Un mundo devastado

by Brian W. Aldiss, César Aira (Translator)

En Un mundo devastado, Brian Aldiss enfrenta al lector a una situación desesperada que en realidad tal vez no esté tan lejos como podría pensarse. La Tierra se ha convertido en un planeta superpoblado, los productos químicos han envenenado el suelo y los mares y las desigualdades socioeconómicas han llegado a tal punto que sólo puede esperarse lo peor. Sin embargo, como suele suceder en las distopías de Aldiss, siempre hay un resquicio para la esperanza, que en esta ocasión encarna Knowle Noland, un exconvicto y exviajero que capitanea un carguero nuclear, la Estrella de Trieste.

Pocos autores han logrado combinar con el grado de perfección y equilibrio que consigue Aldiss la riqueza y profundidad de las ideas con la fuerza arrolladora y el trepidante ritmo narrativo de una gran aventura.

Brian Aldiss (1925) es el más prestigioso representante de la llamada nueva ola de escritores británicos que revolucionaron el panorama de la ciencia ficción hasta hacerla desembocar en lo que conocemos como ficción especulativa. Con un buen número de cuentos a sus espaldas, se dio a conocer entre el gran público en 1955 a través de las páginas del Observer con el cuento "Not for an age", y a partir de ese momento inició una espectacular carrera jalonada por éxitos como La nave estelar, La otra isla del doctor Moreau, Criptozoico, Enemigos del sistema, El árbol de saliva... Su obra ha sido galardonada con los premios Nebula y Hugo en Estados Unidos, el Kurd Lasswitz en Alemania, el Julio Verne en Suecia, el British Science Fiction en Gran Bretaña, el Cometa d'Argento en Italia, además de otros otorgados a su labor como crítico literario.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Dystopia, Science Fiction Fantasy, Novels, 20th Century, British Literature

250 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1965

About the author

Pseudonyms: 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

Reviews

[Jan-Maat]

Short story. Future England: population largely live in cities, countryside is a wasteland, rendered barely productive by destructive chemicals, rigidly hierarchical society - ok, so that doesn't sound too different from today - but only because I haven't mentioned the compulsory sterilisations those are still to come and hover suits which are rather like hoover suits but with less cleaning action.

The plot concerns a conflicted central character coerced into ambiguous action. The action ambiguous because the perpetrator is so ignorant of the world in which he lives.

In common with the Helliconia Trilogy and Hothouse I suppose that the environment is the most important character, although the only one never to say anything directly.

[Paul Bryant · Rating 1 out of 5]

Well Earthworks has put something of a dent in my plan to read all of Brian Aldiss’ss’ss SF novels because it was extremely silly. The blurb says this version of our future is full of

choked, disease-ridden towns, robots and prison gangs tending the bare, poison drenched countryside… a moribund ecological disaster, ruined by poisons, greed, unsustainable development and overpopulation. Mankind is broken, starving, wracked with disease and divided by bitter social injustice.

I mean, what could possibly go wrong? I would have thought with a set up like that it was guaranteed to make me smile and dutifully shell out 4 stars. But it was just…. Ridiculous. NOTHING MADE ANY SENSE! The characters (all four of them) were so thin they make cardboard look really fat, and we all know that cardboard is thin. Although I have bought some electronic stuff with really fat cardboard packaging that takes forever to saw through with a big knife. So maybe that comparison doesn’t work. Anyway, I digress. Fiction is supposed to suspend your disbelief but Brian Aldiss cut the lines holding up my disbelief and it crashed down and chipped a bone in its ankle. Doctor says I won’t be able to believe anything for at least six weeks now.

[Olethros · Rating 3 out of 5]

-Cada día más posible en lo ecológico y menos en lo geopolítico.-

Género. Ciencia-Ficción.

