Rating: 
Summary: An Outer Space Nightmare
Review: This is one of Pelevin's best: a tale of delusion and false hope about the space race in the Soviet Union. The setting serves as a metaphor for the absurd state of things in the Soviet Union, its overly-glorified space program, and the damage done to entire generations of people who found that their country could send people and objects in outer space, but could not produce disposable diapers or disposable syringes. Pelevin aims for the grotesque and the absurd and, in this book, he is rather successful.
Rating:
Summary: best pelevin book
Review: This is the best book by Pelevin and it is a [weak] oversimplification to simply say that Omon Ra is a satirical portrait of the Soviet reality. Instead this is a work of literature not simply a [inexpensive] political caricature, it is strength is in the power of author imagination, its crisp voice, very dark humor, very strong and absurd surrealistic story line with unexpected twists and shocking turns. I am giving this book 4 starts because I am not sure how well it translates to English and how non-Russian readers would be able to understand some of the more subtle and therefore darker humor in this book, e.g. why all the new recruits get their legs cut off in the very beginning of the story: you have got to know other classical Soviet literature as well as some of the Soviet history to appreciate dark humor and shocking appeal of this episode. In any case, if you have never read Pelevin I would highly recommend to read Omon Ra first: his other books are significantly weaker in my opinion.
Rating: 
Summary: Thoughtful, touching, satirical
Review: This was a novel I encountered in my search for fiction and sci-fi from russia and eastern europe, to vary my usual diet of british and american offerings in the same genre. I'm glad that I did.
Omon Ra is entertainment from start to finish, following the main character Omon from early childhood right through to his adventure into the unknown. It's hard to say much about this without revealing huge pieces of the plot (and I just hate reviews which do that), but there's a lot more packed in these pages than just the basic story premise.
It's one of those books that can be read on more than one level. It explores friendship, patriotism, the influence of authority and the burning desire to explore the unknown (and the known). It's bleak and depressing at times, and at others it's emotional and very touching.
This was the first of Pelevin's novels that I've read, and it's a certainty to say that it will not be the last.
Rating:
Summary: surrealism of the post-socialist variety
Review: Truly one of the strangest fictional works depicting USSR space exploration program. The reader will need to have some Soviet cultural background to fully enjoy this novella. However dispite this shortcoming, in the true anti-Soviet establishment fashion, Peleven makes this one work on many levels. Read it over several times!
Rating:
Summary: the best russian modern writer
Review: Victor Pelevin is the most interesting writer in modern Russia. New russian generation, like Generation X in the USA, is strongly different from the previous one. Victor Pelevin is the favorite writer of this generation, which live in shattered world. Their world is very strange for a foreigner. It is a combination of high-tech cyber culture, old communist remains, indian shaman culture, Chineese phylosophy and American pragmatism. Translator did great job, because the language of Pelevin is quite different from usual one. Sometimes, however, translator was not able to reproduce original spirit, because, I guess, he tried to be politically correct(PC). His translation lacks that combination of cynicism and high spirituality, which is so important in Pelevin's book.
Rating:
Summary: a wild, imaginative, remarkable book
Review: What a pleasure it is to discover Victor Pelevin. His imagination and creativity seem to have no bounds, and he writes very, very well. Oman Ra is the story of a boy who grows up always wanting to fly and, as the saying goes, should have been more careful what he wished for: he and a friend are accepted as cosmonauts in what turns out to be the outlandish, buffoonish, hilarious, nightmarish world of the Soviet space program. The training program is shocking (to both Omon and the reader), and Omon's trip to the moon, and its aftermath, are unforgettable. Everything about this short, amazing book is the equal of the best stories in the author's A Werewolf Problem in Central Russia. Pelevin is a young writer whose forthcoming books are to be eagerly anticipated.
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