#18. THE SIRENS OF TITAN By Kurt Vonnegut

Published : 1959
Pages : 224
Overall Mark : 9/10

When Winston Niles Rumfoord flies his spacecraft into a chrono-synclastic infundibulum he is converted into pure energy, and only materializes when his waveforms intercept Earth or some other planet. As a result, he only gets home to Newport, Rhode Island, once every 59 days, and then only for an hour. But at least, as a consolation, he now knows everything that has ever happened or that will ever hppen.

KURT VONNEGUT (1922-2007)
Born in 1922, Vonnegut was a prisoner of war in Dresden, Germany, during the saturation bombing which devastated the city near the end of the Second World War, an experience whichformed the basis for the novel which made him a world-wide bestseller, Slaughterhouse-Five. The Sirens Of Titan, first published in 1959, was his second novel.

VERDICT
This is a great sci-fi novel by a writer who seems to have greatly inspired the writings of Douglas Adams. His characters have the strange quirk of being both sympathetic and hateful, and Vonnegut's ability to manipulate his characters in such a way that, in spite of any initial feelings of dislike you may have for any of them, we can instantly take a liking to them simply based on the terrible situations they find themselves in. This is a must for any fan of The Hitchhiker's Guide who may actually find themselves preferring this tale of Godless religion pointless destiny.