to 1816 when mary shelley was beginning to write frankenstein except he is not just a fictional character but he is a real human being and you are able to talk to him and his creature, this is the product of our narrator bodenland's fragmented quantum mind, completely deprived of any space/time boundary and any distinction between what is reality and what is fiction, everything is mixed up and the multiverse is the realest thing to ever exist! (because yes, it exists). bodenland wants to change the original plot so to avoid going back to his time in 2020, in a world destroyed by perpetual wars and conflicts, a world of progress where technology brought to destruction, poverty, hate and death. what will be different in the present/future if you were to alter and modify the past and the scientific discoveries of the previous 2 centuries? what if frankenstein wasn't so obsessed with reaching the promethean fire and the infusion of life into a new made-up human-like thing? everything could be different, everything might be the same, but we, as humans, are confronted with the possibility of imagining different worlds, different developments, and different endings, over and over again.
April 18, 2020
Seriously? Seriously Brian W. Aldiss? You think you need to write a Frankenstein retelling where the time/ space universe gets screwed up so that our narrator doesn't just travel back in time to not only meets Frankenstein and his creation (apparently the screw up also makes fictional characters come to live...) but also to meet Mary Shelley herself and sleep with her. Yep. The narrator who gets introduced to us on the first page writing a letter to his wife talking about how he has now reached an age where he enjoys watching the grandchildren has sex with 18 year old Mary Shelley not even 24 hours after they met. I am fine with an age difference but Holy Moly, this was uncalled for, and read a lot like disgusting author wish fulfillment. Even without that this book read like Aldiss took a piss all over Shelley's legacy (he implies that Shelley needed the narrator to come up with the plot details for Frankenstein) but that ungraceful and inappropriate scene took the sad cake of this dumpster fire.
The plot makes little sense, why we also see fictional characters gets no explanation, our main character seems to be not fazed at all by what happens to him but decides to take on the quest of ridding this world of not just Frankenstein's monster but also the scientist. Aldiss wings a weird anti-science agenda here where apparently the progress of science is responsible for all the wrong in the world and we shouldn't have left the "religious heart" behind, and on top of that Frankenstein is responsible for that (so to speak, "the modern world is a Frankenstein's Monster, a body without a spirit"). I see how you could make a case albeit a twisted case for taking that away from Shelley's masterpiece but I don't personally agree with this takeaway which makes it even more tedious to see Aldiss reframing the story so that he can push his messages. He takes only what he needs from the original and changes the rest to make it fit this purpose. Legitimate approach for a retelling? Maybe. Self-serving and disrespectful? For sure. And not something I enjoyed in the slightest.
With the end pages Aldiss suddenly tries to infer depth into his main character, for the first time he reflects (superficially) and realizes he also became a kind of monster. While I like that in theory it is delivered without any build up and comes pretty much out of nowhere. Admittedly, I already despised the book at this point but even objectively the lead up to this revelation is poorly handled.
Then we wash it all down with an uninspired 70's writing style and terrible plotting: I had a feeling I might struggle with this novel but I had no idea how much! I hadn't even mentioned the mating dance between monster and bride (who appears in here). There is a potentially fun idea at the core of this concept but the execution and the horny middle-aged author approach to the story ruined that before it had a chance to turn into something useful.
It is one of those novels where you sooner or later read a description of every female character's breasts but hardly know what the male lead looks like.
The plot makes little sense, why we also see fictional characters gets no explanation, our main character seems to be not fazed at all by what happens to him but decides to take on the quest of ridding this world of not just Frankenstein's monster but also the scientist. Aldiss wings a weird anti-science agenda here where apparently the progress of science is responsible for all the wrong in the world and we shouldn't have left the "religious heart" behind, and on top of that Frankenstein is responsible for that (so to speak, "the modern world is a Frankenstein's Monster, a body without a spirit"). I see how you could make a case albeit a twisted case for taking that away from Shelley's masterpiece but I don't personally agree with this takeaway which makes it even more tedious to see Aldiss reframing the story so that he can push his messages. He takes only what he needs from the original and changes the rest to make it fit this purpose. Legitimate approach for a retelling? Maybe. Self-serving and disrespectful? For sure. And not something I enjoyed in the slightest.
