Hon na lišku

by Roald Dahl, Pavel Sojka (Translator)

Má-li být knížka o válce, atomové bombě, budoucnosti a šotcích úspěšná u čtenářské veřejnosti, musí být zatraceně dobrá. Hon na lišku se zabývá všemi zmíněnými tématy a dobrý je. Příběh začíná vměšováním gremlínů do bitvy o Británii, sleduje osudy tří pilotů - Petrskoče, Valdy a Pohorka - až po třetí světovou válku a popisuje nárůst lidské pošetilosti kulminující v přespříštím konfliktu. Vůbec to není povzbudivé čtení, jakkoliv je požitkem knihu číst. Je to duchaplná satira se spoustou čistokrevného humoru. Soucítí a zároveň si nebere servítky. Polechtá vám bránici i vyděsí. Je napsaná s chutí, chytře a se škálou imaginace, která snese srovnání s velkými satirickými romány minulosti.

Genres: Fiction, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Adult Fiction, Dystopia, Classics

197 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1948

About the author

Roald Dahl was a beloved British author, poet, screenwriter, and wartime fighter pilot, best known for his enchanting and often darkly humorous children's books that have captivated generations of readers around the world. Born in Llandaff, Wales, to Norwegian parents, Dahl led a life marked by adventure, tragedy, creativity, and enduring literary success. His vivid imagination and distinctive storytelling style have made him one of the most celebrated children's authors in modern literature.
Before becoming a writer, Dahl lived a life filled with excitement and hardship. He served as a Royal Air Force pilot during World War II, surviving a near-fatal crash in the Libyan desert. His wartime experiences and travels deeply influenced his storytelling, often infusing his works with a sense of danger, resilience, and the triumph of the underdog. After the war, he began writing for both adults and children, showing a rare versatility that spanned genres and age groups.
Dahl's children's books are known for their playful use of language, unforgettable characters, and a deep sense of justice, often pitting clever children against cruel or foolish adults. Some of his most iconic titles include Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, The BFG, James and the Giant Peach, Fantastic Mr Fox, and The Witches. These works are filled with fantastical elements and moral undertones, empowering young readers to challenge authority, think independently, and believe in the impossible.
Equally acclaimed for his work for adults, Dahl wrote numerous short stories characterized by their macabre twists and dark humor. His stories were frequently published in magazines such as The New Yorker and later compiled into bestselling collections like Someone Like You and Kiss Kiss. He also wrote screenplays, including the James Bond film You Only Live Twice and the adaptation of Ian Fleming's Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
Despite his literary success, Dahl was a complex and sometimes controversial figure, known for his strong opinions and difficult personality. Nonetheless, his books continue to be treasured for their wit, originality, and the sense of wonder they inspire. Many of his stories have been adapted into successful films, stage plays, and television specials, further cementing his legacy.
Dahl's impact on children's literature is immeasurable. His ability to connect with young readers through a mix of irreverence, heart, and imagination has made his stories timeless. Even after his death, his books remain in print and continue to be read by millions of children worldwide. His writing not only entertains but also encourages curiosity, courage, and compassion.
Roald Dahl's work lives on as a testament to the power of storytelling and the magic of a truly original voice. He remains a towering figure in literature whose creations continue to spark joy, mischief, and inspiration across generations.

Reviews

[Andrew · Rating 2 out of 5]

Roald Dahl was probably my favorite author as a kid, so although it pains me to give one of his only adult-ish novels a poor review, it's pretty unavoidable. I realize now that Dahl was sort of a less edgy, kid's version of Kurt Vonnegut, fine and well for kids and teenagers, but a little lacking as an adult. To be sure, Dahl was doing weird and kooky before Vonnegut was, so I'm not sure how much he may have influenced the latter.

This story, an early Cold War cautionary tale about the destructive tendencies of mankind, suffers primarily from being too adult for children but too childish for adults. The premise -- subterranean Gremlins who are waiting for humanity to kill itself through global warfare in order that they may take reign of the Earth -- has potential, but Dahl can't help making it too cartoony, thus completely diminishing any power that his socio-political insights and moralizing might have had.

