Public reader discussion about A Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay.
By TinyChapter
People were saying Asimov basically never did real SF with aliens or any sex stuff, so he went ahead and wrote one with aliens getting together. Honestly, it’s pretty clever, and the ending lands well. I really like the final twist, but my favorite part is still the middle—when the aliens are, uh… doing their thing.
By orangeFinch
Has anyone here read David Lindsay’s *A Voyage to Arcturus*? I’ve been trying to find more people who’ve actually gotten into it. From what I’ve seen, it’s one of the rare more recent books we can be pretty sure Tolkien knew about, and he even mentioned it back in 1938. I’m only about a third of the way through right now, but it’s honestly one of the toughest reads I’ve had in a while. I’m enjoying it, though. The symbolism and philosophy feel really deep and kind of packed in, and sometimes I feel like I’m just soaking up stuff I don’t fully “get” yet. Even when things go over my head, it somehow makes the whole thing feel more mysterious and otherworldly, so I’m not sure it’s meant to be taken in all at once. Has anyone finished it? Any thoughts or tips for a first-timer? I was hoping for some kind of guide or companion or online summary, but I haven’t really found anything that’s actually helpful. Also—no spoilers please—I’m not done yet. (It feels like a book that’s hard to spoil anyway, since it doesn’t seem like it’s meant to be read like a straight thriller.)
By Mirror_Late
It feels like this place mostly circles around the same handful of books. I’m kind of glad about it though—before I came here I hadn’t really heard of most of them—but now I’m still looking for more stuff that’s different. If anyone has recommendations for books people don’t bring up as often, I’d love to hear them. The ones I keep seeing pop up a lot are stuff like: - Malazan - anything by Sanderson - anything by Mark Lawrence - Discworld - Game of Thrones - The Name of the Wind - Senlin Ascends - Gentlemen’s Bastards - Fitz and the Fool I’m not saying those are bad at all. Everything I’ve read from that list has been really good, and I still plan to get to the ones I haven’t touched yet. I just want to widen the circle a bit. What are your favorites that you don’t see mentioned much, and what do you love about them?
By GlimmerBrocaded
I just got back into reading after basically two years of not picking anything up. I kicked things off with *1984* (still really good), then I went to *A Voyage to Arcturus*. I didn’t really know much going in, aside from the fact that it’s one of those pre-Tolkien fantasy books that was apparently really respected—Tolkien himself apparently liked it, and I also heard Lewis and some other big names were into it too, even Harold Bloom, who even wrote some kind of sequel/follow-up and later complained it wasn’t as good. Anyway, I read it and I loved it. I do think it’s one of those books that hits harder if you don’t know a ton going in. It feels like each place and the people in it stand for different ideas or viewpoints, and the core of it is following Maskull and how he reads/figures out what’s going on with the land as he goes. One thing I can’t ignore is how religious it gets, and it’s pretty intense for when it was written. I’m usually pretty relaxed about “what the author meant” (like I don’t obsess over that), but still, I can’t help feeling Lindsay’s Calvinist background really shows through in how God and Satan are portrayed, and how the whole relationship between them and the world is handled. It’s not flawless though. It starts out kind of slow, and at points I honestly couldn’t fully follow why some people were doing what they were doing. Also, the way women are depicted is pretty sexist by the standards of the time, not in some ragey way, just… yeah, it’s dated. Still, I ended up liking it a lot. Has anyone else read *A Voyage to Arcturus*? It feels kind of obscure—what’d you think?
By moonafeared
I’ve put my 2009 read-through of this really cool 1920 sci-fi/fantasy novel up in YouTube format. It’s supposed to be one of the first of the genre, and yeah, it’s pretty amazing. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcrKOsIx2m_GDIHXY6IKMEiQIeruxwQi0