With the end pages Aldiss suddenly tries to infer depth into his main character, for the first time he reflects (superficially) and realizes he also became a kind of monster. While I like that in theory it is delivered without any build up and comes pretty much out of nowhere. Admittedly, I already despised the book at this point but even objectively the lead up to this revelation is poorly handled.
Then we wash it all down with an uninspired 70's writing style and terrible plotting: I had a feeling I might struggle with this novel but I had no idea how much! I hadn't even mentioned the mating dance between monster and bride (who appears in here). There is a potentially fun idea at the core of this concept but the execution and the horny middle-aged author approach to the story ruined that before it had a chance to turn into something useful.
It is one of those novels where you sooner or later read a description of every female character's breasts but hardly know what the male lead looks like.
April 8, 2018
It is the 200th anniversary of the publication of Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein, which in some ways was the first science-fiction novel. There have been many pastiches that look at the story from different angles, and many film adaptations, and I've read/seen quite a few. In 1973, science-fiction author Brian Aldiss, who passed away last year, did his take on the subject with Frankenstein Unbound.
The narrator is Joe Bodendland. It is the year 2020, and a conflict, "largely an irrational war of varying skin-tones," has ripped the fabric of space-time, enabling things called "time-slips," or portals to another time. Bodenland goes through one, and ends up in Switzerland in the year 1816. He quickly realizes he's inside the novel Frankenstein.
You may wonder how that could be, given that Frankenstein is fiction. Well, Bodenland does, too. Later, he will find himself in the company of Lord Byron, Percy Shelley, and his future wife Mary during that dark summer when she dreamt up her famous work. He explains it: "But I had come to an 1816 (and there might be countless other 1816s of which I knew nothing) in which he shared – and his monster shared – an equal reality with Mary and Byron and the rest."
This is a wonderful premise but Aldiss makes some errors that diminished my enjoyment. For one, he tries to write in Shelley's florid style, which means he breaks one of Elmore Leonard's rules: too many exclamation points. For another, Bodenland, who is a grandfather, becomes attracted to Mary and they share an intimate relationship (she's only 19) which really amps up the "ew" factor. What are we to do with dialogue like this "‘Oh, Mary, I had to journey two centuries to find such a lover! There never was a love like ours before! Dearest Mary!’" other than wretch?
Also, Bodenland's mission is unclear. At the outset he is trying to save the life of Justine Moritz, who in the book is executed for the murder of Victor Frankenstein's brother William, when it was the monster who killed him and Victor knows it. He fails at that, though, and for much of the novel just kind of wanders around. Then he tracks the monster and his mate to the far north with the intent on killing them.
I would recommend this book only for Frankenstein enthusiasts such as myself. For the casual reader, it requires having read the original to fully appreciate.
November 16, 2020
Existen obras que tienen una grandiosa voluntad por continuar, o quizás completar, otras; la novela del escritor inglés de ciencia ficción, Brian W. Aldiss, es una de aquellas –y no solo Frankenstein, también escribió La otra isla del Doctor Moreau o Drácula Desencadenado–. Aldiss, entusiasta de la obra de Mary Godwin, en su momento consideró la novela cumbre de esta como la primera obra de ciencia ficción, pues en ella no solo se narra un avance científico, sino que se exponen las consecuencias de tal avance y las implicaciones en la sociedad victoriana. Para Aldiss, se trata de una exploración de la consciencia humana y de lo que es capaz de hacer. "El Intelecto ha hecho de la Tierra un planeta peligroso para el intelecto. Somos víctimas de esa maldición que cayó sobre el barón Frankenstein en la novela de Mary Shelley: por pretender dominar demasiado, hemos perdido el dominio de nosotros mismos.” (Frankenstein desencadenado, Minotauro, 1990).
Aldiss considera a Víctor Frankenstein como un Edipo, más que como un Fausto. Si bien el personaje de Goethe vende su alma y es castigado por su sed de poder, Edipo se condena por su sed de sabiduría. Edipo se convierte así en el primer hombre de ciencia, motivado por su afán de perseguir respuestas. Víctor es el arquetipo del hombre que busca el progreso a través de la sabiduría, aunque esto le cause desdichas. Su accionar, al vencer a la muerte, termina por arrojar una maldición: la sobrepoblación que origina disputas.