Unfortunately, I don't think the book merits much more of a review. It is a quick read, which is a plus for any Dahl completists. But it is also rather trivial, and in the great amount of existential war satire, or even Cold War critique, it falls much closer to the bottom of the pile than the top. If you are looking for better adult-ish fare from the same author, I highly recommend one of my favorite collections of short stories of all time, The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More.

@pointblaek

[Merel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anders dan ik had verwacht, maar zeker het tweede deel was heel komisch en Dahl-esk (is dat een woord?)

[Saskia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book, but I didn't.
it started of very promising. His strong opening statement that he wrote in 1949 states: Nowadays the world is filled with people who have killed in the war. One of them ever feels guilty, however they wouldn't hesitate to report a fellow men if he were to cheat at cards. I am a peoplekiller. I've tried to feel guilty, but I can't seem to make myself. I would feel very guilty if I cheated at cards.
In this book he mixes his time as a pilot in WWII with imaginary Gremlins and plays with the idea of a third and final fourth world war, but it never captivates. I found myself plowing trough the pages of an interesting idea, unsatisfied.
Sometimes the book contains a sharp remark or a mocking phrase, but it stays at that.
Judging from the forword it's an anti war novel, but I didn't feel like the book was able to prove it's point. However to end on a positive note; when I got to the final chapter, I did like the last pages. That's why I gave it 2 stars: I liked the concept and I think it could have been great, judging from some phrases and charactersketches, but overal it was badly excecuted.

[Jonas van Eeten · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dahls creativiteit is ongekend. Ook in dit boek, maar waar hij in zijn kortere verhalen dit talent combineerde met lugubere, abnormaal gedetailleerde, geniale of hartbrekende teksten, vond ik niet waar dit verhaal heengaat. Ja, het gaat over vliegeniers in de tweede wereldoorlog, Dahl was er zelf één, maar ik hoopte dat hij me iets meer mee kon nemen in de fantasiewereld of in de oorlog. Figuurlijk uiteraard. Oorlog is slecht voor de gezondheid.

[Suze Geuke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dit is precies wat je verwacht van een boek van Roald Dahl: mensen die worden beschreven als stukken fruit, alles is gerimpeld en uiteraard zijn er gekke wezentjes die de mensen het leven zuur maken; maar dan gaat het ook over oorlog: een interessante combinatie.
Wat me het meest aansprak was het terugkerende thema van de ontzettende misselijkheid van de piloten (en anderen) wanneer zij in oorlogsgeweld verwikkeld waren. Verder is het een goede herinnering aan alle pacifische neigingen.

[Denny · Rating 2 out of 5]

As much as I love Mr. Dahl this his first novel is pretty grim fare.

[Myth Button · Rating 3 out of 5]

You probably didn't know this, but I'm a huge Roald Dahl fan. Before checking out Stephen King, he was my favorite author for literally twenty years. However, there was always one book of his I never really liked, and ironically it's the sequel to my favorite book of his... Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator. It was too random, not Wonka enough and didn't really have a plot. So I was interested in checking this book out here to see if it can be any worse than that.

This book is a novelized adult version of his own children's short story, The Gremlins, and the gremlins are the main plotline here. As a result, we have some serious war topics going on. The first half is a bit challenged mingling the war themes with the whimsical descriptions of the gremlins and their society. Nevertheless, boy is this an imaginative first half. Right from the start of his career, Dahl was a master of fantastical and whimsical prose, creating vivid images of both cute and charming creatures and some freakishly well-developed action sequences. It's a very wild ride, if not a bit plotless.

And the second half takes a completely tonal 180 asd we go into the description of nuclear warfare and the after-effects, much like Threads or The Day After. If you've seen Threads, you know what I'm talking about: this second half doesn't hold back. It is shocking. It is gory, and it's depressing as hell. And it's a complete 180 from the whimsy of the first half. In other words, Dahl doesn't build up to the terror. He throws you right into it with no rhyme or reason, meaning if it weren't for the gremlins being there, it might as well be two different novels.