Lo que nos cuenta. Knowle Noland echa la vista atrás y recuerda sus tiempos de juventud, cuando sus sentidos le jugaban malas pasadas y capitaneaba el gigantesco y obsoleto carguero nuclear casi completamente automatizado Estrella de Trieste que transportaba arena entre la costa africana y el norte de Europa.

¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:

http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...

[Angus McKeogh · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was so strange and quirky, but reminded me so much of Ballard in tone and plotting, and I ended up really liking it. My first Aldiss and the ending was phenomenal. It was almost as if Aldiss was channeling Ballard, or is that just his style? Guess I’ll have to read another one to find out. Although, this is not one of his more popular books, so perhaps it was just an outlier.

[Warwick Stubbs · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've had a desire to read old SF paperbacks, pot-boilers, or just stuff that I've always seen but never paid much attention to because they weren't from the 'great authors' or weren't in themselves well-respected - Edgar Rice Burroughs type of stuff (but by lesser or similar genre authors). Whatever.

I walked into a local (local to where I was) 2nd-hand bookshop, took a punt, collected three titles from the shelf. This is Title 2.

Earthworks is a slim 120 pages, and dives into a hallucinatory trip by the protagonist Knowle Noland who is serving time as Captain on a ship manned by 3 0r 4 humans while the rest of the runnings are taken care of by robots. I really enjoyed this setting, and while I was a bit confused by the state of the dead humans (I thought they were above ground drifting about on anti-gravity backpacks because the Earth wouldn't accept the numbers anymore so spewed them up - did I get this wrong?), Noland (no land?) questioning his own state of mind and the dead that accompany him in his own head, really set the scene for an emotionally explosive story.

But that's not what I got. There were explosions! But emotionally, the whole thing fell flat, along with the plotting which met many conveniences along the way. The book bears more resemblances to Ice by Anna Kavan than anything else readers of Brian Aldiss might be familiar with (though Ice was published two years after Earthworks). There's enough Ballardian post-environmental catastrophe setting in this short novel to explore in a much larger volume, but Aldiss isn't interested: Noland's destructive nature takes over and destroys the novel itself.

I enjoyed the writing more than Judgment Night by C.L. Moore, but it's hard to say I "liked it". I liked parts of it (mostly the first parts), but the rest tripped over attempted political espionage, governmental controls, convicts and citizen status, and friendships while trying to be a head-rush of New Wave craziness. It doesn't work.

[Rhys · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another remarkable Aldiss novel, first published in 1965, that demonstrates how accomplished a prose stylist he is, as well as proving that he was superb at extrapolating trends. But his work is not really about scientific prediction. It is beside the point that much of the nightmare that forms the background of this story has come true. Aldiss explores the relationships of control and freedom, power and rebellion, and encapsulates a mighty global struggle, in the shape of a man with renegade tendencies and his experiences as the captain of a mostly automated gigantic cargo ship. The ship is wrecked on a remote coast in Africa; and he becomes a key player in a political adventure that might save the world but at enormous human cost.

I remember that this particular edition of the novel was in the school 'library' when I was 9 years old. The cover (by the excellent Bruce Pennington) attracted me, but I never attempted to read the book. Yet I knew that one day I would read it, and now I have. It amazes me that anyone thought such a novel could be suitable for children. It is far too poetic and advanced in language, theme and plot for the average young mind.

[Don · Rating 3 out of 5]

The best SF, for me, includes some social or political commentary. 'Earthworks' certainly meets that criterion. This was first published in 1965, and it looks forward to a time when the Earth's human population exceeds 24 billion. Basically, it is Aldiss's comment on the consequences of unconsidered human reproduction and unthinking consumption of resources.

Today, many people are concerned with climate change (which was barely on the horizon when this book was written) but too few address the twin elephants in the room: our collective dependence on continuing economic growth (where does your pension come from?) and the ever-growing population. Aldiss describes one kind of future that arrives when nothing is done to evict these beasts.

