Worth a listen

Interesting book plot well narrated. DO NOT LISTEN to the SPOILER INVESTED introduction though. The book's strength is in having a picture of the world slowly revealed. The introduction contains multiple SPOILERS & should be removed in my opinion.

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3 people found this helpful

A forgotten classic.

I believe Dawkins recommended this book so highly because it is a thought-provoking book with a good storyline. Don't look at this book at a simplistic level - it has more interesting concepts that the 'post-apocalyptic what if...?' of surviving underground darkness and the resultant finely attuned hearing. If you are looking for a simple sci-fi read, this book will seem heavy-handed and boring but at a deeper level it contains elements of Plato's 'Allegory of the Cave', inevitable parallels with religion and plays with interesting ideas of perception. That is why this book was nominated for a Hugo Award in 1962 and only lost out to Robert Heinlein?s "Stranger in A Strange Land", a book repeatedly appearing in Top-10 lists of "Best Sci-Fi Books Ever". This book is well read and at six-and-a-half hours long is concise and entertaining. A highly recommended forgotten classic.

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4 people found this helpful

Religion impedes progress

An interesting listen with a few flaws in credibility but still quite thought provoking. Initially I thought that the level of hamstrung intellect caused by religious belief was a bit exaggerated but when measured against the actual demolition of the Persian's advanced scientific, mathematical and philosophical culture by powerful clerics, then perhaps not so.

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Heavy-handed

I enjoyed Dawkins' introduction, and he summarised the book nicely.

The book itself is very heavy-handed, plodding, obvious and boring. There is no light touch here; it's all "Light take you!", and "I wonder if I'll ever be able to figure out the mystical relationship between light, darkness and the eyes" all the way through.

It could have been an interesting short story, but the way it is written I despair at how Dawkins can recommend it so highly. Even the plot device, where humans have lost their sense of sight from dwelling underground is thin I think; how about the light that wil invariably be generated from the incessant striking of stones against metal? No, it'd pitch darkness here, in every sense possible.

As an avid reader of all kinds of fiction, including SciFi, I am more than prepared to suspend my disbelief a bit, but this is just not well written enough to bother.

Avoid. If I could resell a copy, I'd sell you mine, cheaply.

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6 people found this helpful