SORGA THEEVU (ISLAND OF DREAMS) REVIEW

NAME: SORGA THEEVU (ISLAND OF DREAM)

AUTHOR: SUJATHA

GENRE: SCI-FI

LANGUAGE: TAMIL

PAGES:166

PUBLISHED DATE: 1970

ISBN:978-81-8493-592-9

MY RATING: 4.5 OUT OF 5




NOTE TO NEW READERS:

the story was written in early 1970 when computers are not even been commercialized. keep that in mind while reading.

SYNOPSIS:

                  a computer technician(Iyangar) is deceitfully kidnapped to an island owned by a billionaire (Satya) who dreams to create a utopian society by removing the emotion of humans with medication.the whole island is monitored by a computer which gives order from how much medication a citizen need to how much should the lawn be watered.

                  due to technical errors, the computer stops giving medicine to one of the citizen(gowtham), by his new discovered emotions,gowtham plans to sabotage the computer with the help of Iyengar.

AUTHOR:

               Sujatha Rangarajan was a Tamil author of over 100 novels and 250 short stories. he is the most popular author in Tamil literature. in a way, he is the father of sci-fi literature in Tamil. sorga theevu is his first sci-fi novel.

               he is an engineer by profession also invented the electronic voting machine in india.

SORGA THEEVU:

               a brand new of world to the Tamil audience. a complete dystopic Utopian story. the story is really crisp, too short, it would be better if it was much longer.

               sorga theevu explains that the problem the society facing is because of  emotions, the only key to attaining a Utopian peaceful society is ripping out emotions. the government consists of civilians, inner circle they have the privilege to maintain their emotions and satya the leader.

               womens are treated as slaves and sex objects to the inner circle. and separate men and women are breaded to procreate. 

                 its a story about a common man, not about a hero rising in a revolution against the government. in the end, he too was brainwashed. 

                I did get a "1984" vibe, there are some similarities may be referenced, but not too much to say its a copy.

OVERALL THOUGHT:

                Brilliant work from the author, after all, its sujatha. elegant humor with a strong message. I recommend it to all but probably not suitable for reader below 12 yr. 

MY RATING:  4.5 out of  5.

                                                                                                                    ---SIDHARTH

also, check out my 1984 review, 

if you want me to read and review any of your books, just name it.