Originally published in 1958, this was Brian W. Aldiss’ first novel. The story follows primitive men trying to understand and find out the truth about their world, a dangerous place overtaken by nature. However, there are clues and hints of technology beyond their understanding and a truth to be uncovered.
The main idea of the novel, which is quickly suggested, is that the whole story happens inside a generation ship. All of our characters are descendants of a colony of humans on a journey through space, but over time, knowledge, purpose and destination was lost, leaving only confusion and a battle for survival.
These primitive societies are many, we got Giants, who are thought to be the creators of the ship, but who are almost extinct and considered a myth by some, the Forwards, who are the most advanced and organized tribe, Outsiders, who look normal but have a strange behaviour and ghost-like powers, other regular human tribes, as well as mutated humans who are strange and malformed and often wander alone in the “Deadways”.
We follow Roy Complain, a man belonging to the Greene tribe, located in “Quarters” who, after losing his woman, ends up joining a group of people with the goal of reaching the “Control Room”, a place where this “ship” can be controlled and taken over, signaled in an old map—relics left by the Giants that are often destroyed or ignored.
In any case, the place has been taken over by flora and fauna, and plenty of other dangers. But these characters will endure it all for the sake of obtaining control, only to end up finding the truth of what happened to the ship many generations ago.
I could tell so much more. I really could, this book goes to so many places, but I don’t even want to spoil them. The wonder of this journey is how these primitive characters react and learn as they begin to understand the reality of their current situation.
By reading reviews online, I’m told that a lot of the topics here are quite recycled and improved in subsequent novels with the generation ship trope. Thankfully for me, the only contact I have with generation ships are the Passengers movie and the Nauvoo from The Expanse series, but none of them have the ship itself or its mystery as a focus, nor how humans change over time while trapped in the middle of nothingness, which this novel does wonderfully.
Like any old sci-fi classics, there are plenty of problems that come with its age, such as the treatment of female characters, the cheesy romantic subplot, or similar. But honestly, all of it makes complete sense to me within the novel—we are talking about a primitive society after all—and I was never taken out by any of it, but your mileage may vary.
Here is my reading progress on it:
| Date | Pages | Time | % |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-03-03 | 45 | 01:08 | 9.78% |
| 2026-03-04 | 67 | 01:20 | 24.35% |
| 2026-03-06 | 24 | 00:28 | 29.57% |
| 2026-03-09 | 15 | 00:16 | 32.83% |
| 2026-03-10 | 27 | 00:34 | 38.70% |
| 2026-03-11 | 22 | 00:29 | 43.48% |
| 2023-03-13 | 132 | 02:26 | 72.17% |
| 2023-03-15 | 18 | 00:20 | 76.09% |
| 2023-03-16 | 11 | 00:15 | 78.48% |
| 2026-03-17 | 48 | 00:54 | 88.91% |
| 2023-03-18 | 51 | 00:57 | 100.00% |
Compared to my previous read, the progress here was rather steady, which makes me feel accomplished. Props to the book as well, of course, it definitely kept me entertained once it picked up steam.
The final reveal was satisfactory for me, and how everything fit together, the implications of it all, the tragedy and the hope that persists until the end, it definitely left me thinking quite a bit, even if it feels a bit rushed.
Overall, I still prefer Aldiss’ later work in Hothouse, but I flew through the pages of this one, and I absolutely enjoyed it!