The story itself is told from the point of view of one of the 'teeming masses'; even though he is one of the few who can read he is still profoundly ignorant of the realities of the world situation. He suffers from a form of migraine that causes him to hallucinate: some of the story is told in flash-back, and some while he is hallucinating. This makes for quite a difficult read in places, I found - but it is worth persisting to the end. And if you decide to give up on it, at least skip to the last few pages, which explain much of what the book is about.

[Beorn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'll be honest, although it had started off well and fairly intriguing, for the majority of the book there was a heavy sense of not really having a clue what was going on beyond occasional moments of relative lucidity.
The book seems to be more content to wistfully ponder existential delirium rather than telling a good story.
Overall, in short, dont bother.

[Stephen Theaker · Rating 4 out of 5]

An extremely depressing book - all about pollution, overpopulation, disease and mania - but none the worse for it! I found it very hard to read Aldiss when I was younger - good to find I'm now grown up enough to enjoy his work. I'll have to try Ballard next.

[Robin Helweg-Larsen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Written over 50 years ago, closer to Orwell than to today, phantasmagoric in places reminiscent of JG Ballard, not one of Aldiss' best... But, Aldiss is always enjoyable.

[Alejandra Reyes · Rating 2 out of 5]

Debo reconocer que me costó leer este libro, muchas veces me tuve que devolver a releer algunos pasajes ya que frecuentemente se mezclan diferentes temporalidades y la realidad con alucinaciones del personaje principal.

Me gustó el mundo distópico y post apocalíptico, donde sobreexplotamos tanto el planeta que solo Africa tiene la capacidad de generar alimento y el resto del planeta depende de ese continente. La descripción de como están organizadas las ciudades, la esclavitud de los humanos en relación a las maquinas, las religiones, todo es bastante interesante. Mi mayor problema con este libro son los personajes, ninguno me pareció interesante o me generó empatía como para que me importara que iba a pasar con ellos.

[Terence · Rating 3 out of 5]

Picked this up for next to nothing at a used book shop and was not disappointed at all. Brian Aldiss establishes a pretty bleak and interesting apocalyptic landscape full of class distinctions and totalitarianism. The drifting dead on the wind, holding on to love letters, the shipwrecked vessels for transporting sand, it's a very evocative landscape. On another note, this was the book that inspired the art movement of the same name, Robert Smithson took it with him on his trip when he generated the works in "A Tour of the Monuments of Passaic, New Jersey" and it shows.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Aldiss widment sich in diesem, 1965 entstandenen, dystopischen Roman dem Problem der Überbevölkerung. Auch wenn es einige unglaubliche Zufälle und Logikfehler beinhaltet, fand ich es insgesamt doch sehr lesenswert. Aldiss macht hier auf brachiale Weise deutlich, dass viele gut gemeinte Anstrengungen der Menschen dadurch zunichte gemacht werden, dass einfach immer mehr Rohstoffe für immer mehr Menschen notwenig sein werden, solange man Problem des Bevölkerungswachstums nicht in den Griff bekommt.

[Eva M. Fernández Poyatos · Rating 2 out of 5]

Durante todo el libro, he tenido la molesta sensación de que la historia nunca arrancaba, y que tampoco terminaba de entender lo que se contaba.
Los personajes me parecen planos y extraños. Alianzas y luchas extrañas que carecen de sentido, todo con el protagonista en el centro. No hay nada creíble con respecto a las personas.

Lo peor de la historia es que se siente como si pudiera dar muchísimo más de sí. Tiene un transfondo realmente interesante, pero lo único que se nos ofrece son dos migajas que no sirven para saciar nada. Solo queda un vacío y una sensación de extrañeza. El libro al completo, después de leerlo, se siente tan intangible como los momentos no lúcidos del protagonista, y esa idea de decir "¿Pero qué acabo de leer?". Nada más.

[Simon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Started out quite well but quite a lack-lustre finish. It was like; yeah everything's so bad for humanity that the best thing we can do is start a nuclear war. That'll help.

