Elysium

By William K. Carlson

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0385172737
• ISBN13: 9780385172738
• Release Date: January 1982
• Publisher: Doubleday
• Length: 216 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.

Customer Reviews

1984 in 1982

While trying to find a certain book in the library stacks (a task I've never been very good at) I found Elysium. Spur-of-the-moment decision: I flipped to the first page, saw the first sentence ("Alone again.") and decided to take a chance. I took an immediate liking to Elysium -- Carlson develops his characters well, and I absolutely love his diction/writing style. This book is in many ways a right-of-passage story. It is about how decisions have consequences; about how pleasure leads to pain; how freedom always has its price. "Elyisum" is a fictitious community's name for the Earth many years from now. Twist being, there are no spaceships and laser-rifles. Rather, the communities of Elysium ("the Earth") are once again land- and agriculture-based. But this time, society has found a need to have "coordinators" who monitor all ways of life--from traveling, to marriage, to having a child (yes, just one). I realize that this sounds may sound Orwellian-Huxley-cliche, but Carlson does a very good job at setting up the system without delving into its inner-workings. Nicolo is a 27-year-old agriculture-researcher who is making his first real trip away from home. He is heading towards the Plateau District for a plant-research expedition into the wilderness. Timid, influencable, and extraordinarily naieve, Nicolo is definately no Natty Bumpo. Yet over time (as is almost promised by this type of book), we see Nicolo grow and become more experienced in the wild. All of the characters he meets have their own--very real, very interesting--personalities. As the plot progresses, I found myself seeing each situation more through the characters' eyes than as plain text on a page: in my opinion, a mark of a good book. If I may say, though, one qualm I have with Carlson's style of writing is that he pays a bit too much attention to plants and trees than I would prefer. In his defense, however, the main character *is* on an expedition to find and classify and breed plants. So, no matter what you think you understood from this review, I recommend that you forget what I said and just go read it. Whether you read for plot or for insight (i.e., when you read a passage and find yourself wishing you could have said it first), Carlson does not disappoint.