Ny’s Comments (group member since Oct 04, 2014)

Ny’s comments from the Dystopian/Sci Fi group.

Hammer Time!

Saul of Sodom : The Last Prophet was undeniably one of the best works I have ever read. His portrayal of a man's struggle in a dystopian era amidst martial order had not only such tragedy, but extraordinary beauty. Every word felt carefully chosen and crafted making each sentence melodic and impactful. The momentum of the story was never lost or redundant. Raw emotion flowed effortlessly. In a world where humanity is depicted as weakness and stripped, human nature continued to boil beneath the surface. A world filled with war and violence, innocence emerged and renewed ones hope. However, you will find yourself fixated and anxiously awaiting to discover how innocence could survive in such darkness or if it would survive at all. The ending was as spectacular as it was heart-wrenching. No matter your preferred genre, Saul of Sodom will captivate any reader. Bo Jinn has explored and dissected every aspect within a humans mind in a way that will resonate long after you have completed reading.

It's hammer time.

Preadolescence point of views typically are not my cup of tea and the fact that I dislike tea is purely coincidental. While the dialogue is incredibly juvenille, it is true to the age group. I had to remind myself in the beginning that it is also the whole point. I believe that is another reason novels as such tend to gain such praise. It is difficult for adults to capture the essence of a child or children in general and then to write from their point of view is an entirely a different challenege. That being said, I believe that it was not only well done, but that I surpringly enjoyed it.

The book is an allegory and there is nothing I love more than a metaphor. Something about an entire book being one huge metaphor completely fascinates me. Once I was able to see where the book was headed it all made sense. The children reflected society and human nature.

There is just so much I could say about this novel and my words never fail, but at this point with our meeting a week away... I will nail it in then.

Overall, allegories are my thing.

Hammer

I do not even know where to begin with this novel. While I understand why H.G. Wells is praised on his idea and creation of time travel, I do not like the way he writes nor did I like the story. Before you continue reading my very opinionated review know, I am the hammer. This novel is the nail. I did as you do with a hammer and hammered hard.

I tried to keep in mind that it was published in 1895 before any time travel had been introduced and therefore he was paving the way for future time travel. Even bearing that in mind, I was again, disappointed and bored. At least Jules Verne made science fiction interesting and could hold my attention. I'd be down for a journey to the center of the Earth.

Back in 1895, I could see how this was so far from what anyone had ever written and it was forward thinking and interesting, but reading this now in 2015, I did not enjoy it.

The concept of time travel can lead you to so many different and wonderful places. He travelled to A.D. 802,701 where essentially society has reverted back to practially the stone age. I see where he was going with this, but the execution was terrible. He goes on to explain how the people have lack of discipline and are childlike. He attempted to communiate with them, they are unintelligent and have short attention spans, but overall appear to be of kind and gentle folk.

When encounters the Morlocks, who were described as ape-like, and who lived in darkness and yet were experts with machinery and cannibals. That is as interesting as their storyline got, unfortunately. The Morlocks basically sustained the Eloi with the machinery and all that it produced and then hunted them in the night. I don't know if he was attempting to create a metaphor with this species, but I would like to believe that he had. At least then I could say that even after society failed, after all the advances, they ended up ruining all they had and lost everything. Thus losing causing them to resort to their basic insticts of survival and abandoning any advancement in society and becoming cannibals.

I see where he was going with the concept, but he went so far off the spectrum that it just made me scuff and face palm. The people lacked as a whole. The only thing that the Eloi were privy to was that they should not be out after dark. We do not know why society crumbled so far in the future, all we know is that all education, knowledge and structure had been lost.

After his time machine went missing, I did not even want to know why. I did not like the entire story felt like a boring monologue that wouldn't end. I felt his descriptions and the Eloi were even less interesting as the story progressed. I would have rather read about him and his companions discussing and theorizing about a fourth dimension. At least THEN I could have used my own imagination to create theories and scenarios of the possibilites in which time travel could lead.

I am all for science fiction and the rise and fall of man, but this lacked imagination. Do not confuse what I mean. His creation of the time machine, wonderful. The storyline after that point, boring. He had two groups of people, each evolved into something different. He had a group of cannibals and a group of hippies for crying outloud. Hippies didn't even exist in his time, so I can give him credit for that. But I feel he could have done so much with this and yet failed. Don't even get me started on this 'fondness' he had with one of the Eloi women. While the novel did not come right out and say it may have evolved into a romance if it had continued, we all knew where it was heading. He wanted to bring her back to his time and that is where I drew the line. The Grand Canyon isn't even been a deep enough abyss to describe how anti-romantic progression I was during this novel.

I went into this novel without knowing what to expect other than it was a novel about time travel. I was highly disappointed in the world he created during his adventure. I am more interested in where he ended up after he returned to his time and then left again to explore after relaying his travels to his companions. I am going to assume that he went exploring and ended up dying or getting stuck somewhere because I could not handle anymore time travel from H.G.

After the completion of this novel, let us hope that the future is seriously not as bland. I will stick with Doc and Marty when it comes to time travel. Sorry, not sorry.