[Evey Morgan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Un tanto decepcionante sobre todo en su parte final...

[Rebecca · Rating 1 out of 5]

I could not finish this book. Tried to enjoy it but just could not understand what was going on, it was too confusing.

[Edwin]

Kon niet echt door het eerste hoofdstuk komen. Pakte me op de een of andere manier niet. Dus maar gestopt.

[Justin A Burnett · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was my first Brian W. Aldiss, and it’s not considered his best. Accepting the risk in beginning here was an accumulation of circumstances. In Suppose a Sentence, Brian Dillon mentioned the artist Robert Smithson reading this book on a Manhattan bus ride (I forget the exact circumstance, and anyway it’s not important). I realized I owned a copy. If not the opening sentence, it was the opening image that did it: “The dead man drifted along in the breeze. He walked upright on his hind legs like a performing nanny goat. . . .” I began wondering if Aldiss could sustain this delirium. I consider these circumstances happy.

Earthworks is a future dystopia (I’ve had a taste for these lately—it’s the dystopian novel I’m writing as much as it’s the unfolding dystopian reality) and it’s quite a good one. There’s a bit of plotwork at the rear that feels a bit tossed together—an African political leader deemed to be a salvation of the desperate world somewhat crashes into things, embroiling the drifting narrator in much high-stakes action I could’ve done without—but Aldiss is easily a good enough writer to keep narrative weaknesses from defining his story.

I love his concepts: penal farms between stilted cities where minor criminals work a poisoned, destroyed landscape; a class of property holders of these farms who never see or worry about the lives they ruin; a hallucinating, traumatized narrator. . . all convincingly horrific, suffocating, and detailed. When he’s patiently painting this hellscape, Aldiss is in his element. He never strays far enough from the human—human cruelty, humor, and fear—to prevent his world’s haunting plausibility. But all is not dim and gray, overcrowded train journeys to mass disinfectant showers notwithstanding. Aldiss has heart, too. And imagination, more than enough to inspire me to want more.

[Hector · Rating 3 out of 5]

Creo que esta es la novela más extraña que he leído de Aldiss. Hay bastantes cosas extrañas en ella y me parece un resultado bastante improbable del curso de la historia, por lo menos en varios detalles importantes. El final es quizá un tanto sorprendente así que si uno se mete en la historia quizá merece la pena llegar hasta el final.
El personaje principal, Knowle Noman, es una figura enigmática que lucha por encontrar su lugar en un mundo en ruinas. Su condición mental, que lo lleva a mezclar realidad y fantasía, añade una capa de complejidad a la narración. Sin embargo, en ocasiones, esta dualidad resulta confusa y distrae del hilo principal de la historia. La atmósfera distópica que Aldiss intenta crear es ambiciosa, pero no logra sumergirme por completo. Aunque la descripción de un mundo devastado por la superpoblación y la degradación ambiental es impactante, me ha faltado una conexión emocional más profunda con los personajes y el entorno.
Creo que lo que menos me ha gustado es la atmósfera que crea la novela. Es cierto que se trata de una distopía y que ha de ser cruda, pero no me ha llegado a atrapar hasta el punto de parecerme verosímil. También es cierto que he leído el librito y lo he dejado apartado hasta poder volver a el y terminármelo. Supongo que está un poco a la altura de La otra isla del Doctor Moreau en cuanto a la atmósfera. Ambas tocan en cierto modo la misma temática de devastación, pero adolecen del mismo tipo de desconexión.
Es cierto que cuenta con ciertos puntos destacables, como la originalidad de la redacción (aunque en cierto punto fallida para mi gusto, pero puede haber quién sienta más afinidad). Quizá sería recomendable para aquellos que buscan historias de sci-fy distópicas fuera de lo convencional.

[Hakan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not a very cheerful novel, at least it's short.

