[KAT]⋙ Download Gratis The Purple Cloud Bison Frontiers of Imagination M P Shiel John Clute 9780803292796 Books

The Purple Cloud Bison Frontiers of Imagination M P Shiel John Clute 9780803292796 Books

Download As PDF : The Purple Cloud Bison Frontiers of Imagination M P Shiel John Clute 9780803292796 Books

The Purple Cloud Bison Frontiers of Imagination M P Shiel John Clute 9780803292796 Books

This is the first novel that I picked up by M.P Shiel as I've only begun to read Victorian prose/ sci-fi. This novel is a sci-fi oriented, post apocalyptic monologue of the protagonist Adam. The sort of main motif of the narrative stems from the biblical reference of Adam and Eve through a more contemporary way. The travels of Adam, the meaning of society, humanity and procreation are all the structural concepts constructing its foundations. Some might find the book a little excessive with all the information dump, but I think it is interesting if we read the novel with the written time frame in mind. In some ways, it can be experimental but there is a point to all the madness. Overall, great read, and a great contemporary interpretation to the archaic Adam and Eve saga.


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The Purple Cloud Bison Frontiers of Imagination M P Shiel John Clute 9780803292796 Books Reviews

Wonderfully inventive tale with marvellous use of the language. A total pleasure to read and on a par with H G Wells and Jules Verne. A dystopian novel without the bleskness
The book is an interesting example of modern apocalyptic literature. Some of the images of a dead world are truly gruesome. (Walking Dead fans will appreciate them.)
My problem is that I just did not like the main character. Mostly he is a jerk. He is somewhat redeemed in the end however.
This is one of the first Science Fiction books that gave me an interest in Sci Fi/ Fantasy books. I've reread it at least 3-4 times in the past 40 years. It's an 'end-of-World' type of book with just several survivors who travel the world and enjoy the best things that our old Earth had provided for the Human Race. I'm sure that anybody who is interested in this genre will also love this book, it is a great read
I had trouble with this book at first. If it were printed today, it would be a very fat book. It's printed with a tiny font [most editions] and written in very formal English. It reminded me of Jules Verne. It should be on every science fiction fans list of read books.
The story is basically post-apocalyptic, with spiritual undertones. No zombies or roving bands of starving people, more psychological. The main character is tormented, inventive, destructive - engaging.
I really enjoyed the premise of the book, but sometimes the details were "too detailed." Instead of being a helpful description that paints a picture, the details in some parts tend to bog down the narrative. However, the author does do a good job of keeping you guessing how the story will end; though, it ended a little too quickly for my taste.
It's an experiment that can never be performed, but it's worth thought anyway how would a man act if there were no one to answer to? Adam Jeffson is that man, and this is his world.

Back in 1901, when this was written, parts of the earth's surface remained unmapped, including the north pole. Jeffson is part of the expedition to reach that pole - as sole survivor, he finds it (an actual upright pole, it turns out), and struggles back to civilzation to claim his reward. No one is left to give it, though. During the months of his trek, catastrophic volcanoes unleashed poisonous gasses that cover the world, killing off every bird, beast, and man, except for him alone. At first, he scours the globe in search of other survivors. After years of solitary confinement in the world-wide jail, his civilized spirit fails. He turns to the decadence of drugs and pointless wealth. Decadence turns to active nihilism, a self-declared mission of arson and destruction, a modern Nero who blasts and burns entire cities for his own amusement. Then ... well, I'll try to avoid spoilers, but his name is Adam and 1901 was not an era that tolerated wholly unhappy endings.

Just reading history books won't tell you how nervous that era was. Political tremors were building up to the quake that triggered the first world war. Medicine hadn't made the inroads against disease that modern generations assume, as the 1918 Spanish flu would soon show. The earth itself could turn against mankind, as the 1883 explosion of Krakatoa had shown. Sheil captured that sense of fragility, and his words preserve that sense for today's reader.

This book also preserves the style of writing that prevailed back then, something that might be even less familiar today. Think of the effort that moviemakers put into the special effects of today's media, then realize that writing was that era's medium. The pyrotechnics are all there, but in the florid vocabulary of the writing.

The story is a fair one, and could work well if recast as a modern adventure movie. More than that, though, "The Purple Cloud" records the fears, the values, and the literary style at the turn of the last century. It succeeds at many levels.

-- wiredweird
A cloud of gas kills everyone on Earth except this one guy (who is a bit less than a virtous, hero type character.) Apparently he escaped death due to being on an expedition to the North Pole and he was almost at that place when the comet or whatever arrives and releases the purple gas (cyanide) that kills everyone. This isn't the very first of this story. Mary Shelley wrote a story where everyone is killed by a plague but that story is full of details on the pre-apocalyptic world with the plague kind of serving as a story ending element. The Purple Cloud fits in with the post-apocalyptic adventure stories we all love.
This is the first novel that I picked up by M.P Shiel as I've only begun to read Victorian prose/ sci-fi. This novel is a sci-fi oriented, post apocalyptic monologue of the protagonist Adam. The sort of main motif of the narrative stems from the biblical reference of Adam and Eve through a more contemporary way. The travels of Adam, the meaning of society, humanity and procreation are all the structural concepts constructing its foundations. Some might find the book a little excessive with all the information dump, but I think it is interesting if we read the novel with the written time frame in mind. In some ways, it can be experimental but there is a point to all the madness. Overall, great read, and a great contemporary interpretation to the archaic Adam and Eve saga.