Reviews and Comments

I read this book in the 1970s when it was published in Finnish, and I was maybe 13 years old. Now somebody mentioned it on Mastodon and I decided to read it again, in English.

It contains many good ideas, a lot of which apply well to world politics today. Like the idea that problems can be easily solved by pretending they don't exist. But the depiction of women is definitely not from this century. Even female (?) aliens are less intelligent, but have more empathy than the less female aliens. The naked women on the Moon with I still remember from the 1970s.

For some reason is seems easier to come up with a credible dystopia than a credible utopia. The Company which seems to be running a lot of planets in this universe is all too similar to a lot of companies in the existing world, and the first half of the book would easily get four stars from me. But the people of Jeep are just too much fantasy for me to digest. Mysticism thinly veiled as "science". Could have bought the societal part, but genetic memory and healing with psychic fields or whatever was just too much. Oh well, probably I'm just too boring for this book.

We are in the USA with a president very similar to Trump 2 and the world is going down the drain. It's a Ponzi scheme planet, as the protagonist describes it. A very accurate and plausible near future, well written and thought provoking. Greta Thunberg is in the book though, Swiss in this iteration of the universe. I would give the book a strong 5, but for one thing: the underlying premise that medication for mental problems is a Bad Thing and should be avoided at all costs, while other ways of altering brain chemistry could save the world. Maybe this is needed to make the story work, but I still find it troubling.

Kuka on lukenut näitä Ballen kirjoja ja osaa sanoa mistä ne kertovat? Jos sen nyt voi selittää lyhyemmin kuin seitsenosaisella romaanisarjalla... Luin ensimmäisen ruotsiksi ja arvelin että ihan hyvä mutta enpä viitsi enempää lukea. Sitten luin kuitenkin suomeksi pari osaa lisää, ja kun niitä ei enempää suomeksi ollut, piti jatkaa ruotsiksi. Nyt siis jo viides osa menossa, ja välillä tuntuu, että ehkä ymmärrän jotakin siitä, mitä tekijä haluaa sanoa. Välillä hieman liian teoreettista, mutta sekin varmasti tarkoittaa jotain. Tämän osan keskivaiheilta alleviivasin mielestäni jotain tärkeää. Ja ehkä Taran nimikin tarkoittaa jotain? Mutta siis, mitä mielestänne tässä halutaan sanoa? Jos sen voi sanoa?

Med andra ord, vad vill författaren ha sagt, om det nu går att sammanfatta kortare än i sju romaner?

#kirjafedi #kirjamadtodon

The author of the book was the US ambassador in Moscow when the Russian full scale invasion of Ukraine started. There may not be very much new information in the book for those familiar with the subject, but it is fascinating to receive insights in the workings of the US embassy and the diplomatic contacts with the Russian representatives at this time. Also, the author was deputy Secretary of State during Donald Trump's first mandate but is no Trump supporter. His account from inside the administration is interesting in many ways.

Liian kummallinen.