Yevgeny Zamyatin wrote We, a dystopia in 1921. This hugely important book was not entirely fun for me to read. Nevertheless, I think you will like this if you especially enjoy dystopias, science fiction novels and Russian history. You will be particularly interested in the fact that it is a book that critics recommend at every opportunity.
I don’t know why I didn’t like the book. Maybe it’s because it is in the form of a diary of the main hero. Or is it because I couldn’t warm up to the character? It was already too late when I realised that I want to take a break from the boredom; I was way into the story. Because it makes you wonder what will happen in the end. I often read books that I could not warm up because of my curiosity. But since Yevgeny Zamyatin is rightly among the authors that must be read, and We is a critical book, you’ve got to give this a chance.
A man is like a novel: until the very last page you don’t know how it will end. Otherwise it wouldn’t even be worth reading.
Yevgeny Zamyatin, We
In summary; while a little boring, We makes you wonder about the end. If you’re looking for a book that will make you happy, don’t read this. Both the narrative and the subject will not help you. On the other hand, we still need to read this book. We must read it so that we can open our eyes a little more, let’s be more afraid of the world order.
About the book: We
In the One State of the great Benefactor, there are no individuals, only numbers. Life is an ongoing process of mathematical precision, a perfectly balanced equation. Primitive passions and instincts have been subdued. Even nature has been defeated, banished behind the Green Wall. But one frontier remains outer space. Now, with the creation of the spaceship Integral, that frontier — and whatever alien species are to be found there — will be subjugated to the beneficent yoke of reason.
One number, D-503, chief architect of the Integral, decides to record his thoughts in the final days before the launch for the benefit of less advanced societies. But a chance meeting with the beautiful 1-330 results in an unexpected discovery that threatens everything D-503 believes about himself and the One State. The discovery — or rediscovery — of inner space…and that disease the ancients called the soul.
A page-turning SF adventure, a masterpiece of wit and black humor that accurately predicted the horrors of Stalinism, We is the classic dystopian novel. Its message of hope and warning is as timely at the end of the twentieth century as it was at the beginning.
About the author: Yevgeny Zamyatin
Yevgeny Ivanovich Zamyatin, sometimes anglicized as Eugene Zamyatin, was a Russian author of science fiction and political satire. He is most famous for his 1921 novel We, a story set in a dystopian future police state.
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
