Review: Brave New World

Brave New World is another of those books I'm revisiting as an oldster.  Apart from the ending, I don't remember much of it from the first time around.

Tonally and stylistically, it varies a lot. There's staccato like switching between scenes which feel very filmic, there's long rambling monologues, detailed pseudo-scientific explanations and about half way through there's an obvious false ending and it becomes a very different kind of book altogether.

Beyond borrowing something of the same premise ie a pleasure-centered utopia gone wrong, Westworld has two obvious tips of the hat to Brave New World in its characters. A chap called Ford is arguably the architect of both worlds - while a borderline outcast called Bernard acts as his conflicted enabler to varying degree.

It remains as prescient as ever, but obviously dates itself in unexpected ways. It clearly hasn't considered the prospect of a robot underclass or the impact of the internet.  The flying cars beloved of later science fiction are simply helicopters in this. Perhaps unsurprisingly, not many could imagine a Model T becoming airborne.

Verdict: Powerful satire and still relevant.