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Der Orchideenkäfig
Eine tote Stadt auf einem fernen Planeten, zwei Gruppen von Menschen, die sie zu erforschen versuchen. Schritt für Schritt dringen sie ein – in den äußeren Ring mit den Bauwerken einer ultramodernen Technik, in die halbverfallene mittelalterliche Innenstadt und schließlich in das geheimnisumwitterte Zentrum.
Aber ist die Stadt wirklich tot? Die Fabriken beginnen wieder zu arbeiten, die Automaten greifen ein, und irgendwo im Hintergrund liegt noch etwas verborgen, das vielleicht wieder erwachen könnte. Sind es Menschen oder fremdartige Maschinenwesen?
Aber ist die Stadt wirklich tot? Die Fabriken beginnen wieder zu arbeiten, die Automaten greifen ein, und irgendwo im Hintergrund liegt noch etwas verborgen, das vielleicht wieder erwachen könnte. Sind es Menschen oder fremdartige Maschinenwesen?
172 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1961
4 people are currently reading
136 people want to read
About the author
Herbert W. Franke
170 books33 followersHerbert W. Franke is an Austrian scientist and writer. He is considered one of the most important science fiction authors in the German language. He is also active in the fields of future research, speleology as well as computer graphics and digital art.
Franke studied physics, mathematics, chemistry, psychology and philosophy in Vienna. He received his doctorate in theoretical physics in 1950 by writing a dissertation about electron optics.
Since 1957, he has worked as a freelance author. From 1973 to 1997 he held a lectureship in "Cybernetical Aesthetic" at Munich University (later computer graphics - computer art). In 1979, he co-founded Ars Electronica in Linz/Austria. In 1979 and 1980, he lectured in "introduction to perception psychology" at the Art & Design division of the Bielefeld University of Applied Sciences. Also in 1980 he became a selected member of the German PEN club.
A collection of short stories titled "The Green Comet" was his first book publication. In 1998, Franke attended a SIGGRAPH computer graphics conference in Orlando and was a juror at the "VideoMath Festival" Berlin. He also took part in innumerable performances and presentations.
Franke studied physics, mathematics, chemistry, psychology and philosophy in Vienna. He received his doctorate in theoretical physics in 1950 by writing a dissertation about electron optics.
Since 1957, he has worked as a freelance author. From 1973 to 1997 he held a lectureship in "Cybernetical Aesthetic" at Munich University (later computer graphics - computer art). In 1979, he co-founded Ars Electronica in Linz/Austria. In 1979 and 1980, he lectured in "introduction to perception psychology" at the Art & Design division of the Bielefeld University of Applied Sciences. Also in 1980 he became a selected member of the German PEN club.
A collection of short stories titled "The Green Comet" was his first book publication. In 1998, Franke attended a SIGGRAPH computer graphics conference in Orlando and was a juror at the "VideoMath Festival" Berlin. He also took part in innumerable performances and presentations.
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June 12, 2020DAW Collectors #79
Cover Artist: Vincent DiFate
Name: Franke, Herbert Werner, Birthplace: Vienna, Austria, (14 May 1927)
Alternate Names: Sergius Both
On a distant planet not too different from earth, there stands a mechanized city with no visible inhabitants.obviously of a highly developed civilization, the question is who built it,where are they, and what can they teach us humans?
Cover Artist: Vincent DiFate
Name: Franke, Herbert Werner, Birthplace: Vienna, Austria, (14 May 1927)
Alternate Names: Sergius Both
On a distant planet not too different from earth, there stands a mechanized city with no visible inhabitants.obviously of a highly developed civilization, the question is who built it,where are they, and what can they teach us humans?
September 28, 2020
German review below/ deutsche Rezension unten
This book is based on a fascinating idea: exploring an abandoned city on a strange planet. Taking only the pure plot into account, it is quite successfully executed. The town is mysterious and discovering it bit by bit made for a fun experience. I also enjoyed the writing style and the 60s language the characters use (at least in the German original) creates a slight retro feeling.
However, I couldn’t stand the protagonists. Considering this premise, I expected scientists, explorers - just professional adults, instead they seemed like little children, teenagers at most, in the way they interacted. They complained all the time, had no real motivation expect competition, made stupid choices and treated each other terribly. There is more context revealed for this later on, but that didn’t change that I didn’t like reading about these annoying people.
The science fiction aspects in this book worked well for me and with different main characters this would probably have delivered what I want from classic SF. Unfortunately, I couldn’t fully enjoy the novel as it is.
Dieses Buch basiert auf einer spannenden Idee: der Erkundung einer verlassenen Stadt auf einem fremden Planeten. Tatsächlich fand ich, wenn man nur auf die pure Handlung achtet, dass diese auch gut umgesetzt war. Die Stadt ist mysteriös und Stück für Stück mehr von ihr zu entdecken war ein faszinierendes Leseerlebnis. Der Schreibstil war auch sehr angenehm und die, aus heutiger Sicht, etwas ältere Sprache, die die Figuren verwenden, gibt dem ganzen einen leichten Retro-Flair.
