[Graham44]

This isn't my normal sort or reading material (I'm usually more modern sci-fi, horror that sort of thing) but I heard this book mentioned on tv in passing and thought I would give it a go.

The beginning is a bit slow but necessary I think to set the scene - it shows us how people are what we would now call genetically engineered from birth to fit certain roles in society, but you also get glimpses into the dystopian society of the future - ''this colleague of yours ... by his refusal to obey the teachings of Our Ford ... has proved himself an enemy of society, a subverter"

But the pace does pick up a bit and you really get a chilling vision of a dystopian society, one where people are willing and even happy to give up freedom/ free thought and to want to only serve the state, a society that views families as something abhorrent - "...the appalling dangers of family life. The world was full of fathers .... therefore full of misery; full of mothers - therefore... of perversion from sadism to chastity"
A world where true happiness comes from serving your lot in society and by taking drugs, by indulging in frivolous relationships, by only being concerned with physical happiness and by being brainwashed into happiness '' 'Yes everybodys happy now' echoed Lenina. They had heard the words repeated a hundred and fifty times every night for twelve years''

We are then introduced to John who lives on a 'savage' reservation - a place where people choose to live natural born lives. John ends up going back to 'society' in the 'World State' and becomes something of a celebrity because of his 'savage' ways. But eventually he realizes how empty this civilized society is - 'But I don't want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom...' but the people of this 'perfect' society just can't understand the idea of personal freedom and the right to choose your own path '' 'in fact' said Mustapha Mond, 'you're claiming the right to be unhappy' ''

Now I've never really got on with classic sci-fi or dystopian novels so I was very surprised at how well this book almost predicts the society we are now living in, we don't have the engineered humans but we do have a society that is becoming more and more engineered to seek the shallow pleasures, such as likes and followers on social media as opposed to working towards personal (and perhaps spiritual) growth - a chilling almost prediction of our modern society!