Ahora bien, en Frankenstein desencadenado se nos presenta una sociedad futura –para Aldiss y sus contemporáneos pues la novela está ambientada en el año 2020– en la que los bandos mundiales (potencias occidentales, sudamericanas y las del Tercer Mundo), en su ambición de dominio, han perdido el control; el estallido de una guerra nuclear ha ocasionado un desequilibrio en la estructura física tradicional. El tiempo y el espacio se han salido de control. Los deslizamientos temporales son la constante, duran diferentes lapsos y trasladan a las personas y a las cosas a otras épocas; algunos elementos del pasado se quedan en el presente y viceversa. La gente ya no vive una progresión lineal sino caótica. Es por ello que el tema del tiempo es fundamental en esta novela.
El personaje principal, Joseph Bodenland, ex asesor presidencial, se convierte en viajero en el tiempo y testimoniante, a través de su guardamemorias, de todo lo ocurrido. Un deslizamiento lo lleva a él, su vehículo Felder y otras herramientas del futuro a Sècheron de 1816. Lo imposible sucede y se vuelve parte del mito nacido de la literatura; logra conocer a Víctor Frankenstein y a su criatura. Al recordar la novela, leída cuando niño, sabe de los amargos sucesos posteriores a la creación del monstruo, así que decide evitarlos adelantándose a los hechos. Al no tener a la mano la novela, quién mejor que su creadora para contarle lo que sucederá después. (Aldiss realiza una inversión de los modos de ser de algunos personajes relevantes de Godwin: Víctor es puesto como un hombre egocéntrico, díscolo y hosco; Clerval es un simple traidor y Elizabeth es indolente y ruda).
Dentro de la novela hay tres momentos notables en los que se reflexiona y discute sobre el tiempo. Primero, cuando en Ginebra –al necesitar dinero de la época– Bodenland vende su reloj impulsado por un isótopo de uranio. El personaje se da cuenta que está en un período en el que la gente se guía por la salida del sol, y él ha irrumpido con un dispositivo de precisión milimétrica procedente de un mañana regido por la tiranía del reloj. Siente que el objeto es un eslabón entre el pasado y el futuro, pues refleja los afanes de su época: no necesitar reparación y jamás dejar de funcionar. Futuro derivado del Frankenstein de Mary Godwin, precursor de la Era de la Ciencia, quien quiso impedir la decadencia y corrupción, propios del ciclo normal de la vida. Al querer enmendar la naturaleza, transmitió un virus a sus semejantes y descendientes. Su reloj era el resultado del triunfo de la morbosidad de Víctor Frankenstein. Segundo, cuando Bodenland conoce a Lord Byron, Mary Godwin y Percy Shelley. Comprende la falsedad de la idea occidental de tiempo, consolidada a través de los siglos; no hay uno lineal, todo es caótico y ambiguo. El tiempo ha sido impuesto al individuo y se ha vuelto cada vez más exacto a lo largo de la historia: de las campanadas de la iglesia, al sistema ferroviario y a la sirena de las fábricas. Tiempo mecanicista y medible. Existe otro, uno procedente de los sentidos; tortuoso y errabundo. El tiempo de los poetas y novelistas, travieso como la “hiedra que trepa por los muros”. Como ese tiempo era tan tortuoso, la realidad lo era por igual; tanto Mary Godwin, Víctor, el monstruo, Shelley, Byron y él mismo formaban parte de una distinta realidad.
