It took Vonnegut more than 20 years to put his Dresden experiences into words. He explained, "there is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre. Everybody is supposed to be dead, to never say anything or want anything ever again." Slaughterhouse Five is a powerful novel incorporating a number of genres. Only those who have fought in wars can say whether it represents the experience well. However, what the novel does do is invite the reader to look at the absurdity of war. Human versus human, hedonist politicians pressing buttons and ordering millions to their deaths all for ideologies many cannot even comprehend. Flicking between the US, 1940's Germany and Tralfamadore, Vonnegut's semi- autobiographical protagonist Billy Pilgrim finds himself very lost. One minute he is being viewed as a specimen in a Tralfamadorian Zoo, the next he is wandering a post-apocalyptic city looking for corpses. Slaughterhouse Five-Or The Children's Crusade A Duty-Dance with Death is a remarkable blend of black humour, irony, the truth and the absurd. The author regards his work a "failure", millions of readers do not. Released the same time bombs were falling on South East Asia, this title caused controversy and awakening. Essential reading for all. So it goes. --Jon Smith

The Chosen One, 10 Nov 2008
I have recently embarked on a quest to read the fifty great American novels. (I'm on book thirty one) Slaughtehouse 5 was in good company - Portnoy's Complaint, Rabbit Run, In Cold Blood, Bonfire of the Vanities, The New York Trilogy, The Secret History, to name a few - but it emerged as the standout novel. It is a wondrous piece of storytelling and I can't wait to finish my quest (nineteen to go) so that I can return to Kurt Vonnegut and read everything he has written. He's the one!

Why all the fuss?, 07 Nov 2008
I bought this book on the basis of the rave reviews. I wish I hadn't. Although it is short I couldn't force myself to get past half-way - if there is something clever or entertaining about this book it went straight over my head.

Realities of War, 25 Apr 2008
Catch 22 exposes the ruthless realities of war and subsequently the harsh realities of life, as the novel depicts war as a microcosm of life itself. By doing this Heller are showing to the reader that war is just as inevitable as life itself and that life is sometimes as harsh and unyielding as war.

Mustard Gas & Roses Indeed..., 24 Feb 2008
As someone currently living in Dresden, I always suggest visitors read this novel before coming for a visit. This city has many scars still to show from the bombings and subsequent fires, but for getting to the heart of what happened here... the true scope & terror of it... I feel nothing compares to Slaughterhouse 5.

As if that weren't enough, Vonnegut intersperses fact with fiction, history with humor, and the results are sublime. If you're not a fan going in, I bet you will be coming out.



Didn't Live up to Expectation, 25 Nov 2007
It bored me half to death. Slow moving, uninteresting, frustrating and somewhat confusing. Would have been better if the writer had stuck to one plot. Only worth reading to say you've read it.

The Chosen One, 10 Nov 2008
I have recently embarked on a quest to read the fifty great American novels. (I'm on book thirty one) Slaughtehouse 5 was in good company - Portnoy's Complaint, Rabbit Run, In Cold Blood, Bonfire of the Vanities, The New York Trilogy, The Secret History, to name a few - but it emerged as the standout novel. It is a wondrous piece of storytelling and I can't wait to finish my quest (nineteen to go) so that I can return to Kurt Vonnegut and read everything he has written. He's the one!

Why all the fuss?, 07 Nov 2008
I bought this book on the basis of the rave reviews. I wish I hadn't. Although it is short I couldn't force myself to get past half-way - if there is something clever or entertaining about this book it went straight over my head.

Realities of War, 25 Apr 2008
Catch 22 exposes the ruthless realities of war and subsequently the harsh realities of life, as the novel depicts war as a microcosm of life itself. By doing this Heller are showing to the reader that war is just as inevitable as life itself and that life is sometimes as harsh and unyielding as war.

Mustard Gas & Roses Indeed..., 24 Feb 2008
As someone currently living in Dresden, I always suggest visitors read this novel before coming for a visit. This city has many scars still to show from the bombings and subsequent fires, but for getting to the heart of what happened here... the true scope & terror of it... I feel nothing compares to Slaughterhouse 5.

As if that weren't enough, Vonnegut intersperses fact with fiction, history with humor, and the results are sublime. If you're not a fan going in, I bet you will be coming out.



Didn't Live up to Expectation, 25 Nov 2007
It bored me half to death. Slow moving, uninteresting, frustrating and somewhat confusing. Would have been better if the writer had stuck to one plot. Only worth reading to say you've read it.

Listen:, 10 Sep 2008
Sordid, repellant, charming, witting, full of interesting insight and eminently readable. And so on.

It does make you wonder if this ever happened to Kurt.

Funny and thought-provoking, 21 Aug 2008
It's hard to know how to sum this up but it's definitely one of the most interesting and funny books I've read in a long time. It plays with conventions - hand-drawn images interspersed in the text, repeated breaking of the fourth wall (including making the author a protagonist), frequent non-sequiturs and so on - and yet it doesn't come across as fussy or pretentious. It's a genuinely funny exploration of the author's mind and a satire on America and, despite containing an interesting passage that describes how traditional storytelling is a bad thing, I still always wanted to know what happened next.

This is a book full of interesting ideas and memorable characters and I'd recommend this to anyone open-minded enough not to freak out when confronted by the first hand-drawn sketch.

Not Utter Claptrap but Dazzling Brilliance, 21 Dec 2006
'A Reader' clearly hasn't a clue. He just doesn't get it. 'Breakfast of Champions' is obviously one of the best satirical novels ever written (better in my opinion than the long-winded Catch 22). As I said, 'A Reader' hasn't a clue and here's why:

In 'Breakfast of Champions', Kurt Vonnegut has created a book resembling a children's encyclopedia. Is is written in simple language, short paragraphs and short sentences. It is acompanied by crude pictures drawn by the author himself. Vonnegut's principal strategy is to contrive the voice of a naif, which in his case is the voice of a fifty-year-old naif. The use of this voice has two risks: 1) It will pall and weary the reader with its limitations of tone. 2) The naive observations will finally seem to represent the mind of the author, which is to say that the book is apt to make Vonnegut himself appear simple-minded.

But on the other hand, the possibilities of the naive voice are considerable, and Vonnegut exploits them all: being naive, the narrator has no sense of structure or priority and thus can include anything, as indeed he does, moving in a few pages through matters of eschatology and teleology, cornball manners of the Midwest, irrelevant statistics, perverse sexuality, washroom graffiti, and automobile sales techniques. The satiric possibilities of the naive voice, moreover, are classic, and Vonnegut directs his innocent voice at American guile and idiocy with considerable effect. He explains, for example, with the same dull ingeniousness that he uses to explain the bucket of fried chicken, the function of the body bag in gathering together the fragments of a soldier killed in action...

Need I say more?

Claptrap, 07 Feb 2006
I’m not entirely sure why I persisted in reading this book, I guess I kept thinking “any minute now it’ll get funny, any minute now it’ll get clever”.

It didn’t.

I thought that this story was lazy; there is an underlying suggestion that Kurt Vonnegut can write well (I’m hoping so as I have Slaughterhouse Five in my ‘to read’ pile) but couldn’t be bothered, probably because there is barely a story to talk of.

I read in reviews of ‘pure hilarity and comedic chaos’; ‘knows how to dish up satire like none other’ and even ‘this has to be the most hilarious piece of fiction I have ever read’. Are you serious? For all our sakes read more books , I’ve read textbooks funnier than this. The comedy in this book borders on schoolboy slapstick, occasionally Vonnegut tries to be clever but fails miserably and resorts to pointless cartoons and tediously analogous mishaps for his one-dimensional characters.
I considered whilst reading this book that perhaps I wasn’t opening my mind to an intellectual humour, but frankly Vonneguts grasp on satire is comparable with Alanis Morrisette’s grasp on irony. In my experience satire is at it’s best when delivered intelligently with subtle reference to our every day lives, cleverly picking out the nuances of society and it’s structure and emphasizing their effect on the human condition. Not in stating the obvious every which way but Tuesday until the joke is so thoroughly beaten it may never draw breath again.

The comment - ‘Will leave you thinking about the structure of the earth we live on, and the kind of people we are’….Really?? I don’t think you’re going to learn much from this book as it doesn’t pose any new questions, it doesn’t delve into any psychology; it just loosely traverses the outlines of a few shallow characters without direction or conclusion.
A reviewer said it is a work of ‘deceptively simple fiction’…Please! The only deception in this book is the unfulfilled promise of hilarity. This book didn’t look at anything more than the fact that some people have money while others don’t. The oft-voiced idea that an unseen author is writing our lives and dictating the fates that befall us was handled clumsily. Vonnegut reminded us too frequently of his control over the characters and that he was shaping lives and outcomes with his own experiences, this didn’t add any humour or depth to the story.

I’m going away now to mourn the hours spent reading this drivel that I will never get back. In fact I’ll go and read Catch-22 and appreciate actual literary brilliance as opposed to lacklustre detritus. Perhaps I’m not cool enough to appreciate this book…well thank heavens, that means I’ll never have to read it again.

Buy it now., 12 Sep 2005
I'm not entirely sure how or why I came across this delightful book, but I am thankful that I did. The illustrations really do help to elevate this book into utter hillarity, as do the insane characters, which upon first impression don't seem central to the plot at all. Eventually though, everything comes together in what has to be one of the most bizarre endings I have ever read. Things that happen in this book just dont occur in other books. One of these things for example, is Vonneguts actual omnipotent presence in the book, he places himself in the story (with all the characters he has created at his mercy) to describe it like this in an amzon review does not do it justice.

