It's been many years since I first read this, and while it's still a great story, I will have to confess to finding it a bit winding and wordy in places this time around. But in the end it remains a classic. ( )

http://pro-libertate.net/20090821/88-read-your-scattered-bodies-go ( )

Como seria efetivamente o quarto mundo, o mundo da justiça, em que um suposto Deus passa a existir e ressuscita a humanidade? A excêntrica ética do Meillassoux de "l'immanence d'outre monde" me fascina e é interessante que eu tenha lido o livro do Philip José Farmer pensando nela. Porque a Igreja da segunda chance articula um imperativo ético bastante próximo - agora que especulamos que só há o humano a culpar, devemos nos esforçar a atingir o patamar ético necessário. É claro que há muitas diferenças. Essa ascensão é para outra vida, ou ainda a morte, para além do Mundo-Rio em que os 36 bilhões de humanos habitam. Porque a maioria deles parece capitular e reproduzir os hábitos ruins históricos de dominação e violência. Nesse sentido, o experimento dos Éticos, ao fornecer uma quase imortalidade aos humanos, tem um ar de Ensaio sobre a Cegueira, ou ainda de Senhor das Moscas. E é claro que explicações, mesmo que turvas ou especulativas, sobre o propósito de tudo aquilo, levam a resultados específicos. Nosso protagonista mesmo, Sir Richard Francis Burton, declara recusar-se a melhorar eticamente. Porque o faria?! Tem em seu princípio uma rebeldia sem causa, mas que vai tomando corpo e transformando em projeto, junto a seu expresso-suicídio (the suicide express).

Livro ganhador do prêmio Hugo 1972 por melhor novela. ( )

2.5 stars. This was a fun page-turner that I gobbled down in the first two days of the year, but I didn't find much value beyond the entertainment. I have no desire to read the second book or the rest of the series, because so many questions were left unanswered and I sense Farmer's main source of tension is going to be these mysteries. Since the main drive of the plot is the sci-fi concept, I suppose it is a testament to Farmer's style that he kept my attention while providing relatively little psychological depth to the characters. The breadth of history Farmer uses to compose his strange world is exciting in its potential, but ultimately falls short and remains a gimmick -- we don't really learn all that much history and various cultures are differentiated poorly. I was also turned off by the casual misogyny throughout. All women were objects without any depth. I found it hard to believe that on the first day of their resurrection everyone just decided to start banging whoever they could find despite the fact that they are naked, confused, unsheltered, and surrounded by strangers. Even the women seemed resigned to finding a sex partner in the very first days of this strange new existence. Finding a woman to share a man's hut was a nearly constant detail surrounding every character with agency at every stage of the plot; it seemed very gratuitous.

It sort of reminded me of Sir Patrick Stewart's amazing cameo in "Extras", where he plays a sex-obsessed version of himself. He has written an idiotic script he wants others to read in which the main character can control the world with his mind, but all he does with his power is cause women's clothes to fall off. Stewart titters on and on as he imagines the naked bodies in his unproduced film: "and then I see everything. I see it all!" Farmer too seems a bit obsessed with everybody being nakey.

The best thing about this short novel was putting Richard Burton on my radar. What a fascinating historical figure. I was aware of him and his Arabian Nights, but I had no idea the extent of his adventurous life. I want to read a biography or historical narrative about him now. ( )

2.5 stars. This was a fun page-turner that I gobbled down in the first two days of the year, but I didn't find much value beyond the entertainment. I have no desire to read the second book or the rest of the series, because so many questions were left unanswered and I sense Farmer's main source of tension is going to be these mysteries. Since the main drive of the plot is the sci-fi concept, I suppose it is a testament to Farmer's style that he kept my attention while providing relatively little psychological depth to the characters. The breadth of history Farmer uses to compose his strange world is exciting in its potential, but ultimately falls short and remains a gimmick -- we don't really learn all that much history and various cultures are differentiated poorly. I was also turned off by the casual misogyny throughout. All women were objects without any depth. I found it hard to believe that on the first day of their resurrection everyone just decided to start banging whoever they could find despite the fact that they are naked, confused, unsheltered, and surrounded by strangers. Even the women seemed resigned to finding a sex partner in the very first days of this strange new existence. Finding a woman to share a man's hut was a nearly constant detail surrounding every character with agency at every stage of the plot; it seemed very gratuitous.

It sort of reminded me of Sir Patrick Stewart's amazing cameo in "Extras", where he plays a sex-obsessed version of himself. He has written an idiotic script he wants others to read in which the main character can control the world with his mind, but all he does with his power is cause women's clothes to fall off. Stewart titters on and on as he imagines the naked bodies in his unproduced film: "and then I see everything. I see it all!" Farmer too seems a bit obsessed with everybody being nakey.

The best thing about this short novel was putting Richard Burton on my radar. What a fascinating historical figure. I was aware of him and his Arabian Nights, but I had no idea the extent of his adventurous life. I want to read a biography or historical narrative about him now. ( )