Mockingbird Kindle Edition

Walter Tevis' Mockingbird is a tale of humanity on its last legs as truly a whimper rather than a bang. The tale is related from three points of view. In the future, humanity just seems to be running out of steam, having turned over much of society's operations and decision making to robots who are nevertheless quite limited and frankly 'robotic.' In addition, for unknown reasons society has evolved to a hollow shell where social distancing is not so much enforced as taught from birth. In addition, leisure drugs are freely available. Even capabilities such as reading have been lost and the robots are slowly either wearing out or malfunctioning. Three main characters offer perspectives, including a robot who is the last semi-intelligent robot left and merely wants to 'die.' The two humans include a young man who has taught himself to read from children's stories and a young girl who was partly raised by one of the last truly unencumbered human left on the planet.The robot uses both humans for its own plans, while they gradually evolve to self-awareness by deferring all drugs which unbeknownst to anyone contain birth control. The young man ends up in prison from which he escapes and makes his way across a post-apocalyptic landscape learning to fend for himself and meeting isolated band of religious fundamentalists. The girl meanwhile is pregnant and eventually delivers the first newborn in several decades. In the end they 'kill' or rather euthanize the robot and head out to repopulate the world.While drug use is a common theme throughout, the major theme is one of such over reliance on technology that knowledge of the technology itself is lost and eventually the whole basis for any sense of collective societal continuity. The story amply displays that once the ability to ask how and why are lost, all meaning for living is gone.

A long, long, time ago I read a statement "If you really want to learn something read a book you don't think you are going to like." I found that statement fascinating and I've tried to practice it from time to time. Reading Mockingbird was such an activity. I'm not a fan of dystopia books but this one got my attention start to finish. It will get you thinking about what makes human life meaningful and what degrades it. Great book for a book club looking to mix it up but also enjoyable for an individual reader.

What is it about being human? Pair this book with Homo Deus and you may find yourself rethinking the arc of human progress. If we are indeed a virus attacking the earth, then this compelling yet disturbing tale will give readers a glimpse of how we may play it out. Could not put it down.

A must read. The prose is direct and powerful and beautiful in its simplicity and honesty. I thought the book started a little rough, but about 20% of the way in, it began to captivate me, gathering strength as it went, both painful and gentle in the way it shows us ourselves.

What an amazing book. It's up there with The Master and Margarita. The death of intelligence. The ability to read. Drugged up humanity with nothing to do. The death of humanity. The hope of humanity. What a great story teller. I see where we are headed.

I loved the entire book from the terrible future of an illiterate drugged human race, to the rebirth of consciousness. All humanity under the rule of robots. A dire future of the end of humanity looms until the ending. I would recommend this book to anyone who treasures reading as I do.

After hearing a review of a movie based on another Walter Tevis book, i purchased that book...loved it! I then purchased 'Mockingbird'. REALLY, REALLY GOOD...and i am picky about my science fiction. It is not hard science fiction, so it was a nice break from my last few books. Anywho, It was one of those rare books that almost broke my heart when i reached the last page...I wanted more! Therefore, i would recommend it most assuredly.

If Steinbeck wrote science fiction it would come out a lot like this. Bentley is Tom Joad. Mary Lou, Rose of Sharon. Spofforth, well he’s unique, though a bit like Marvin if you know what I mean.I can’t wait to read more Tevis!

Tevis was a literature professor in the 1960s and 70s and one feels that his experience with students left him fearful and perhaps despairing about the trajectory being taken. The declining level of student literacy in conjunction with the increasing prevalence of the “turn on, tune in, drop out” Learyesque lifestyle dependent on drug use can be seen reflected in this novel written after he left academia. It is prescient in that although the manifestation of technology today is not that which Tevis envisioned (not yet, anyway) it’s overall impact is much the same. Glued to screens and the trash mass-entertainment they churn out, the intelligence of populations declines and their willingness to accept falsehoods grows. This book meditates on the decline of Western culture unless we choose a life that is both harsher and nearer to truth.

A very different approach to humanity. With the human population heading towards extinction, Tevis creates a most intriguing novel on the future. Androids/robots have become paramount in this book, with a somewhat sinister intent. The story centres around two people and one Android in a well written and engrossing series of events that poses many questions - will there come a time when reading a book is a total unknown? Will we become drugged up by government intent to the point death is welcome? And not just for people. Well worth reading especially if you don't normally read science fiction.