Por ello tiene sentido que convivan tanto la autora de Frankenstein como sus personajes. Tercero, luego de varios sucesos, que terminan por perturbar no solo el tiempo sino el espacio (condena a Justine Moritz, denuncia a Bodenland de haber desaparecido a Víctor, repentina inundación y glaciación, escape de prisión, visita al laboratorio secreto, disputas sobre la responsabilidad moral del hombre de ciencias, múltiples advertencias para desistir en la creación de otro ser, momento reflexivo de Bodenland acerca de la ciencia como provocadora de la separación de lo espiritual en el humano y su apego a los grandes negocios y gobiernos –la sociedad tecnológica vista como el cuerpo del monstruo, carente de espíritu–, culminación y reanimación de la criatura hembra –similar a lo sucedido en la película ‘La novia de Frankenstein’, misma que se encargó de generar compasión hacia el monstruo¬–, ritual de cabriolas y acoplamiento de las criaturas, acto de piedad de Bodenland hacia ellas –a fin de cuentas pueden llegar a tener un rostro humano–, asesinato de Víctor por parte de Bodenland y destrucción de la torre laboratorio), nuestro personaje sufre una conmoción temporal, desintegración de su personalidad y quizás severas alucinaciones de efecto retroactivo. El único tiempo posible permanece en el limbo. La realidad de Mary Godwin, Víctor, los monstruos, Percy Shelley, Lord Byron, el año 2020 y la de él mismo, es vista como mundos contiguos. Al dar muerte a Víctor dio fin a uno de los posibles mundos, pero había una infinidad de otros paralelos que él ignoraba; tiempos móviles sujetos a otras leyes. Si las limitaciones de la mente impedían al humano conocer semejantes verdades, él las podía percibir porque su mente estaba al borde de la desintegración “Acaso hubiera, en algún lugar, un año 2020 en el que yo exista tan solo como personaje de una novela sobre Frankenstein y Mary.” Luego, la rasgadura del tiempo-espacio le permite descubrir una ciudad de hielo, tal vez el último refugio de la humanidad.
Antes de que la pareja de criaturas ingrese a la ciudad, Bodenland decide fulminar lo que no acababa de entender, sin embargo, una vez liberados ya nada los volvería a encadenar de nuevo. Culminada la misión, queda a la espera de su destino, quizás promovido por la gente de la ciudad, quizás por su propio creador.
Aldiss considera a Víctor Frankenstein como un Edipo, más que como un Fausto. Si bien el personaje de Goethe vende su alma y es castigado por su sed de poder, Edipo se condena por su sed de sabiduría. Edipo se convierte así en el primer hombre de ciencia, motivado por su afán de perseguir respuestas. Víctor es el arquetipo del hombre que busca el progreso a través de la sabiduría, aunque esto le cause desdichas. Su accionar, al vencer a la muerte, termina por arrojar una maldición: la sobrepoblación que origina disputas.
Ahora bien, en Frankenstein desencadenado se nos presenta una sociedad futura –para Aldiss y sus contemporáneos pues la novela está ambientada en el año 2020– en la que los bandos mundiales (potencias occidentales, sudamericanas y las del Tercer Mundo), en su ambición de dominio, han perdido el control; el estallido de una guerra nuclear ha ocasionado un desequilibrio en la estructura física tradicional. El tiempo y el espacio se han salido de control. Los deslizamientos temporales son la constante, duran diferentes lapsos y trasladan a las personas y a las cosas a otras épocas; algunos elementos del pasado se quedan en el presente y viceversa. La gente ya no vive una progresión lineal sino caótica. Es por ello que el tema del tiempo es fundamental en esta novela.
El personaje principal, Joseph Bodenland, ex asesor presidencial, se convierte en viajero en el tiempo y testimoniante, a través de su guardamemorias, de todo lo ocurrido. Un deslizamiento lo lleva a él, su vehículo Felder y otras herramientas del futuro a Sècheron de 1816. Lo imposible sucede y se vuelve parte del mito nacido de la literatura; logra conocer a Víctor Frankenstein y a su criatura. Al recordar la novela, leída cuando niño, sabe de los amargos sucesos posteriores a la creación del monstruo, así que decide evitarlos adelantándose a los hechos. Al no tener a la mano la novela, quién mejor que su creadora para contarle lo que sucederá después. (Aldiss realiza una inversión de los modos de ser de algunos personajes relevantes de Godwin: Víctor es puesto como un hombre egocéntrico, díscolo y hosco; Clerval es un simple traidor y Elizabeth es indolente y ruda).