Allerdings konnte ich die Protagonisten überhaupt nicht ertragen. Von der Prämisse her habe ich Wissenschaftler, Forscher, einfach erwachsene professionelle Menschen erwartet, stattdessen wirkten die handelnden Charaktere wie kleine Kinder, bestenfalls Teenager, in ihrer Interaktion miteinander. Das äußerte sich u.a. darin, dass sie sich die ganze Zeit beschweren, keine Motivation für die Erkundung haben außer besser als andere zu sein, unkluge Entscheidungen treffen und sich gegenseitig furchtbar behandeln. Später erhält man dazu ein wenig mehr Kontext, das ändert aber nichts daran, dass ich ungern über diese Leute gelesen habe.
Die Science Fiction Aspekte dieses Buches haben mir sehr gefallen und ich denke mit anderen Protagonisten hätte es mir liefern können, wonach ich in klassischer SF suche. Ich möchte auch die liebevolle Gestaltung dieser Auflage loben. Leider konnte ich den Roman, so wie er ist, nicht vollständig genießen.
This book is based on a fascinating idea: exploring an abandoned city on a strange planet. Taking only the pure plot into account, it is quite successfully executed. The town is mysterious and discovering it bit by bit made for a fun experience. I also enjoyed the writing style and the 60s language the characters use (at least in the German original) creates a slight retro feeling.
However, I couldn’t stand the protagonists. Considering this premise, I expected scientists, explorers - just professional adults, instead they seemed like little children, teenagers at most, in the way they interacted. They complained all the time, had no real motivation expect competition, made stupid choices and treated each other terribly. There is more context revealed for this later on, but that didn’t change that I didn’t like reading about these annoying people.
The science fiction aspects in this book worked well for me and with different main characters this would probably have delivered what I want from classic SF. Unfortunately, I couldn’t fully enjoy the novel as it is.
Dieses Buch basiert auf einer spannenden Idee: der Erkundung einer verlassenen Stadt auf einem fremden Planeten. Tatsächlich fand ich, wenn man nur auf die pure Handlung achtet, dass diese auch gut umgesetzt war. Die Stadt ist mysteriös und Stück für Stück mehr von ihr zu entdecken war ein faszinierendes Leseerlebnis. Der Schreibstil war auch sehr angenehm und die, aus heutiger Sicht, etwas ältere Sprache, die die Figuren verwenden, gibt dem ganzen einen leichten Retro-Flair.
Allerdings konnte ich die Protagonisten überhaupt nicht ertragen. Von der Prämisse her habe ich Wissenschaftler, Forscher, einfach erwachsene professionelle Menschen erwartet, stattdessen wirkten die handelnden Charaktere wie kleine Kinder, bestenfalls Teenager, in ihrer Interaktion miteinander. Das äußerte sich u.a. darin, dass sie sich die ganze Zeit beschweren, keine Motivation für die Erkundung haben außer besser als andere zu sein, unkluge Entscheidungen treffen und sich gegenseitig furchtbar behandeln. Später erhält man dazu ein wenig mehr Kontext, das ändert aber nichts daran, dass ich ungern über diese Leute gelesen habe.
Die Science Fiction Aspekte dieses Buches haben mir sehr gefallen und ich denke mit anderen Protagonisten hätte es mir liefern können, wonach ich in klassischer SF suche. Ich möchte auch die liebevolle Gestaltung dieser Auflage loben. Leider konnte ich den Roman, so wie er ist, nicht vollständig genießen.
July 28, 2018
I am writing about the English translation by Christopher Priest. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, DAW books made a concerted effort to supply translations of major European science fiction, and often employed science fiction writers rather than professional translators to do the job. The thinking, perhaps, was that having a writer do it would make the resulting work acceptable in readability even if something is lost in fidelity to the original language. I have not read the German language version of this novel, originally published in 1961, and my German these days is probably not strong enough to determine the fidelity of the translation. This English translation is, however, certainly very readable. Indeed, it does not read as a translation at all. In that regard, Priest is to be commended.
Other reviewers on this site have likened "The Orchid Cage" to Lem's "Solaris" and the Strugatsky brothers' "Roadside Picnic," both of which were originally published around the same time. I can see the similarities in that the plot involves a raw encounter between humans and alien minds, plus a raw encounter between humans and left-behind alien technology. As I was reading the novel, I was also reminded of Clarke's "Rendezvous with Rama" in that the protagonists are exploring the tech from the inside, in an environment seemingly devoid of the actual aliens who built it. Thus, as with Clarke's novel, the protagonists are desperately trying to conjure the aliens both physically and socially through conjectures based on their technology. Unlike the Lem and Strugatsky novels, and a bit more like the Clarke novel, Franke has a thesis in mind, one that he unambiguously wants the reader to get. Thankfully, unlike Heinlein in some of his lesser novels and the many imitators of Heinlein, Franke successfully delays the delivery of the thesis until almost the very end. Thus, instead of a rhetorical structure that supposedly proves the thesis, Franke uses a periodic structure that makes the thesis the inevitable conclusion of a logical case. The reader remains unaware of this didactic purpose until it arrives, so the reader is not forced by the author into an interpretation of the story.
