Rating: 
Summary: A good attempt at mindless brainwashing
Review: The repetition is mind numbing. The characters are abhorrent. And if you don't tire of the way they are always described as having "a hint of a smile" you will breakdown midway through the zillionth repetition of her dogma. But you can look forward to the 100 page John Galt diatribe....
Rating: 
Summary: Definitely Worth Reading
Review: One of the coolest books ever written, not because it uses language in any interesting way (it doesn't), but because it explores a concept that most other books don't: happiness is good.Unfortunately, because of the style Rand uses, it's extremely easy to get caught up in the manner in which a particular point is presented. For example, if you came to any of the following conclusions, you have entirely missed the message: - sharing is bad
- only a few brilliant people matter
- emotion has no value Atlas Shrugged is about passionate people engaged in a web of interdependency. Yes, the characters are unrealistic. Yes, the bad guys are one-dimensional. Yes, the book is long and Galt's speech somewhat tedious. So what? The story is engaging and stirs up avenues of thought otherwise drowned out by every other work that implicitly and unknowingly adopts an alternate philosophy by default. Some of the book's central themes include: - you have a right to pursue your own happiness
- if it makes you happy to help others, this is a better reason for doing so than because someone else told you to
- more can be accomplished by working as a team than by working alone
- people and your relationships with them are the most important things in life You shouldn't read this book with an expectation that it will change your life. The book is worth reading because it a) has already changed the lives of lots of other people which is interesting by itself, and b) it is a genuinely good story.
Rating: 
Summary: Capitalist Kitsch
Review: Atlas Shrugged is the bulky novel that gave the literary world a dose of objectivism, Any Rand's philosophy expounding the virtues of ascetic self-interest and laize-faire capitalism. A big dose. At over one thousand pages, Atlas Shrugged is one of the longest novels ever written and one of the most redundant. The plot revolves around the struggle between a cast of hardnosed industrialists (Dagny Targart, a dedicated businesswoman who runs her family's railroad empire, despite the fact that her sniveling brother receives all of the credit. Francisco d'Anconida, a charismatic and dynamic millionaire playboy. Hank Reardon, a steel baron of unshakable ethic character) and a faction of progressive business leaders, politicians, intellectuals and other "looters," (led by Targart's brother, James) who despise corporate greed, want to increase competition and focus on the "human elements" of industry. In a seemingly endless series of tricky legal and business dealings, the immaculate brainpower and unwavering dedication of the further group overrides the sneaky, spineless and potentially destructive actions of the further. Atlas Shrugged may have stood as thorough and sensible, if somewhat long-winded, explanation of Ms. Rand's socio-economic ideals, if she had only portrayed her heroes' business sense as unblemished. But no, she had to create a cast of demigods with sculptureesque physical appearances, complete emotional stability and ingenious creativity. After a dozen starry-eyed descriptions of the endless flawlessness of her protagonists and several disdainfully-toned, mud-smearing depictions of her antogonists, her work becomes somewhat hard to swallow. Atlas Shrugged has long been acclaimed as breath-taking philosophical opus and a brilliant treatise on capitalism and egotism. The novel could have been such if it been subjected to a thorough editing and stripped of some of its more outlandish elements. But its utter one-sidedness, endless repetition of ideas and absurd adulation of the hardnosed business leaders make it little more than capitalist kitsch.
Rating: 
Summary: Philosophy in novel form
Review: An amazing book written based on the practical yet innovative ideas of Rand. I had read Anthem, and this book is a lot more interesting, both in plot and philosophical implications. I had just taken a macroeconomics course, and I believe knowing a little about basic economic theories enhances the book. It was hard to stop reading, because you want to know what happens to the characters, and at the same time you flinch because of the quasi-communistic and self-destructive ideas of the society. The reason why I didn't give this book the full 5 stars is because while an incredible book, it is really long, and kind of unnecessarily so. Rand uses long monologues to repeatedly hammer her ideas into your head in case you didn't get it the first several times. But a good book just the same, check it out.
