264 pages
English language
Published May 6, 2005
A great carnivalesque in three stories about a programmer in a magical research institute. A delightful and funny reading with quite absurd narratives. Really enjoyable and entertaining.
A long-term friend (25+ yrs) gave me Monday Starts on Saturday, its reprint after decades made him ecstatic, two years ago. Adam Roberts who wrote the foreword to the edition I just finished, says it is "not just an ingenious and gripping read but simply a delight from start to finish..." and no doubt that is true for some, but I am proof it is not true for all. So much happens, so many folktales and fantasy characters weaved into a sci-fi narrative like coloured yarn in a bright crazyknit sock, I was dizzy. I would try to pick up, go back a few pages, and read as long as I could without interruption. Interruptions happen too frequently. If your attention is not beyond disrepair, if you love Soviet sci-fi/fantasy, ignore my experience and read this comic masterpiece -- you will love it. I am a failed reader, my …
A long-term friend (25+ yrs) gave me Monday Starts on Saturday, its reprint after decades made him ecstatic, two years ago. Adam Roberts who wrote the foreword to the edition I just finished, says it is "not just an ingenious and gripping read but simply a delight from start to finish..." and no doubt that is true for some, but I am proof it is not true for all. So much happens, so many folktales and fantasy characters weaved into a sci-fi narrative like coloured yarn in a bright crazyknit sock, I was dizzy. I would try to pick up, go back a few pages, and read as long as I could without interruption. Interruptions happen too frequently. If your attention is not beyond disrepair, if you love Soviet sci-fi/fantasy, ignore my experience and read this comic masterpiece -- you will love it. I am a failed reader, my inner world of suspended disbelief smashed by centrifugal force. I finished it today, and my review is a 'oh at last' sigh of relief and a testament that I do take my friends' recommendations seriously, even if their tastes don't sync perfectly with mine. I loved Douglas Adams' novels so I thought this would be just my cup of tea, but for me it was a cup of tea reheated over 25 months.
