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Loading... Solar Lottery (GOLLANCZ S.F.) (original 1955; edition 2003)by Philip K. Dick (Author)
Work InformationSolar Lottery by Philip K. Dick (1955)
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. What a mess. There’s rather an interesting publishing history detailed on Wikipedia which I will paraphrase for your edification. Dick wrote the novel and submitted it to publishers in the UK and US. The UK publisher edited out the adjectives and published it as World of Chance. The US publisher asked for substantial re-writes. Thousands of words out and thousands new in. This was published as Star Lottery. Star Lottery seems to be the version that was used for translations and is now the only version in print in the UK too. I can only assume it’s better. It can’t be any worse. I just can’t believe that anyone could launch a writing career off World of Chance. What am I saying?! James Patterson. Anyway, World of Chance has a problem with characterisation. There is none. You could switch out any name for another and it wouldn’t make a blind bit of difference. And there are a lot of names so every time there’s a change of scene you need to try to remember the context you last heard that name in. It’s impossible to know who you’re supposed to be rooting for. It destroys any tension the action scenes might have had. Another problem is that critical information is not given prior to plot changing moments happening. Suddenly something will happen and you first have to work out what it is that’s happened. There goes any remaining tension. There’s no question of wondering if this or that attempt by some name will be successful. It’s already worked or not by the time you’ve worked out what it is they were trying to do. If I didn’t have the book right here I wouldn’t have believed that anyone would waste time taking the adjectives out of this. If I were a publisher and someone submitted this to me I’d block their number. no reviews | add a review
In 2203 anyone can become the ruler of the solar system. There are no elections, no interviews, no prerequisites whatsoever -- it all comes down to the random turns of a giant wheel. But when a new Quizmaster takes over, the old one still keeps some rights, namely the right to hire an unending stream of assassins to attempt to kill the new leader. In the wake of the most recent change in leadership, employees of the former ruler scurry to find an assassin who can get past telepathic guards. But when one employee switches sides, troubling facts about the lottery system come to light, and it just might not be possible for anyone to win. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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Avesse virato di più sulla fantapolitica, a discapito dell'azione, avrebbe sfruttato di più la potenzialità della premessa "il presidente/dittatura viene scelto alla lotteria", ma così com'è funziona giusto come lettura per chi vuole completare la collezione di libri di Dick e non si rivela troppo avvincente. 2 stelle. ( )