Rating:
Summary: Review of audio version
Review: There are dozens of reviews of the book and I don't feel I would add anything that has not already been said regarding this influential work. Having said that, I'd like to highly recommend the abridged audio version. I have wanted to read Atlas for years, but with three jobs and a four year old, I don't have time for the book. I got the CD set and it's very nice work. The performance of the reader is wonderful. At first, as many characters are introduced, I wondered if I'd be able to keep everyone straight. Within the first disk or two, the accents and different voices used by Herrmann had drawn me in and I was carried along by the story. Whether the book is a favorite or you've never found the time for such a long read, the audio version is a great and convenient choice.
Rating:
Summary: A Thin Gruel for the Dysfunctional
Review: It is extraordinary Rand's adherents refer to ATLAS SHRUGGED as her "masterpiece" with no small measure of pride, since the book is the literary equivalent of a train wreck. Of course, all of her "work" is basically indistinguishable unless you are actually concerned with drawing absurd distinctions between her ridiculous characters. They are not really characters; instead she has two tedious characterizations which she then fails to personify as characters in any reasonable way. Reading SHRUGGED gives the same sense of macabre voyeurism one would feel at some gruesome accident. My jaw continually dropped in grim fascination every few pages after some banal spew was passed off in the most hapless, disjointed prose this side of the tenth grade as some sort of self-evident profundity. Her laborious and redundant writing ought to be regarded as insults by those "objectively" convinced of their uniqueness. Basically, SHRUGGED is an appeal to the anxious and afraid personality. It is no wonder that the deeply insecure would be the most responsive to her one-dimensional cosmology, since any actual human remotely resembling her heroes would be out enthusiastically mining uranium with a garden trowel or something. Rand's version of heroism is tailor-made for the self-loathing; a simulated philosophy in which the angst-ridden and privileged irresponsible can retreat. Instead of celebrating industrial Atlases, Rand creates a safety blanket of rationalizations for the dysfunctional. Her form of the hero and her celebration of that form are contradictory; she lathers sentimentality on the rational egoist for being so unsentimental, so that he can have significance. In Rand's world, the indifferent hero desperately needs to be worshipped. Debating the pros and cons of "objectivism" entirely misses the point. There is really no substance to any sort of philosophy that is discussable. For all the blathering about reason, it is never utilized to support the validity of her worldview. For instance, skip the 1000+ pages of drivel and open the back cover. Then read the 'Essentials of Objectivism.' Note the declarative statements of what constitutes metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, politics, etc. Then note the reasoning used to support her claims.... This will prove difficult since there is absolutely none. For all of the pretension to being a rational 'Ism,' Rand's "principles" (doctrines) are really just a collection of meaningless, dogmatic claims that are not substantiated in any way. A theory involves a system of concepts that are related to each other in a logical way (e.g., Premise & Premise therefore Conclusion). Objectivism does not even bother to do that. One's premises must be justified in order for one's conclusion to be sound. Objectivism does not even rate being called "pseudo-philosophy," rather it is a set of bizarre, hackneyed claims that have no relationship to the things they are ostensibly about. Objectivism is basically an aesthetic in the sense of it being a mirage of self-validating flavors. To even need this monotonous mirage is to contradict it, thus an absurdity. Not only that, Rand's mirage is a quasi-individualism that requires all the individualists to be exactly alike. An inward sterility is the only way an individual can acquire meaning, thus to be unique is to be in a dull conformity with the other heroes. For Rand, genuine interpersonal relationships are based on rape, both in the abstract and the real, showing nothing more than an incapacity to relate to others. How bizarre is that? No wonder Rand needed cult techniques to create a collective of toadies to tell her that her individualism has significance.
Rating:
Summary: You will love it or hate it
Review: This is quite a large novel and I enjoyed it very much. Ayn puts forth her philosophy in a storybook form which is good because pure philosophy books are quite hard to read. I had recommended this book to several people and the readers either love or hate it. I had also watched the documentary on Ayn and she is a persuasive speaker and a clear thinker and her thoughts are presented over and over again in this book through various angles/situations. If you like philosophy, non-sappy female heroine and logical, rational arguments, this is a good novel for the beach. It will be frustrating to read this if you do not have time because you will not want to put it down.
