The Sirens of Titan: A Novel

Vonnegut is not for everybody! There might be enough people that take him literally and might get offended by his remarks on religious zealotry, "righteous wars" and politics in general. But if you have a strong sense of humor and got disappointed at least once in life with the way history gets written by the victors and the truth gets distorted by the people in power, you will be delighted with this! It is the most thought-provoking book, and at any given point it might read as a non sci-fi with its deep observations on human relations: man-woman, rich-poor, religious/non-believer, war. At the same time it is the most satisfying sci-fi book ever, blows the esoteric Strugatsky or Lem away!!! I loved the quirkyness of the Chrono-synchlastic infundibulum concept, the sarcasm on the futility of what we bravely call Space exploration ( frustratingly slow and dangerous so far- with questionable results), humanity's typical behavior once they get there( start a war! ), some fascinatingly strange imaginings of Mercury and Titan... Just about when I thought it can't get any better, it suddenly does: Contact. The cherished Alien contact! There is a lot there and I will leave it to the reader to discover where The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy got its inspiration! I just have to add that the landscapes of Titan ( when the 3 main characters plus the dog finally make it there), are some of the most hauntingly beautiful pages in sci-fi ever written! This book is written in 1959, way before Cassini sent the astounding images from the vicinity of Saturn... Vonnegut did his homework right! And yes, the philosophy that we are at our most happy when we stop worrying and enjoy the simple pleasures in life! This is a book for the eons, it's depths wrapped in humor, slowly, hauntingly sinking in...

TL:DR; Kurt Vonnegut’s The Sirens of Titan is just outside the fringes of what I normally like to read, and I found myself walking away from the book with a slightly muddled sense of satisfaction. The book left me with plenty of things to think about: human nature and certain philosophies being chief among them. Vonnegut does an excellent job building and shaping his characters. Malachi Constant, Beatrice Rumfoord and Winston Niles Rumfoord all felt very real to me and evoked a wide range of emotions over the course of the book. The story is interesting and compelling as well; however, I did find the beginning of the book to be very bland and a bit off putting (I did later come to see the necessity of the beginning, but that did not make it anymore interesting to read while I was reading it.) Ultimately, I enjoyed the book and I would encourage people to read it, but I would only actively recommend this book to specific readers. If you want to explore human nature, follow one man on his quest for the meaning of life, or experience a small taste of just how indifferent and large the galaxy really is, I would highly recommend this book. If you’re looking for space battles, high action, or physical conflicts, I’d suggest you look elsewhere. The Bad: 1. I felt the beginning of the book was weak. Vonnegut's writing struck me as somewhat circular and sometimes a bit wordy (this problem cleared up later. I’m not sure if I just got used to the style, or it slowly evaporated). I also had very little interest in the characters and found the story itself slow. The reasoning for this is revealed later in the book, but that doesn’t excuse having a blunt hook at the start of the story. The Good: 1. Once you get past the slow hump in the beginning, the characters become quite interesting and develop real personalities of their own. There are times at which you’ll loathe Constant, pity him, empathize with him, and be happy for him. Vonnegut’s depiction of the sad isolation and creeping depression that Constant deals with really reverberated with me. The same goes for many of the other characters, despite their initial two dimensional presentations they all prove themselves to be multi-faceted gems by the end of the book. 2. The story. Again, once you crest the hill that is the beginning of the book, the story really picks up. After the main characters leave Earth and make for Mars (as prophesied by William Niles Rumfoord) things become really interesting, and Vonnegut’s story telling really begins to shine. Vonnegut's thematic elements shine brightly throughout the entire story as well, which gave me a deeper appreciation for the situations that Vonnegut penned. The Meh: 1. You’re going to need a little background information to understand this gripe. My editor girlfriend loves, loves, loves semicolons. She loves semicolons an almost inordinate amount. She gets excited when she gets to edit one into something. So I used to love to tease her with this Vonnegut quote. “Here is a lesson in creative writing. First rule: Do not use semicolons. They are transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing. All they do is show you've been to college.” Upon reading some of his work, that quote makes Vonnegut seem like a hypocrite to me. I do not recall coming across any semicolons; however, I came across quite a few words that I had to stop and look up. Synopsis: Winston Niles Rumfoord and his dog, Kazak, are chronosynclastically infundibulated, and every fifty nine days he materializes for a period of hours at his home on the planet Earth. The materializations have always been a private event, until one day Malachi Constant is invited to witness and partake in one of Rumfoord’s materializations. Since he is infundibulated, Rumfoord knows many things, specifically he knows that Constant will travel to Mars, then Mercury, back to Earth again, and then finally on to one of Saturn’s Moons, Titan. Of course Constant doesn’t believe him and leaves the materialization shortly after it ends. It doesn’t take long to discover the first of Rumfoord’s predictions to be true. With each new planet, we explore a new side of Malachi Constant and discover just how little the universe really cares.

Classic Vonnegut. Hilarious, touching and full of interesting philosophy. Well narrated plot twists abound. If you haven't read it you should. Easy and amusing. Science fiction as a vehicle, but ideas are the point.

