What do you think?
Rate this book
A for Anything
Book by Knight, Damon
208 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1959
11 people are currently reading
216 people want to read
About the author
Damon Knight
580 books97 followersDamon Francis Knight was an American science fiction author, editor, and critic.
Knight's first professional sale was a cartoon drawing to a science-fiction magazine, Amazing Stories. His first story, "Resilience", was published in 1941. He is best known as the author of "To Serve Man", which was adapted for The Twilight Zone. He was a recipient of the Hugo Award, founder of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA), cofounder of the National Fantasy Fan Federation, cofounder of the Milford Writer's Workshop, and cofounder of the Clarion Writers Workshop. Knight lived in Eugene, Oregon, with his wife Kate Wilhelm.
Knight's first professional sale was a cartoon drawing to a science-fiction magazine, Amazing Stories. His first story, "Resilience", was published in 1941. He is best known as the author of "To Serve Man", which was adapted for The Twilight Zone. He was a recipient of the Hugo Award, founder of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA), cofounder of the National Fantasy Fan Federation, cofounder of the Milford Writer's Workshop, and cofounder of the Clarion Writers Workshop. Knight lived in Eugene, Oregon, with his wife Kate Wilhelm.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews
May 31, 2022
An interesting premise, it causes the total disintegration of society. Fun old school SF.
October 4, 2009
Knight doesn't bother to hang a lampshade on the preposterousness of an infinitely capable duplication device, but wisely uses the notion as a jumping-off point to explore the societal effects.
He posits that when material goods become effectively free, the only measure of wealth and status is through human labor, and hence a slave economy with rigid social strata. Through this comes the degradation of the working class and later their outright abuse, not just physical or emotional control and mistreatment but through the duplication of people themselves: a destruction of the uniqueness of an individual.
The structure of the book was jarring, consisting at the front of the vignettes of the Gismo's introduction and the collapse of Western society, then with an abrupt twist a fast-forward to some hundred years later, after the new plantation society has been established. There the story really starts with young, callow Dick Jones who sets out to the landholder's court to discover himself. There he discovers what is necessary to retain power.
I'm not sure I buy this dark view of human nature, and would argue that with negligable cost to mass-produced goods, the value of unique, handmade items (the product of human labor) would compensate, and the possession of such items and the ability to produce them would convey status. Likewise, the production of novelty, in either words, artwork, or ideas. Wil McCarthy has a much less dark treatment of the same themes in The Collapsium.
He posits that when material goods become effectively free, the only measure of wealth and status is through human labor, and hence a slave economy with rigid social strata. Through this comes the degradation of the working class and later their outright abuse, not just physical or emotional control and mistreatment but through the duplication of people themselves: a destruction of the uniqueness of an individual.
The structure of the book was jarring, consisting at the front of the vignettes of the Gismo's introduction and the collapse of Western society, then with an abrupt twist a fast-forward to some hundred years later, after the new plantation society has been established. There the story really starts with young, callow Dick Jones who sets out to the landholder's court to discover himself. There he discovers what is necessary to retain power.
I'm not sure I buy this dark view of human nature, and would argue that with negligable cost to mass-produced goods, the value of unique, handmade items (the product of human labor) would compensate, and the possession of such items and the ability to produce them would convey status. Likewise, the production of novelty, in either words, artwork, or ideas. Wil McCarthy has a much less dark treatment of the same themes in The Collapsium.
July 13, 2018
Almost all science fiction novels are built, explicitly or implicitly, around the question, “What if.” What if we could fly to the Moon? What if there are other people out there? What if we could go back in time? Damon Knight, one of the most inventive authors of the second half of the 20th century, starts this one with “What if you could have any physical item you wanted just by flipping a switch?” Imagine receiving a box in the mail containing a device made of two wooden bars fastened in a “T” with a hook dangling from each arm, and a small, completely unknown metal and glass object attached to each. And a couple of batteries and a switch, and that’s it. Hang something from one hook, press the switch, and an identical copy appears on the other arm. Anything, inanimate or alive. We would live in Eden, right? No starvation, no need for war, no unhealthy competition, right? Also, as people quickly realize, no way to reckon relative wealth. When you can have all the food you want -- or all the diamonds, or rifles -- the only thing left to demonstrate relative status is personal service and control of those who provide it. And that means slavery.
