Very much the source of modern dystopian fiction. A role model from both Brave New World and 1984. Unusually for a Russian novel is written in an accessible style and is still relatively undated like the other two novels. Justifiably one of the 1001 Books You must read before you die.

1001 Bookray - participants so far

1. livrecache (au)
2. cat207 (au)
3. crimson-tide (au)
4. Jubby (au)
5. jsmeltser (usa)
6. Maurean (usa)
7. bookpatch (usa)
8. TerraceWest (Can)
9. Supertalya (SK)

10. UnwrittenLibra (usa)
11. bilbi (fr)
12. butterfly-noir (Port)
13. k2005 (uk)

14. VariC (fin)
15. stubee (uk)
16. KT-J (uk)
17. Releanna (ost)
18. Tubereader (lux)

RELEASE NOTES:

Sent by mail to Melbourne.

Arrived safely yesterday. I look forward to reading it. I have a couple of rings ahead of it, but I'll be as quick as I can. Thanks for sharing.

Update: I've read about half this book. I started it as I was developing pneumonia, and I don't know whether there was any connection, but I've had to put it down as I found myself having nightmares about it. It's affected me far more than Brave New World or 1984 ever did and I read them at a formative age.

I've read other books this week, but in different genres. I'll get back to this one when I'm feeling stronger. I can see its worth and why it's on the 1001 list. I'll finish as soon as I can. In the meantime, I have read two other bookrings, so it's not all bad. I was just finding this book very confronting earlier in the week.

I began this book again from the beginning. And I found it fascinating overall, although I got a little confused a few chapters before the end. Clearly, I needed to be in the mood to read this.

This review expresses what I'd want to say, only better.

We is a groundbreaking work in the genre of science fiction, a book which George Orwell credits as being a major influence on his own classic 1984. Orwell also believed that it was likely that Aldous Huxley read it.We is a work of science fiction written before that term had been coined. It is a suspenseful and oftentimes sardonic must-read for any fan of sci-fi/fantasy.

Centered on D-503, a state mathematic for the One State and the engineer of a spaceship called the Integral, We contains several dystopic pre-echoes of 1984. However, D-503 and the people of his world seem to be fairly content with their lives. We might be considered a post-war Oceania. Indeed, there has been a Two Hundred Year War in the One State’s past, and it is the sole survivor, a hermetically glass-sealed city of ten million (though some people live outside the city walls, “primitive” people covered in hair, called the Methi). It could be thought of, in these respects, as a sequel to 1984 - or, since We was written first, 1984 is a prequel to We.

Rabotat is a Russian and Czech word meaning “worker”; it is the word from which the word robot derived. That was a goal in both Russia and America: to produce workers who were like machines, who never erred, repeating the same mind-numbing behaviour over and over again. D-503 is perhaps one of the strangest narrators in all of literature, always thinking in terms of mathematics, seeing people as ciphers. Logic and numbers are beauty to him, and his friend R-13 even composes poems about numbers. [That part of the blurb put me right off. However, his language becomes increasingly poetic throughout the book.]

What would a person consumed by logic and numbers fear the most? Illogic, and anything that appears to be nonconforming, of course--like the irrational root of -1: “This irrational root had sunk into me, like something foreign, alien, frightening, it devoured me--it couldn’t be comprehended or defused because it was beyond ratio.” Perhaps what bothers and discombobulates D-503 most of all, though, is I-330, a woman who at the beginning of the novel “has a strange and irritating X to her, and I couldn’t pin it down, couldn’t give it any numerical expression.” If D-503 can be thought of as being an inspiration for Orwell’s Winston Smith, then I-330, who later becomes D-503's love interest, is like Julia from 1984 .
D-503 goes from being a cipher who thinks he’s perfectly well-adjusted and happy into being a man who, while rationalising that love is illogical, is regardless falling in love and growing a soul: “Can it be that all that craziness (love, jealousy, etc.) Isn’t only the stuff of idiotic ancient books? And to think it involves me!” Eventually, D-503 goes to a doctor he describes as “scissorslips”, who diagnoses him: “How awful for you! By the looks of it, you’ve developed a soul.” Reminiscent of Pink Floyd’s The Wall, D-503 wonders: “But still, why - all of a sudden - a soul? I never had one - never had one - and then suddenly...Why doesn’t anyone else have one, but me?”