Sirens of Titan was my second Vonnegut book and while I didn't think that it was quite on par with Slaughter House 5, I did think it was very good book that I enjoyed quite a bit. The book largely follows Malachi Constant as he's placed in various situations and examines the meaning of life utilizing a worldview that takes an existential slant that borders on nihilism in places. The difference between where Vonnegut concludes and where other's view the world through takes them, is that Vonnegut chooses to end up in a warmer, fuzzier, somewhat optimistic place rather than the cold, dark place that others often get to when beginning with the worldview Vonnegut espouses. While I won't spoil the end or the twists that happen along the way the message in the end is largely one of live in the moment you're in, love those around you and no matter who's pulling the strings, do the best to make the world a better place however you can. Sort of a 60's flower power anthem, which, isn't such a bad anthem to be singing. In any case, philosophy aside, the story itself was a pretty fun, quick ride that made me think in a few places, had some good wisdom that most would agree with and even had a few twists along the way that kept the story interesting and moving along nicely. The pieces come together nicely towards the very end to shed light on the earlier events in a satisfying way and while I wouldn't consider this a "classic" or "must read", it is very good and definitely not Sci-Fi enough to turn off anyone who's not a fan of the genre. In fact, while the story happens to unfold on several planets (mostly in our solar system), it's really just a story about man's place in the universe and really can be enjoyed by just about anyone. So, all things considered, another great book by Vonnegut that has me looking forward to whatever next Vonnegut book I'll eventually read next.

This is definitely an interesting book and the first I've read from Kurt Vonnegut. I heard so much about the author and I was excited to read one of his books. However, I was not a fan of his writing style (personal preference), and I didn't find the story to be really compelling. It started off interesting and the characters were alright. The plot was ambiguous at best but that didn't bother me, as I hoped it would thicken as the book went on. It did thicken, but in a very odd and dark way. Halfway through the book, the characters seemed to be running around mindlessly and hopelessly for no apparent reason, until the final reveal at the end. Well, what you hoped would be a tidying up of the story, was just a way for the author to say, "there was no real reason for the running around." I thought it was a clever reveal, that not only were all the charters spending their lives doing meaningless work, but that humanity as a whole was wasting its time as well. The redeeming factor of the book, but not redeeming enough, was the main characters ending thoughts; there is no real meaning in what we do, but love is still worth pursing. Worth the read? Maybe. Would read again? No.

Around the last fourth part my connection started to fade away. The style and imagination that fully sustained my interest until then became somewhat repetitive and predictable. I found myself skipping paragraphs and even full pages.

Kurt Vonnegut has a distinctive style of storytelling that is childish, wacky, and obscure while also exceedingly profound and unnerving. Vonnegut is the master of fabricating novels that have meaning far beyond their surface. He is able to continue this fashion of writing in his 1959 novel, Sirens of Titan. Like his other novels, he pulls heavily from his own life experiences to fabricate his works, alluding to Indiana (his birth state) in some fashion in almost every one of his works. In this novel, Vonnegut is able to commentate on controversial topics such as war, religion, and the meaning of life, while also fabricating a story that will make you laugh out loud at times and make your stomach churn during others. Vonnegut consistently uses made-up jargon to facilitate his storytelling. For example, the Tralfomadorians are an alien species within this novel, that are also present in Vonnegut’s Slaughter House 5, and he uses them to essentially facilitate the entire plotline and existence of humanity. While his imaginative use of made-up language allows him to get at controversial topics through a comical lense, they also provide the reader with an insight into his imaginative capabilities. Reading one of Vonnegut’s novels is almost analogous to looking at a Picasso painting in the sense that they are both abstract works with a clearly deeper meaning. While they may appear in a way childish upon first glance, they both entail great depth into their work. If you have not yet read any of Vonnegut’s work, I highly suggest beginning with his memoir, A Man Without a Country, to get a feel for the scope of his writing.

I can’t fully express my admiration for this book. It is hard for me to think of another book that makes me laugh and cry. Vonnegut leads us on an incredibly surreal and funny journey of Malachi Constant, and shows us incredible insights on adversity, luck, success, failure, religion, love, regret, purpose of life, happiness through adversity, … It is simply an amazing book, full of quotable lines, intelligent observations, and an incredible plot which I refuse to spoil. However, much of this story is built around a framework that could be described as science fiction, which is probably why it took me decades to ever read this book. I’m convinced that it was the frustration of people classifying this book which clearly should be literature as sci-fi that pushed Vonnegut to created Kilgore Trout and avoid these motifs in the future. The fantastic elements of the book (which are in no way scientific, they merely serve to drive the narrative like the prophecy in MacBeth or the ghost in Hamlet do not make them less dramatic and more fantastic. They are dramas with some fantastic elements in them. Likewise The Sirens of Titan is at times a comedy, and times a drama; but never let the fantastic elements of the story make you lump it with the sci-fi and fantasy stuff out there. If you liked any of Vonnegut’s other works you are bound to love this one. I daresay that along with Cat’s Craddle it might be one of the best first books of Vonnegut for someone unfamiliar with his work to read.

Arrived in great quality, pages and print quality is A!

Woww, parfait ! Quel suspens et quelles réflexions !!!!! Je le conseille à tous, marrant ET intellectuel :) merci au podcast Cracked.com de me l'avoir fait découvrir :)

From an overall humanist standpoint, through a stoic acceptance of fate and the possible meaninglessness of our existence, passing through social comments on inequality to pointing out the absurdity of much human effort, this novel brings to light themes which Vonnegut would develop in at least half of the books he would later write. Indeed, the "universe" he writes of in his major works are nearly all firmly within the one he creates here. If you are unfamiliar with his work, this is the one to start with. If you haven't caught up with this one and have read others, this one is the wellspring of them all. I read it when I was 18 and have just read it now 50 years later and I still find in it that mix of humour, sadness and wisdom that got me hooked on KV back then. No spoilers - read this book!

If you like Alan Moore's Watchmen, then do yourself a favour and read this. Copyright 1958 it features: a character like dr. Manhattan who experiences all time simultaneously, a fake alien invasion to stop nuclear war and unite humanity, mind control that is a MKUltra leader's set dream and even a neat paragraph that seems to predict the cloud. Funny and thoughtful who could ask for more!

Kurt Vonnegut is an amazing writer. This his second major novel I started to read 25 years ago and stopped because Uni text book readings took priority. I now have my own copy to finally finish...