Murder in Millennium VI

by Curme Gray | Science Fiction & Fantasy |
ISBN: Global Overview for this book
Registered by VariC of Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin Germany on 3/20/2010
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2 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by VariC from Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin Germany on Saturday, March 20, 2010
A cult classic of science fiction, a murder mystery written to be contemporary literature of the sixth millennium, so nothing obviously known to the sixth millennium reader is explained in any way. The reader is certain to be confused, or at least I certainly hope so.

This is a rare book, so I absolutely do not want it to get lost. I will lend it out after reading it (otherwise I would not have registered it), but only to people I know and trust, and it is to be passed hand to hand only, no sending it by mail.

Journal Entry 2 by VariC from Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin Germany on Friday, May 14, 2010
How unfortunate that this turned out to be quite disappointing. The writing is not very good, and the society is not, as one would expect, futuristic but practically medieval. This also leads to less of a wonder at discovering how the society is, as it is more like identifying familiar things from unfamiliar descriptions than trying to figure out how things work. In addition, the book's reputation for not explaining anything isn't really deserved: I found several places where there is too much exposition, for instance, in the hierarchy of the society.

I also found it very hard to care about anyone in this story. At no point did it feel like the characters were behaving like people. And I don't think it's an attempt to portray aliens, which future humans would perhaps be to us, as the characters had certain familiarities that, to me, indicated they were supposed to be people.

In science fiction, this book might have been impressive when it was written, but modern science fiction has recognized how problematic infodumps and “As you know, Bob” exposition is and has really moved on. So this ends up more as a historical curiosity than as a strong work in its own right. Though I would be very interested in reading the essay by Damon Knight that pointed out this book's strengths.

Journal Entry 3 by kasenka from Rautjärvi, Etelä-Karjala / Södra Karelen Finland on Monday, May 17, 2010
Thank you for lending this book to me. Unfortunately I saw the first sentence of your review and hope the book won't be too bad...

Journal Entry 4 by kasenka at Rautjärvi, Etelä-Karjala / Södra Karelen Finland on Sunday, February 10, 2019
Finally I've returned this book back to VariC!

I read this book years ago and now I noticed I've not written anything about it. I don't remember much about the book. Only that it wasn't my favourite :)

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