The second half is also littered with constant descriptions of the various ways humans kill each other off while the gremlins just sit on the sidelines and laugh with overdrawn and over-lengthy speeches on human behavior. Despite the length, the prose is still excellent, meaning Dahl was a master of literary visuals and poetry. But the ending? Oh, man, the ending... if you thought some Stephen King endings were bad, what in every hell was this crap?

Well, despite being extremely effective in its emotional and visual aspects, the plot is badly handled. This is the single more powerful example of fantastic pros and horrific cons I've seen, so I don't see any reason to give it anything other than the most appropriate rating: 50/100.

[Mike Booth · Rating 2 out of 5]

A little odd, and with a slightly confused sense of audience. At times it seemed whimsical and childlike, the voice of Dahl that most people know. At other times, it's the much more edged and sinister, which readers of his adult works will be more familiar with. This was probably as the book is a redo of the children's book the Gremlins, although significantly changed. There was much less humour than either his childrens' or adults' books, though, which made it a less pleasant read than either.
I suppose this fits with the theme of a warning that the book seems to be trying for, which I suppose fables can be. There's also the magical side of the gremlins themselves which also feels appropriate to a ble, although none of the original fables were as heavy on the skin melting off, from memory.
A better warning of the perils of war than a book, but alright either way. Interesting to see how Dahl tried out a more adult tone, but not his best go at it.

[Ralph Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

We all know Roald Dahl writes great children’s books, so Some Time Never: A Fable for Supermen is his first adult novel. An editor wanted to publish a novel length book if Dahl were to write it. However, the novel did not do well.

The plot is about gremlins who have revenge on humankind. They thought they will just let the humans kill each other first and then take over after, but, like the reception of the novel, it did not go well.

[Rene Ijzermans · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dit is niet de Dahl zoals ik hem graag lees: te langdradig in zijn omschrijvingen en het hielp ook niet dat verhalen over vliegtuigen in WO2 en vreemde buitenaardse wezens me weinig doen.
Maar ja, t'is Dahl, vanwege zijn ongekende leuk gekke verbeelding toch één van mijn geliefde auteurs. Ik kwam wel een beetje aan mijn trekken door zijn grappige beschrijvingen, maar het was te weinig voor het verhaal om echt geboeid te blijven.

[Marije · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ik dacht dat het boek vooral over vliegeniers in de tweede wereldoorlog zou gaan, maar helaas. Het ging over Gremlins die de aarde overnamen, met onwijs langdradige omschrijvingen die ik vaak half oversloeg.

[Adri266 · Rating 1 out of 5]

Necakala som, ze kniha ma hned od zaciatku bude paradne nudit 😖 Dostala som sa do 1/3, akurat, kym som neprisla na rad. A uz sa k nej nevratim. Mozno je to dalej zaujimave, aj srandovne, ale ja si radsej precitam nieco ine.

[Joosttoast · Rating 3 out of 5]

A somber and imaginative tail of post-war humanity moving towards the inevitable apocalyps.

[Jolanda · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bizar verhaal, bizar verteld. Ik ben weg van Roald Dahl, maar dit boek was hem voor mij niet.

[Erik · Rating 5 out of 5]

Five stars for this fable! I loved it! It is a novel from 1949, the beginning of Roald Dahl in his prime! Read it!!

[Katie Maxwell · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

[Bente · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,25

[Deveny · Rating 3 out of 5]

kinda ironic how a story working as an allegory for modern human society leaves out any mention of women

[Sasha Baan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastische schrijfstijl en grappig

[Noa · Rating 4 out of 5]

toevallig begon ik met dit boek lezen toen iran en israel raketten op elkaar af begonnen te vuren. nog steeds heel relevant en beschreven op een manier zoals ik de wereld graag zie, met gremlins

[Eleanor Toland · Rating 2 out of 5]

Roald Dahl's first novel for adults is also his most obscure work of fiction. "Sometime Never", also titled "Some Time Never", was printed only once, in 1948. The book met with such a poor reception that it was never reprinted, and Dahl himself refused to let his publisher re-release it. The book attracts a great deal of fascination because of its obscurity and its dark, apocalyptic plot- it was the first ever novel to tackle nuclear warfare and one of the earliest post-apocalyptic stories.