Dick Jones is the teenage scion of a family in the Poconos that controls the surrounding countryside a few generations following the introduction of the Gizmo. He lives in a world of physical comfort and plenty, at least for those who run things by controlling the Gizmos, a world with fifty slaves for every free man, a world in which personal honor and position mean everything. Sent off to Colorado for four years of military training and social polishing under the authority of The Boss, he discovers a very different world among those who compete for real power, and also among those at the very bottom of the social ladder.
I first read this book in high school in 1959 in its original incarnation as The People Maker (actually, it had appeared in shorter form in F&SF two years earlier) and its philosophical proddings made me think about a lot of new things. In fact, it stuck with me so thoroughly, I finally had to chase down a copy so I could renew my acquaintance with it. I don’t know if Knight’s predicted results from such an invention are the only option, frankly, but it’s still a first-rate intellectual adventure.
Dick Jones is the teenage scion of a family in the Poconos that controls the surrounding countryside a few generations following the introduction of the Gizmo. He lives in a world of physical comfort and plenty, at least for those who run things by controlling the Gizmos, a world with fifty slaves for every free man, a world in which personal honor and position mean everything. Sent off to Colorado for four years of military training and social polishing under the authority of The Boss, he discovers a very different world among those who compete for real power, and also among those at the very bottom of the social ladder.
I first read this book in high school in 1959 in its original incarnation as The People Maker (actually, it had appeared in shorter form in F&SF two years earlier) and its philosophical proddings made me think about a lot of new things. In fact, it stuck with me so thoroughly, I finally had to chase down a copy so I could renew my acquaintance with it. I don’t know if Knight’s predicted results from such an invention are the only option, frankly, but it’s still a first-rate intellectual adventure.
November 25, 2024
This is an interesting what-if story about the societal implications of a free replicator technology. However, while the premise is interesting to ponder, I don’t buy the conclusions. For one thing, anything like the gizmo would have massive energy requirements (ignored by the book), so energy would still be scarce. Moreover, using the gizmo to duplicate something like eggs for breakfast would be highly impractical given the energy costs. I could only accept the premise by thinking of the gizmo as magic, and thus fantasy rather than science fiction. Even then, however, I don’t buy that such a technology would necessarily lead to slavery rather than, say, bartering in services. Still, is it interesting to think about how trade would function if any physical item (including cash) could be freely duplicated and thus lost its value in trade.
The plot is mostly less interesting than the premise. Several plot threads feel like filler, and not much very important seems to happen until near the end. The ending itself also surprised me negatively at first, but on reflection it does seem consistent with the themes of the book.
(Retrospective upgrade from 2.5 to 3 stars. While some elements of the book weren’t to my taste, I find myself thinking about it more than I expected.)
The plot is mostly less interesting than the premise. Several plot threads feel like filler, and not much very important seems to happen until near the end. The ending itself also surprised me negatively at first, but on reflection it does seem consistent with the themes of the book.
(Retrospective upgrade from 2.5 to 3 stars. While some elements of the book weren’t to my taste, I find myself thinking about it more than I expected.)
August 18, 2021
The invention of the gismo - a device which can perfectly replicate anything - signals the end of a functioning global economy. As the world crumbles, it soon becomes clear to the majority of citizens that the only valuable commodity left is other human beings. In a world where absolutely anything can be duplicated, humankind needs to rediscover its priorities.
Knight's 'A for Anything' is a very disturbing read, which calls into question the fundamentals of personal identity. Well written and with a fully realised internal reality, this is an important book in the development of science fiction.
Knight's 'A for Anything' is a very disturbing read, which calls into question the fundamentals of personal identity. Well written and with a fully realised internal reality, this is an important book in the development of science fiction.
July 15, 2011
This book--originally published in two parts in Fantasy and Science Fiction magazine in 1957--has a more serious social intention than most of the science fiction I've read. It isn't a purely escapist novel. This aspect of relevance makes the novel, like those of H.G. Wells, superior to most of its genre.
September 8, 2021
Good start, but quite disappointing story.