Will D-503, unlike Winston Smith, hold up under torture and not turn I-330 in? What use is an “imagination”? What is the Grand Operation? In a world where sex is a transaction one can engage in with whomsoever they wish as long as they present a pink ticket, why is an archaic thing like love important?

Originally published on Curled Up With A Good Book at www.curledup.com. © Douglas R. Cobb, 2006

This book deals with all this, and more, and has sent me rushing back to read more about the history of the time, as well as wanting to read the 'spin-offs' again.

Mr livrecache is now reading this book, and is hoping to have it finished over the weekend. Sorry about the delay. I'll ask him to join BC (he's been doing well from it for a while now) and post his thoughts.

Mr livreacache got tired of it half-way through, which says nothing at all about the book: just his general state of mind.

I've pm'd the next person, but not yet heard back (which is unusual). I'll try again now.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Another 1001 book on the road again . . .

Arrived in today's mail. Thank you livrecache - that's three of yours I've got now Dave!

I found this rather disjointed - or maybe it's just that I'm really tired and not sleeping well!

Will get this in tomorrow's mail to crimson-tide. X

Arrived safely today - I think it is third or fourth in the queue.
Thanks cat207, and thanks too for the very colourful card. :-)

I agree that it merits a place in the 1001 list. Sort of a strange book in a way: frightening, uncomfortable (as it's designed to be), certainly ground breaking for it's time, but oddly frustrating too. The dialogue was so unreal and jerky that it prevented me from being able to fully appreciate the story and the ideas. Parts I raced through and parts I got stuck on. What is a bit of a worry is that I found it harder to accept how easily I-330 hooked D-503 into 'falling in love' with her (in the context of the personal relationships of the time) than the thought that a state and culture such as OneState could exist. I'm afraid I just didn't care about any of the characters enough. The premise of the mathematical perfection of the society was very scary though.

Glad I had an opportunity to read it - thanks dave. It's probably one I should read again but I'm not planning to right now. Will be posting it to jubby tomorrow.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Sending on to jubby to continue the journey.
Released initially by post at the Balingup Post Office, and then hopefully in five or six days time into a letter box in Sydney.

Yay! This arrived in the post today from Crimson-tide, along with a very lovely card.
Thank you.

After reading some of the journal entries here already, I will approach this book with some trepidation...

Thank you.

Well, I actually made.

There were moments there when I questioned myself, but here I am!
I think the problem was the actual language. The vocabulary wasn't at all difficult, but I kept losing the thread of the story, and struggled with the descriptions.

I'll never know what was wrong with I-330's teeth (described as needles a couple of times!), and D-503's lusty actions had me scratching my head, but overall the story itself is awesome.

Such an imagination to think of this story.
I can see where the seeds of Orwell's '1984' came from also.

But, just quietly, I rather like the sound of the imagination removal. I wonder if I could get my hands on one of those? I'd re-jig it to remove other aspects of people's make-up (like intolerance). It would make classroom teaching so much easier!

Thank you for sharing this book with me.

I've contacted jsmeltser, and will post the book one once I've confirmed his postal details.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Posted off to jsmeltser.

Received this in the mail today. I will get to this one tonight and will send it on its way in the next day or two. PMing the next reader now.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Wonderful book. I was a bit lost at times, and had to re-read a page or two. Like one of the previous readers, I never could figure out exactly what was going on with the female character's teeth. You can definitely see how this influenced 1984 and Brave New World.

This just arrived in my mailbox; the mister wants to give it a read as well, so we will BOTH start on it straight-away, and I will journal my thoughts once its read (I'll ask the mister to do the same, but no promises there!)

Thanks for sharing this one, Dave...

Thanks, have received today. Looking forward to this one!

Couldn't help but compare this book to those it inspired, Brave New World and 1984, and concluded I liked it the best of all three. The author's style of starting sentences, but then not concluding them, did seem a bit jerky to read, but did effectively convey the character's unsettled "do I dare think this thought?" state of mind. And yes, a previous poster mentioned poetic--! an unexpected bonus for this type of book. Thank you so much for sharing with me, I really enjoyed it.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Posted today to TerraceWest. Hope you will enjoy it as much as I did.