Dentro de la novela hay tres momentos notables en los que se reflexiona y discute sobre el tiempo. Primero, cuando en Ginebra –al necesitar dinero de la época– Bodenland vende su reloj impulsado por un isótopo de uranio. El personaje se da cuenta que está en un período en el que la gente se guía por la salida del sol, y él ha irrumpido con un dispositivo de precisión milimétrica procedente de un mañana regido por la tiranía del reloj. Siente que el objeto es un eslabón entre el pasado y el futuro, pues refleja los afanes de su época: no necesitar reparación y jamás dejar de funcionar. Futuro derivado del Frankenstein de Mary Godwin, precursor de la Era de la Ciencia, quien quiso impedir la decadencia y corrupción, propios del ciclo normal de la vida. Al querer enmendar la naturaleza, transmitió un virus a sus semejantes y descendientes. Su reloj era el resultado del triunfo de la morbosidad de Víctor Frankenstein. Segundo, cuando Bodenland conoce a Lord Byron, Mary Godwin y Percy Shelley. Comprende la falsedad de la idea occidental de tiempo, consolidada a través de los siglos; no hay uno lineal, todo es caótico y ambiguo. El tiempo ha sido impuesto al individuo y se ha vuelto cada vez más exacto a lo largo de la historia: de las campanadas de la iglesia, al sistema ferroviario y a la sirena de las fábricas. Tiempo mecanicista y medible. Existe otro, uno procedente de los sentidos; tortuoso y errabundo. El tiempo de los poetas y novelistas, travieso como la “hiedra que trepa por los muros”. Como ese tiempo era tan tortuoso, la realidad lo era por igual; tanto Mary Godwin, Víctor, el monstruo, Shelley, Byron y él mismo formaban parte de una distinta realidad.
Por ello tiene sentido que convivan tanto la autora de Frankenstein como sus personajes. Tercero, luego de varios sucesos, que terminan por perturbar no solo el tiempo sino el espacio (condena a Justine Moritz, denuncia a Bodenland de haber desaparecido a Víctor, repentina inundación y glaciación, escape de prisión, visita al laboratorio secreto, disputas sobre la responsabilidad moral del hombre de ciencias, múltiples advertencias para desistir en la creación de otro ser, momento reflexivo de Bodenland acerca de la ciencia como provocadora de la separación de lo espiritual en el humano y su apego a los grandes negocios y gobiernos –la sociedad tecnológica vista como el cuerpo del monstruo, carente de espíritu–, culminación y reanimación de la criatura hembra –similar a lo sucedido en la película ‘La novia de Frankenstein’, misma que se encargó de generar compasión hacia el monstruo¬–, ritual de cabriolas y acoplamiento de las criaturas, acto de piedad de Bodenland hacia ellas –a fin de cuentas pueden llegar a tener un rostro humano–, asesinato de Víctor por parte de Bodenland y destrucción de la torre laboratorio), nuestro personaje sufre una conmoción temporal, desintegración de su personalidad y quizás severas alucinaciones de efecto retroactivo. El único tiempo posible permanece en el limbo. La realidad de Mary Godwin, Víctor, los monstruos, Percy Shelley, Lord Byron, el año 2020 y la de él mismo, es vista como mundos contiguos. Al dar muerte a Víctor dio fin a uno de los posibles mundos, pero había una infinidad de otros paralelos que él ignoraba; tiempos móviles sujetos a otras leyes. Si las limitaciones de la mente impedían al humano conocer semejantes verdades, él las podía percibir porque su mente estaba al borde de la desintegración “Acaso hubiera, en algún lugar, un año 2020 en el que yo exista tan solo como personaje de una novela sobre Frankenstein y Mary.” Luego, la rasgadura del tiempo-espacio le permite descubrir una ciudad de hielo, tal vez el último refugio de la humanidad.
Antes de que la pareja de criaturas ingrese a la ciudad, Bodenland decide fulminar lo que no acababa de entender, sin embargo, una vez liberados ya nada los volvería a encadenar de nuevo. Culminada la misión, queda a la espera de su destino, quizás promovido por la gente de la ciudad, quizás por su propio creador.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 28, 2022
Aldiss has ever been a fan/devotee/penitent before Mary Shelley, and this novel--as much a fan-fic as a speculative SF work--serves a few too many of his personal desires over his authorial ones.