Rating:
Summary: Preachy, But Good
Review: Atlas Shrugged evokes extreme reactions. Dorothy Parker wrote: "This novel is not to be tossed lightly aside, but to be hurled with great force." Nevertheless, it consistently ranks as one of the most widely-read and influential books of the 20th Century. I read it in college, hoping to discover what it was about this doorstop of a book that is capable of evoking such zealotry among fans, and such vehement scorn from critics. Atlas Shrugged is a literary chimera: a "Novel of Ideas." The problem with such books is that anyone with an interesting idea can write one, even if her literary talent is dubious. The characters in Atlas Shrugged, for example, are two-dimensional and the dialog is rather contrived; but the book has an interesting plot hook which allows Rand to ram home her Objectivist philosophy in an unforgettable way. Rand divides the human race into two spheres: Those who create value - artistic, material, or otherwise, and those who parasitize the creators. She then asks the question: "What would happen to the world if those who create value all simultaneously went on strike?" The answer, of course, is that the gears of civilization would grind to a halt. In developing this theme, Rand subjects her readers to harangue after harangue on the evils of regulatory and redistributive government programs, religion and superstition, bad art, and paper money. Thus, depending on the strength and direction of your prejudices, Atlas Shrugged is either ideological crack cocaine or a literary kick in the crotch. Regardless, the sustained intensity of Rand's tirades - with her characters serving as transparent mouthpieces - leaves little room for ambivalence. Atlas Shrugged succeeds insofar as it is the definitive statement of the author's personal philosophy - Objectivism - and provides cogent arguments for much of the modern Libertarian agenda. Also, Rand's division of humanity into those who create value on the one hand, and the vampires on the other, while simplistic, is nevertheless instructive. Atlas Shrugged fails insofar as Rand seems completely unable to acknowledge the gray areas and complexities of economic relationships and values. If alternatives were really so obviously black and white as they are in Rand's novel, then I'll be damned if I can figure out why everyone doesn't think as she does. The reason Rand's characters are so boringly right all the time is that they're never confronted with ambiguity. They never have to make a tough value judgment.
Rating:
Summary: Greatest Novel in History
Review: Who is John Galt? Thus begins the greatest novel ever written. As the book's cover says, "this is a novel about the murder--and rebirth--of man's spirit."
This novel represents the dividing line between people who love life, man, living on earth, and themselves, as against those who hate all the above. There can be no compromise between these two opposites. This is the most thought provoking novel I've ever read. As 'The Fountainhead', I've read this novel at least 25 times since first introduced to it in the late Seventies. I've learned something new each time. Even before I read Miss Rand, I loved my life and I loved living it. Her works confirm and reinforce that love.
Read this book!
Rating:
Summary: LONG story, but ideas that are worth understanding
Review: Atlas Shrugged is a novel that asks, "What happens if the shakers and movers of the world go on strike?" It's set in a world where the main industrialists of the world are under seige by looters in government, who use "pull" and "executive guidance" to tear down their companies in the name of "fair play" and "common good". The book defends individual excellence and reason as the drivers of progress in society, and demonstrates what happens when society's leaders refuse to be beasts of burden. Atlas Shrugged can be of assistance in understanding the world that we live in:
1 - The Dot Com boom - Many dot commers are believers in Ayn Rand, and hold her up as the model for which they strive. This is ok, but let's remember that she is against anti-trust laws, and would tell the government to leave Microsoft alone.
2 - Alan Greenspan was a follower of Ayn Rand. Although she is considered pro-greed, it's interesting to hear him speak out against it.
3 - Japan is a country that is run by administrative guidance from above, and although it's not a communist "People's state" it is suffering from much in the book.
4 - Enron and Worldcom are considered sources of greed inspired by Ayn Rand. I'll contend that they were build not by reason, but by governmental influence, and should not be held up as examples of the result of her thinking. The book slows dramatically when the main character, John Galt (who leads the strike of the thinkers), gives his speech to the world. Conventional wisdom is that you don't need to read the whole speech - it's just a rerun of the book. Nobody told me that wisdom, and that stumbling block added a few weeks to the read. In general, the book celebrates the individual who strives for excellence by using reason to create progress. This holds true, but has limits in the real world. Despite great intentions, people need to make compromises and make sacrifices in the name of the system. (Systems thinkers would say that overemphasis on local performance kills the system as a whole) There are detractions to the book, but it posits a profound thought that everyone should understand. Feel free to agree or disagree with her conclusions, but learn what she is saying. Just skip the John Galt speech when the going gets slow.
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