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3.26 AVERAGE
3.26 AVERAGE
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Not quite what I thought it would be judging from the synopsis. I thought this piece of time travel fiction from 1919 would paint a utopian future world of 2118 in which women brutally rule over men. Instead there is one female authority among tons of male rulers and her claim to power is based on her beauty. Nevertheless, this glimpse into the future was interesting and fun. Often it felt almost whimsical and with the in-between space of Ulithia it reminded me more of a fantasy than a scifi novel. I also enjoyed the 3 main characters and the friendship dynamic between them. I just wish the woman, Viola, had not been the object of attraction for basically every male character (also, she's 17, it was uncomfortable at times).
I like to remind myself that this piece of creative non-realistic fiction was written in the early 20th century by a woman and it makes me proud that Gertrude Barrows Bennett (she wrote under a pen name) had the imagination and courage to publish her work.
I like to remind myself that this piece of creative non-realistic fiction was written in the early 20th century by a woman and it makes me proud that Gertrude Barrows Bennett (she wrote under a pen name) had the imagination and courage to publish her work.
Quite the interesting foray into early dark fantasy and scifi. Stevens' work is a bit campy, but I can see where the lines of inspiration were drawn for many of the golden-age scifi works. A wonderful read for all, as long as we bear in mind when this was written and the impact it had on works like Lovecraft and Merritt.
Maybe one day, I'll find myself wandering through the moon gates of Ulithia...
Maybe one day, I'll find myself wandering through the moon gates of Ulithia...
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
3.5/5 stars. Unsurprisingly this book is a product of its time (1919) and therefore cringy at times. That said, it was an entertaining read and it was pretty neat to see some of the roots of books like The Hunger Games and Divergent.
Not a bad story. It had some interesting themes but it leaned more fantasy than sci Fi. I appreciate the story being written in the time it was and some of the social commentary as a result.
I feel bad giving this a 3 bc I think a lot of the things I didn't like as much about it are not the book's fault. I'm just so fatigued of time travel narratives and parallel timeline narratives and the construction of the world felt very YA dystopian sci fi, but then I have to remember that this book was written in like 1916 and predates allllll of those associations and the thing is, it does have a lot going for it. The main characters are all very likeable, charming, soulful, a bit archetypal but in a fun satisfying way. The description of Ulithia was by far my favorite part, the most intriguing and exciting part, which makes me rly want to read Stevens's fantasy as opposed to the sci-fi, I'm also admittedly in a major fantasy zone and don't want sci fi right now which its my fault for reading this (its so funny how the genres are in some ways so similar but yet to me FEEL so so different, like the kind of immersion feels so different to me and I don't know why). I almost gave this 4 stars purely bc of how the explained everything in the end, I was glad it ended up not being an actual prediction of the future but rather the projection of the characters, their values and personalities. The explanation merged science and the occult in a very satisfying way instead of going the pure science route which I always dread (where is the mystery, the mystique, maybe thats why I like fantasy so much more, magic and mysticism is able to be so satisfyingly opaque, even when we know how it works, its essence is still mysterious while speculative science, futurism, while it may not explain its inner workings to you, it is always implied that those inner working are there and are based on something logical and ultimately knowable). I will also say, the way she predicted communism would be used as a scapegoat on the part of the elite to unilaterally seize insane amounts of power ended up being spot on.