Steve Lynn's Book Blog

              Fahrenheit 451.   One of the classics of Sci-Fi and Fiction novels written in the last hundred years.   Regarded as a touchstone not only in fiction, but in world views as well. This was a book written in 1953 and obviously predated the swingin' 60's and the free love era.    This book was a great precursor to that era.   A book about a dystopian future where......get ready i know this may be hard to believe in our time.   Where people are so dumbed down by technology and lorded over by the government that books are eventual deemed horrible, hate driven things.

                  Books are looked at as a means to causing conflict and pain between people.  Eventually the government (after fire proofing all homes) re-designates the role of Fireman.  Instead of putting out the fires.  Now they start them.  If you are found with a book in your home, They burn it down.  Everyone in this book is hooked on these (another crazy notion i know) wall sized televisions that have ear buds that block out all else, and with programing that makes no intelligent sense other than advertisements and Bradbury's semblance of reality T.V. 

     In the world we live in today, With the 60th anniversary edition now on my shelves.  This book has never resonated more then it does with our current culture.

  So lets get to rating this bad boy.  My review will be setup as follows.  I will judge based on :

Story

Characters

Writing

Pace

   they will be graded up to 5 stars and i will not grade or discuss the ending of the story.

Story

★★★★★

   The story is wonderful.  Especially considering the year it was published.  Also the real life social commentating and evaluation Bradbury does with this book.  The idea of the Fireman is what makes the story overall, It ties everything together brilliantly.

Characters

★★★

  This could probably be a two, but Guy Montag the main character is does well enough compared to the other characters to bring it up to a three.  Overall character development is not a strong aspect of this book, Though as i said Guy is done well enough (though not greatly done himself) to be good enough.

Writing

★★★★★

     I was going to give this four stars because of one reason, but i decided that reason was better used in the Pace rating than writing, though this rating is probably more of a four and a half.   Bradbury is so lyrical and poetic it can be quite beautiful the picture he paints.

Pace

★★★

  This is where i expand on what i said before.  Though his writing is very poetic and well thought out, it can be overdone sometimes in relation to the flow of the story.  i know this is just Bradbury's style and I'm not knocking it.  i'm just saying that from a pace perspective it can really slow down your progress while reading this.  I would however say the first half of this book would be a three, the next 35% or so would be a Five and the last 15% would be a three once more.  So 65% to 35% wins it a three star pace rating.....If these percentages make any sense to you at all......if not, Sorry.

  Overall i give this classic four stars.  I enjoyed it even though it took longer to read than any 158 page book ever has for me, But that was also part of the greatness of it.  it's dense, It holds a heavy tension right from the start and you never really know why but it just feels heavy.  Well anyway my friends, It was a pleasure to burn.  Till next time, Be well. Read Well.