The story itself mostly centers on Al, a human from the far future who has apparently landed with a small team to explore a newly discovered world. The reader is led to believe that this is the start of a traditional colonization novel, with the advance team preparing the way for the colonists. It takes about 20-30 pages before the reader will become aware that this is not really the case and that something else is going on here. Franke's trick, if we want to call it that, is that the plot gradually reveals the nature of the aliens, but also gradually reveals the nature of the human explorers, who are, being from the far future, nearly as "other" as the aliens.
The novel has a few things that date it a bit. One is that there is only one female character and that she is, sadly, something of a feminine stereotype. She is more of an ornament than a character and the writer could easily have gotten the results he wanted without her. Another is that some of the aliens' advanced tech is yesterday's tech in the 21st century.
Overall, "The Orchid Cage" is entertaining and thoughtful despite its flaws. The ending should leave the reader rethinking both what happened in the story and what is going on in contemporary society.
Other reviewers on this site have likened "The Orchid Cage" to Lem's "Solaris" and the Strugatsky brothers' "Roadside Picnic," both of which were originally published around the same time. I can see the similarities in that the plot involves a raw encounter between humans and alien minds, plus a raw encounter between humans and left-behind alien technology. As I was reading the novel, I was also reminded of Clarke's "Rendezvous with Rama" in that the protagonists are exploring the tech from the inside, in an environment seemingly devoid of the actual aliens who built it. Thus, as with Clarke's novel, the protagonists are desperately trying to conjure the aliens both physically and socially through conjectures based on their technology. Unlike the Lem and Strugatsky novels, and a bit more like the Clarke novel, Franke has a thesis in mind, one that he unambiguously wants the reader to get. Thankfully, unlike Heinlein in some of his lesser novels and the many imitators of Heinlein, Franke successfully delays the delivery of the thesis until almost the very end. Thus, instead of a rhetorical structure that supposedly proves the thesis, Franke uses a periodic structure that makes the thesis the inevitable conclusion of a logical case. The reader remains unaware of this didactic purpose until it arrives, so the reader is not forced by the author into an interpretation of the story.
The story itself mostly centers on Al, a human from the far future who has apparently landed with a small team to explore a newly discovered world. The reader is led to believe that this is the start of a traditional colonization novel, with the advance team preparing the way for the colonists. It takes about 20-30 pages before the reader will become aware that this is not really the case and that something else is going on here. Franke's trick, if we want to call it that, is that the plot gradually reveals the nature of the aliens, but also gradually reveals the nature of the human explorers, who are, being from the far future, nearly as "other" as the aliens.
The novel has a few things that date it a bit. One is that there is only one female character and that she is, sadly, something of a feminine stereotype. She is more of an ornament than a character and the writer could easily have gotten the results he wanted without her. Another is that some of the aliens' advanced tech is yesterday's tech in the 21st century.
Overall, "The Orchid Cage" is entertaining and thoughtful despite its flaws. The ending should leave the reader rethinking both what happened in the story and what is going on in contemporary society.
January 16, 2023
This asks the time-honored question, what happens when humans can have pleasure all the time if they want. This thought experiment was tested on rats who had their brain's pleasure center implanted with electrodes. The rats lost interest in eating, drinking, grooming and sex. All the rats did was press a lever to deliver a jolt of pleasure-inducing current into their brains as rapidly as they could. This novella explores this idea.
The story was fine, but it should be said the writing was uninspired, and I suspect the translation from German to English was botched.
The story was fine, but it should be said the writing was uninspired, and I suspect the translation from German to English was botched.
February 19, 2015
Discussion of this novel in English is insufficient in easily accessed sources. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction in the article on the author says little more than it is complex and that the alien world transforms the characters profoundly. The Wikipedia article on the author lists this novel, but doesn’t have a separate page on it, nor any discussion of it. When I searched Goodreads for reviews I found only one, in German.
…
If there were someone who read all the novels in their original languages I think comparisons of this one with Solaris, Roadside Picnic and Yukikaze would be informative. The analysis of Franke could start with how characters react to newness in a world whose surface realities they doubt or that they know to be partly false. This would differ in focus from the Lem novel, which emphasizes (some say) epistemology. With the Strugatsky brothers, the similarity is with alien technology that transforms, sometimes unpredictably. And with Chohei Kambayashi, the transformation comes from intimate acquaintance with known technology, the strangeness being innate to its machine-nature, and its contagion alienating of the protagonist from his fellow humans; this is quite different than the clearer separation of machine-thinking and human-thinking found in The Orchid Cage.
…
There’s also a frame (manifested only in the epilog) with the moral: ‘Thou shalt thrive.’ Like all such messages, this could be taken to be a blow struck for capitalism during the ideological disputes that accompanied the Cold War. (The novel was published in 1961 in German.) More precisely it is an attack on materialist utopias. This seems less important to me than the book’s innards.
