Vonnegut’s The Sirens of Titan was suggested to me by my college astronomy professor as one of the best science fiction tales of the twentieth-century. It took me three years to get around to reading it but I would agree that it is a great novel, and possibly a philosophical work as well.

Composed in the late fifties, this book focuses on two main characters - Winston Niles Rumfoord, a man who lives on Titan and has been converted into pure energy, and Malachi Constant, the richest man in the world. Rumfoord can only materialize on Earth every fifty-nine days to tell the Earthlings about what will happen in the future. Although he is isolated on Titan, which is one of Saturn’s moons, he knows everything that has ever happened and everything that will ever happen. Rumfoord informs Constant that he will mate with Beatrice, Rumfoord’s wife, on Mars, and that they will have a child named Chrono. The plot is very well-developed and has enough twists and turns to keep the reader occupied.

What I found especially interesting about this book is the character development. They have enough flaws so that the reader dislikes the characters while also sympathizing with them. It’s tough to find a character to like completely, but it’s equally difficult to find one to hate.

Vonnegut provides an interesting roller-coaster ride through philosophy. The story reveals what luck means, how god is indifferent and that we are merely pawns for other creatures in the universe with a different set of goals. Vonnegut’s take on reality-as-we-know-it is interesting because he shows how each answer to the question of life is meaningless.

4/5 Stars. 326 pages. Published 1959.