Rating: 
Summary: A classic American Utopian novel
Review: I re-read Islandia every few years, and so does sciencefiction author Anne McCaffrey, among others. Thisedition is somewhat pricey, though. It is the same as the 1942 Farrar and Reinhart edition, with a preface by Leonard Bacon and a short afterward by Sylvia Wright. Readers tend to "fall in love" with this book so few hardcover copies show up at the used book stores.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent, spellbinding, haunting
Review: I read Islandia almost thirty years ago and it has never entirely left my mind. I want to read it again and have wanted to for years but I am afraid it wouldn't be the same....I have never been so affected by anything.
Rating:
Summary: Enter the world of true ecological faith
Review: I read Islandia the first time in high school and then wrote several major papers about it in college. It is such a beguiling book. My cat's name is Dorna and I have carved several dorrway lintel for my house.I moved to the country and to be able to build and dvelop a life that is in harmony with nature, the land and my fellow man.
Rating:
Summary: A must for world-builders
Review: I regularly recommend this book to people who are creating their own worlds, whether it be for writing purposes, gaming purposes, or simply a place to wander about.While Wright's obsessive attention to details of geography, history, and daily life are not for everyone, it does make a nice change from those fantasy worlds which seem slapped together merely to be a holding-place for a particular plot. Islandia is something of a textbook on internal consistency, and is useful in providing examples of how to think about how your own created world might go about incorporating styles of art, architecture, government, dress, transport, etc. seamlessly. The book will probably seem rather dry and pointless to those who have never had their own world, and therefore don't realize the exceptional effort and skill it takes to create something this three-dimensional. For those of us laboring over such questions as, "what would the fishing industry be like in my world?", Wright can be inspirational. People who don't enjoy history will probably not like this book; people who couldn't get through the Silmarillion will never make it through this. Before the book was published, some hundreds of pages were removed because they contained nothing but minute landscape details or the abstract ponderings of various characters. One of the great charms of the book is the obvious interest Wright had in the place, as a place, and for no utilitarian reason - he did not, as far as I know, actually intend to publish the book. It's a different sort of book. It's literary, scholarly, and intensely concerned with people as people, rather than as plot devices. You'll find the pace slow, but if you can turn off the part of your mind that says, "what happens next?" and just get to know the people and places of Islandia, you'll find a separate but coherent reality.
Rating:
Summary: Breathtaking
Review: I stumbled upon this book one day in a bookstore read the back and put it down. Weeks later I was tearing my hair out to buy the book, ordered it from Amazon.com and fell in love. This is the type of world or island creation that I truly love because it could be possible, unlike the middle-earth with its fairies and magic. This was a man's life work and thank god it was found to be published. Go run and buy this book now.
Rating:
Summary: Should be required high school reading
Review: I was given the paper back years ago. I could not put itdown.This is a special book about a special place we who read it wouldlike to read. A cult book much like Ayn Rands Atlas Shrugged. I really think it would make for better reading in high school than many of the other books they require. Through Amazon Bookstore I now have a prized hard copy. If I could only take two books with me, this would be one of them.
Rating:
Summary: A life-changing book for some
Review: In browsing Amazon.com I was delighted to find "Islandia" back in print after years when one could only acquire it in second-hand book stores. That print history is a shame, because the book is among the great Utopian novels of the 20th century. And, as you will note from the remarkable consistency of the comments by earlier reviewers on this site, it has spoken deeply to a good many people.
I first encountered it in a freshman lit course at Dartmouth College in 1967, and I since have read it again twice--and each time it spoke to one's life. Because while in one sense it is a Utopian novel advocating a set of values for the ideal society, it also speaks directly to the choices individuals face in how to live their own lives and in that respect it echoes Henry David Thoreau.
Islandia at the surface level is an adventure/romantic story and a good one, though not without flaws and a few too many emotional twists and turns in its 1000 pages, as it describes the adventures (both in events and romance) of young American John Lang assigned as US consul in the early 20th century to Islandia, a distant and exotic but essentially Western agrarian nation with some very progressive views (esp. at the time Wright was writing the book over 60 years ago) on sexual freedom, female equality, and sensitivity to aesthetics and the environment; yet also with a deep respect for tradition. Wright in creating this society for his novel was trying to transcend modern "left and right" political values to combine some of the best features of both as a prescription for how to create a humane and satisfying society.
But I said the novel was also about individual choice, and ultimately John Lang has to choose between return to the high-stress, high sensory input industrial society from which he came, and a commitment to Islandia as an agrarian culture of deep and rich values but less "motion" in life--a quieter, if in some ways very satisfying, existence. And Wright does not pull punches about the difficulties of the choice. That is a choice many of us face now in the modern world--between a more inner directed life of values and contemplation, or the outward directed life of events and action in a high-stress environment. This book is brilliant in drawing the distinctions, in framing the choice, and I suspect that is one reason why it has appealed so deeply to many of those who have read it.
Rating:
Summary: A compelling vision of the good life
Review: Islandia is a masterpiece. It is a utopian novel about a
high culture, low technology society, but a utopia without
glib answers and with real-world problems. It is a rich
and detailed creation of a country, its society, and its
people. The Islandians have developed a simple way of life
that gives broad scope for individual fulfillment and the
living of a happy, healthy, natural life through the
enjoyment of work, love and friendship, craft, and the
beauty of nature. Since this is the story of an American
in Islandia, there are many contrasts between the American
and Islandian way of life. It is impossible to describe
the richness of this book; it has to be experienced to be
understood. The plot is dramatic, the characters have
great depth, the dialogue is fascinating, and the writing
is beautiful. I have already read it three times, even
though it's 1000 pages. It is a pleasure to read and
highly rewarding.
Rating:
Summary: Truly Life Changing
Review: Islandia is way over hyped. Not a bad world it has all the details you could want, it just lacks drive. I found I could not care about the big vote or any of the folks in the book. To be fair I am an avid reader and will read more [stuff] than I care to admit so perhapes I came at this with a low brow view. The whole thing made wish that I had bought something else with my money. I gave my copy to the libary, no one should have to pay for this book what I did.
Rating: 
Summary: How I wasted two days
Review: Islandia is way over hyped. Not a bad world it has all the details you could want, it just lacks drive. I found I could not care about the big vote or any of the folks in the book. To be fair I am an avid reader and will read more [stuff] than I care to admit so perhapes I came at this with a low brow view. The whole thing made wish that I had bought something else with my money. I gave my copy to the libary, no one should have to pay for this book what I did.
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