Russia - We - Yevgeny Zamyatin
Russia wasn't a hard country to find science fiction authors from. And 'We' soon became a clear choice. I love brave new world and 1984, and this book is cited as being inspiration to both those books. Early into the book it became clear why. A classic dystopian future, of a working drone like population, lacking in empathy, morals and emotion. A bleak view of the future indeed.
The ideas and the struggles in the book are really good though, and well thought out. But I just found this book dry and long winded, I just did care about the people, or their fate. Nice concept, thought provoking, but simply didn't engage with me.
The Story:
The book itself wasn't quite to my taste I'm not a fan of diary style books when the author talks directly to the reader. I find it breaks a little of facade and reminds you this is a work of fiction time and time again, and does encourage me to commit to the book and the story.
The Physical book:
It's a nice enough cover, quite bleak and angular, with architecture that comes from any communist city in the 1960s. my copy is a penguin classic, so the quality of the pages and cover are great and there are introductions which all add to the book.