May 19, 2025
2.5/5
While better than the other Knight that I've read (Hell's Pavement), A For Anything still leaves a lot to be desired and leaves me feeling like I can safely pass up anything else written by Knight in the future, especially since most consider this his best work.
The narrative is far more coherently drawn than Hell's Pavement, though we still have a dystopia that was nucleated by a singular macguffin technology. In A For Anything the macguffin is a simple matter duplicator called a "Gismo" that gets spread to the public, prompting widespread societal upheaval. The story takes place some generations after this event, when the control of this device has been taken over by an aristocratic class who rule over a much large slave caste, much of whom have been 'duped' by the device itself, clones that get replaced as they age out of their function. The central character, Dick Jones, is the juvenile heir apparent to a feudal lord who rules over a portion of land near Pittsburgh. Much like the aristocratic class in Vance's The Last Castle, Dick and his family are mostly wrapped up in political intrigue games, focused on concepts like honor and tradition as their every whim is serviced by the slaves that serve as the backbone of society. Dick is sent off to Eagles, the capital city located near Denver, to earn his stripes in society, make connections with other nobles, and become worthy of inheriting his fathers estate. During this time at Eagles, Dick is involved in political subterfuge that eventually gets overshadowed by a widespread slave revolt.
The central thematic idea is that, once material goods becomes unlimited in quantity, the dominant commodity will become labor itself, and wealth will subsequently be measured by how much labor you command. Hence, a slavery caste system. Knight certainly has a pessimistic view. Where others might see a utopia, he sees reason to believe that without the struggle to survive we would find ourselves reverting to some of our most sinful tendencies as a species. I find it hard to agree with him in many ways.
The characters, the setting, the prose, and everything else outside of the central idea and narrative are boilerplate at best. Nothing memorable or exciting that would set it apart from the million other dullard dystopian novels of the time period. The Last Castle is its superior in most every way, so it's hard to get excited about the limited strengths that I found here. It's also rife with a lot of the more regrettable gender and racial stereotypes that were common at the time.
Interesting to a point, but ultimately not super noteworthy in any particular way.
While better than the other Knight that I've read (Hell's Pavement), A For Anything still leaves a lot to be desired and leaves me feeling like I can safely pass up anything else written by Knight in the future, especially since most consider this his best work.
The narrative is far more coherently drawn than Hell's Pavement, though we still have a dystopia that was nucleated by a singular macguffin technology. In A For Anything the macguffin is a simple matter duplicator called a "Gismo" that gets spread to the public, prompting widespread societal upheaval. The story takes place some generations after this event, when the control of this device has been taken over by an aristocratic class who rule over a much large slave caste, much of whom have been 'duped' by the device itself, clones that get replaced as they age out of their function. The central character, Dick Jones, is the juvenile heir apparent to a feudal lord who rules over a portion of land near Pittsburgh. Much like the aristocratic class in Vance's The Last Castle, Dick and his family are mostly wrapped up in political intrigue games, focused on concepts like honor and tradition as their every whim is serviced by the slaves that serve as the backbone of society. Dick is sent off to Eagles, the capital city located near Denver, to earn his stripes in society, make connections with other nobles, and become worthy of inheriting his fathers estate. During this time at Eagles, Dick is involved in political subterfuge that eventually gets overshadowed by a widespread slave revolt.
The central thematic idea is that, once material goods becomes unlimited in quantity, the dominant commodity will become labor itself, and wealth will subsequently be measured by how much labor you command. Hence, a slavery caste system. Knight certainly has a pessimistic view. Where others might see a utopia, he sees reason to believe that without the struggle to survive we would find ourselves reverting to some of our most sinful tendencies as a species. I find it hard to agree with him in many ways.
The characters, the setting, the prose, and everything else outside of the central idea and narrative are boilerplate at best. Nothing memorable or exciting that would set it apart from the million other dullard dystopian novels of the time period. The Last Castle is its superior in most every way, so it's hard to get excited about the limited strengths that I found here. It's also rife with a lot of the more regrettable gender and racial stereotypes that were common at the time.
Interesting to a point, but ultimately not super noteworthy in any particular way.