Alltogether a briliant read, Happy 50th Kurt.

And so on.

The Chosen One, 10 Nov 2008
I have recently embarked on a quest to read the fifty great American novels. (I'm on book thirty one) Slaughtehouse 5 was in good company - Portnoy's Complaint, Rabbit Run, In Cold Blood, Bonfire of the Vanities, The New York Trilogy, The Secret History, to name a few - but it emerged as the standout novel. It is a wondrous piece of storytelling and I can't wait to finish my quest (nineteen to go) so that I can return to Kurt Vonnegut and read everything he has written. He's the one!

Why all the fuss?, 07 Nov 2008
I bought this book on the basis of the rave reviews. I wish I hadn't. Although it is short I couldn't force myself to get past half-way - if there is something clever or entertaining about this book it went straight over my head.

Realities of War, 25 Apr 2008
Catch 22 exposes the ruthless realities of war and subsequently the harsh realities of life, as the novel depicts war as a microcosm of life itself. By doing this Heller are showing to the reader that war is just as inevitable as life itself and that life is sometimes as harsh and unyielding as war.

Mustard Gas & Roses Indeed..., 24 Feb 2008
As someone currently living in Dresden, I always suggest visitors read this novel before coming for a visit. This city has many scars still to show from the bombings and subsequent fires, but for getting to the heart of what happened here... the true scope & terror of it... I feel nothing compares to Slaughterhouse 5.

As if that weren't enough, Vonnegut intersperses fact with fiction, history with humor, and the results are sublime. If you're not a fan going in, I bet you will be coming out.



Didn't Live up to Expectation, 25 Nov 2007
It bored me half to death. Slow moving, uninteresting, frustrating and somewhat confusing. Would have been better if the writer had stuck to one plot. Only worth reading to say you've read it.

Listen:, 10 Sep 2008
Sordid, repellant, charming, witting, full of interesting insight and eminently readable. And so on.

It does make you wonder if this ever happened to Kurt.

Funny and thought-provoking, 21 Aug 2008
It's hard to know how to sum this up but it's definitely one of the most interesting and funny books I've read in a long time. It plays with conventions - hand-drawn images interspersed in the text, repeated breaking of the fourth wall (including making the author a protagonist), frequent non-sequiturs and so on - and yet it doesn't come across as fussy or pretentious. It's a genuinely funny exploration of the author's mind and a satire on America and, despite containing an interesting passage that describes how traditional storytelling is a bad thing, I still always wanted to know what happened next.

This is a book full of interesting ideas and memorable characters and I'd recommend this to anyone open-minded enough not to freak out when confronted by the first hand-drawn sketch.

Not Utter Claptrap but Dazzling Brilliance, 21 Dec 2006
'A Reader' clearly hasn't a clue. He just doesn't get it. 'Breakfast of Champions' is obviously one of the best satirical novels ever written (better in my opinion than the long-winded Catch 22). As I said, 'A Reader' hasn't a clue and here's why:

In 'Breakfast of Champions', Kurt Vonnegut has created a book resembling a children's encyclopedia. Is is written in simple language, short paragraphs and short sentences. It is acompanied by crude pictures drawn by the author himself. Vonnegut's principal strategy is to contrive the voice of a naif, which in his case is the voice of a fifty-year-old naif. The use of this voice has two risks: 1) It will pall and weary the reader with its limitations of tone. 2) The naive observations will finally seem to represent the mind of the author, which is to say that the book is apt to make Vonnegut himself appear simple-minded.

But on the other hand, the possibilities of the naive voice are considerable, and Vonnegut exploits them all: being naive, the narrator has no sense of structure or priority and thus can include anything, as indeed he does, moving in a few pages through matters of eschatology and teleology, cornball manners of the Midwest, irrelevant statistics, perverse sexuality, washroom graffiti, and automobile sales techniques. The satiric possibilities of the naive voice, moreover, are classic, and Vonnegut directs his innocent voice at American guile and idiocy with considerable effect. He explains, for example, with the same dull ingeniousness that he uses to explain the bucket of fried chicken, the function of the body bag in gathering together the fragments of a soldier killed in action...

Need I say more?

Claptrap, 07 Feb 2006
I’m not entirely sure why I persisted in reading this book, I guess I kept thinking “any minute now it’ll get funny, any minute now it’ll get clever”.

It didn’t.

I thought that this story was lazy; there is an underlying suggestion that Kurt Vonnegut can write well (I’m hoping so as I have Slaughterhouse Five in my ‘to read’ pile) but couldn’t be bothered, probably because there is barely a story to talk of.

I read in reviews of ‘pure hilarity and comedic chaos’; ‘knows how to dish up satire like none other’ and even ‘this has to be the most hilarious piece of fiction I have ever read’. Are you serious? For all our sakes read more books , I’ve read textbooks funnier than this. The comedy in this book borders on schoolboy slapstick, occasionally Vonnegut tries to be clever but fails miserably and resorts to pointless cartoons and tediously analogous mishaps for his one-dimensional characters.
I considered whilst reading this book that perhaps I wasn’t opening my mind to an intellectual humour, but frankly Vonneguts grasp on satire is comparable with Alanis Morrisette’s grasp on irony. In my experience satire is at it’s best when delivered intelligently with subtle reference to our every day lives, cleverly picking out the nuances of society and it’s structure and emphasizing their effect on the human condition. Not in stating the obvious every which way but Tuesday until the joke is so thoroughly beaten it may never draw breath again.

The comment - ‘Will leave you thinking about the structure of the earth we live on, and the kind of people we are’….Really?? I don’t think you’re going to learn much from this book as it doesn’t pose any new questions, it doesn’t delve into any psychology; it just loosely traverses the outlines of a few shallow characters without direction or conclusion.
A reviewer said it is a work of ‘deceptively simple fiction’…Please! The only deception in this book is the unfulfilled promise of hilarity. This book didn’t look at anything more than the fact that some people have money while others don’t. The oft-voiced idea that an unseen author is writing our lives and dictating the fates that befall us was handled clumsily. Vonnegut reminded us too frequently of his control over the characters and that he was shaping lives and outcomes with his own experiences, this didn’t add any humour or depth to the story.

I’m going away now to mourn the hours spent reading this drivel that I will never get back. In fact I’ll go and read Catch-22 and appreciate actual literary brilliance as opposed to lacklustre detritus. Perhaps I’m not cool enough to appreciate this book…well thank heavens, that means I’ll never have to read it again.

Buy it now., 12 Sep 2005
I'm not entirely sure how or why I came across this delightful book, but I am thankful that I did. The illustrations really do help to elevate this book into utter hillarity, as do the insane characters, which upon first impression don't seem central to the plot at all. Eventually though, everything comes together in what has to be one of the most bizarre endings I have ever read. Things that happen in this book just dont occur in other books. One of these things for example, is Vonneguts actual omnipotent presence in the book, he places himself in the story (with all the characters he has created at his mercy) to describe it like this in an amzon review does not do it justice.

Alltogether a briliant read, Happy 50th Kurt.

And so on.

Gripping stuff , 26 Sep 2008
This is a re-read. It is a very good adventure, one of his best, maintaining a real sense of threat and suffocating claustrophobia under the ground. There are some internal inconsistencies in dates and timings which would probably not get past a modern editor. Good stuff.

short but not sweet, 06 Jul 2008
Axel Lindenbrock's uncle, Professor Otto Lindenbrock, has found a piece of paper written in Old Icelandic. Axel shortly manages to make sense of it, and it leads him and his uncle to Iceland to an extinct volcano called Sneffells. There, they go down into its crater with the help of an escort named Hans Bjelke, in hope to get to the centre of the earth! They will face hunger, thirst, and tiredness, but odd Professor Lindenbrock will not give up until he is at the earth's core...or until he is dead!

This is not the whole story but only a shortened version that takes only about 40 minutes to read if you do not want to read the whole story or you want to tell a friend about the book.

Great book, Wrong description!, 03 Jul 2008
The book is fantastic, and if a real review is wanted, then read one of the other ones. I'm just here to say that the book is not hardcover as it states in the product description, and is one of those crappy recycled green covers!

Deserved classic- science fiction with character, 21 Oct 2007
As well as being the gripping high-adventure story that other reviewers have written about, when I re-read this novel recently I was struck by another side to the story that I hadn't noticed before- it reads, especially at the beginning of the book, as a satire. Verne is not content with helping to invent science fiction in terms of the science- some of which is consciously out-of-date even as Verne writes it, as he explains away science facts such as why inside the Earth's core is not flesh-meltingly hot in a manner not dissimilar to those bits of Star Trek where they tell you how the teleport works. In addition to the science, Journey To The Centre Of The Earth has character. Verne invents in this story the very concept of the mad scientist, in this case Professor Lidenbrock, who struggles to teach coherently at a German university and who is sent on a wild goose chase to Iceland because of one scrap of paper found in a library book. The interplay between our narrator Axel, his mad professor uncle and the reliable but non-verbal Icelandic guide Hans has things to say about the self-importance of science as well as about class and social standing. The science of this book is horrendously flawed but I believe it's the strength of character as well as Verne's fantastically imagined underground worlds that makes this novel not an out-dated joke but deservedly a classic.

4 stars, 05 Jul 2007
Verne captures real drama and human response in this fictitious masterpiece.It's a book for those who like the somewhat sureal adventure story. The plot thickens as the book progresses and i've read it twice in very different circumstances leading me to give it 4 stars. Firstly i read it one summer holiday in one big reading session as i really couldn't put it down, it was magic. The second time i read it on the bus on the way to work and found that having to read it on and off i didn't enjoyit nearly as much and found it hard to get back into. Not a book to read on and off from night to night in bed even but great if you've got a few hours to kill and you want to make the very mos of them.great book.

The Chosen One, 10 Nov 2008
I have recently embarked on a quest to read the fifty great American novels. (I'm on book thirty one) Slaughtehouse 5 was in good company - Portnoy's Complaint, Rabbit Run, In Cold Blood, Bonfire of the Vanities, The New York Trilogy, The Secret History, to name a few - but it emerged as the standout novel. It is a wondrous piece of storytelling and I can't wait to finish my quest (nineteen to go) so that I can return to Kurt Vonnegut and read everything he has written. He's the one!

Why all the fuss?, 07 Nov 2008
I bought this book on the basis of the rave reviews. I wish I hadn't. Although it is short I couldn't force myself to get past half-way - if there is something clever or entertaining about this book it went straight over my head.

Realities of War, 25 Apr 2008
Catch 22 exposes the ruthless realities of war and subsequently the harsh realities of life, as the novel depicts war as a microcosm of life itself. By doing this Heller are showing to the reader that war is just as inevitable as life itself and that life is sometimes as harsh and unyielding as war.

Mustard Gas & Roses Indeed..., 24 Feb 2008
As someone currently living in Dresden, I always suggest visitors read this novel before coming for a visit. This city has many scars still to show from the bombings and subsequent fires, but for getting to the heart of what happened here... the true scope & terror of it... I feel nothing compares to Slaughterhouse 5.

As if that weren't enough, Vonnegut intersperses fact with fiction, history with humor, and the results are sublime. If you're not a fan going in, I bet you will be coming out.



Didn't Live up to Expectation, 25 Nov 2007
It bored me half to death. Slow moving, uninteresting, frustrating and somewhat confusing. Would have been better if the writer had stuck to one plot. Only worth reading to say you've read it.

Listen:, 10 Sep 2008
Sordid, repellant, charming, witting, full of interesting insight and eminently readable. And so on.

It does make you wonder if this ever happened to Kurt.

Funny and thought-provoking, 21 Aug 2008
It's hard to know how to sum this up but it's definitely one of the most interesting and funny books I've read in a long time. It plays with conventions - hand-drawn images interspersed in the text, repeated breaking of the fourth wall (including making the author a protagonist), frequent non-sequiturs and so on - and yet it doesn't come across as fussy or pretentious. It's a genuinely funny exploration of the author's mind and a satire on America and, despite containing an interesting passage that describes how traditional storytelling is a bad thing, I still always wanted to know what happened next.

This is a book full of interesting ideas and memorable characters and I'd recommend this to anyone open-minded enough not to freak out when confronted by the first hand-drawn sketch.

Not Utter Claptrap but Dazzling Brilliance, 21 Dec 2006
'A Reader' clearly hasn't a clue. He just doesn't get it. 'Breakfast of Champions' is obviously one of the best satirical novels ever written (better in my opinion than the long-winded Catch 22). As I said, 'A Reader' hasn't a clue and here's why:

In 'Breakfast of Champions', Kurt Vonnegut has created a book resembling a children's encyclopedia. Is is written in simple language, short paragraphs and short sentences. It is acompanied by crude pictures drawn by the author himself. Vonnegut's principal strategy is to contrive the voice of a naif, which in his case is the voice of a fifty-year-old naif. The use of this voice has two risks: 1) It will pall and weary the reader with its limitations of tone. 2) The naive observations will finally seem to represent the mind of the author, which is to say that the book is apt to make Vonnegut himself appear simple-minded.

But on the other hand, the possibilities of the naive voice are considerable, and Vonnegut exploits them all: being naive, the narrator has no sense of structure or priority and thus can include anything, as indeed he does, moving in a few pages through matters of eschatology and teleology, cornball manners of the Midwest, irrelevant statistics, perverse sexuality, washroom graffiti, and automobile sales techniques. The satiric possibilities of the naive voice, moreover, are classic, and Vonnegut directs his innocent voice at American guile and idiocy with considerable effect. He explains, for example, with the same dull ingeniousness that he uses to explain the bucket of fried chicken, the function of the body bag in gathering together the fragments of a soldier killed in action...

Need I say more?

Claptrap, 07 Feb 2006
I’m not entirely sure why I persisted in reading this book, I guess I kept thinking “any minute now it’ll get funny, any minute now it’ll get clever”.

It didn’t.

I thought that this story was lazy; there is an underlying suggestion that Kurt Vonnegut can write well (I’m hoping so as I have Slaughterhouse Five in my ‘to read’ pile) but couldn’t be bothered, probably because there is barely a story to talk of.

I read in reviews of ‘pure hilarity and comedic chaos’; ‘knows how to dish up satire like none other’ and even ‘this has to be the most hilarious piece of fiction I have ever read’. Are you serious? For all our sakes read more books , I’ve read textbooks funnier than this. The comedy in this book borders on schoolboy slapstick, occasionally Vonnegut tries to be clever but fails miserably and resorts to pointless cartoons and tediously analogous mishaps for his one-dimensional characters.
I considered whilst reading this book that perhaps I wasn’t opening my mind to an intellectual humour, but frankly Vonneguts grasp on satire is comparable with Alanis Morrisette’s grasp on irony. In my experience satire is at it’s best when delivered intelligently with subtle reference to our every day lives, cleverly picking out the nuances of society and it’s structure and emphasizing their effect on the human condition. Not in stating the obvious every which way but Tuesday until the joke is so thoroughly beaten it may never draw breath again.

The comment - ‘Will leave you thinking about the structure of the earth we live on, and the kind of people we are’….Really?? I don’t think you’re going to learn much from this book as it doesn’t pose any new questions, it doesn’t delve into any psychology; it just loosely traverses the outlines of a few shallow characters without direction or conclusion.
A reviewer said it is a work of ‘deceptively simple fiction’…Please! The only deception in this book is the unfulfilled promise of hilarity. This book didn’t look at anything more than the fact that some people have money while others don’t. The oft-voiced idea that an unseen author is writing our lives and dictating the fates that befall us was handled clumsily. Vonnegut reminded us too frequently of his control over the characters and that he was shaping lives and outcomes with his own experiences, this didn’t add any humour or depth to the story.

I’m going away now to mourn the hours spent reading this drivel that I will never get back. In fact I’ll go and read Catch-22 and appreciate actual literary brilliance as opposed to lacklustre detritus. Perhaps I’m not cool enough to appreciate this book…well thank heavens, that means I’ll never have to read it again.

Buy it now., 12 Sep 2005
I'm not entirely sure how or why I came across this delightful book, but I am thankful that I did. The illustrations really do help to elevate this book into utter hillarity, as do the insane characters, which upon first impression don't seem central to the plot at all. Eventually though, everything comes together in what has to be one of the most bizarre endings I have ever read. Things that happen in this book just dont occur in other books. One of these things for example, is Vonneguts actual omnipotent presence in the book, he places himself in the story (with all the characters he has created at his mercy) to describe it like this in an amzon review does not do it justice.

Alltogether a briliant read, Happy 50th Kurt.

And so on.

Gripping stuff , 26 Sep 2008
This is a re-read. It is a very good adventure, one of his best, maintaining a real sense of threat and suffocating claustrophobia under the ground. There are some internal inconsistencies in dates and timings which would probably not get past a modern editor. Good stuff.

short but not sweet, 06 Jul 2008
Axel Lindenbrock's uncle, Professor Otto Lindenbrock, has found a piece of paper written in Old Icelandic. Axel shortly manages to make sense of it, and it leads him and his uncle to Iceland to an extinct volcano called Sneffells. There, they go down into its crater with the help of an escort named Hans Bjelke, in hope to get to the centre of the earth! They will face hunger, thirst, and tiredness, but odd Professor Lindenbrock will not give up until he is at the earth's core...or until he is dead!

This is not the whole story but only a shortened version that takes only about 40 minutes to read if you do not want to read the whole story or you want to tell a friend about the book.

Great book, Wrong description!, 03 Jul 2008
The book is fantastic, and if a real review is wanted, then read one of the other ones. I'm just here to say that the book is not hardcover as it states in the product description, and is one of those crappy recycled green covers!

Deserved classic- science fiction with character, 21 Oct 2007
As well as being the gripping high-adventure story that other reviewers have written about, when I re-read this novel recently I was struck by another side to the story that I hadn't noticed before- it reads, especially at the beginning of the book, as a satire. Verne is not content with helping to invent science fiction in terms of the science- some of which is consciously out-of-date even as Verne writes it, as he explains away science facts such as why inside the Earth's core is not flesh-meltingly hot in a manner not dissimilar to those bits of Star Trek where they tell you how the teleport works. In addition to the science, Journey To The Centre Of The Earth has character. Verne invents in this story the very concept of the mad scientist, in this case Professor Lidenbrock, who struggles to teach coherently at a German university and who is sent on a wild goose chase to Iceland because of one scrap of paper found in a library book. The interplay between our narrator Axel, his mad professor uncle and the reliable but non-verbal Icelandic guide Hans has things to say about the self-importance of science as well as about class and social standing. The science of this book is horrendously flawed but I believe it's the strength of character as well as Verne's fantastically imagined underground worlds that makes this novel not an out-dated joke but deservedly a classic.

4 stars, 05 Jul 2007
Verne captures real drama and human response in this fictitious masterpiece.It's a book for those who like the somewhat sureal adventure story. The plot thickens as the book progresses and i've read it twice in very different circumstances leading me to give it 4 stars. Firstly i read it one summer holiday in one big reading session as i really couldn't put it down, it was magic. The second time i read it on the bus on the way to work and found that having to read it on and off i didn't enjoyit nearly as much and found it hard to get back into. Not a book to read on and off from night to night in bed even but great if you've got a few hours to kill and you want to make the very mos of them.great book.

A lot to live up to - and it didn't for me..., 13 Dec 2008
The great thing about Jason Bourne as created by Robert Ludlum, and at the same time the greatest problem is that three novels is not enough - you want more and more.

The novels by Eric van Lustbader offer a light at the end of the tunnel for Bourne fans. The problem for me is that its just that - a light at the end of a tunnel that I don't want to go down.

Before I bought this, I had added all the Lustbader Bourne novels to my wish list. I have subsequently removed them as I don't feel they are worth the money.

Don't get me wrong, its not horrendous but there are so many faults and issues I hardly know where to begin.

Aside from all the other issues, gramatically and proof reading wise this was the worst I have ever read - school boy errors, I seriously doubt it was ever proof read.

Lustbader in my view tried to make up for the failings in his writing ability by making an over complicated plot with far too many characters sending you in all different directions, and never mind trying to work it all out, I struggled to keep up with it.

I was deeply disappointed and really wanted to enjoy this book - I was so excited to get it, but I think the best way I can end this review is as follows:

Great stories finish and great characters leave at their peak, making you want more. Ludlum does this - and Lustbader is no Ludlum.

Another Bourne Novel, 25 Oct 2008
Van Lustbader takes the Bourne adventurer on another venture but does not take the Bourne story forward, although there is a hint of a yet another volume to follow in the last page. This story is about a rather imaginary middle eastern terrorist group with its beginnings in Nazi Germany. I thought the story not put together as well as other books, and wondered of it could do with some editing as it is confusing in parts. If you have read all the other Bourne books then worth reading but I would not start here with the Bourne series. I tend to get the impression this is an investment for a long series of Bourne films in the future. In conclusion I enjoyed the book, but it did not excite me and I did manage to put the book down and took longer then usual to finish.

Better than Bourne Betrayal (but then ANYTHING is!!!), 25 Oct 2008
Here we go again... another Eric Van Lustbader poor knock-off Bourne Book!

When The Bourne Legacy came out I felt that new life had been brought into (the book) Jason Bourne (I thought it was a great book), and could not wait for more... but when the Bourne Betrayal (Betrayal is the word for sure) came out and was so angry and wish that Van Lustbader had stopped while he was ahead with Legacy.

Anyway, when The Bourne Sanction came out, a part of me wanted to avoid it after the let down of the last book!

TBH, the story is still VERY weak and poor (even Robert Ludlum himself never wrote anything as poor as this and the last book)... but is actually more enjoyable than Betrayal... Bourne again seems to be getting younger rather older (its pretty weired reading about a guy in his late 60's on the dancefloor of a Moscow nightclub, like he is in his late 20's, dancing with a young Russian girl), which makes me think that Van Lustbader has based "his" Bourne on the Matt Damon one rather than Robert Ludlums one!

From what I hear another book is due out next year... hopefully Van Lustbader will move on from the Middle-East Terrorist story that he has followed in the last 3 books, as it is getting old now!

Not well researched, 03 Oct 2008
Bought this book at the airport.............
My first impression of this book was that it was poorly researched. It has some fairly graphic violent scenes that have some cringingly inaccurate injuries that anybody who knows any school biology would not make eg "was struck flush on his third sacral vertebra, which shattered on impact, breaking his back" really?
"He aimed for the underside of the guard's wrist; the nexus of veins that, if severed, would render the hand useless"
All this by page 8-and it goes on.
Unfortunately this made me not "trust" any of the other descriptions of things in the book eg places-immediately I didn't believe what I was reading.
Impersonating a dead author is a good way of making money but this book is lazy and sloppy, the plot is fairly transparent and in parts was fairly incoherent because I hadn't read the previous two books and therefore didn't understand the relationships between the characters. However I did finish the book and despite predicting the plot from fairly early on couldn't/didn't put it down

The Best of the Lustbader Books to Date About Jason Bourne, 21 Aug 2008

This is the third book written by Eric Van Lustbader about Jason Bourne. As I've commented before, this isn't the same Jason Bourne as Robert Ludlum wrote about. If you want that Jason Bourne, skip this book. It's also different from the wonderful ninja stories that Eric Van Lustbader is known for. So don't look for that either.

If you are interested in meeting and following a new Jason Bourne, read on. If you do decide to read The Bourne Sanction, I strongly suggest that you read The Bourne Betrayal first. The characters and the situation won't make much sense to you otherwise. I suspect that you will see this book as a one or two star effort.

As the book opens, there's a deadly secret being passed along to help foil a dangerous terrorist plan. The U.S. intelligence community is in great turmoil, and there are lots of people who want to grab the reins of power. Jason Bourne has resumed his David Webb persona and is teaching again. Events quickly conspire to intertwine those plot threads into a huge conflict that imperils even Jason Bourne.

Like The Bourne Betrayal, this book is too long. But it's only 150 pages too long, rather than 200 pages too long. That's progress.

The book's strength can be found in some of the action scenes and in the plot twists that are deeply embedded into the early Bourne stories. The book's weaknesses are that it moves too slowly, Bourne is barely present as a personality, and there's a little too much assuming that readers have read the last two stories.

I get the sense that Mr. Lustbader is beginning to get his sea legs under him in writing about Jason Bourne. I suspect the series will continue to get better from here. But what do I know? I'm just an optimist who is rooting for this series to work. I would miss the idea of Jason Bourne too much otherwise.

The Chosen One, 10 Nov 2008
I have recently embarked on a quest to read the fifty great American novels. (I'm on book thirty one) Slaughtehouse 5 was in good company - Portnoy's Complaint, Rabbit Run, In Cold Blood, Bonfire of the Vanities, The New York Trilogy, The Secret History, to name a few - but it emerged as the standout novel. It is a wondrous piece of storytelling and I can't wait to finish my quest (nineteen to go) so that I can return to Kurt Vonnegut and read everything he has written. He's the one!

Why all the fuss?, 07 Nov 2008
I bought this book on the basis of the rave reviews. I wish I hadn't. Although it is short I couldn't force myself to get past half-way - if there is something clever or entertaining about this book it went straight over my head.

Realities of War, 25 Apr 2008
Catch 22 exposes the ruthless realities of war and subsequently the harsh realities of life, as the novel depicts war as a microcosm of life itself. By doing this Heller are showing to the reader that war is just as inevitable as life itself and that life is sometimes as harsh and unyielding as war.

Mustard Gas & Roses Indeed..., 24 Feb 2008
As someone currently living in Dresden, I always suggest visitors read this novel before coming for a visit. This city has many scars still to show from the bombings and subsequent fires, but for getting to the heart of what happened here... the true scope & terror of it... I feel nothing compares to Slaughterhouse 5.

As if that weren't enough, Vonnegut intersperses fact with fiction, history with humor, and the results are sublime. If you're not a fan going in, I bet you will be coming out.



Didn't Live up to Expectation, 25 Nov 2007
It bored me half to death. Slow moving, uninteresting, frustrating and somewhat confusing. Would have been better if the writer had stuck to one plot. Only worth reading to say you've read it.

Listen:, 10 Sep 2008
Sordid, repellant, charming, witting, full of interesting insight and eminently readable. And so on.

It does make you wonder if this ever happened to Kurt.

Funny and thought-provoking, 21 Aug 2008
It's hard to know how to sum this up but it's definitely one of the most interesting and funny books I've read in a long time. It plays with conventions - hand-drawn images interspersed in the text, repeated breaking of the fourth wall (including making the author a protagonist), frequent non-sequiturs and so on - and yet it doesn't come across as fussy or pretentious. It's a genuinely funny exploration of the author's mind and a satire on America and, despite containing an interesting passage that describes how traditional storytelling is a bad thing, I still always wanted to know what happened next.

This is a book full of interesting ideas and memorable characters and I'd recommend this to anyone open-minded enough not to freak out when confronted by the first hand-drawn sketch.

Not Utter Claptrap but Dazzling Brilliance, 21 Dec 2006
'A Reader' clearly hasn't a clue. He just doesn't get it. 'Breakfast of Champions' is obviously one of the best satirical novels ever written (better in my opinion than the long-winded Catch 22). As I said, 'A Reader' hasn't a clue and here's why:

In 'Breakfast of Champions', Kurt Vonnegut has created a book resembling a children's encyclopedia. Is is written in simple language, short paragraphs and short sentences. It is acompanied by crude pictures drawn by the author himself. Vonnegut's principal strategy is to contrive the voice of a naif, which in his case is the voice of a fifty-year-old naif. The use of this voice has two risks: 1) It will pall and weary the reader with its limitations of tone. 2) The naive observations will finally seem to represent the mind of the author, which is to say that the book is apt to make Vonnegut himself appear simple-minded.

But on the other hand, the possibilities of the naive voice are considerable, and Vonnegut exploits them all: being naive, the narrator has no sense of structure or priority and thus can include anything, as indeed he does, moving in a few pages through matters of eschatology and teleology, cornball manners of the Midwest, irrelevant statistics, perverse sexuality, washroom graffiti, and automobile sales techniques. The satiric possibilities of the naive voice, moreover, are classic, and Vonnegut directs his innocent voice at American guile and idiocy with considerable effect. He explains, for example, with the same dull ingeniousness that he uses to explain the bucket of fried chicken, the function of the body bag in gathering together the fragments of a soldier killed in action...

Need I say more?

Claptrap, 07 Feb 2006
I’m not entirely sure why I persisted in reading this book, I guess I kept thinking “any minute now it’ll get funny, any minute now it’ll get clever”.

It didn’t.

I thought that this story was lazy; there is an underlying suggestion that Kurt Vonnegut can write well (I’m hoping so as I have Slaughterhouse Five in my ‘to read’ pile) but couldn’t be bothered, probably because there is barely a story to talk of.

I read in reviews of ‘pure hilarity and comedic chaos’; ‘knows how to dish up satire like none other’ and even ‘this has to be the most hilarious piece of fiction I have ever read’. Are you serious? For all our sakes read more books , I’ve read textbooks funnier than this. The comedy in this book borders on schoolboy slapstick, occasionally Vonnegut tries to be clever but fails miserably and resorts to pointless cartoons and tediously analogous mishaps for his one-dimensional characters.
I considered whilst reading this book that perhaps I wasn’t opening my mind to an intellectual humour, but frankly Vonneguts grasp on satire is comparable with Alanis Morrisette’s grasp on irony. In my experience satire is at it’s best when delivered intelligently with subtle reference to our every day lives, cleverly picking out the nuances of society and it’s structure and emphasizing their effect on the human condition. Not in stating the obvious every which way but Tuesday until the joke is so thoroughly beaten it may never draw breath again.

The comment - ‘Will leave you thinking about the structure of the earth we live on, and the kind of people we are’….Really?? I don’t think you’re going to learn much from this book as it doesn’t pose any new questions, it doesn’t delve into any psychology; it just loosely traverses the outlines of a few shallow characters without direction or conclusion.
A reviewer said it is a work of ‘deceptively simple fiction’…Please! The only deception in this book is the unfulfilled promise of hilarity. This book didn’t look at anything more than the fact that some people have money while others don’t. The oft-voiced idea that an unseen author is writing our lives and dictating the fates that befall us was handled clumsily. Vonnegut reminded us too frequently of his control over the characters and that he was shaping lives and outcomes with his own experiences, this didn’t add any humour or depth to the story.

I’m going away now to mourn the hours spent reading this drivel that I will never get back. In fact I’ll go and read Catch-22 and appreciate actual literary brilliance as opposed to lacklustre detritus. Perhaps I’m not cool enough to appreciate this book…well thank heavens, that means I’ll never have to read it again.

Buy it now., 12 Sep 2005
I'm not entirely sure how or why I came across this delightful book, but I am thankful that I did. The illustrations really do help to elevate this book into utter hillarity, as do the insane characters, which upon first impression don't seem central to the plot at all. Eventually though, everything comes together in what has to be one of the most bizarre endings I have ever read. Things that happen in this book just dont occur in other books. One of these things for example, is Vonneguts actual omnipotent presence in the book, he places himself in the story (with all the characters he has created at his mercy) to describe it like this in an amzon review does not do it justice.

Alltogether a briliant read, Happy 50th Kurt.

And so on.

Gripping stuff , 26 Sep 2008
This is a re-read. It is a very good adventure, one of his best, maintaining a real sense of threat and suffocating claustrophobia under the ground. There are some internal inconsistencies in dates and timings which would probably not get past a modern editor. Good stuff.

short but not sweet, 06 Jul 2008
Axel Lindenbrock's uncle, Professor Otto Lindenbrock, has found a piece of paper written in Old Icelandic. Axel shortly manages to make sense of it, and it leads him and his uncle to Iceland to an extinct volcano called Sneffells. There, they go down into its crater with the help of an escort named Hans Bjelke, in hope to get to the centre of the earth! They will face hunger, thirst, and tiredness, but odd Professor Lindenbrock will not give up until he is at the earth's core...or until he is dead!

This is not the whole story but only a shortened version that takes only about 40 minutes to read if you do not want to read the whole story or you want to tell a friend about the book.

Great book, Wrong description!, 03 Jul 2008
The book is fantastic, and if a real review is wanted, then read one of the other ones. I'm just here to say that the book is not hardcover as it states in the product description, and is one of those crappy recycled green covers!

Deserved classic- science fiction with character, 21 Oct 2007
As well as being the gripping high-adventure story that other reviewers have written about, when I re-read this novel recently I was struck by another side to the story that I hadn't noticed before- it reads, especially at the beginning of the book, as a satire. Verne is not content with helping to invent science fiction in terms of the science- some of which is consciously out-of-date even as Verne writes it, as he explains away science facts such as why inside the Earth's core is not flesh-meltingly hot in a manner not dissimilar to those bits of Star Trek where they tell you how the teleport works. In addition to the science, Journey To The Centre Of The Earth has character. Verne invents in this story the very concept of the mad scientist, in this case Professor Lidenbrock, who struggles to teach coherently at a German university and who is sent on a wild goose chase to Iceland because of one scrap of paper found in a library book. The interplay between our narrator Axel, his mad professor uncle and the reliable but non-verbal Icelandic guide Hans has things to say about the self-importance of science as well as about class and social standing. The science of this book is horrendously flawed but I believe it's the strength of character as well as Verne's fantastically imagined underground worlds that makes this novel not an out-dated joke but deservedly a classic.

4 stars, 05 Jul 2007
Verne captures real drama and human response in this fictitious masterpiece.It's a book for those who like the somewhat sureal adventure story. The plot thickens as the book progresses and i've read it twice in very different circumstances leading me to give it 4 stars. Firstly i read it one summer holiday in one big reading session as i really couldn't put it down, it was magic. The second time i read it on the bus on the way to work and found that having to read it on and off i didn't enjoyit nearly as much and found it hard to get back into. Not a book to read on and off from night to night in bed even but great if you've got a few hours to kill and you want to make the very mos of them.great book.

A lot to live up to - and it didn't for me..., 13 Dec 2008
The great thing about Jason Bourne as created by Robert Ludlum, and at the same time the greatest problem is that three novels is not enough - you want more and more.

The novels by Eric van Lustbader offer a light at the end of the tunnel for Bourne fans. The problem for me is that its just that - a light at the end of a tunnel that I don't want to go down.

Before I bought this, I had added all the Lustbader Bourne novels to my wish list. I have subsequently removed them as I don't feel they are worth the money.

Don't get me wrong, its not horrendous but there are so many faults and issues I hardly know where to begin.

Aside from all the other issues, gramatically and proof reading wise this was the worst I have ever read - school boy errors, I seriously doubt it was ever proof read.

Lustbader in my view tried to make up for the failings in his writing ability by making an over complicated plot with far too many characters sending you in all different directions, and never mind trying to work it all out, I struggled to keep up with it.

I was deeply disappointed and really wanted to enjoy this book - I was so excited to get it, but I think the best way I can end this review is as follows:

Great stories finish and great characters leave at their peak, making you want more. Ludlum does this - and Lustbader is no Ludlum.

Another Bourne Novel, 25 Oct 2008
Van Lustbader takes the Bourne adventurer on another venture but does not take the Bourne story forward, although there is a hint of a yet another volume to follow in the last page. This story is about a rather imaginary middle eastern terrorist group with its beginnings in Nazi Germany. I thought the story not put together as well as other books, and wondered of it could do with some editing as it is confusing in parts. If you have read all the other Bourne books then worth reading but I would not start here with the Bourne series. I tend to get the impression this is an investment for a long series of Bourne films in the future. In conclusion I enjoyed the book, but it did not excite me and I did manage to put the book down and took longer then usual to finish.

Better than Bourne Betrayal (but then ANYTHING is!!!), 25 Oct 2008
Here we go again... another Eric Van Lustbader poor knock-off Bourne Book!

When The Bourne Legacy came out I felt that new life had been brought into (the book) Jason Bourne (I thought it was a great book), and could not wait for more... but when the Bourne Betrayal (Betrayal is the word for sure) came out and was so angry and wish that Van Lustbader had stopped while he was ahead with Legacy.

Anyway, when The Bourne Sanction came out, a part of me wanted to avoid it after the let down of the last book!

TBH, the story is still VERY weak and poor (even Robert Ludlum himself never wrote anything as poor as this and the last book)... but is actually more enjoyable than Betrayal... Bourne again seems to be getting younger rather older (its pretty weired reading about a guy in his late 60's on the dancefloor of a Moscow nightclub, like he is in his late 20's, dancing with a young Russian girl), which makes me think that Van Lustbader has based "his" Bourne on the Matt Damon one rather than Robert Ludlums one!

From what I hear another book is due out next year... hopefully Van Lustbader will move on from the Middle-East Terrorist story that he has followed in the last 3 books, as it is getting old now!

Not well researched, 03 Oct 2008
Bought this book at the airport.............
My first impression of this book was that it was poorly researched. It has some fairly graphic violent scenes that have some cringingly inaccurate injuries that anybody who knows any school biology would not make eg "was struck flush on his third sacral vertebra, which shattered on impact, breaking his back" really?
"He aimed for the underside of the guard's wrist; the nexus of veins that, if severed, would render the hand useless"
All this by page 8-and it goes on.
Unfortunately this made me not "trust" any of the other descriptions of things in the book eg places-immediately I didn't believe what I was reading.
Impersonating a dead author is a good way of making money but this book is lazy and sloppy, the plot is fairly transparent and in parts was fairly incoherent because I hadn't read the previous two books and therefore didn't understand the relationships between the characters. However I did finish the book and despite predicting the plot from fairly early on couldn't/didn't put it down

The Best of the Lustbader Books to Date About Jason Bourne, 21 Aug 2008

This is the third book written by Eric Van Lustbader about Jason Bourne. As I've commented before, this isn't the same Jason Bourne as Robert Ludlum wrote about. If you want that Jason Bourne, skip this book. It's also different from the wonderful ninja stories that Eric Van Lustbader is known for. So don't look for that either.

If you are interested in meeting and following a new Jason Bourne, read on. If you do decide to read The Bourne Sanction, I strongly suggest that you read The Bourne Betrayal first. The characters and the situation won't make much sense to you otherwise. I suspect that you will see this book as a one or two star effort.

As the book opens, there's a deadly secret being passed along to help foil a dangerous terrorist plan. The U.S. intelligence community is in great turmoil, and there are lots of people who want to grab the reins of power. Jason Bourne has resumed his David Webb persona and is teaching again. Events quickly conspire to intertwine those plot threads into a huge conflict that imperils even Jason Bourne.

Like The Bourne Betrayal, this book is too long. But it's only 150 pages too long, rather than 200 pages too long. That's progress.

The book's strength can be found in some of the action scenes and in the plot twists that are deeply embedded into the early Bourne stories. The book's weaknesses are that it moves too slowly, Bourne is barely present as a personality, and there's a little too much assuming that readers have read the last two stories.

I get the sense that Mr. Lustbader is beginning to get his sea legs under him in writing about Jason Bourne. I suspect the series will continue to get better from here. But what do I know? I'm just an optimist who is rooting for this series to work. I would miss the idea of Jason Bourne too much otherwise.

Make sure you've read Slaughterhouse 5 first, 18 Aug 2007
This is the second book of Vonnegut I've read, the first one being Vonnegut's best know novel, "Slaughterhouse 5". If it was not for "Slaughterhouse 5" I would take "A cat's cradle" as a very imaginative, weird and funny book, but probably not one that keeps me thinking for some time once finished. The tone is just too light and the story too improbable to be taken otherwise. But this is highly deceptive and once you realise that Vonnegut's war experience in Dresden has been central to his vision of life, this book appears not just as light entertainment but as a more profound reflection on the meaning of life (pretty meaningless in the author's view I gather) and, incidentally, on the role of religion and the power science gives to some very irresponsible and unbalanced people (this book was written during the cold war and the possibility of the world being completely wiped out by nuclear war was then seen as very real).

The message may be too pessimistic to make the novel completely enjoyable but it makes for an interesting and very funny read until someone presses the wrong the button.


read it again, 02 Jul 2005
The first time I read this book I thought it was good, six years on I read it again and thought it was great, another six years and I've just finished it again and think it may be the greatest book I've ever read.

'No damn cat, and no damn cradle.', 16 Jun 2004
Lacks the inherant pathos and humour of Slaughterhouse-5 but, don't let that put you off! This is a superbly imaginitative story that incorporates a brilliantly biting, satirical sideswipe at the cynicism of religion, the dangerous nihilism of science and the abundant stupidity of both!

The protaginist is a writer who, whilst investigating the life of Dr Felix Hoenikker (co-creator of the Atomic Bomb), becomes aware of the deadly Ice-09, a 'lethal chemical capable of freezing the entire planet'.

I won't spoil the plot, suffice it to say that, the bulk of the story involves the writer's pursuit and eventual, catastrophic encounter with the deadly chemical.

Vonnegut keeps the story moving along at a comfortable pace, in short chapters, whilst we are introduced to some of the most colourful characters in 20th Century fiction, from seemingly amoral 'mad' scientists to cynical pseudo-messiahs.

I loved the witty dialogue of the Hoenikkers and, the cynical aphorisms of 'Bokonon'. I also liked the way that Vonnegut portrayed his message that, religion is based upon (supposedly harmless) untruths that allegedly, explain the issues that elude science (the unexplainable).

Just buy it!

Ideology through entertainment, 24 Feb 2003
"Cat's cradle" is a book that forces you to like it. It will eventually put a smile on your face through sheer persistence in its vision which is pervasive, cynical and at times very very humourous.

The story, which follows directly from "Ice Nine", revolves around a man's hunt for the missing pieces of the substance, after he accidentally discovers that they exist and how to go about locating them. During his trip, he comes across an immense array of characters, all of which have something profound to reveal, whether they realise it or not.

There is not a lot to say about the book's dogma, as it doesn't seem to have a central point. Rather, it is a collage of several ideas, expressed strongly, though often vaguely, by the assortment of memorable characters featured. The author displays a witty and sharp writing style with emphasis on dialogue and minimal waste of paper, although I found his prose somewhat lacking in terms of literature.

All in all, "Cat's cradle" is an honest, straightforward book with more good moments than bad, aimed at leaving the reader entertained, satisfied and, possibly, this bit wiser.

Ideology through entertainment, 24 Feb 2003
"Cat's cradle" is a book that forces you to like it. It will eventually put a smile on your face through sheer persistence in its vision which is pervasive, cynical and at times very very humourous.

The story, which follows directly from "Ice Nine", revolves around a man's hunt for the missing pieces of the substance, after he accidentally discovers that they exist and how to go about locating them. During his trip, he comes across an immense array of characters, all of which have something profound to reveal, whether they realise it or not.

There is not a lot to say about the book's dogma, as it doesn't seem to have a central point. Rather, it is a collage of several ideas, expressed strongly, though often vaguely, by the assortment of memorable characters featured. The author displays a witty and sharp writing style with emphasis on dialogue and minimal waste of paper, although I found his prose somewhat lacking in terms of literature.

All in all, "Cat's cradle" is an honest, straightforward book with more good moments than bad, aimed at leaving the reader entertained, satisfied and, possibly, this bit wiser.

The adventures of the enigmatic Captain Nemo and his fantastic submarine "Nautilus" have Made 20,000 Leagues under the Sea a legend in science fiction. This exciting retelling captures the essence of Verne's visionary and unforgettable story, while also explaining the fascinating facts and fantasies of Captain Nemo's marvellous ocean realm.

However, as you would expect being a Dorling Kindersley book, there is much more to this edition than an expert retelling of the story. With colour photographs, diagrams, narrative illustrations and a unique cross-section of the "Nautilus" this edition also explores Verne's unique vision and knowledge of the deep, adding an extra dimension to the excitement of this thrilling adventure story. (Ages 8 to 12)

The Chosen One, 10 Nov 2008
I have recently embarked on a quest to read the fifty great American novels. (I'm on book thirty one) Slaughtehouse 5 was in good company - Portnoy's Complaint, Rabbit Run, In Cold Blood, Bonfire of the Vanities, The New York Trilogy, The Secret History, to name a few - but it emerged as the standout novel. It is a wondrous piece of storytelling and I can't wait to finish my quest (nineteen to go) so that I can return to Kurt Vonnegut and read everything he has written. He's the one!

Why all the fuss?, 07 Nov 2008
I bought this book on the basis of the rave reviews. I wish I hadn't. Although it is short I couldn't force myself to get past half-way - if there is something clever or entertaining about this book it went straight over my head.

Realities of War, 25 Apr 2008
Catch 22 exposes the ruthless realities of war and subsequently the harsh realities of life, as the novel depicts war as a microcosm of life itself. By doing this Heller are showing to the reader that war is just as inevitable as life itself and that life is sometimes as harsh and unyielding as war.

Mustard Gas & Roses Indeed..., 24 Feb 2008
As someone currently living in Dresden, I always suggest visitors read this novel before coming for a visit. This city has many scars still to show from the bombings and subsequent fires, but for getting to the heart of what happened here... the true scope & terror of it... I feel nothing compares to Slaughterhouse 5.

As if that weren't enough, Vonnegut intersperses fact with fiction, history with humor, and the results are sublime. If you're not a fan going in, I bet you will be coming out.



Didn't Live up to Expectation, 25 Nov 2007
It bored me half to death. Slow moving, uninteresting, frustrating and somewhat confusing. Would have been better if the writer had stuck to one plot. Only worth reading to say you've read it.

Listen:, 10 Sep 2008
Sordid, repellant, charming, witting, full of interesting insight and eminently readable. And so on.

It does make you wonder if this ever happened to Kurt.

Funny and thought-provoking, 21 Aug 2008
It's hard to know how to sum this up but it's definitely one of the most interesting and funny books I've read in a long time. It plays with conventions - hand-drawn images interspersed in the text, repeated breaking of the fourth wall (including making the author a protagonist), frequent non-sequiturs and so on - and yet it doesn't come across as fussy or pretentious. It's a genuinely funny exploration of the author's mind and a satire on America and, despite containing an interesting passage that describes how traditional storytelling is a bad thing, I still always wanted to know what happened next.

This is a book full of interesting ideas and memorable characters and I'd recommend this to anyone open-minded enough not to freak out when confronted by the first hand-drawn sketch.

Not Utter Claptrap but Dazzling Brilliance, 21 Dec 2006
'A Reader' clearly hasn't a clue. He just doesn't get it. 'Breakfast of Champions' is obviously one of the best satirical novels ever written (better in my opinion than the long-winded Catch 22). As I said, 'A Reader' hasn't a clue and here's why:

In 'Breakfast of Champions', Kurt Vonnegut has created a book resembling a children's encyclopedia. Is is written in simple language, short paragraphs and short sentences. It is acompanied by crude pictures drawn by the author himself. Vonnegut's principal strategy is to contrive the voice of a naif, which in his case is the voice of a fifty-year-old naif. The use of this voice has two risks: 1) It will pall and weary the reader with its limitations of tone. 2) The naive observations will finally seem to represent the mind of the author, which is to say that the book is apt to make Vonnegut himself appear simple-minded.

But on the other hand, the possibilities of the naive voice are considerable, and Vonnegut exploits them all: being naive, the narrator has no sense of structure or priority and thus can include anything, as indeed he does, moving in a few pages through matters of eschatology and teleology, cornball manners of the Midwest, irrelevant statistics, perverse sexuality, washroom graffiti, and automobile sales techniques. The satiric possibilities of the naive voice, moreover, are classic, and Vonnegut directs his innocent voice at American guile and idiocy with considerable effect. He explains, for example, with the same dull ingeniousness that he uses to explain the bucket of fried chicken, the function of the body bag in gathering together the fragments of a soldier killed in action...

Need I say more?

Claptrap, 07 Feb 2006
I’m not entirely sure why I persisted in reading this book, I guess I kept thinking “any minute now it’ll get funny, any minute now it’ll get clever”.

It didn’t.

I thought that this story was lazy; there is an underlying suggestion that Kurt Vonnegut can write well (I’m hoping so as I have Slaughterhouse Five in my ‘to read’ pile) but couldn’t be bothered, probably because there is barely a story to talk of.

I read in reviews of ‘pure hilarity and comedic chaos’; ‘knows how to dish up satire like none other’ and even ‘this has to be the most hilarious piece of fiction I have ever read’. Are you serious? For all our sakes read more books , I’ve read textbooks funnier than this. The comedy in this book borders on schoolboy slapstick, occasionally Vonnegut tries to be clever but fails miserably and resorts to pointless cartoons and tediously analogous mishaps for his one-dimensional characters.
I considered whilst reading this book that perhaps I wasn’t opening my mind to an intellectual humour, but frankly Vonneguts grasp on satire is comparable with Alanis Morrisette’s grasp on irony. In my experience satire is at it’s best when delivered intelligently with subtle reference to our every day lives, cleverly picking out the nuances of society and it’s structure and emphasizing their effect on the human condition. Not in stating the obvious every which way but Tuesday until the joke is so thoroughly beaten it may never draw breath again.

The comment - ‘Will leave you thinking about the structure of the earth we live on, and the kind of people we are’….Really?? I don’t think you’re going to learn much from this book as it doesn’t pose any new questions, it doesn’t delve into any psychology; it just loosely traverses the outlines of a few shallow characters without direction or conclusion.
A reviewer said it is a work of ‘deceptively simple fiction’…Please! The only deception in this book is the unfulfilled promise of hilarity. This book didn’t look at anything more than the fact that some people have money while others don’t. The oft-voiced idea that an unseen author is writing our lives and dictating the fates that befall us was handled clumsily. Vonnegut reminded us too frequently of his control over the characters and that he was shaping lives and outcomes with his own experiences, this didn’t add any humour or depth to the story.

I’m going away now to mourn the hours spent reading this drivel that I will never get back. In fact I’ll go and read Catch-22 and appreciate actual literary brilliance as opposed to lacklustre detritus. Perhaps I’m not cool enough to appreciate this book…well thank heavens, that means I’ll never have to read it again.

Buy it now., 12 Sep 2005
I'm not entirely sure how or why I came across this delightful book, but I am thankful that I did. The illustrations really do help to elevate this book into utter hillarity, as do the insane characters, which upon first impression don't seem central to the plot at all. Eventually though, everything comes together in what has to be one of the most bizarre endings I have ever read. Things that happen in this book just dont occur in other books. One of these things for example, is Vonneguts actual omnipotent presence in the book, he places himself in the story (with all the characters he has created at his mercy) to describe it like this in an amzon review does not do it justice.

Alltogether a briliant read, Happy 50th Kurt.

And so on.

Gripping stuff , 26 Sep 2008
This is a re-read. It is a very good adventure, one of his best, maintaining a real sense of threat and suffocating claustrophobia under the ground. There are some internal inconsistencies in dates and timings which would probably not get past a modern editor. Good stuff.

short but not sweet, 06 Jul 2008
Axel Lindenbrock's uncle, Professor Otto Lindenbrock, has found a piece of paper written in Old Icelandic. Axel shortly manages to make sense of it, and it leads him and his uncle to Iceland to an extinct volcano called Sneffells. There, they go down into its crater with the help of an escort named Hans Bjelke, in hope to get to the centre of the earth! They will face hunger, thirst, and tiredness, but odd Professor Lindenbrock will not give up until he is at the earth's core...or until he is dead!

This is not the whole story but only a shortened version that takes only about 40 minutes to read if you do not want to read the whole story or you want to tell a friend about the book.

Great book, Wrong description!, 03 Jul 2008
The book is fantastic, and if a real review is wanted, then read one of the other ones. I'm just here to say that the book is not hardcover as it states in the product description, and is one of those crappy recycled green covers!

Deserved classic- science fiction with character, 21 Oct 2007
As well as being the gripping high-adventure story that other reviewers have written about, when I re-read this novel recently I was struck by another side to the story that I hadn't noticed before- it reads, especially at the beginning of the book, as a satire. Verne is not content with helping to invent science fiction in terms of the science- some of which is consciously out-of-date even as Verne writes it, as he explains away science facts such as why inside the Earth's core is not flesh-meltingly hot in a manner not dissimilar to those bits of Star Trek where they tell you how the teleport works. In addition to the science, Journey To The Centre Of The Earth has character. Verne invents in this story the very concept of the mad scientist, in this case Professor Lidenbrock, who struggles to teach coherently at a German university and who is sent on a wild goose chase to Iceland because of one scrap of paper found in a library book. The interplay between our narrator Axel, his mad professor uncle and the reliable but non-verbal Icelandic guide Hans has things to say about the self-importance of science as well as about class and social standing. The science of this book is horrendously flawed but I believe it's the strength of character as well as Verne's fantastically imagined underground worlds that makes this novel not an out-dated joke but deservedly a classic.

4 stars, 05 Jul 2007
Verne captures real drama and human response in this fictitious masterpiece.It's a book for those who like the somewhat sureal adventure story. The plot thickens as the book progresses and i've read it twice in very different circumstances leading me to give it 4 stars. Firstly i read it one summer holiday in one big reading session as i really couldn't put it down, it was magic. The second time i read it on the bus on the way to work and found that having to read it on and off i didn't enjoyit nearly as much and found it hard to get back into. Not a book to read on and off from night to night in bed even but great if you've got a few hours to kill and you want to make the very mos of them.great book.

A lot to live up to - and it didn't for me..., 13 Dec 2008
The great thing about Jason Bourne as created by Robert Ludlum, and at the same time the greatest problem is that three novels is not enough - you want more and more.

The novels by Eric van Lustbader offer a light at the end of the tunnel for Bourne fans. The problem for me is that its just that - a light at the end of a tunnel that I don't want to go down.

Before I bought this, I had added all the Lustbader Bourne novels to my wish list. I have subsequently removed them as I don't feel they are worth the money.

Don't get me wrong, its not horrendous but there are so many faults and issues I hardly know where to begin.

Aside from all the other issues, gramatically and proof reading wise this was the worst I have ever read - school boy errors, I seriously doubt it was ever proof read.

Lustbader in my view tried to make up for the failings in his writing ability by making an over complicated plot with far too many characters sending you in all different directions, and never mind trying to work it all out, I struggled to keep up with it.

I was deeply disappointed and really wanted to enjoy this book - I was so excited to get it, but I think the best way I can end this review is as follows:

Great stories finish and great characters leave at their peak, making you want more. Ludlum does this - and Lustbader is no Ludlum.

Another Bourne Novel, 25 Oct 2008
Van Lustbader takes the Bourne adventurer on another venture but does not take the Bourne story forward, although there is a hint of a yet another volume to follow in the last page. This story is about a rather imaginary middle eastern terrorist group with its beginnings in Nazi Germany. I thought the story not put together as well as other books, and wondered of it could do with some editing as it is confusing in parts. If you have read all the other Bourne books then worth reading but I would not start here with the Bourne series. I tend to get the impression this is an investment for a long series of Bourne films in the future. In conclusion I enjoyed the book, but it did not excite me and I did manage to put the book down and took longer then usual to finish.

Better than Bourne Betrayal (but then ANYTHING is!!!), 25 Oct 2008
Here we go again... another Eric Van Lustbader poor knock-off Bourne Book!

When The Bourne Legacy came out I felt that new life had been brought into (the book) Jason Bourne (I thought it was a great book), and could not wait for more... but when the Bourne Betrayal (Betrayal is the word for sure) came out and was so angry and wish that Van Lustbader had stopped while he was ahead with Legacy.

Anyway, when The Bourne Sanction came out, a part of me wanted to avoid it after the let down of the last book!

TBH, the story is still VERY weak and poor (even Robert Ludlum himself never wrote anything as poor as this and the last book)... but is actually more enjoyable than Betrayal... Bourne again seems to be getting younger rather older (its pretty weired reading about a guy in his late 60's on the dancefloor of a Moscow nightclub, like he is in his late 20's, dancing with a young Russian girl), which makes me think that Van Lustbader has based "his" Bourne on the Matt Damon one rather than Robert Ludlums one!

From what I hear another book is due out next year... hopefully Van Lustbader will move on from the Middle-East Terrorist story that he has followed in the last 3 books, as it is getting old now!

