thegooddoctor
2/4/2025
I had long looked forward to reading this classic of science fiction. Unfortunately, as a fan of more traditional SF, this novel was not really what I was looking for.
I regard the war-crime of the fire-bombing of Dresden as one of the major atrocities of World War II. The fact that the Allies won is the only reason that the perpetrators were not held responsible as war criminals. It isn't as though the outcome of the war in Europe was in significant doubt in mid -- February of 1945. I'm sure it was convenient for the Allies -- and more specifically the Americans -- to have an opportunity to test out just how utterly lethal the technique of creating a fire-storm in a city would be in practice. It would turn out to be a valuable dry-run for the much more important military mission of fire-bombing Tokyo that occurred just 24 days later.
But -- while Kurt Vonnegut's approach is highly innovative, and the novel includes some highly memorable passages -- it was not to my taste. I'm afraid that I no longer have great hopes for my enjoyment of Vonnegut's other 'classics' -- "Sirens of Titan" and "Cat's Cradle". I know that David Pringle and some of the other major reviewers consider all of these must-read novels, and rate them very highly. But I like what I like -- and so I might just give Kurt's other works a miss.
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My rating system for this website (I have done reviews for ~80 "books" (including short stories, novelettes and novellas, as well as novels). Their system is out of 5 stars, and allows you to use half-stars, so the highest rating is 5 full stars, next-highest 4 ½ stars, etc. -- and lowest is ½ star. I did NOT want to space these ratings equally, giving just as much precedence to low-quality mush as to really good works. For that reason, I laid out my system as follows: My rating system: I begin with one star being equivalent to a rating of "C -". Progressing upwards, I add ½ star for each step, up to the maximum 5 stars, which is equivalent to a rating of "A"+. I reserve ½ star for BOMBS, there being no option of zero or negative stars.