August 7, 2023
2.5/5. This is an interesting what-if story about the societal implications of a free replicator technology. However, while the premise is interesting to ponder, I don’t buy the conclusions. For one thing, anything like the gizmo would have massive energy requirements (ignored by the book), so energy would still be scarce. Moreover, using the gizmo to duplicate something like eggs for breakfast would be highly impractical given the energy costs. I could only accept the premise by thinking of the gizmo as magic, and thus fantasy rather than science fiction. Even then, however, I don’t buy that such a technology would necessarily lead to slavery rather than, say, bartering in services. Still, is it interesting to think about how trade would function if any physical item (including cash) could be freely duplicated and thus lost its value in trade.
The plot is mostly less interesting than the premise. Several plot threads feel like filler, and not much very important seems to happen until near the end. The ending itself also surprised me negatively at least, but on reflection it does seem consistent with the themes of the book.
The plot is mostly less interesting than the premise. Several plot threads feel like filler, and not much very important seems to happen until near the end. The ending itself also surprised me negatively at least, but on reflection it does seem consistent with the themes of the book.
November 16, 2025
The only interesting aspect of this novel is its premise: a replicator-style technology leading to a slavery dystopia rather than a post-scarcity Star Trek-like society.
Other than that, this is a complete wreck of a novel.
The economics make absolutely no sense. Knight's idea is that in a world where everything is duplicable, capital becomes irrelevant and labor will become so valuable that people will hoard it (accumulate slaves). While it is true that such technology will change the value of labor, Knight's conclusion is just a dressing for his view of society (veneer theory).
Once the premise is established, the novel moves to a pure male fantasy where a dashing and violent young man rises to power while the rest of the characters are just objects of his desire or hate. The prose is barely functional.
Other than that, this is a complete wreck of a novel.
The economics make absolutely no sense. Knight's idea is that in a world where everything is duplicable, capital becomes irrelevant and labor will become so valuable that people will hoard it (accumulate slaves). While it is true that such technology will change the value of labor, Knight's conclusion is just a dressing for his view of society (veneer theory).
Once the premise is established, the novel moves to a pure male fantasy where a dashing and violent young man rises to power while the rest of the characters are just objects of his desire or hate. The prose is barely functional.
January 4, 2025
1950’s era apocalypse stories should really be their own genre. And even if they aren’t great (this one wasn’t) they are almost always interesting reads.
I just didn’t get the premise of this one, and maybe that’s because it’s not really about what it was about. A guy invents a device called a “gismo” and high will duplicate literally anything. He thinks that this is the key to a utopian society, so he makes a ton of them and sends them out across the country. And this leads people to fall into a “you are either a slaver or a slave” mindset? And I just can’t figure out that logical jump.
I just didn’t get the premise of this one, and maybe that’s because it’s not really about what it was about. A guy invents a device called a “gismo” and high will duplicate literally anything. He thinks that this is the key to a utopian society, so he makes a ton of them and sends them out across the country. And this leads people to fall into a “you are either a slaver or a slave” mindset? And I just can’t figure out that logical jump.
September 6, 2020
A plain old fun sci-fi what-iffer. The plot is serviceable, but beside the point. The point is Knight makes some interesting points about scarcity, labor and economics, anticipating technologies such as nanomatter and maker culture.
Dated af, but it does retain a certain period charm. Worth tracking down a copy, I believe.
Dated af, but it does retain a certain period charm. Worth tracking down a copy, I believe.
March 1, 2021
Terrible book
May 24, 2021
Afgebroken bij pagina 61 (hoofdstuk 6)
April 19, 2022
So the lesson at the end is that slaves need to be murdered for fighting for their freedom?
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 22, 2022
Young man becomes a witness and a participant in the revolution. I hoped it would be better because it's by Damon Knight. Oh well.
October 7, 2022
Started out really well and full of promise, then morphed into an entirely different novel that I didn't really appreciate. Still had some great ideas and concepts though
March 2, 2019
I started rereading this. I read it when I was still young, and I want to see if it stands up. The writing is definitely dated. For example, many characters smoke cigarettes.