…
Bridging to the frame is a trial of the surviving protagonists. Reading this suggested to me the possibility that central and eastern SF employ this more than other SF; not sure if that’s true. If so, it could be either the greater influence of Kafka—certainly likely for this novel as Franke is also Austrian. Or it could be their greater exposure to Soviet and Soviet-installed governments and their unjust courts in the post WWII era.
…
Not mentioned thus far is character interaction. The characters represent positions—specifically ways of confronting the strange—and so their interactions seem artificial. (This is compounded by the facts of the frame, which further undermines sensory reality and so leads to odd reactions to key events; any further talk about this would introduce spoilers.) The woman’s reactions are emotionally retreatist and her way of influencing the group is through seduction; I found this unpleasantly sexist.
…
I read the English translation by Christine Priest, 1973.
…
If there were someone who read all the novels in their original languages I think comparisons of this one with Solaris, Roadside Picnic and Yukikaze would be informative. The analysis of Franke could start with how characters react to newness in a world whose surface realities they doubt or that they know to be partly false. This would differ in focus from the Lem novel, which emphasizes (some say) epistemology. With the Strugatsky brothers, the similarity is with alien technology that transforms, sometimes unpredictably. And with Chohei Kambayashi, the transformation comes from intimate acquaintance with known technology, the strangeness being innate to its machine-nature, and its contagion alienating of the protagonist from his fellow humans; this is quite different than the clearer separation of machine-thinking and human-thinking found in The Orchid Cage.
…
There’s also a frame (manifested only in the epilog) with the moral: ‘Thou shalt thrive.’ Like all such messages, this could be taken to be a blow struck for capitalism during the ideological disputes that accompanied the Cold War. (The novel was published in 1961 in German.) More precisely it is an attack on materialist utopias. This seems less important to me than the book’s innards.
…
Bridging to the frame is a trial of the surviving protagonists. Reading this suggested to me the possibility that central and eastern SF employ this more than other SF; not sure if that’s true. If so, it could be either the greater influence of Kafka—certainly likely for this novel as Franke is also Austrian. Or it could be their greater exposure to Soviet and Soviet-installed governments and their unjust courts in the post WWII era.
…
Not mentioned thus far is character interaction. The characters represent positions—specifically ways of confronting the strange—and so their interactions seem artificial. (This is compounded by the facts of the frame, which further undermines sensory reality and so leads to odd reactions to key events; any further talk about this would introduce spoilers.) The woman’s reactions are emotionally retreatist and her way of influencing the group is through seduction; I found this unpleasantly sexist.
…
I read the English translation by Christine Priest, 1973.
December 19, 2018
5/10. Dicen en la publi del libro que este alemán tiene un nivel comparable al de ingleses y americanos. Pues bien, pues vale. Si ellos lo dicen..... (pero no, conste)
April 16, 2021
Stick with this one. It's sometimes dull and annoying, even stupid, but the final chapters more than make up for any tedium.
March 1, 2018
Las primeras cien páginas de este libro son una completa pérdida de tiempo. No ocurre absolutamente nada interesante; sólo se describe el viaje de los personajes hacia el centro de la ciudad. Durante este viaje sólo ocurren conversaciones tediosas y descubrimientos menores que no tienen ninguna importancia, y que son mencionados sin propósito alguno. Si el viaje iba a ser tan inútil y poco relevante, el autor debiese haberlo acortado. Lo único que logra este viaje es mostrar lo estúpidos que son los personajes. La mitad de ellos no tiene ninguna utilidad y está ahí de relleno. El autor denota una alta incapacidad para crear personajes realistas. Estos se distinguen entre sí mediante mínimos detalles, y carecen de cualidades que los hagan parecer humanos y sintientes. Que los personajes sean tan desagradables, estúpidos e infantiles, sin ninguna cualidad con la que el lector pueda empatizar, convierte a los diálogos en intervenciones aburridas, y le quita valor a las acciones de los personajes. Además, siento que la forma en que se representa a la Tierra de un futuro tecnológicamente avanzado es bastante poco probable. ¿Quién dejaría que niños estúpidos e irresponsables fuesen a jugar a planetas desconocidos, permitiéndoles que destruyan todo a su antojo? Seres inteligentes jamás permitirían una estupidez así.
A pesar de todo, considero que el plot twist que hubo al final – que los personajes fuesen en realidad cuerpos creados en otro mundo, y que en realidad las mentes perpetradoras de tantas acciones bárbaras siguieran en la tierra- fue bastante inesperado, y permitió que todas las acciones anteriores se vieran bajo una nueva luz. Además, el mensaje transmitido es bastante profundo. Una vida inteligente indudablemente puede llegar a considerar que lo único necesario es el placer hasta tal punto de evolucionar y convertirse en una planta que lo único que hace es recibir sensaciones placenteras. Esto da mucho que pensar.