Several years ago I added Mockingbird to my ever-growing wishlist, and when I was looking to splurge on Amazon earlier this year, I decided to purchase a copy. When I realised it was tagged as 'literary sci-fi', my heart sank a little - would I really enjoy this book?Mockingbird is set in the late 25th century, and boy things have changed - humanity is now kicking back, smoking dope, taking pills and committing suicide by getting high and setting fire to themselves in public places. Reading is a thing of the past, and in fact is even illegal, as is teaching others to read. Robots of varying levels of intelligence keep things ticking and a robot named Spofford is in control. The human race itself is in danger of extinction as there have been no children born for more than 30 years, but in their drug-induced state, no one seems to have noticed, nor cares.Traits and behaviors, such as the notion of Privacy have been taken to extremes - it is considered a faux pas to even ask after someone's health, and humans have been taught not to question anything, just to accept the inevitable. When Spofford discovers a young man named Paul Bentley who has taught himself to read, he brings him to NYC, and by chance, Paul meets Mary Lou, who cannot take the drugs that are handed out like candy, and begins to teach her to read.Mockingbird explores some pretty intense parts of the human psyche - the insinuation being that human beings are naturally lazy and unmotivated, which started a pretty intense debate between myself and my partner - he was unconvinced, whereas I could see it as a possibility, particularly over several generations.The majority of Mockingbird focuses on Paul, but there are also sections told from the POV of both Mary Lou and Spofford. It's hard to form an attachment to the characters, but they are more the catalyst than the focus of the story itself.Despite my reluctance towards 'literary sci-fi', Mockingbird far surpassed my expectations, and even with its intensity, I couldn't put it down. The writing style is uncomplicated and it's not overly 'sci-fi-ey', it's far more an exploration of humanity, and what it is that defines us.

I downloaded this one as a holiday read,after deciding I should read some sci-fi classics. Mockingbird really is a great read. On reflection I think it's probably right up there with some of the best novels I've ever read. It.has all those sci-fi elements people.love, like the imagined world and the atmosphere. Yet so many sci-fi giants like Arthur C Clarke and, I'm afraid, Heinlein are amateurish in the arts of characterisation and drama.This book has many parts, and.is very economically written to boot. The three characters and particularly the wistful, world weary robot Spofforth will stay with reader for a long time.This is an outstanding novel by a master of his craft. I read The Man Who Fell to Earth many years ago after I'd seen the David Bowie movie through inebriated eyes on TV. It is also a 5-star read, full of atmosphere and yearning, with a magnificently drawn alien-human character. Mockingbird is way ahead of that. This is a work of sustained power by a writer at the peak of his powers. The pace and length are perfect. Tevis should be congratulated.Please excuse funny punctuation marks. Writing this on my kindle with my thumbs and impossible to.edit.

With its eyecatching cover illustration, Mockingbird is one of the most engaging and thought-provoking dystopian books I have read to date. The quirky blurb on the back cover doesn't properly prepare you for the story you're about to follow. Mockingbird falls somewhere in between Farenheit 451, Brave New World and Tevis' own The Man Who Fell to Earth.Written in 1980, Mockingbird tells the classic tale of how man created robots to help then, ultimately becoming reliant on the robots and technology, resulting in the downfall of society - and it's some time after this that the book begins. The story is set in New York, in an initially undetermined future, where humanoid robots make up a large part of society and the government. Buildings lie abandoned and overgrown, and the population is sterile. People cannot read and what remains of the human race spend their days doped up and high, dependent on freely-dispensed Sopor pills.Mockingbird brings together a trio of protagonists, starting with Robert Spofforth, a Black, towering youthful Make Nine robot. The last Make Nine ever made, with a brain fuelled by real human memories from a long-dead creator. Spofforth is troubled by his fragmented dreams and memories and has only one thing on his mind - his own death. However one day Spofforth meets Bentley - a man who can read. The chapters which follow cleverly alternate between Spofforth and Bentley, and follow Bentley's discovery of reading, writing journal entries and watching archive films. Bentley feels that something isn't right. Something under the surface; something about his upbringing and conditioning. He starts to question things. Why are the children in the streets robots? Why are there no young people? Why can't people read? Why do people immolate themselves in public? Why are the animals in the Zoo robots? And it was whilst at the Zoo that he meets Mary Lou - a woman who somehow escaped the conditioning in her youth.Mockingbird is a cinematic read. It depicts a troubled society in a near future, in a very assertable way. It is sad, haunting, unsettling and exciting. The storytelling perhaps follows a more commonplace style from the midpoint of the book, but never drifts too far away from the main story to become tiresome. Tevis' characters are solidly developed and believable. I found myself feeling for them - even Spofforth - and desperate to read on at the end of every chapter.The themes may not be anything radical or revolutionary; we've seen and read it all before in various forms, but they're done so well in Mockingbird. I don't doubt that a well-read copy of this book sits on many a film director's bookshelf, and deservedly so. Yet Mockingbird feels undervalued and seldom mentioned, which is a great shame.