Done. It's not very sophisticated, but the basis is interesting. The development of a matter duplicator that can duplicate itself leads to a society of masters and slaves. Scientific discovery stalls. Duplication of slaves leads to a population imbalance that inevitably leads to unrest. It's not a book of hope, and it's relevance in today's world of wealth inequity is scary.
Done. It's not very sophisticated, but the basis is interesting. The development of a matter duplicator that can duplicate itself leads to a society of masters and slaves. Scientific discovery stalls. Duplication of slaves leads to a population imbalance that inevitably leads to unrest. It's not a book of hope, and it's relevance in today's world of wealth inequity is scary.
September 15, 2012
Since January, I have read a novel a month by one of the winners of the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award, given by the Science Fiction Writers of America. I thought I was about time to read a novel by the man himself. (Knight won the award in 1994. He was a founder of the SFWA and the award was named for him after his death in 2002.) Although several of the Grand Masters I have read I have been reading for the first time this year, Knight is perhaps the one I knew the least about. I would be hard pressed to name any of his books. Even though I worked around used books for thirty years, I cannot picture any of his covers or remember that he ever merited a his own shelf. Somewhere along the way I picked up the fact that he wrote the short story "To Serve Man," which became a classic Twilight Zone episode. (Don't get on that ship! The book...the book...it's a cookbook!) And so I picked up A for Anything with no expectations.
Perhaps I should not have read his first novel, although I am inclined to start at the first with an author. But I have to say this is the most peculiar book I have read in some time, and not in a particularly good way. Here's what happens in the first three chapters.
1) In a scene that could come from a 1950's sitcom, a retired bank president checks the morning mail and finds a package on the front porch. Inside is a Gismo, a machine that can, according to the accompany brochure, reproduce anything with no expenditure of energy. The man' wife and brother- and sister-in-law are all on hand. His son says, "Hey Dad, l know all about that electronics jazz." A simple experiment proves that machine works.
2) A undercover FBI agent comes to after a fight with the inventor of the gismo. He checks in with law enforcement officials and finds that the world as we know it is coming quickly to an end. One hundred gismos have been distributed at random. Since they can replicate themselves, that all it takes.
3) The inventor of the gismo, living on the lam in Southern California, meets up with a physicist friend who is excited about the invention. But within days, the first of the new warlords appears, his enslaved drivers shackled into a line up of cars. Things are looking bad.
For the next chapter we jump ahead a century or so and meet Dick Jones of Buckhill, an estate in the Poconos. Society is now composed of masters and slobs. People are squeamish about the term "slave." Buckhill functions as a well-furnished medieval duchy, only with lots of modern conveniences. Young Dick has reached his seniority and will soon be leaving for Eagles, a mountain stronghold in Colorado that is part military academy but exists, from what I gleaned from the book, as a finishing school where the scions of wealthy families learn to be truly horrible human beings. Once he arrives there he is immersed in intrigues and brutal initiation rites. We get glimpses of how savage life has become for those not lucky enough to be among the master class. There is some lightweight discussion of politics and sociology and an inevitable slave -- make that, slob -- rebellion.
But none of this is envisioned in a way that makes it particularly interesting, let alone coherent. Dick Jones is the most lackluster, idiotic protagonist I have encountered in some time, but I don't get the impression that Knight is purposively playing him for a fool. The book moves in such spurts that I never had a clear image of what mattered to any of these people. Knight's worldview is profoundly pessimistic, but the novel is not well-written enough to embody such darkness in a compelling fashion.
I assume that Knight developed into a much better writer. It also seems that he was known mostly for his short stories. A for Anything is not a gateway novel for anyone who anticipates getting deeply involved with this author.
Perhaps I should not have read his first novel, although I am inclined to start at the first with an author. But I have to say this is the most peculiar book I have read in some time, and not in a particularly good way. Here's what happens in the first three chapters.
1) In a scene that could come from a 1950's sitcom, a retired bank president checks the morning mail and finds a package on the front porch. Inside is a Gismo, a machine that can, according to the accompany brochure, reproduce anything with no expenditure of energy. The man' wife and brother- and sister-in-law are all on hand. His son says, "Hey Dad, l know all about that electronics jazz." A simple experiment proves that machine works.