Set these aside along with the awkward device he employs to permit a form of time travel, we have a novel which dips both into speculation on our relationship and responsibility to science and invention alongside a tip of the hat to metafiction, and it is to this last which both most intrigued me and disappointed.
Frustratingly, we have early on, a world in which, somehow, and our protagonist asks nary a question about this! Yes, after some time, there are a series of quick questions, but--as absolutely vital as they are to the nature of his problem, he treats them with an authorial shrug of the shoulders. This is made more acute when
Yes, it is Aldiss's intention to focus the conflict of the novel onto the nature and character of its protagonist narrator, as so many novels do. Unfortunately, it seems from the reading that this is a discovery he came upon while adventuring aimlessly through the plot encounters rather than having designed and crafted from its start. All in all, a promising and fun idea, unfulfilled.
Set these aside along with the awkward device he employs to permit a form of time travel, we have a novel which dips both into speculation on our relationship and responsibility to science and invention alongside a tip of the hat to metafiction, and it is to this last which both most intrigued me and disappointed.
Frustratingly, we have early on, a world in which, somehow, and our protagonist asks nary a question about this! Yes, after some time, there are a series of quick questions, but--as absolutely vital as they are to the nature of his problem, he treats them with an authorial shrug of the shoulders. This is made more acute when
Yes, it is Aldiss's intention to focus the conflict of the novel onto the nature and character of its protagonist narrator, as so many novels do. Unfortunately, it seems from the reading that this is a discovery he came upon while adventuring aimlessly through the plot encounters rather than having designed and crafted from its start. All in all, a promising and fun idea, unfulfilled.
March 20, 2013
El Hombre se ve excedido por sus invenciones, por sus actos y creaciones que se vuelcan en contra de él, pues intenta controlar lo que no comprende, trata de domar a la bestia de lo desconocido y es herido en su intento de "perfeccionar" la naturaleza y la vida del hombre y al propio Hombre.
Una persona descubre un elemento que puede proporcionar energía por largo tiempo beneficiando a sus congéneres, otra persona piensa en usar dicho elemento para crear una bomba atómica. Una persona descubre las vacunas, otra los antibióticos, otra la higiene, con esto se prolonga la vida de las personas, al final se produce una sobrepoblación con detrimento de la calidad de vida.
Victor Frankenstein en su papel prometeico logra de una manera deplorable su cometido. Pretende otorgar un regalo a la humanidad, mejorando la naturaleza, pretende crear vida, prolongar la vida del hombre, o al menos vencer a la muerte y al hacerlo se aleja de la misma naturaleza, creando un ser que representa la antivida.
Así como la creación de Frankenstein se opone a su creador algunas invenciones del hombre representan más daño que beneficios planeados provenientes de dichas invenciones, pensamientos o simples actos, y tales daños producidos por la propia maldad inherente del hombre, maldad cuyo origen se encuentra en la superioridad de la que se cree poseedor el hombre.
Léanlo y vean la película.
Una persona descubre un elemento que puede proporcionar energía por largo tiempo beneficiando a sus congéneres, otra persona piensa en usar dicho elemento para crear una bomba atómica. Una persona descubre las vacunas, otra los antibióticos, otra la higiene, con esto se prolonga la vida de las personas, al final se produce una sobrepoblación con detrimento de la calidad de vida.
Victor Frankenstein en su papel prometeico logra de una manera deplorable su cometido. Pretende otorgar un regalo a la humanidad, mejorando la naturaleza, pretende crear vida, prolongar la vida del hombre, o al menos vencer a la muerte y al hacerlo se aleja de la misma naturaleza, creando un ser que representa la antivida.
Así como la creación de Frankenstein se opone a su creador algunas invenciones del hombre representan más daño que beneficios planeados provenientes de dichas invenciones, pensamientos o simples actos, y tales daños producidos por la propia maldad inherente del hombre, maldad cuyo origen se encuentra en la superioridad de la que se cree poseedor el hombre.
Léanlo y vean la película.
May 22, 2024
Ficção científica, livro publicado nos anos 70.
O herói vem de 2020 e visita o ano 1816, ao mesmo tempo interagindo com o monstro no dominio da ficção e coma criadora Mary Shelley numa realidade alternativa.