Sin embargo, la pobreza del estilo con que está escrita esta historia le quita el 90% de su poder a la trama. Recién luego de la página 110-120 se puede apreciar un desarrollo óptimo de la historia. Antes no nos encontramos con nada que produzca suspenso o nos emocione. La mala forma en que está escrito este libro hace que al lector le resulte imposible sentir algo o involucrarse en la historia.
Sin duda el autor tiene ideas muy buenas, pero es obvio que no conoce mucho de técnicas literarias ni de la estructura que debe tener un trabajo literario para no resultar tedioso. Sin embargo, puede que esto sea problema de la traducción y no del autor. Varias veces estuve a punto de dejar el libro. Sinceramente, no entiendo cómo una editorial pudo aceptar publicar esta burla a la literatura.
A pesar de todo, considero que el plot twist que hubo al final – que los personajes fuesen en realidad cuerpos creados en otro mundo, y que en realidad las mentes perpetradoras de tantas acciones bárbaras siguieran en la tierra- fue bastante inesperado, y permitió que todas las acciones anteriores se vieran bajo una nueva luz. Además, el mensaje transmitido es bastante profundo. Una vida inteligente indudablemente puede llegar a considerar que lo único necesario es el placer hasta tal punto de evolucionar y convertirse en una planta que lo único que hace es recibir sensaciones placenteras. Esto da mucho que pensar.
Sin embargo, la pobreza del estilo con que está escrita esta historia le quita el 90% de su poder a la trama. Recién luego de la página 110-120 se puede apreciar un desarrollo óptimo de la historia. Antes no nos encontramos con nada que produzca suspenso o nos emocione. La mala forma en que está escrito este libro hace que al lector le resulte imposible sentir algo o involucrarse en la historia.
Sin duda el autor tiene ideas muy buenas, pero es obvio que no conoce mucho de técnicas literarias ni de la estructura que debe tener un trabajo literario para no resultar tedioso. Sin embargo, puede que esto sea problema de la traducción y no del autor. Varias veces estuve a punto de dejar el libro. Sinceramente, no entiendo cómo una editorial pudo aceptar publicar esta burla a la literatura.
September 19, 2014
Zwei Gruppen von Jungen haben einen in der Vergangenheit vermutlich bewohnten Planeten entdeckt. Das ist nicht ungewöhnlich, da sie zentausend Jahre in der Zukunft wohnen und die Suche nach den Planeten im Weltraum eine typische Weise der Unterhaltung für die Leute ist. Intelligentes Leben zu finden ist eine seltene und große Ehre.
Diese Gruppen von Jungen treten in eine leere Stadt auf diesem Planeten ein, und sie ringen miteinander zwischen den Ruinen und den Fabriken und Kraftwerken, die dennoch funktionieren, um ihr Ziel zu erreichen.
Ihr Abenteuer erscheint ziemlich spannend und gefährlich, aber es gibt viele Sachen in diesem Buch, die mir nicht gefallen haben.
Erstens, der Autor hat das Potenzial der Ureinwohner des Planeten nicht völlig ausgeschöpft. Ja, sie existieren noch, aber sie haben sich zu einer ungewöhnlichen Lebensform entwickelt, so dass eine künstliche Intelligenz sich um sie kümmert. Aber sie tauchen erst am Ende des Buchs auf, trotz der Tatsache, dass ihr Leben, ihre Gesellschaft und Geschichte vielfach interessanter sind als die Spiele, Streitigkeiten und Geheimnisse der gelangweilten Menschen. Schade.
Zweitens, manchmal ist der Ausflug dieser Jungen ein bisschen zu langsam, und es gibt einige inhaltsleere Szenen, die ich in diesem Buch nicht sehen möchte. Auch sind manche Figuren ziemlich oberflächlich, im Besonderen Katja, da sie gar nichts tut, und nur existiert um ihre Romanze mit Al einzugehen.
Das Urteil: der Roman ist nicht schlecht, aber auch nichts Besonderes.
Diese Gruppen von Jungen treten in eine leere Stadt auf diesem Planeten ein, und sie ringen miteinander zwischen den Ruinen und den Fabriken und Kraftwerken, die dennoch funktionieren, um ihr Ziel zu erreichen.
Ihr Abenteuer erscheint ziemlich spannend und gefährlich, aber es gibt viele Sachen in diesem Buch, die mir nicht gefallen haben.
Erstens, der Autor hat das Potenzial der Ureinwohner des Planeten nicht völlig ausgeschöpft. Ja, sie existieren noch, aber sie haben sich zu einer ungewöhnlichen Lebensform entwickelt, so dass eine künstliche Intelligenz sich um sie kümmert. Aber sie tauchen erst am Ende des Buchs auf, trotz der Tatsache, dass ihr Leben, ihre Gesellschaft und Geschichte vielfach interessanter sind als die Spiele, Streitigkeiten und Geheimnisse der gelangweilten Menschen. Schade.
