This novel was written 200 years ago, by a teenager. It shouldn’t be any good. But, of course it is. Sure, it’s verbose as you’d expect of something written 200 years ago and takes a little while for the plot to get going, but Shelley was forging history here, writing surely the first science fiction novel. What surprised me was how sympathetic (and at times pathetic) the monster was and how self-centered and unheroic the doctor became. Perhaps I shouldn’t have been surprised as this is the template for every SF novel where man tries to improve upon nature with the latest technology.
No. 23 of 100 books I intend to read and review in 2020.
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Patrick Sherriff is an Englishman who survived 13 years working for newspapers in the US, UK and Japan. Between teaching English lessons at his conversation school in Abiko, Japan, with his wife, he writes and illustrates textbooks for non-native speakers of English, releases Hana Walker mystery novels, short stories, essays and a monthly newsletter highlighting good fiction published in English about Japan. Saku’s Random Book Club is his latest project to spend more time with books.
Patrick Sherriff 