2) A undercover FBI agent comes to after a fight with the inventor of the gismo. He checks in with law enforcement officials and finds that the world as we know it is coming quickly to an end. One hundred gismos have been distributed at random. Since they can replicate themselves, that all it takes.
3) The inventor of the gismo, living on the lam in Southern California, meets up with a physicist friend who is excited about the invention. But within days, the first of the new warlords appears, his enslaved drivers shackled into a line up of cars. Things are looking bad.
For the next chapter we jump ahead a century or so and meet Dick Jones of Buckhill, an estate in the Poconos. Society is now composed of masters and slobs. People are squeamish about the term "slave." Buckhill functions as a well-furnished medieval duchy, only with lots of modern conveniences. Young Dick has reached his seniority and will soon be leaving for Eagles, a mountain stronghold in Colorado that is part military academy but exists, from what I gleaned from the book, as a finishing school where the scions of wealthy families learn to be truly horrible human beings. Once he arrives there he is immersed in intrigues and brutal initiation rites. We get glimpses of how savage life has become for those not lucky enough to be among the master class. There is some lightweight discussion of politics and sociology and an inevitable slave -- make that, slob -- rebellion.
But none of this is envisioned in a way that makes it particularly interesting, let alone coherent. Dick Jones is the most lackluster, idiotic protagonist I have encountered in some time, but I don't get the impression that Knight is purposively playing him for a fool. The book moves in such spurts that I never had a clear image of what mattered to any of these people. Knight's worldview is profoundly pessimistic, but the novel is not well-written enough to embody such darkness in a compelling fashion.
I assume that Knight developed into a much better writer. It also seems that he was known mostly for his short stories. A for Anything is not a gateway novel for anyone who anticipates getting deeply involved with this author.
October 12, 2023
This is a great novel that is underappreciated, as far as I can tell, because of the unwritten rules of science fiction book publishing in the 1960s: keep it short, cut , cut and make the reader imagine everything. But if the reader is accustomed to that, much as professors who teach Shakespeare are used to heavy visualization, then one appreciates it!
June 20, 2010
This was an intensely irritating book for me. It starts with the invention of the 'gismo', a device that can duplicate anything placed on it, with no expenditure of energy. From this, it would seem that a Paradise for mankind should arise, but within two or three chapters, we see that the book decides to take a very different line with this idea. With material possessions now no longer an issue, there still needs to be some way of differentiating 'grades' of people: so slavery returns.
This came completely out of left-field for me, but after thinking about it, it sort of makes a kind of sense. If all that is left of value is labour, then who controls it controls the society. I think this is a very American attitude, well, a certain sort of extreme right-wing American, a European book with a similar premise would probably have gone along very different lines.
The majority of the book is set about 70 years after the invention of the gismo, when the new slave society is established as we follow a young freeman sent off by his family to spend a year as an officer in the army of the local 'baron' in an almost Gormenghastian mountain castle/estate.
There were some interesting ideas, especially later in the book following a slave revolt, but I just couldn't get past the opening premise and failed to really enjoy this book. Particularly the rather bleak ending.
This came completely out of left-field for me, but after thinking about it, it sort of makes a kind of sense. If all that is left of value is labour, then who controls it controls the society. I think this is a very American attitude, well, a certain sort of extreme right-wing American, a European book with a similar premise would probably have gone along very different lines.
The majority of the book is set about 70 years after the invention of the gismo, when the new slave society is established as we follow a young freeman sent off by his family to spend a year as an officer in the army of the local 'baron' in an almost Gormenghastian mountain castle/estate.
There were some interesting ideas, especially later in the book following a slave revolt, but I just couldn't get past the opening premise and failed to really enjoy this book. Particularly the rather bleak ending.
May 12, 2014
Knight works best when exploring social impacts of technology. This is clearly one of his earlier works, before he really had a grasp of what he is trying to accomplish.
The story is ostensibly about a world where a 'Gismo' can reproduce anything, including Gismos. But that is just a foil to talk about the immediate and long lasting changes to society once Gismos are everywhere.
The early days are a confused blur as a new normal arises. The rest of the book deals with a post-apocalyptic anarchy in the aftermath, where Gismos are prized and heavily protected possessions, and human labor is cheap, and duplicated humans are enslaved.
