One of my goals in 2020 is to read more. See other books I've read or listened to here.
I have long been a fan of Philip Jose Farmer’s Riverworld Series and when I found a copy of Dayworld I was excited to read it! I love the cover!
Now you only get to live one day a week. Now you get put in stasis, “stoned”, for 6 days a week. Now you belong to an underground organization that breaks stoning. Now you live for seven days a week. Now you are a different person each day. Now you are seven people. Now you are on the run.
The other day a friend said to me, “you only read old books”. That is pretty much true. There’s something comforting about old novels, especially old sci fi stories. Yes, they are usually racist, sexist, bizarre, and outdated but they also have such a strange sense of hope for the future and nostalgia for a future that never came to pass. This one was especially poignot, being about people who were forced to live only one day a week due to restrictions put on them from the government and world. In some way, it stragely mirrored the lifestyle change of having to stay home under lockdown. The most compelling idea of Dayworld is not the destruction of the planet at the hands of humans (inevitable), not the control of life by the government (already true), not the uprisings that ensue from this control (no brainer), and not the fact that those uprisings are also lead by the corrupt (clearly) but the idea of how you survive and flourish thru those trials. The pursistence of life is not a new theme, of course. But this take on it, and all the lives that persistence touches, is a very interesting part of this book. I would recommend this book to all those who like vintage sci fi, rebellion stories, and stories about multiple personalities or disguises.
Do you like vintage sci fi? Who’s your favorite author?