Um conceito interessante, mas que acaba por ficar aquém.
O herói vem de 2020 e visita o ano 1816, ao mesmo tempo interagindo com o monstro no dominio da ficção e coma criadora Mary Shelley numa realidade alternativa.
Um conceito interessante, mas que acaba por ficar aquém.
December 6, 2024
Such an odd, unsettling dream/nightmare of a novel. Doesn't try hard at all to be plausible in terms of its science or the novum of the time-slip. It's really a deep and a doomy psychological speculation that grows steadily more disturbing and hallucinatory as the reality of its own meta-fiction comes into view for our narrator, who admits, "Somewhere, there might be a 2020 in which I existed merely as a character in a novel about Frankenstein and Mary [Shelley]." Just so.
February 4, 2021
I wasn't sure how much I was going to enjoy this given my love for the Shelley's original novel but I was rather surprised as Aldiss weaves Mary herself and her fictional creations into a terrifying and gripping tale starting in the future and finishing in the past. He weaves each of the characters, both real and fictional together into a coherent story, with our narrator finding himself in a position to put his knowledge to use and try and avoid the reality of Shelley's novel coming to life. But. There are bits of this that just didn't sit right with me, particularly why the narrator felt the need to sleep with Shelley for no other reason than he could, and the usual issue of the supposed monsters being treated as monsters, although he does recognise the Frankenstein is the bigger monster. And the time travel stuff just hurt my head a bit so I admit I may have zoned out a little on those...
July 22, 2019
This was a nice idea, and was mercifully short. If you have not read Aldiss before, do not start with this.
The basic premise is that the main character, a political advisor from the US in 2020, lives in a world which is having time shifts. He is affected by one of these shifts and finds himself in the year 1816 near Geneva. There he meets Lord Byron, Mary Shelley, Victor Frankenstein, the monster and so on. Can our hero use Shelley's knowledge of her unfinished work to track the monster and stop it? Who cares may be your answer.
The plot rambles, the main character philosophises, and improbably (as he is a grandfather) makes love to Mary Shelley.
I am uncertain as to what Aldiss was trying to achieve, the plot did not grip, the philosophising felt hackneyed, and the characters were not great.
Nice idea, mediocre book.
The basic premise is that the main character, a political advisor from the US in 2020, lives in a world which is having time shifts. He is affected by one of these shifts and finds himself in the year 1816 near Geneva. There he meets Lord Byron, Mary Shelley, Victor Frankenstein, the monster and so on. Can our hero use Shelley's knowledge of her unfinished work to track the monster and stop it? Who cares may be your answer.
The plot rambles, the main character philosophises, and improbably (as he is a grandfather) makes love to Mary Shelley.
I am uncertain as to what Aldiss was trying to achieve, the plot did not grip, the philosophising felt hackneyed, and the characters were not great.
Nice idea, mediocre book.
November 2, 2021
This is a Sci Fi novel from the 70s in which a man from the future (the year 2020, lol) enters a time slip that brings him back to the 1810s, in Switzerland. He meets and hangs out with Lord Byron, Percy Shelley, and Mary Shelley. He bangs Mary Shelley, because the author clearly has a hard-on for her.
Also Victor Frankenstein and his Creature are real, he meets them and hijinks ensue.
As a fan of Frankenstein I had medium-sized hopes for this. I hated the plot. HATED. It whipped between painfully silly and exasperatingly dull. Thankfully, Aldiss' prose did a pretty good job of aping the writing style of the 1800s, enough to keep my rating at a firm two stars, so this book wasn't a total loss?
Idk if you want some shitty Frankenstein fanfic or have ever really wanted to fuck Mary Shelley, this is the book for you!
Also Victor Frankenstein and his Creature are real, he meets them and hijinks ensue.
As a fan of Frankenstein I had medium-sized hopes for this. I hated the plot. HATED. It whipped between painfully silly and exasperatingly dull. Thankfully, Aldiss' prose did a pretty good job of aping the writing style of the 1800s, enough to keep my rating at a firm two stars, so this book wasn't a total loss?
Idk if you want some shitty Frankenstein fanfic or have ever really wanted to fuck Mary Shelley, this is the book for you!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 83 reviews