Zweitens, manchmal ist der Ausflug dieser Jungen ein bisschen zu langsam, und es gibt einige inhaltsleere Szenen, die ich in diesem Buch nicht sehen möchte. Auch sind manche Figuren ziemlich oberflächlich, im Besonderen Katja, da sie gar nichts tut, und nur existiert um ihre Romanze mit Al einzugehen.
Das Urteil: der Roman ist nicht schlecht, aber auch nichts Besonderes.
April 14, 2020
Leider gibt es dieses Buch nicht mehr im regulären Buchhandel.
Ein spannend geschriebenes Buch mit einem erschreckenden Ende. Es geht um die generelle Frage was mit einer Zivilisation passiert die Ihre höchste technische Entwicklungsstufe erreicht hat.
Erschreckender Weise könnte dies, in einigen Generationen, auch auf uns zutreffen. Der Autor schrieb seine Bücher in den 50/60er Jahren und sie sind auf die heutige anwendbar, ähnlich wue Themen von Jules Verne. Top!
Ein spannend geschriebenes Buch mit einem erschreckenden Ende. Es geht um die generelle Frage was mit einer Zivilisation passiert die Ihre höchste technische Entwicklungsstufe erreicht hat.
Erschreckender Weise könnte dies, in einigen Generationen, auch auf uns zutreffen. Der Autor schrieb seine Bücher in den 50/60er Jahren und sie sind auf die heutige anwendbar, ähnlich wue Themen von Jules Verne. Top!
July 10, 2018
He tropezado con este análisis escrito por Giselle Moyano, de modo que os invito a que lo leáis, ya que estoy de acuerdo con buena parte de lo que opina sobre este libro. Tal y como ella señala, la obra queda ensombrecida por la traducción, que quizá sea la culpable de esos diálogos tan forzados, aunque está claro que a ella no podemos echarle la culpa de la creación de esos personajes tan planos, tan simples, tan típicos y tan básicos. Al quizá es el único que despierta cierto interés (a partir de la mitad del libro); por el contrario, el personaje más odiable, por la simpleza y el claro machismo con el que está construido, es Katia. O bien se queja... (página 71):
... o bien es utilizada exclusivamente como pareja de alguien (recordemos que «la comisión de genética había admitido la soliticud de Don y Katia para formar pareja», pág. 6), entreviéndose un triángulo amoroso pésimo entre Don, Katia y Al. Por supuesto, no debía faltar una mención a su físico, objeto de deseo de los hombres... (página 87):
Le doy una puntuación de 2 sobre 5 («it was ok», según goodreads) porque la idea no está mal, pese a que la ejecución es mala (ya sea la culpa del autor, de la traducción o de ambos). No estaría mal, quizá, que hiciesen una película basada en este libro, pese a que, sinceramente, yo me imaginaba las escenas con una calidad similar a la de la primera temporada de Star Trek, cuando ni siquiera estaba definido el aspecto de las cejas de Spock, aunque también valdría cualquier película regulera de ciencia ficción de principios de milenio.
- Al suelo -ordenó Don en voz baja.
Se dejaron caer sobre la dura superficie.
- Oh, qué incómodo -gimoteó Katia 71.
... o bien es utilizada exclusivamente como pareja de alguien (recordemos que «la comisión de genética había admitido la soliticud de Don y Katia para formar pareja», pág. 6), entreviéndose un triángulo amoroso pésimo entre Don, Katia y Al. Por supuesto, no debía faltar una mención a su físico, objeto de deseo de los hombres... (página 87):
René saltó de la escalera y Katia comenzó a trepar poco a poco. Notaba perfectamente la tensión de la tela del pantalón contra su piel, cómo se aferraba con cada uno de sus movimientos, e imaginó complacida el efecto plástico que debía producir vista desde abajo. René soltó un suave silbido. Los tres hombres no le quitaron ojo de encima hasta que desapareció al otro lado de la barrera.
Le doy una puntuación de 2 sobre 5 («it was ok», según goodreads) porque la idea no está mal, pese a que la ejecución es mala (ya sea la culpa del autor, de la traducción o de ambos). No estaría mal, quizá, que hiciesen una película basada en este libro, pese a que, sinceramente, yo me imaginaba las escenas con una calidad similar a la de la primera temporada de Star Trek, cuando ni siquiera estaba definido el aspecto de las cejas de Spock, aunque también valdría cualquier película regulera de ciencia ficción de principios de milenio.
March 31, 2025
Check out my full, spoiler free, video review HERE.
This story was originally published in 1961 and translated into English in 1974. The ideas and themes are great, it explores the concept of what a society evolves into once all its basic needs are met. It can be confusing at times but stick with it and everything gets explained. This is a short novel, and the characters don’t really get fleshed out and Franke uses a lot of expositions to explain what is going on. There are plenty of other flaws as well but still it could be worth reading if you’re into strange philosophical science fiction.
This story was originally published in 1961 and translated into English in 1974. The ideas and themes are great, it explores the concept of what a society evolves into once all its basic needs are met. It can be confusing at times but stick with it and everything gets explained. This is a short novel, and the characters don’t really get fleshed out and Franke uses a lot of expositions to explain what is going on. There are plenty of other flaws as well but still it could be worth reading if you’re into strange philosophical science fiction.
