- Paperback: 256 pages
- Publisher: Gollancz; New edition edition (18 Jan 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0575072342
- ISBN-13: 978-0575072343
- Product Dimensions: 21.2 x 13.6 x 2.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,025,821 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Product details |
More About the Author
Product Description
Book Description
'One of the genre's very few genuinely comic, genuinely incisive writers' The Encyclopedia of Science
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Putting Man In His Place,
By Rod Williams (London) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Of Men and Monsters (Gollancz SF collectors' edition) (Paperback)
The clue, of course, is in the title, a steal from Steinbeck's `Of Mice and Men' and relevant in the sense that the place of the mice in the original title has been taken by men.
In this novel, following a sudden and devastating attack and invasion by `monsters', men are now in the place of mice, reduced to the status of parasitical vermin, living in the air pockets of the insulating material of monsters' houses. The monsters are enormous brontosaurian creatures with a ring of prehensile tentacles around their necks which serves them as fingers. The central figure is Eric, known as Eric the Only as he was born a singleton, rather than part of a larger litter. Eric is about to go on a rite of passage ritual to steal from the monsters, after which he becomes a man. However, Eric soon finds himself caught up in a war of ideologies. His tribe believe that that they should be trying to recreate Ancestor Science in order to defeat the invaders while others (Eric's Uncle being one of them) believe that Man should be using Alien Science to fight the creatures. Unbeknown to Eric on his quest, the chief has discovered his uncle's heresy and has called in reinforcements from neighbouring tribes to put down the rebels. Eric is captured on his return but manages to escape and returns to the burrows of the Strangers. eventually he is captured by monsters who are experimenting with methods of extermination. Eric has heard tales of the Aaron people, a tribe far more advanced than his own `front-burrow' tribe. He is imprisoned with Aaron female and Ray the Runner from his old tribe. With her help they escape and manage to return to the Aaron people, and Eric is let in on the Aaaron People's secret plan. It's a refreshing and welcome change to see humans reduced to existing as an inferior species, but nevertheless finding a means to adapt and survive. There's also a nod to the concept of sexual equality with Eric's feisty Aaron Lady preaching a form of feminism which doesn't go as far as it might have sadly, but is surely better than the simpering heroines of yesteryear. It's a deceptively simple book which manages to illustrate the dangers of organised religion with its tendency toward fundamentalism, rigid dogma and inflexible rules, as well as overturning our arrogant notion of Humanity as masters of the universe. It is very likely, as Tenn suggests, that we are very very far from being anything of the sort.
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Swiftian Satirist,
By
This review is from: Of Men and Monsters (S.F. Masterworks) (Paperback)
I discovered Tenn in my teens, and have rediscovered him in recent years. The sharpest and wittiest of all SF writers in my opinion, but largely forgotten because most of his work was short stories. Of Men and Monsters, his only full-length novel, is Tenn at his Swiftian best. I've blogged about him here: [...]
4.0 out of 5 stars
Earth lies under the alien occupation,
By
This review is from: Of Men and Monsters (Paperback)
This has one of the more memorable opening lines in Science Fiction ...
"Mankind consisted of 128 people." Earth has been conquered by giant alien invaders who have almost exterminated humankind. The few survivors live primitive, barbaric lives in burrows, or hiding in the walls of the alien's dwellings. They live in fear of the new lords of the earth. The author, William Tenn, wrote several short story collections but this is his only novel, and it deserves more recognition than it received.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews |
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
