The Evolution of Science Fiction discussion

This folder is for discussions about December's poll winning book: We by Yevgeny Zamyatin. This is classic Russian Sci-fi and has inspired many other books. I guess many people may have already read this one but feel free to discuss anyway.

From the foreword of We:
"An English translation existed well before any full Russian version saw print. George Orwell, author of 1984, managed to find and read it. Orwell thought that Aldous Huxley, author of Brave New World, had probably read it. Written with radical invention, deliberate verbal obscurity and cunning political intent, We is a rather hard book to read or to translate.
Zamyatin’s many friends and disciples considered him a mannered overseas sophisticate with advanced and dangerous ideas. He’d been exiled in Finland. He had built ships in distant Britain. In person he came across as a dapper, tweedy naval engineer. Russians nicknamed him “the Englishman.” He managed the translations from English for a Russian publishing house, where he carefully studied the socialist H. G. Wells. Nevertheless, We is a book that could only have come from Russia, or, rather, from the unique time and space that was revolutionary Petrograd. It’s a science fiction novel set centuries in the future, but this story will spring to life if you can imagine it dressed in full, period regalia, with violently agitated Russian Constructivist costumes and a spacey, ethereal Theremin soundtrack."

I like the 'spacey, ethereal Theremin soundtrack' part.

What a strangely written book; bizarre; surreal. Literarily, the characters are phantoms. The story is like the dreams of an insane man. And yet, I can see how We planted the seeds of Brave New World and 1984.

I've only had time to read a few chapters but this seems like it could be the first book I've read with the group where the female character actually has a major role in the book. In the others (if there was one) they were mainly wives or had a minor role. I've quite enjoyed the first few chapters and (currently) it's not as bleak as the other Russian sci-fi novels I've read. As i've only read a few chapters that may still change....

I'm glad I read this one, it's an immense novel. The dystopian world he wrote about is not difficult to imagine and even today some of the ideas exist in various societies around the world. In some ways the style of writing is close to War of The Worlds with it's dispassionate style which I also really enjoyed. It's clear how this influenced later works like 1984. The only minor point for me is the transition of the main character from We to I occurs very quickly (in actions if not completely in thought).

Such a great inked paper really. Utterly wild ideas that got me going around up/down/left/right like nuts which I love. lol
Another time reading it among the various times I did. :)
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I read this one two years ago. I still find my self thinking about parts of it. I did think that it got a bit bogged down in the middle.

I read this book quite a few years ago and found it very intriguing, with a great resemblance to Brave New World. Both are good books about a similar society.

Just read this. For the first few chapters I thought I was going to love it. But I got a bit bored later. Seems to be a lot about something called "Love". Not sure what that is. Clearly an inspiration for both 1984 and Brave New World, but I like both of those better.

The translation by Natasha Randall was excellent and felt like it was natively written in English.