July 15, 2019
Takes a while to get started but great payoff.
August 30, 2020
Felt like a surreal episode of Star Trek.
January 7, 2021
Tedious sci-fi "mystery." In most of these hard science mystery books the character work is forgotten. This one does not deviate from than mean.
May 24, 2021
Buena novela. Ha envejecido bastante bien, y el pesimismo de los escritores germánicos se nota.
Recomendable.
Recomendable.
October 24, 2023
I almost gave up on this one. The dialog is a little bland. I think it's just the translation. For me the ideas are what makes this book good. The ending stuck with me for a bit.
December 31, 2025
I first came across this book decades ago, in the late 80s or early 90s, in Hungarian translation. I borrowed it from my aunt, read halfway, and returned it unfinished. Even so, it stayed with me. I forgot the title and the author, yet I remembered the cover and fragments of the story: a ruined city on a distant planet, explorers dying and returning in new bodies. It was strange and unsettling, far beyond what I could fully grasp as a child.
Recently, I finally tracked it down. The book was The Orchid Cage by Herbert W. Franke, first published in 1961. I read it in English translation this time, and it felt like closing a circle that had been open for thirty years.
The story is set far in Earth’s future, around the year 112,000. Two groups of explorers are sent to investigate a distant, abandoned planet. They do not travel physically. Instead, they project themselves into artificial “pseudo-bodies” created on the planet itself. The challenge is to discover who once lived there. The novel is divided into three parts, each ending when the explorers’ bodies are destroyed and have to be rebuilt. The premise is fascinating, although some of the technology now feels both outdated and oddly futuristic at the same time, very much a product of the early 1960s.
The group we follow consists of three people. Don is the leader, domineering and aggressive, the sort of alpha personality who assumes he is always right. He irritated me almost immediately. Al is the main perspective character, a studious and cautious scientist who follows the rules, analyses everything, and is curious but easily led. And then there is Katia, Don’s designated mate, chosen through DNA compatibility tests.
Katia is where my patience truly ran out. She is the only woman in the book, and she is written as a walking stereotype. She is constantly frightened, constantly protesting, constantly wringing her hands and saying “Don’t do that.” She contributes nothing of substance to the story. I nearly put the book down several times because of her. This is not a case of a deliberately unlikeable character serving a narrative purpose. Don is abrasive, but that feels intentional. Katia, on the other hand, feels thoughtless and lazy. She exists only to embody a dated, misogynistic idea of womanhood. If this book were written today, she might have been a scientist in her own right, a voice of reason, someone who counterbalanced Don’s recklessness. Instead, she is reduced to a hollow presence, and every time she appeared, I felt my irritation spike.
The pacing of the novel does not help. The book is short, yet it moves at a snail’s pace. It lingers on descriptions of machines, ruins, and environments that do not always contribute much to the story itself. Some readers may enjoy this slow, methodical exploration, but for me it dragged. What kept me going was the need to finally see where it all led, especially after carrying this half-remembered story for so many years.
The ending is interesting, but also bleak. Franke imagines a future Earth where there has not been a murder for ten thousand years. It is meant as a vision of safety and peace, perhaps even a warning about what such a society might become. I found it thought-provoking, but also deeply unconvincing. People do not only kill out of greed or jealousy. Some do it simply because they want to. Without acknowledging that darker reality, the utopia presented here feels fragile and idealised. It reminded me of other works, such as Malice, which argue that some people are simply born bad. Even if advanced genetics could one day eliminate such traits, that solution would raise ethical problems of its own.
The Orchid Cage is a curious book. It is intellectually ambitious, slow, and uneven. It contains interesting ideas, but it is weighed down by frustrating characterisation, especially in the case of Katia, who came close to making me abandon the novel altogether. Still, I am glad I finally finished it. This was not about discovering a hidden gem so much as closing a long-open loop. After thirty years of wondering, I now know how the story ends, and that lingering question can finally be laid to rest.
Recently, I finally tracked it down. The book was The Orchid Cage by Herbert W. Franke, first published in 1961. I read it in English translation this time, and it felt like closing a circle that had been open for thirty years.
The story is set far in Earth’s future, around the year 112,000. Two groups of explorers are sent to investigate a distant, abandoned planet. They do not travel physically. Instead, they project themselves into artificial “pseudo-bodies” created on the planet itself. The challenge is to discover who once lived there. The novel is divided into three parts, each ending when the explorers’ bodies are destroyed and have to be rebuilt. The premise is fascinating, although some of the technology now feels both outdated and oddly futuristic at the same time, very much a product of the early 1960s.
The group we follow consists of three people. Don is the leader, domineering and aggressive, the sort of alpha personality who assumes he is always right. He irritated me almost immediately. Al is the main perspective character, a studious and cautious scientist who follows the rules, analyses everything, and is curious but easily led. And then there is Katia, Don’s designated mate, chosen through DNA compatibility tests.