Too many ideas to explore in a short novel, and they are not explored well by modern standards. Would have been better as a few short stories or a longer, more developed novel.
The story is ostensibly about a world where a 'Gismo' can reproduce anything, including Gismos. But that is just a foil to talk about the immediate and long lasting changes to society once Gismos are everywhere.
The early days are a confused blur as a new normal arises. The rest of the book deals with a post-apocalyptic anarchy in the aftermath, where Gismos are prized and heavily protected possessions, and human labor is cheap, and duplicated humans are enslaved.
Too many ideas to explore in a short novel, and they are not explored well by modern standards. Would have been better as a few short stories or a longer, more developed novel.
May 3, 2016
In un futuro non troppo lontano un'invenzione promette l'assoluta abbondanza per tutta l'umanità, se non che, per un tremendo errore di valutazione, la benedizione si trasforma in maledizione, precipitando l'umanità in un nuovo medio evo, testosteronico e pieno di schiavi, riprodotti in serie dai prototipi un tempo più efficienti. In questo ambiente malsano un ragazzo attraversa l'adolescenza e l'iniziazione all'età adulta, senza però diventare altro da ciò che la sua società l'ha cresciuto per diventare.
Probabilmente il libro è bello, e alla sua uscita è stato acclamato come un capolavoro, se non che la traduzione pessima e i frequentissimi errori di stampa rendono irritante la lettura.
Resta il fatto che è un testo molto datato, e, come si sa, la fantascienza va a scadenza ancora più in fretta del pesce.
Probabilmente il libro è bello, e alla sua uscita è stato acclamato come un capolavoro, se non che la traduzione pessima e i frequentissimi errori di stampa rendono irritante la lettura.
Resta il fatto che è un testo molto datato, e, come si sa, la fantascienza va a scadenza ancora più in fretta del pesce.
April 5, 2009
A distopic science fiction novel from the 50s that has a lot in common with Vonnegut's Player Piano. In 1971 a scientist creates the "Gismo" a machine with the ability to make an exact replica of any material item, even itself (and even people). He distributes 100 of them randomly through the mail before the government can suppress the invention (which would mean the end of capitalism), but instead of leading to a utopic society, the machines plunge the world into war, followed by a return to a medieval system of lords and slaves. Occasionally philosophical (in a good way) about freedom, governance and other big ideas, and a generally very enjoyable and dark look at human nature.
September 19, 2012
Expanded from a short story that really should have stayed a short story. After the first 33 pages, I struggled to find anything to like about this book. The main character was unlikable (suitably named "Dick")and wandered around without direction, the basic premise of the story didn't really make a lot of sense and the ending felt rushed and inconclusive. I really wish this had stayed as a 33 page short story.
November 18, 2011
3D printers are still pre-market, but 60 years ago the technology was conceptualized in this novel. It's extreme: what would happen if 3D printing evolved and became truly commoditized?
A very dark tale.
The first 10 pages of this novel are very dated and awkward to read. The rest of the novel is very well done.
Recommended.
A very dark tale.
The first 10 pages of this novel are very dated and awkward to read. The rest of the novel is very well done.
Recommended.
February 7, 2010
Lots of interesting ideas based on the invention of an actual working replicator. I read it nearly 10 years ago but didn't remember most of the details. It's a good, fast moving story. I think last time I read it I missed a lot of the interesting political ideas that'll be running through my head for the next few days.
September 19, 2012
Promising premise, but ultimately didn't deliver. The motivations of the main character were opaque, and it really shouldn't have focused on that character anyway, but explored the impact of the initial idea and the effect it might have. Finally, I'm looking for something a little more upbeat right now, and this wasn't it!
July 24, 2016
Another from the flea market bonanza of 50's & 60's Sci-fi paperbacks. Interesting concept of a gizmo that will duplicate anything--and the problem it causes. Apparently this was reworked by the author: there are other versions with an additional 100 pages. Book is interesting enough to keep myself on the lookout.
March 27, 2012
Decent enough, but not quite what I expected. I think I was looking for more of a treatment of the "gizmo", and the work treated on the effect the "gizmo" had on the world as a whole.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews