Review by voralfred (2007-12-09)
This book complees the trilogy of "Brave New World", western consumerism gone crazy, and "1984" Stalinist oppression perfected. To my eyes, it describes what Mao's China, rather than Stalin's USSR, could become when perfected: a society where police is not even needed as everyone spies on eveyone else "for their own good". Noone is punished, just "reeducated" (but the eye of the police is still everywhere, just in case). A worse nightmare than even "1984", but there are islands where to flee....

Review by branko (2003-06-22)
As so many utopian/dystopian books, this one also revolves around an individual's right to choose their own destiny. That may have been pertinent in the 1960s, but I feel we've passed that station. Even if you try and view this book in the context of the time it was written in, you could probably find novels that deal better with the subject matter. Once stripped from all what-if, what remains is still a well-written novel.