After a long search, I was finally able to read Dahl's "suppressed" novel. I have to admit I was hoping to find an unjustly lost masterpiece. Regretfully, the book is really, really bad, but at least it's bad in an interesting way. It's definitely more memorable than Dahl's other adult novel, "My Uncle Oswald". The writing style is rough, but you can definitely see the beginnings of the writer Dahl would later become, the mixture of whimsy, humour and darkness.

The earlier chapters involve fighter pilots in World War Two, and Dahl evokes life in wartime vividly. The description of a bombing raid from the civilian point of view, and the painfully intense account of a fighter pilot's feelings of fear and hopelessness before going into battle are masterful pieces of writing. The fantasy elements, however, let the book down, which is strange considering that Dahl would later write some of the definitive fantasy novels for children, but here the 'Gremlins' come across as vastly less interesting than the human characters who dream them up.

At first the Gremlins are clearly a childish fantasy invented by war-exhausted pilots, a coping mechanism to excuse their own mistakes. As the book goes on, it becomes more and more ambiguous whether these things are in fact, real. But the gremlins just aren't very interesting in their own right: they live in a pseudo-fascist society ruled over by a corrupt and one-dimensional leader, and their only characteristics are their love of "Snozzberries" and their hatred of the human race. As the book shifts from magic realism to fantasy it becomes less and less interesting, until finally it reaches the most over-the-top try-hard nihilistic ending possible.

The book contains a lot of interesting ideas- misanthropy, the idea of the human imagination creating a race of beings who turn against them, nuclear paranoia, ptsd, using fantasy to cope with reality in wartime, but ultimately it's a horribly executed mess. Dahl could have returned to this book in later life and rewritten it as something incredible, but sadly it remains a historical curiosity.

[Denis Mačor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Potreboval som si spríjemniť tradične dlhú cestu domov vlakom. Dahla som si zobral ako záruku bezstarostného poobedia, ktoré strávim s úsmevom nad ľahkosťou a dynamickým tokom udalostí. Pôžitok z písaného slova, aký Roald Dahl pri každom svojom diele nepochybne zažíval, mal svoje rezonancie aj v tomto románe. Britský autor však svoj talent optimizmu stavia do kritického svetla. Posolstvo mortality počas vojen, spochybnené hrdinstvá a dozvuky zabíjania - toto všetko sa postupne začne podpisovať na hlavných hrdinoch. Protagonisti síce majú svoje typicky farbisté charakteristiky plné humoru, no zažívajú kruté pozemské veci vyplývajúce z globálnych konfliktov. Kritický román - Hon na lišku pracuje, okrem iného, s konštruktom ďalšej svetovej vojny. Tá je vzdialeným volaním šialenosti s pôvodom v druhej svetovej vojne. Ak sa nepolepšíme, najhoršie nočné mory dostanú svoj zákerný tvar a budú ticho zabíjať. To už bude neskoro.

[Ernst Jan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting for Dahl fans, his first steps towards writing, and you can tell. badly received, it was reprinted interestingly enough only in Dutch and Tsjech.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php...

[Ashby Manson · Rating 3 out of 5]

An unflinchingly dark book. Interesting for that reason. I suppose being in the RAF during WWII would do that to you, if you survived. Worth reading as early Dahl, but not one of his best books.

[Mikuláš Hamerla · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reálné zvěsti o tom, že letci za války vídali na svých křídlech malé gremliny, kteří jim poškozovali stroje, je zde vyhnán za hranice chápání. Dobrý nápad.

[Jim]

This was rather disappointing. I guess I expected Roald Dahl's customary wit. Instead this comes across as rather preachy. Mankind is gong to himself and here are the reasons.