Rating: 
Summary: Man's love of machines leads to a segregated world.
Review: This is the first Kurt Vonnegut book I have read and I definitely enjoyed it. This story effectively tells how man is becoming more and more reliant on machines to perform work, and as a result most people are left only the most menial jobs such as painting the little used roads that run from the wealthy neighborhoods to the poor. This book parallels the American society in which the educated tend to get the $57,000 a year jobs which call for the employee to put other people out of work by creating new machines. The poor, unfortunate people are allowed to live a life in which everything is provided for them but they lack pride because there are no meaningful jobs for them. I also found Vonnegut's comments on how testing people for intelligence can be misused to be rather interesting. A variety of tests are given to the characters in PLAYER PIANO to determine their worthiness in the business world. Hmmm, kind of reminds me of the SAT, ACT, GRE, LSAT, and the wide va! riety of state tests. The title is also very fitting. A piano used to require a person to push the keys in order to work. Then came the automatic player piano and people were no longer needed. Those who comment that Vonnegut's book about the future is unbelievable, apparantly fail to see that Vonnegut wasn't really talking about the future, but was really talking about the present, albeit a rather exaggerated present.
Rating: 
Summary: Not impressed
Review: This is the first and only Vonnegut book I have read. I was unimpressed. The dialogue was mediocre. The characters were mediocre. The plotting was mediocre. Character development was poorly executed. Plus he's a horrible futurist. His "future" has held up worse under time than virtually any other SF book I can think of. It's completely unbelievable.
Rating: 
Summary: From a different perspective, mine.
Review: When Vonnegut wrote this novel, I was a young lad and lived in the same upstate village of Alplaus, NY. Kurt was a PR person for General Electric. And, so because of this he became associated with GE scientists. When I first read Player Piano, I was amazed at the similarity with that small village. As I read, the fictional characters became evident. Local village scientists. I won't name names..I found this somewhat interesting having know some of them as a youngster. Kurt used to rent a room above a nearby home. Mrs. Cheney's. Just to go and write. And, remove himself from his house which overlooked the Alplaus Creek.This is just a bit of literature history that few know. Just an insight. Trust that you enjoyed it. And, how great authors get their background for novels. Yes, he did use my mom as a very brief character. They were friends.
Rating:
Summary: A First Novel, But Still A Good One.
Review: Player Piano was Kurt Vonnegut's first novel, so it does not exactly fit the style he later developed. In many ways it does contain classis Vonnegut humor and irony, but it is not on the same level as Cat's Cradle. This book is an amazing attack on corporate bussines and technology in general. The whole way we replace men with machines, then turn the world over to the companies with the machines, is examined. Don't like Microsoft? Well this book shows just what they might do if given the chance. An excelent book, just do not expect the same Vonnegut style you found in his later books.
Rating:
Summary: The only Vonnegut novel I did NOT like
Review: Vonnegut is a humane, funny, and unpredictable writer. I have read all of his books and short stories, and this is the only one I just did not like. The style is very straightforward, and in a word, boring. If this is the only Vonnegut you've read, it is not representative of his work as a whole. Try "Breakfast of Champions" or "Slaughterhouse Five" to discover his simultaneously hilarious and heartwrenchingly (what a word!) prose. Read Vonnegut's "Welcome to the Monkey House" for one of the best collection of short stories around.
Rating:
Summary: Vonnegut's first book an Orwellian good time
Review: When Vonnegut wrote "Player Piano", he was primarily a scientist interested in literature. By the time he wrote his next book, the cult-fave "Sirens of Titan", he was a writer interested in science. The transition is contained between these pages; obviously very influenced by Orwell and showing a society turning itself over to technology. The Frankentstein-comparisons and government-as-fascism schemes are hardly original, but his use of humor is already evident and his characters already rich and full of ideas. Don't overlook this terrific novel, a sort of seperate universe from the rest of Vonnegut's nadir. The situations may not be familiar, but anyone with an appreciation of the author will be thrilled
Rating: 
Summary: this book was slow and completely pointless
Review: At the beginning it started off slow and then it just got pointless. The society ended up the way the society was fighting to end
Rating:
Summary: one of Vonnegut's best novels
Review: One of Vonnegut's best novels; certainly his most traditionally narrative and coherent. In the glorious future, machines have freed man from most types of labor, and simplified the categorization of people. Everyone is tested scientifically for IQ, personality, and aptitude; everyone's life determined by the tests. Most people spend most of their time bored; they cannot compete for the few real jobs available, most of them in engineering, and must choose between the Army and the Reconstruction & Reclamation Corps. Only the few, like Dr. Paul Proteus, have IQs high enough to make them more useful than computers. Proteus gets involved in a minor revolution, but it is ultimately to no end. Progress is inevitable, but what is good for the body may not be good for the soul
Rating:
Summary: Incredibly accurate prophecy of future society
Review: Written in the 1950's just when people were starting to envision computerized machines (ie. Robots) Vonnegut presents a dark look at society divided between the priviledged engineer class that designs and runs industry and the passive dumb masses that are either directy supported by government welfare or assigned
to the Reconstruction and Reclaimation Corp (Wreaks & Wrecks) - a work fare program with no real aim or agenda.
All funded by robot manned factories where the machines are taxed. Able to produce massive amounts of cheap products
that allows the welfare state to survive. Look around folks, it's happening here today!
Rating:
Summary: It is still happening
Review: This is the great one.
Same phenomenon is still continuing, although the decade is differenent.
This is pretty much a glory of engineers, but are they so good in other way.
I appreciate it.
You go to your office and you will notice that the piano player sits right there.
This is one of the greatest books I have ever read.
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