Not well researched, 03 Oct 2008
Bought this book at the airport.............
My first impression of this book was that it was poorly researched. It has some fairly graphic violent scenes that have some cringingly inaccurate injuries that anybody who knows any school biology would not make eg "was struck flush on his third sacral vertebra, which shattered on impact, breaking his back" really?
"He aimed for the underside of the guard's wrist; the nexus of veins that, if severed, would render the hand useless"
All this by page 8-and it goes on.
Unfortunately this made me not "trust" any of the other descriptions of things in the book eg places-immediately I didn't believe what I was reading.
Impersonating a dead author is a good way of making money but this book is lazy and sloppy, the plot is fairly transparent and in parts was fairly incoherent because I hadn't read the previous two books and therefore didn't understand the relationships between the characters. However I did finish the book and despite predicting the plot from fairly early on couldn't/didn't put it down

The Best of the Lustbader Books to Date About Jason Bourne, 21 Aug 2008

This is the third book written by Eric Van Lustbader about Jason Bourne. As I've commented before, this isn't the same Jason Bourne as Robert Ludlum wrote about. If you want that Jason Bourne, skip this book. It's also different from the wonderful ninja stories that Eric Van Lustbader is known for. So don't look for that either.

If you are interested in meeting and following a new Jason Bourne, read on. If you do decide to read The Bourne Sanction, I strongly suggest that you read The Bourne Betrayal first. The characters and the situation won't make much sense to you otherwise. I suspect that you will see this book as a one or two star effort.

As the book opens, there's a deadly secret being passed along to help foil a dangerous terrorist plan. The U.S. intelligence community is in great turmoil, and there are lots of people who want to grab the reins of power. Jason Bourne has resumed his David Webb persona and is teaching again. Events quickly conspire to intertwine those plot threads into a huge conflict that imperils even Jason Bourne.

Like The Bourne Betrayal, this book is too long. But it's only 150 pages too long, rather than 200 pages too long. That's progress.

The book's strength can be found in some of the action scenes and in the plot twists that are deeply embedded into the early Bourne stories. The book's weaknesses are that it moves too slowly, Bourne is barely present as a personality, and there's a little too much assuming that readers have read the last two stories.

I get the sense that Mr. Lustbader is beginning to get his sea legs under him in writing about Jason Bourne. I suspect the series will continue to get better from here. But what do I know? I'm just an optimist who is rooting for this series to work. I would miss the idea of Jason Bourne too much otherwise.

Make sure you've read Slaughterhouse 5 first, 18 Aug 2007
This is the second book of Vonnegut I've read, the first one being Vonnegut's best know novel, "Slaughterhouse 5". If it was not for "Slaughterhouse 5" I would take "A cat's cradle" as a very imaginative, weird and funny book, but probably not one that keeps me thinking for some time once finished. The tone is just too light and the story too improbable to be taken otherwise. But this is highly deceptive and once you realise that Vonnegut's war experience in Dresden has been central to his vision of life, this book appears not just as light entertainment but as a more profound reflection on the meaning of life (pretty meaningless in the author's view I gather) and, incidentally, on the role of religion and the power science gives to some very irresponsible and unbalanced people (this book was written during the cold war and the possibility of the world being completely wiped out by nuclear war was then seen as very real).

The message may be too pessimistic to make the novel completely enjoyable but it makes for an interesting and very funny read until someone presses the wrong the button.


read it again, 02 Jul 2005
The first time I read this book I thought it was good, six years on I read it again and thought it was great, another six years and I've just finished it again and think it may be the greatest book I've ever read.

'No damn cat, and no damn cradle.', 16 Jun 2004
Lacks the inherant pathos and humour of Slaughterhouse-5 but, don't let that put you off! This is a superbly imaginitative story that incorporates a brilliantly biting, satirical sideswipe at the cynicism of religion, the dangerous nihilism of science and the abundant stupidity of both!

The protaginist is a writer who, whilst investigating the life of Dr Felix Hoenikker (co-creator of the Atomic Bomb), becomes aware of the deadly Ice-09, a 'lethal chemical capable of freezing the entire planet'.

I won't spoil the plot, suffice it to say that, the bulk of the story involves the writer's pursuit and eventual, catastrophic encounter with the deadly chemical.

Vonnegut keeps the story moving along at a comfortable pace, in short chapters, whilst we are introduced to some of the most colourful characters in 20th Century fiction, from seemingly amoral 'mad' scientists to cynical pseudo-messiahs.

I loved the witty dialogue of the Hoenikkers and, the cynical aphorisms of 'Bokonon'. I also liked the way that Vonnegut portrayed his message that, religion is based upon (supposedly harmless) untruths that allegedly, explain the issues that elude science (the unexplainable).

Just buy it!

Ideology through entertainment, 24 Feb 2003
"Cat's cradle" is a book that forces you to like it. It will eventually put a smile on your face through sheer persistence in its vision which is pervasive, cynical and at times very very humourous.

The story, which follows directly from "Ice Nine", revolves around a man's hunt for the missing pieces of the substance, after he accidentally discovers that they exist and how to go about locating them. During his trip, he comes across an immense array of characters, all of which have something profound to reveal, whether they realise it or not.

There is not a lot to say about the book's dogma, as it doesn't seem to have a central point. Rather, it is a collage of several ideas, expressed strongly, though often vaguely, by the assortment of memorable characters featured. The author displays a witty and sharp writing style with emphasis on dialogue and minimal waste of paper, although I found his prose somewhat lacking in terms of literature.

All in all, "Cat's cradle" is an honest, straightforward book with more good moments than bad, aimed at leaving the reader entertained, satisfied and, possibly, this bit wiser.

Ideology through entertainment, 24 Feb 2003
"Cat's cradle" is a book that forces you to like it. It will eventually put a smile on your face through sheer persistence in its vision which is pervasive, cynical and at times very very humourous.

The story, which follows directly from "Ice Nine", revolves around a man's hunt for the missing pieces of the substance, after he accidentally discovers that they exist and how to go about locating them. During his trip, he comes across an immense array of characters, all of which have something profound to reveal, whether they realise it or not.

There is not a lot to say about the book's dogma, as it doesn't seem to have a central point. Rather, it is a collage of several ideas, expressed strongly, though often vaguely, by the assortment of memorable characters featured. The author displays a witty and sharp writing style with emphasis on dialogue and minimal waste of paper, although I found his prose somewhat lacking in terms of literature.

All in all, "Cat's cradle" is an honest, straightforward book with more good moments than bad, aimed at leaving the reader entertained, satisfied and, possibly, this bit wiser.

An underwater adventure, 07 Oct 2007
When you consider that Mr. vernes wrote this undersea adventure about a submarine, when steam engines were the rage. And underwater boat was unheard of. By todays standards the book is not very exciting, but for its time it is very adventerous. The endless cataloging of the undersea life and the operation of the submarine all come out of the autor's head. There is one thing to note that I first read this book in grammer school and just re-read it. It is a shame that what was once considered a childrens book, has vocabulary that most of the Worlds High School students can not understand.

Explore a new world with Verne, 03 Sep 2007
Jules Verne's chosen narrator writes passionately about the natural world, and his enthusiasm is easily communicated to the reader. Heading off originally on a mission to rid the ocean of a gigantic sea monster, the narrator Aronnax and his companions discover the redoubtable Captain Nemo and his submarine the Nautilus. On the subsequent voyage, Aronnax dwells with the most pleasure on the many varieties of marine life they encounter (and indeed, his manservant functions almost entirely to classify and name the different creatures, this being the majority of his conversation). Their fascination with everything they encounter is no less than inspiring, even with Ned Land as a homesick counterpoint to their delight. Their wonder and delight, throughout their adventures, is a joy to read.

An Evergreen Classic, 18 Jul 2006

"Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" is a wonderfully constructed science-fiction wherein there's a perfect blend of science and poetry to gift the world a rare genre of literature punctured on various occasions in its narrative flow by philosophical intonations and dark premonition about te future of the world. The first person narrative,a conversational tone and an innocent conincing adeptness lend the novel a touch of soothing feel and that intermingled with the exotic descrptions of not only the undersea world but the submarine itself moulds this novel into a classic. Here Jules Verne illustrates an imaginable picture and indeed the awe in which the great French author is held id made even more amazing by two strange facts. One is that when this novel was composed,no one had conceived the idea of a submarine let alone construct it and the other is that the undersea world was still yet to be explored. Jules Verne thereby becomes a great visonery and a man with a rare gift to write in a unique and pleasing flavour.

But "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" isn't just a narration of the undrsea;it's much more subtle in its implication;it's about man's continous wrestle with Nature and his urgency to conquer her;it's about man's conflict with man.

20000 leagues under the sea, 02 Jul 2004
This is the book that got me started on classic novels. They sure don't write them like this andy more it has adventure, excitement and too much other stuff to put down here. It is based in the 1800's and is a world travelling nautical adventure taking the reader from savage islands all the way to the south pole. One of the best books i have ever read a must read for Verne lovers. Truly brilliant!

Occasionlly drags but otherwise okay, 15 Jun 2004
As other reviewers have stated, Verne does love to spend pages and pages listing sea life and their properties during the course of this novel and it does become very tiresome. However people need to understand that you can skip these parts of the book without losing out on important plot detail.

The characters are well developed and you can indentify with all of them and how they view their effective captivity aboard the Nautilus. Captain Nemo is a wonderful character and Verne gives just enough information about him to keep you enthralled but not enough to remove the mystery.

This is a novel that was way ahead of its time and everyone should give it a go at least once. Just learn to skip past the author's lengthy aquatic descriptions.

The Chosen One, 10 Nov 2008
I have recently embarked on a quest to read the fifty great American novels. (I'm on book thirty one) Slaughtehouse 5 was in good company - Portnoy's Complaint, Rabbit Run, In Cold Blood, Bonfire of the Vanities, The New York Trilogy, The Secret History, to name a few - but it emerged