I just received this in the mail today, will start reading it tonight and get it out ASAP. Thanks Davemurray101 for organizing!

After reading the other journals....I'm looking forward to this!

I have held on to this book for faaaaaar too long. My apologies! I still haven't had time to read it so I will be mailing out today to the next person on the list, SuperTalya. She hasn't responded to my emails, but I have an email from a previous trade with her addy in it.

Happy readings everyone, again, my apologies for not moving this on sooner.

I just received this. I am putting it on top of my TBR list.

Arrived here today in Baltimore, Maryland - thank you! It's the only bookring I have at the moment (even though I do have 2 or 3 public library books I need to finish) so I'll try to be quick!

What a strange little book - I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I what. I zoned out during some parts. Even though it was the inspiration for 1984, it was not nearly as well executed. Still, it's a 1001 now crossed off the list.

Sent off today via Baltimore-Mount Washington Station, Maryland to bilbi in Chambery, France, along with a small surprise RABCK...bon voyage, little book!

Received today with another book !

What's great is that I'm on holiday for 3 weeks !!!

So I have plenty of time to read... except when I'm not doing anything ;-)

Thanks for sharing

\o/

I finished the book today and it was a fascinating book.

The book starts with the hero writing a kind of minute account of what's going on.

As soon as he tells me that I'm a primitive form of life because I know freedom and he explains that "poets were inspired by those absurd, untidy clumps of mist" - i.e. clouds in particular and sky in general, I could hardly put the book down.

I was really eager to know how his mathematical society become the only one to be worth living in...

It's amazing how such a novel that written in 1920-1921 can still be so modern !

Thanks a lot for sharing this book with me.

I'll try to find a copy in French for my sister, THEMIRAMIS to read.

this was one of this bookrays I totally forgot I had join, it was a great surprise to receive it. It looks such un interesting read

I'm sorry I stalled this ring. I'm going to get it moving ASP

I have the book now. It might take me a while to get to it, as I have a few other books to read and pass on before it.

Sorry for taking a while, but this book really caught me at a bad time.

The parallels to Soviet Union and also Orwell's 1984 were pretty clear. In fact, 1984 is extremely similar to this book, obviously thematically but also very clearly plot-wise. The perfect little cog in the machine of the State, the woman who rules him towards rebelling, the eventual revelation that the State is not quite as oblivious as it seemed.

A mechanistic state, one in which people are as interchangeable cogs as possible, and individuality is suppressed, seems common in dystopias. Funny to reflect on our modern world, where, in the name of "efficiency", individuality is also suppressed, workers are supposed to be interchangeable so that no one becomes irreplaceable, and so on...

I have stubee's address and will mail the book onwards next week.

Sent to the next person in the ring.

Thanks it's arrived I've got a few ahead of this one but will try and get it read soon.

I've started this as I finished my current read before Stubee. I've read Aldous Huxley's Brave New World so it will be interesting to read this from a similar time. Thanks davemurray101 for sharing this.

Edit: I haven't had chance to update bookcrossing for a while but just for the record, I quite enjoyed this. I found it an easy to read book and thought the ideas and concepts in it were really interesting and a clear warning against the dangers of a controlled state. It is very different to Huxley's view although both portray possible future dystopias, and I think I preferred this just for the way it was written. I liked the development of the changing viewpoint of the narrator showing his growing confusion and I-330's influence over his actions throughout the story. Not one I'd read again but I'm glad I've read it!

I've started reading today; thanks KT-J for passing this on and thanks davemurray101 for starting this ray.

EDIT: 23rd August 2010. I finished this a couple of days ago while I was on holiday in Zakynthos and I loved it! Being a massive fan of both George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty Four and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World I guess you could say this book was bound to be right up my alley.

It's just a great novel I don't really want to give anything away by commenting on what happens but I did like D-503 narration and I thought the ideas set in the story where very interesting, you can tell that it's dated now but I still think this is a great novel.

I've got Releanna address so this will be in the mail very soon.

Next: Paul Magrs - Never The Bride

On it's way to Releanna who is next, enjoy!

thank you for sending the book, KT-J :)
I'll try to read it soon.

