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The Sirens of Titan
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Plot Summary of The Sirens of Titan
"A wealthy old money aristocrat took his spaceship and flew it right into something that spreads him all across time and lets him see all of human history and future. However, he only occasionaly appears on Earth. During one visit, he meets with a very rich young man who inherited all his wealth. The old man tells somethings to the yound man which cause him to ending bankrupting himself. His last resort is to fall back on a strange offer he recieved to go to Mars. It turns out that an army is being build on Mars for the purpose of invading Earth. But by who? No one seems to know, not even the officers. There appears to be no central ring leader, yet here they are somehow, with a very organized military buildup on Mars.

The Mars invasion goes as planed and is an abysmal failure, as planned. However, the ship of the main character and his friend ends up going to Venus instead of Earth. The main character does eventually end up back on Earth, and finds society vastly changed as a result of the Mars invasion. He also later ends up on the moon Titan with his son, wife, and the millionaire aristocrat who is scattered through time."

Isaac Brown, Resident Scholar

"Malachi Constant is a selfish billionaire until he meets Winston Miles Rumfoord. Rumfoord ran his space ship into a phenomenon that turned him into a timeless wave,
materializing regularly at different points in the solar system. He is being manipulated by a robot society on a distant planet to deliver a spare part to their messenger, Salo, on Titan.

Rumfoord does some manipulating himself. He tells Constant that he will have a child with his (Rumfoord's) wife, Beatrice. Malachi doesn't like Mrs.Rumfoord and doesn't want to leave earth. In attempting to escape his fate, he loses his fortume. Moneyless, he is easy to recruit for the army of Mars being assembled by Rumfoord who, unknowingly, is doing it for the robot society. Beatrice is tricked into going to Mars with Constant. Their son Chrono is conceived on the trip.

After going to Mars, Constant is sent to Mercury and then back to earth where he is reunited with Beatrice and 11-year-old Chrono who has a "good luck piece" from Mars that turns out to be the spare part for Salo. Rumfoord (during a materialization) sends all three to Titan. There, Rumfoord is spun off to somewhere else in the universe, Chrono joins a bird society, and Constant and Beatrice grow old together, falling in love at last.

When Beatrice dies Salo flies Constant to earth, landing in a snow storm. Constant dies waiting for a bus."

Shelagh Pratt Mooberry, Resident Scholar



Review Analysis of The Sirens of Titan
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot

Composition of Book
Descript. of chases or violence - 10%
planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 20%
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 20%
Descript. of society, phenomena (tech), places - 50%




Tone of book - cynical or dry-wit
FANTASY or SCIENCE FICTION? - science fiction story
Time Travel: - into past and future equally
Is this an adult or child's book? - Adult or Young Adult Book
Time Travel story? Yes

Main Character
Identity: - Male
Profession/status: - business executive - wealthy
Age: - 20's-30's - long lived adults
Eccentric: Yes
How sensitive is this character? - middling sensitive to others' feelings - hard edged
Sense of humor - Cynical sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - Average intelligence
Physique - average physique

Main Adversary
Identity: - Female - society
Age: - 40's-50's - long-lived adults
Profession/status: - wealthy - mastermind
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in: - a little/some - a moderate amount
How sensitive is this character? - hard edged - mean, arrogant
Sense of humor - Cynical sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - Smarter than most other characters - Genius (really!)
Physique - average physique - missing body parts/abilities

Setting
Terrain - Planet surface, need spacesuit
Which planet? - Mars
Earth setting: - 20th century
Takes place on Earth? Yes
Not Earth, in Solar System? Yes

Style
Person? - mostly 3rd
Accounts of torture and death? - moderately detailed references to deaths - explicit references to deaths
scientific jargon? (SF only) - some scientific explanation
Sex in book? Yes
What kind of sex: - vague references only
How much dialogue? - significantly more descript than dialog
Most similar books to The Sirens of Titan
Dinosaur Beach by Keith Laumer
A Very Strange Trip by L. Ron Hubbard
Now Wait For Last Year by Philip K. Dick
Stormbound by Paul Peters
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger


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Kurt Vonnegut Resident Scholar Profiles

TOP SCHOLAR:
  
Joseph DeMarco  

SCHOLARS:
Isaac Brown  Shelagh Pratt Mooberry  Maggie  Bekka Nuttall  Anthony Selbe  sayruh  David Loftus  


Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s).
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