Customer Reviews

Outside

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I first read this young adult book when I was 7. It was my first taste of Science Fiction and 23 years later I still remember it! It is set on a world where everyone lives in a huge domed city which is full of broken machines that no one remembers how to fix. People live in gangs where anyone in their twenties is considered an "old". They suvive by scavenging out of ancient stores. Whole areas of the city are abandoned. Food is running out, and the oxygen makers are breaking down. And children are following a mysterious rhyming man and vanishing. The heroine of the story is a young girl, a "little", who longs to see what is outside the dome, even though "olds" say everything is dead. So she follows the rhyming man...

This story of a future Earth is a bit scary for young readers, but is very haunting and thought provoking for more mature kids. This story is one that many adults would do well to read as well. It may very well be our own future!!

I read a friend's copy of this book when I was in early grade school and I have been searching for a copy ever since. It's been more that twenty years but I still remember the images from the book: the destroyed city, the frightened children, the hope for the future. At least now I know the author's name and my search will be a little easier! Thanks Amazon!

This ain't "Witch World!" "Outside", by Andre Norton, tells how a return to nature and the mysticism of Nature Religion could turn around the dead-end journey of our increasing reliance on technology too complex for all but a few to understand. Many of the images are derived from traditional Wicca -- the Black Man who is also the Fool and also the Wise One and who leads his followers to freedom is only the foremost among them. In many ways this book is like a zen koan -- the puzzle or joke that has no straight answer, meditation on which leads to illumination. That there are so few copies available is a great pity -- it should be widely read by mystics, ecologists, and urban planners.

And so I remember it fondly.

Now that I've read more widely, and many more sci-fi books, I know that this one is not new. If you've read one city-in-a-dome story, well, this one doesn't add anything.

But to introduce a child to the genre... Well! That's another kettle of fish. You can hardly do better than this one.

The stories in this book are proof of that. I think I like "Outside" best of them all, but I remember them all fondly. And I didn't find this book till I was fully grown.