This novel strongly resonates with our current times where right wing populism is on the rise, abuse by the police is common and getting worse (in the UK you will be able to get 10 years for protesting and causing someone some annoyance - arriving soon - Thanks Patel!), environment is crumbling, massive pretty-much-all-automated ships are travelling between continents with a handful of staff running the boat, and then a monster sample gets stuck in the Suez canal...

Aldiss has a very negative view of the future and half a decade and a bit since then it shows how spot on he was. Depressing stuff. I still love it.

[Kris · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book has a terrible reputation. At the time it was absolutely pilloried. I think this comes partially because it is after three of his best works (Hothouse, Dark Light Years and Greybeard) whilst this a bit more of a step backwards (unsurprisingly given it is based on an older novella). It is a not bad setup but the whole thing feels rushed and unexplored. Definitely one that could have benefited from more time being spent upon it.
However, if you go in without too many expectations it is a fine shorter novel.

[Brian Campbell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brian Aldiss never fails to impress me. He takes the tiredest of tropes and infuses them with fresh, surprising perspectives. In the dystopian "Earthworks" he envisions a corrupted environment and a society of unchecked corporate omnipotence where none but the richest humans are free from disease and need, and the most minor of legal infractions will result in citizens being sentenced to long terms in brutally administered work camps which benefit the corporate giants. Other reviewers here find the novel confusing, or in the case of the most prominent review, "silly", but neither of those terms is applicable to a proper reading. The narrative is delivered in the first person from a member of the diseased lower class who suffers from frequent hallucinations. Thus much of the story does come off as disorienting and frequently absurd, but to refer to hallucinatory visions as "silly" suggests that the reader is unable to follow the thread. As the novel progresses it becomes clear to the attentive reader where the narrator’s fantasy diverges from his reality. Modern readers of science fiction who have never strayed from YA, graphic novels, Star Trek/Star Wars novels or best sellers may find Brian Aldiss difficult. He assumed a level of sophistication in his readers. He did not spoon feed.

[Joachim Boaz · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/5 (Average)

Brian Aldiss’ Earthworks (1965) takes place in a future Earth wrecked by the effects of overpopulation and the resulting environmental repercussions of intensive, expansive, and destructive over-farming. In this disturbed [...]
Full review: https://sciencefictionruminations.com...

[Paul Vann · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would give it 3 1/2 stars. They wouldn't let us do that so out of respect for one of my favorite SF author's
Brian aldriss, rest in peace my brother. I gave 4 stars .
May your after life be filled with the adventures you put on paper Mr Aldriss.
GOD SPEED.

[Xabi1990 · Rating 1 out of 5]

2/10. Media de los 11 libros leídos del autor : 3/10
De los más prolíficos autores ingleses de CF. de los clásicos. Se llevó un Hugo, un Nébula, …y no le trago. De esos leídos sólo me gusto (y sin pasarse), “La otra isla del Dr Moreau” (que es una fusilada de la novela de Wells)

[Stephen Rowland · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best thing I've ever read by Aldiss. Unusually competent prose that verges on the poetic at times, a bleak and original plot narrated by a unique protagonist -- just very compelling stuff. I wasn't expecting much of this somewhat obscure Aldiss novel so its quality is all the more satisfying.

[Ernest Hogan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Postapocalyptic, dystopian, a very strange, different vision of the future with antigravity, automated nuclear powered freighters, lots of robots, a United Nations of Africa and politics that are all too plausible. An interesting contrast to a lot of today's science fiction.

[Don Perschau · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dystopian story of an overpopulated and underfed earth in some distant time. Lots of good ideas here but also lots of useless mad ravings, hallucinations and "dream" sequences. The book is only 128 pages but could have been 70. Copyright 1965. Found it in a closet.

[Kenneth · Rating 4 out of 5]

A dystopian scifi novel of when the planet's ecology has gone really bad and politically the world was a police state.