Katia is where my patience truly ran out. She is the only woman in the book, and she is written as a walking stereotype. She is constantly frightened, constantly protesting, constantly wringing her hands and saying “Don’t do that.” She contributes nothing of substance to the story. I nearly put the book down several times because of her. This is not a case of a deliberately unlikeable character serving a narrative purpose. Don is abrasive, but that feels intentional. Katia, on the other hand, feels thoughtless and lazy. She exists only to embody a dated, misogynistic idea of womanhood. If this book were written today, she might have been a scientist in her own right, a voice of reason, someone who counterbalanced Don’s recklessness. Instead, she is reduced to a hollow presence, and every time she appeared, I felt my irritation spike.
The pacing of the novel does not help. The book is short, yet it moves at a snail’s pace. It lingers on descriptions of machines, ruins, and environments that do not always contribute much to the story itself. Some readers may enjoy this slow, methodical exploration, but for me it dragged. What kept me going was the need to finally see where it all led, especially after carrying this half-remembered story for so many years.
The ending is interesting, but also bleak. Franke imagines a future Earth where there has not been a murder for ten thousand years. It is meant as a vision of safety and peace, perhaps even a warning about what such a society might become. I found it thought-provoking, but also deeply unconvincing. People do not only kill out of greed or jealousy. Some do it simply because they want to. Without acknowledging that darker reality, the utopia presented here feels fragile and idealised. It reminded me of other works, such as Malice, which argue that some people are simply born bad. Even if advanced genetics could one day eliminate such traits, that solution would raise ethical problems of its own.
The Orchid Cage is a curious book. It is intellectually ambitious, slow, and uneven. It contains interesting ideas, but it is weighed down by frustrating characterisation, especially in the case of Katia, who came close to making me abandon the novel altogether. Still, I am glad I finally finished it. This was not about discovering a hidden gem so much as closing a long-open loop. After thirty years of wondering, I now know how the story ends, and that lingering question can finally be laid to rest.
May 11, 2019
«Der Orchideenkäfig» war jener Roman, mit dem ich als Teen Herbert W. Frankes Science-Fiction kennen lernte. Einfach nur geil. Darauf las ich aus seiner Feder einen Roman um den anderen und auch die bei Suhrkamp erschienenen Kurzgeschichten, bis ich an den Punkt gelangte, an dem ich sehnlichst auf die nächste Publikation wartete: auf den Roman «Zentrum der Milchstrasse» stürzte ich mich 1990 bei dessen Erscheinen wie eine Süchtige und erkannte gerade auch darin dessen Protagonisten, Alvin Katz, als Spiegelbild.
«Der Orchideenkäfig» ist zum einen zunächst einfach ein tolles, packendes Abenteuer auf einem fernen Planeten, der...
Dieser Roman ist absolute Spitzenklasse, aktuell wie nie zuvor und damit wirklich sehr, sehr empfehlenswert (ungeachtet der Suchtgefahr 😊).
«Der Orchideenkäfig» ist zum einen zunächst einfach ein tolles, packendes Abenteuer auf einem fernen Planeten, der...
Dieser Roman ist absolute Spitzenklasse, aktuell wie nie zuvor und damit wirklich sehr, sehr empfehlenswert (ungeachtet der Suchtgefahr 😊).
December 31, 2022
Ein paar Menschen erkunden eine verlassene ET-Stadt, offenbar als Freizeitbeschäftigung. Mehr ist nach 65 Seiten noch nicht passiert. Andere Leser fanden das offenbar faszinierend, mich langweilte es. Darum habe ich das Buch abgebrochen.
Die Charaktere sind auch nur sehr skizzenhaft beschrieben und völlig uninteressant. Stattdessen gibt es Seiten über Seiten Beschreibungen der Stadt.
Es ist schon ein paar Jahrzehnte her, dass ich das letzte Mal etwas von Herbert W. Franke las und ich erinnere mich nur noch vage, dass mir seine Werke nicht sonderlich gefielen. Ich schätze das hat sich nicht geändert.
Die Charaktere sind auch nur sehr skizzenhaft beschrieben und völlig uninteressant. Stattdessen gibt es Seiten über Seiten Beschreibungen der Stadt.
Es ist schon ein paar Jahrzehnte her, dass ich das letzte Mal etwas von Herbert W. Franke las und ich erinnere mich nur noch vage, dass mir seine Werke nicht sonderlich gefielen. Ich schätze das hat sich nicht geändert.
March 9, 2015
Futuro distópico y novela de final interesante a la que le sobra el 80% inicial de la novela. Plantéa una idea muy buena sobre viajes interestelares, pero sólo lo hace al final del libro mientras dedica las dos primeras terceras partes a relatarnos una novelilla de aventuras moderadamente entretenido. Si hubiese comenzado al revés y lo hubiese desarrollado en todo su potencial, creo que la novela me hubiese gustado mucho más.
October 15, 2015
Excellent, creative book about humans exploring an alien, abandoned city.
September 9, 2016
Entretenido, y con un final muy interesante.
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews