Aldous Huxley - Brave New World

Pros: Satirical, chilling, relevant, and awfully clever.

Cons: Dark, somewhat forced conclusion.

The Bottom Line: This is an eerily predictive novel, the relevance of which is undiminished by time, and which is entirely deserving of its status as a modern classic.

Review: Teaser:
Though it was written in 1932, Aldous Huxley's Brave New World remains as relevant and chilling today as it was 70 years ago.

The Setup:
My memory of it was rather hazy before I revisited it...

Pros: Fascinating tour of an all-too plausible future society

Cons: Poorly drawn love story, lots of thin characters.

The Bottom Line: Read this book if you enjoy sardonic tear-downs of consumer society. Read quickly over the Bronte-esque interludes.

Review: This book springs from one problem with large industrialized societies.

There is a need in such a society for a very large number of persons to perform manual, menial or service jobs. There is a need for relatively few persons to perform...

Pros: Allegedly a classic.

Cons: Disjointed. Chaotic. Random.

The Bottom Line: Only if you really have nothing better to read....

Review: The role of science fiction, for better or for worse, is to get us to imagine the possibilities that lie in store for humanity s future. Indeed, many scientific discoveries and applications have become realities only after being the product of the...

Pros: Vivid descriptions, interesting word choices

Cons: Not for the ADD-afflicted; requires serious attention

The Bottom Line: If you read the cliff notes instead, you suck.

Review: I was never a studious character.

Not to say I was stupid; not at all. Rather, I was just smart enough to realize how much work had to be done in order to achieve the end goal -- ie a high school diploma. So in all my classes (well, not...

Pros: the character Bernard Marx; historically intriguing; I learned some Shakespeare

Cons: completely dated and unrealistic story; rest of the characters; hard-to-read; depressing

The Bottom Line: Sci-fi afficiandoes can do much better with Bradbury or more contemporary sci-fi authors.

Review: Another subtitle could be Stuck In Darwinian Antiquity. I wasn't able to choose which was better, but they infer the same thing because Huxley's intimidating message here is that in the far future we will still need domination by an elite few to be...

Pros: Great prediction of the (our) future

Cons: No Monsters ! (some people need this in science fiction books)

Review: I had to read this book several years ago for my English class. After getting over the fact that it was a "must-read", I slowly noticed that this book is pretty good. After a while, it turned from "pretty good" to the best book I have ever read.
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Pros: An amazingly detailed anti-utopia

Cons: Obnoxious characters, plot holes, doesn't live up to it's hype

Review: Warning: I spoil the plot... what little there is.

Not a week goes past that a Brave New World reference doesn't pass through my lips. Even before I read the book, I'd throw around references to Soma and alphas, and occasionally throw in a...

Pros: Fantastic vision, scarily realistic, completely absorbing. Even more pertinent today than when it was written.

Cons: Not an easy read, not really recommended to anyone under 18 due to its complexity.

The Bottom Line: If you like your sci-fi intelligent and thought-provoking, this is a must.

Review: Brave New World by Aldous Huxley is one of the true science fiction giants. Good sci-fi is supposed to make you think; this book has the capacity not just to do that but to change your whole perspective on the human race.

It concerns a...

Pros: very very interesting book

Cons: a little slow at times

Review: The book is a about a society of people who, through a scientific process, have been bred in specific ways, ranging from the Alphas, who are the politicians and the most intelligent, to the Epsilons, the ones that are the dumb worker type. It's a...

Pros: Very ahead of its time, thought envoking

Cons: Slow, boring, complicated

The Bottom Line: I know it's supposed to be an importatnt book, but that really doesn't mean that is a good one. I found it very hard to follow and fairly boring.

Review: I had to read Brave New World for a literature class this summer. The teacher told us that it was a wideley studied story so I was excited to get to start reading it. From the first page on I hated the book. It doesn't flow through like...