I was very captivated by this book. It really is a milestone in dystopian science fiction.

the review posted by livrecache also expresses what I think about the book, but I couldn't find such good words and sentences.

The book arrived safely on Friday while I was on a business trip. Thanks a lot Releanna for sending it and davemurray101 for sharing!

I've already started reading it this evening!

I am amazed about the book: how could this be written in the early 20th century? I had read 1984 a while ago, but I think I much prefer We. Although I must say I preferred the first half (? more or less) of it than the last one... As some of the previous readers, I got a little lost towards the end of it. But, anyhow, I found it brilliant, the way it is written, the imagination of the author, the characters, everything!

Thanks davemurray101 for sharing and Releanna for sending it to me, definitely was worth reading it!

The book has been posted to emmejo as part of the wishlist tag game. I hope it arrives safely!

Sorry for the slight delay in posting it!

Got this today. Thank you, I'm eager to read this well-traveled book.

I read this book and really enjoyed it. I won't go into the plot, as I think other BCers have already covered that. I'll just stick with talking about a few things I found particularly interesting. I do think it is a book that you have to read slowly, which is what I did, since there is so much info and it is often communicated in a disjointed way by our unreliable narrator. I could see where some people would get frustrated with it.

I found the almost ironic contrast between the setting, a high-tech far future, and the main character's conflict, whether or not to cheat on his wife-equivalent, intriguing. Often we expect some sort of epic heroism from sci-fi, especially dystopias, so having a MC who is not a man of action, but a bystander, unaware of the societal chaos he is fueling, makes for an unusual viewpoint.

I also loved the author's descriptions of characters and use of contrasts between them. O is a soft, friendly, familiar and natural women, while I is predatory, but dangerous and compelling and seductive because of her strangeness. R is outgoing, as much of a risk-taker as is allowed in this society, while D is extremely reserved in his expressions until being caught up in I's wake.

I thought the author did a good job showing D's mental state through his writing, which starts out as formulaic and precise, moves towards what we might term a "normal" style, and then goes farther, into a knotted mass of ideas and feelings which he has no experience trying to trap on paper, and finally the result of OneState's decision becomes clear in the remote brevity of his final entry.

Sending as a RABCK to paregmenon.

There is a sheet of stickers tucked into the table of contents, maybe they'll help increase your catch rate.

Thanks emmejo! It was safely received over here in the Midwest.

We's on it's way to Florida.

Thanks for sending this well-traveled book my way! I look forward to reading it.

Thanks so much for sharing this book! It took me a while to get to it, & then I made the mistake of reading the author's preface, which was quite a slog, & caused me to put the book down for a while. Enjoyed the book itself, once I finally got into it, although I agree with the previous posters' comments re: the sentence fragments in the dialogue, which I didn't care for.

As I was reading this, I kept thinking of a very short film clip I saw once that may have been based on this novel, featuring robotic figures marching along 4-abreast in columns.

I'm glad I had a chance to read this, so thanks for sharing!

Reserved for a book ring.

Reserved for a VBB.

Chosen from the ABC VBB. Will be heading out as soon as I get the new reader's address.

OK, I never received the next reader's address. Guess I'll have to do some digging!

Released to a fellow BookCrosser in Cape Coral, Florida as her selection from the ABC VBB. Happy reading!

The book arrived safely today. I love reading all the posts from all the other across from Cirella’s taking the time to read this book.

We is a dystopian novel by Russian writer Yevgeny Zamyatin, written 1920–1921. The novel describes a world of harmony and conformity within a united totalitarian state. It influenced the emergence of dystopia as a literary genre. George Orwell is said to have been influenced by the novel.

Enjoy! KTM RABCK for One Word Title Release challenge 2022

Thanks for sending. This isn't "the new" translation, but it is one I haven't read. Will be interesting to compare to the Ginsberg version.

We'll, I didn't get around to comparing this translation to the one I read, but my co-worker does have a copy of this edition. Still highly recommend the book! Sent to the person who chose it in the First Sentences VBB.

Wow... I am the 24th journaler of this well-traveled book... my choice in the 23rd round of the First Sentences virtual book box. The first sentence: "I am merely copying out here, word for word, what was printed today in the Star Gazette." I have not yet read this book, and I'm curious where it goes from there.