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One wouldn't say Kurt Vonnegut is an easy writer. Yet witty, sarcastic, endearing and painfully truthful in all which deals with human nature and contemporary society - with his seriousness hidden behind the bravade of the sci-fi facade. Out of his many creations "the Sirens" is especially remarkable. The plot is vivid, there are several different story lines, all tied up in one knot later: a rich eccentric American gets lost in space with his pet dog and is turned into a wave; a handsome guy whose father made fortune in business guided by only one book - Bible - thinks somebody above likes him and has all luck in the world, and then he travels to Mars and back to Earth and finally, to Titan; societies overtake one another, personal dramas are interwined with historical processes. All thrilling, brilliant, witty! You laugh even if you don't want to and remain pondering the sad sides of the mankind. Everything is taking place in the far future, but this book does not only reflect the realities of the 60-es when it was actually written, but in fact remains as up-to-date as one could possibly imagine. His ruthless critic of the American values and American way of making history shows solely that Vonnegut dares to use his contemporary realities to show us all that some basic things about a human being are always true; and that the future is in our own hands. He does not provide a clue or a solution, neither he proposes the way out of crisis. He subtly suggests everyone should think with his own head and leaves all questions open. This is the most amazing things about this brilliant book and this is what leaves a swarm of thoghts and a feeling of intellectual satisfaction for a long time after. It is almost a decided fact that once you read it, you would want to come back and read it again.

When people hear the name Kurt Vonnegut, they think of Slaughterhouse 5, or Cat's Cradle, or perhaps even that his books are often burned in high schools around the country for their dim look at human existence. Not to, in any way, down play the importance or greatness of his more famous works, as I love them all, but I must say that Sirens of Titan is superior to his other works. For some reason, perhaps the science fiction aspects of the novel, this book has not received its deserved recognition. I read approximately the first fifty pages thinking that this book would be about the same as his other novels. I almost put it away to start a different one. Thankfully, I pressed on. Literally, a few pages later, I was entranced by the language, the structure, the revealed surprises, and the humanity of The Sirens of Titan. Every time you think he has revealed the best secret of the book, another one reveals itself. This story is wonderfully intertwined between a set of characters, and the meaning of life. I have since read this book three more times, enjoying it more each time through. If you only read another book in your entire life, please let it be this one. Open your heart and your mind, and let Vonnegut pour into them his wisdom and hope for a better tomorrow.

It is about 1 year ago I read this book, and was talking about it with a friend yesterday. It came to us, how much is happening within not too many pages, and how weird all this happenings fit together.

It is really a pity that Kurt Vonnegut seems to be too unpopular in german-speaking Europe to be a well-known, or rather adored author.This story handles all major topics concerning men for all times - love and hate, the meaning of life, and can we determine our fate somehow, or is it all just a game ?There are no heroes in this book, only victims and losers. Nevertheless it is one of the wittiest and most inventive books I have ever read, and I can only recommend it to every fan of satire and SciFi as well as to the open-minded reader.

The heavy burden is mine, this is so far a 5/5 and I'm going to trash this puppy. I wanted to just give a quick review, but now I see that I'll have to justify my existance first. OK, here goes.First, I have just reviewed over 10 books, and this was easily the worst. All of the books were also considered classics in one genre or another. Second, I read many books and tend to quite optimistically find at least something of value in every one of them.This book bored me near death. It's pedantic sarcasm insulted my intelligence in a manner that is usually restricted to the most annoying yet socially successful dinner guests. Imagine if you will that the charmingly witty, earthy characters from Irving's A Prayer For Owen Meany were overrun by a pack of ugly rabid dogs in the first chapter, and then you had to listen to *why* rabid dogs were rabid dogs, and *why* it's bad to be bitten, ad nauseum. And then watch the characters run around independently, biting other random characters...Let's face it: Kurt Vonnegut is occasionally gut wrenchingly funny. So's Irving. Hell, so's Douglas Adams, and not everyone likes his slapstick. Kurt Vonnegut has an amazing grasp of the English language, especially in narrative description. So do many writers (Mann comes to mind). And occasionally you discover a fantastically rich vein of creative thought (his depiction of the Harmoniums comes to mind). But is this book really funny? A joy to read? Inspiring? Intellectually stimulating? Good commentary? Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope.You will laugh occasionally. However, your hit ratio will be worse than your average Saturday Night Live (apologies to non-Western surfers). You will occasionally stop to think, "Boy, that was a turn of phrase that I don't think many writers could pull off." But that's about it. In fact, many of the same themes run through so many of Vonnegut's books that you get the sneaky feeling you've been there before. And I got the sneaky feeling early into this book that no matter what the author was eventually going to half-heartedly pontificate, I was going to yawn off as too little, too late.If you read this one, put a little extra salt and butter on your popcorn, kick up your feet, and expect to move on quickly to your next task, exactly 326 pages later.

As a simple summary: his other (later) work is much better. More ideas (though there are some nice ones here), more style and more sense in the Vonnegut-type insanity of the story.