Return to the Future
Book Details
Author(s)Diamandis Florakis
PublisherManolis Platakis
ISBN / ASINB009Y79N6M
ISBN-13978B009Y79N61
MarketplaceFrance 🇫🇷
Description
We exist... but in someone's dream. [...] and then, old concepts such as malice and murder had suddenly resurrected... Would human mind endure the attack of transcendental problems? Or would it collapse into the bloody mire of instincts?
Return to the Future is a transcendental novel by Diamandis Florakis first published in 1973 in Greek. Diamandis Florakis is a contemporary author writing a different kind of fiction or a new expression of the everlasting human tragedy. The novel is part of an eleven book series named "Eschatological Utopia/Existential Anarchy".
Paul Di Filippo, an accomplished science fiction writer, said about the book on sfsite.com:
31,450,670. No, that's not a mistranslated title to Alfred Bester's famous story, "5,271,009." It's the actual name of the protagonist of the debut novel by a talented Greek science fiction author who is, sadly, little-known in Anglophone territories. Diamandis Florakis, still with us today, produced ten novels in his "Decalogy of Eschatological Utopia," or, to employ his other series designation, "Ten Romances of Existential Anarchy." If subsequent volumes rival the first, it's a monumental accomplishment.
Our numerically named hero (colonized planets, days of the week, and regions of the globe are all designated with equal blandness) lives in "computer generation 2,354," an era thousands of years removed from ours. Thanks to the discovery of the nexus of evil in the human brain in generation 1,355 and the perfection of an operation for its removal, a "utopia of ethical and material paradise" now reigns—at least so believes the High Quotient, the leader of the human race. But if so, why are suicides exponentially increasing, as the populace's "feeling 1" ratings plummet?
When 31,450,670 discovers that his operation was faulty and that he possesses all the old vices—including murderousness—a battle ensues for the soul of humanity.
With a definite Age of Aquarius vibe, the novel still remains timely, pondering such eternal conundrums as this: "Murdering, they spoke of peace; in envisioning peace, they warred." Stylistically reminiscent of Zamiatin, Lem, Bunch, and van Vogt, the book reads like the libretto for the next great rock opera by the Flaming Lips.
Kathleen, a reader on goodreads.com had the following to say about this book:
***** Warning: The following text might contain spoilers *****
This book is so weird- at some moments it's so fast-paced and cataclysmic it almost seems Axe-Cop-esque; I mean like as though a 5-year-old boy thought this up (a whole planet-full of people are crucified by attackers, the robots become angry and slay all the attackers, then they grow remorseful for what they did and all commit suicide-- all in one paragraph, practically-- robots committing suicide!)
But this book is also highly philosophical- it culminates with one population which is striving to be "genuinely evil" exterminating a population which is striving to be "pure good" - and both sides seem at different times to be trying to PROVE that they are truly good and truly evil, and both sides encounter difficulties with this! The leader of the truly evil side finds himself realizing that he LOVES destruction, and that he therefore has something in common with his foes in that he LOVES-- and on the other side, the "good" leaders wonder whether they ought to retaliate by exterminating the evil population, which they could easily do, but this would compromise their ethos- even restricting others freedom of choice would be contradictory to their desire to be pure good. Thus in this book, goodness can only prove itself by way of self-sacrifice: in fact, the book goes so far as to propose that true and absolute goodness would sacrifice itself to save evil-- a rather extreme view, it seems to me, but interestingly executed. Read more here: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/261826280
See reviews and ratings http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13413155-return-to-the-future
Return to the Future is a transcendental novel by Diamandis Florakis first published in 1973 in Greek. Diamandis Florakis is a contemporary author writing a different kind of fiction or a new expression of the everlasting human tragedy. The novel is part of an eleven book series named "Eschatological Utopia/Existential Anarchy".
Paul Di Filippo, an accomplished science fiction writer, said about the book on sfsite.com:
31,450,670. No, that's not a mistranslated title to Alfred Bester's famous story, "5,271,009." It's the actual name of the protagonist of the debut novel by a talented Greek science fiction author who is, sadly, little-known in Anglophone territories. Diamandis Florakis, still with us today, produced ten novels in his "Decalogy of Eschatological Utopia," or, to employ his other series designation, "Ten Romances of Existential Anarchy." If subsequent volumes rival the first, it's a monumental accomplishment.
Our numerically named hero (colonized planets, days of the week, and regions of the globe are all designated with equal blandness) lives in "computer generation 2,354," an era thousands of years removed from ours. Thanks to the discovery of the nexus of evil in the human brain in generation 1,355 and the perfection of an operation for its removal, a "utopia of ethical and material paradise" now reigns—at least so believes the High Quotient, the leader of the human race. But if so, why are suicides exponentially increasing, as the populace's "feeling 1" ratings plummet?
When 31,450,670 discovers that his operation was faulty and that he possesses all the old vices—including murderousness—a battle ensues for the soul of humanity.
With a definite Age of Aquarius vibe, the novel still remains timely, pondering such eternal conundrums as this: "Murdering, they spoke of peace; in envisioning peace, they warred." Stylistically reminiscent of Zamiatin, Lem, Bunch, and van Vogt, the book reads like the libretto for the next great rock opera by the Flaming Lips.
Kathleen, a reader on goodreads.com had the following to say about this book:
***** Warning: The following text might contain spoilers *****
This book is so weird- at some moments it's so fast-paced and cataclysmic it almost seems Axe-Cop-esque; I mean like as though a 5-year-old boy thought this up (a whole planet-full of people are crucified by attackers, the robots become angry and slay all the attackers, then they grow remorseful for what they did and all commit suicide-- all in one paragraph, practically-- robots committing suicide!)
But this book is also highly philosophical- it culminates with one population which is striving to be "genuinely evil" exterminating a population which is striving to be "pure good" - and both sides seem at different times to be trying to PROVE that they are truly good and truly evil, and both sides encounter difficulties with this! The leader of the truly evil side finds himself realizing that he LOVES destruction, and that he therefore has something in common with his foes in that he LOVES-- and on the other side, the "good" leaders wonder whether they ought to retaliate by exterminating the evil population, which they could easily do, but this would compromise their ethos- even restricting others freedom of choice would be contradictory to their desire to be pure good. Thus in this book, goodness can only prove itself by way of self-sacrifice: in fact, the book goes so far as to propose that true and absolute goodness would sacrifice itself to save evil-- a rather extreme view, it seems to me, but interestingly executed. Read more here: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/261826280
See reviews and ratings http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13413155-return-to-the-future
