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Title: Camp Concentration by Thomas M. Disch ISBN: 0-375-70545-7 Publisher: Vintage Books USA Pub. Date: 01 February, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.03 (33 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Quirky and fascinating
Comment: I had first heard of Thomas Disch during a special Amazing Stories magazine did on him several years ago. In it was a new story that he had written, which I read and found actually pretty good considering he was someone I had never heard of. After that, he slipped into the back of my mind for several years, and it was not until recently that I rediscovered him through his classic novel of military experimentation.
Disch idea to tell the story as the journal notes of someone who witnesses and then is given he disease is sheer brilliance. Louis is probably the most brutally honest, funniest character to ever grace the pages of a novel and he tells his story without holding anything back. As the reader, we see his situation get worse and worse. At the point where he realizes that he has the disease, I could feel dread surge through my body, too. The writing is that powerful.
Disch shows off his imaginative skills here, creating an environment where genius equals maddness, a true play on words of the novel's title. For such a small book, the plot is complex and riveting and I found myself unwilling to stop and go to my job just so I could finish.
A surprise is saved for the end, and while it's a tad on the fantastic side, it also makes perfect sense in the context of the book and wraps everything up nicely. David Pringle chose this as one of the hundred best science-fiction books of all time, and not only does it more than deserve to be on that list, it deserves to be as close to the top as possible
Rating: 5
Summary: Extraordinary
Comment: Disch is probably the most underappreciated science-fiction author in the world. His novels have a power and a scope which is almost impossible to find in science-fiction. In England, apparently, he is condsidered to be one of the U.S.'s finest poets, as well as one of our best SF writers (kind of a strange combination, huh?). In Camp Concentration, Disch shows us insights into the world of Louis Sachetti. Torn by disease, posessed by brilliance, this is a character never before seen in science fiction. Brilliant new ideas, engrossing style, extraordinary characters, and one heck of a plot make this novel what it is. Extraordinary. Pringle said it was one of the 100 best of all time. Samuel R. Delany said it was one of the 3 best speculative novels of the 1960's. I'd say its the best to come out of the 60's, and I've read my fair share of New Wave SF (Aldiss, Ballard, Zelazny, Delany, etc.) I'd put it at number 3 all-time, behind The Stars My Destination and Mo! re than Human.
Rating: 5
Summary: Concentrated Brilliance
Comment: This novella is a burnished jewel of concentrated thought. Disch's hero is all too much like we are, and when he begins to experience the mind-expanding effects of his "therapy," we watch his shifting perceptions register the pleasures and horrors of the change. His dry commentary on the other experimental subjects is by turns empathetic and dispassionate-- but always grimly fascinating. Disch has created an SF framework for this cold meditation on mortality, but it transcends the genre. The plot satisfies-- but it's the precise writing and the brittle and cynical philosophizing behind it that make this special.
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Title: 334 by Thomas M. Disch ISBN: 0375705449 Publisher: Vintage Books USA Pub. Date: 01 May, 1999 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: The Genocides (Vintage) by Thomas M. Disch ISBN: 0375705465 Publisher: Vintage Books USA Pub. Date: 12 September, 2000 List Price(USD): $11.00 |
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Title: Flowers for Algernon (Bantam Classic) by DANIEL KEYES ISBN: 0553274503 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 01 March, 1984 List Price(USD): $6.50 |
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Title: The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester ISBN: 0679767819 Publisher: Vintage Books USA Pub. Date: 01 July, 1996 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester ISBN: 0679767800 Publisher: Vintage Books USA Pub. Date: 01 July, 1996 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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