Rating: 
Summary: An incredibly prophetic and darkly satirical first novel.
Review: V. wrote this when computers were just starting to change the way people live and I think the themes of the novel deal with many of the questions that come out of our (now omnipresent) use of computers. Plus, its very funny
Rating:
Summary: Don't Miss It!
Review: Player Piano is a marvelous satire in the same group as Animal Farm, 1984, and Brave New World. Written just after the end of World War II it's not surprising to see that Vonnegut's image of post-World War III is rather bleak, by some accounts.
The scene that Vonnegut paints is that of a mechanized world. Human labour has been reduced to mechanics and computer technicians who can help maintain the machines that do all the production in the United States as it is going through the next industrial revolution.
Unlike the works of Huxley and Orwell Vonnegut focuses more on social structure than on the government rule. The jobs that people hold and how they have been effected by the switch to mechanization is a major focus of the story. The main character interacts with the aristocracy and with the blue collar class.
The morale of the people and how they deal with their current situation is a big part of the story. The different recreation methods of the classes and how they view the changes that are taking place in the world are more important to Player Piano than to the other similar books.
The ruling class is not just a tyrant or group above, it is actually part of the story here. They deal with mechanization and the shift of work, but they deal with it in ways that are different, yet amazingly similar, to those of the lower class. Vonnegut has taken the time to create a detailed setting where the similarities between the classes can be seen through the differences, making this a frighteningly possible future to imagine.
Very well put together and written with a skill that most people don't expect in a first novel Player Piano is a tribute to the talent of Vonnegut. Truly one of America's greatest satirists and builders of a literary voice Vonnegut has written a huge collection of novels and given some inspiring speeches, but people shouldn't overlook Player Piano because it is his first novel. Pick up a copy! Another book I need to recommend -- completely unrelated to Vonnegut, but very much on my mind since I purchased it off Amazon is "The Losers' Club" by Richard Perez, an exceptional, highly entertaining little novel I can't stop thinking about.
Rating: 
Summary: Gleefully chaotic
Review: _Player Piano_ depicts a dystopian American society in which machinery runs everything. These instruments were not designed to assist mankind, but quite the opposite: mankind exists as servants of these gigantic leviathans. Human initiative has been permanently stiffled. Managers and engineers exist as mere handmaids to these machines. Anyone who dares speak up may be accused of sabotage or worse. Doctor Paul Proteus, the brilliant manager of Ilium works in New York State inadvertently becomes, through the efforts of others, the pawn in a nascent revolt against this mechanized dictatorship. What results is utter chaos--but what fun!
Kurt Vonnegut's satiric and disturbing novel is a cross between _1984_, _Brave New World_, _Oedipus Rex_, and Custer's Last Stand. The novel even includes a group of Indians, a Ghost Dance Society, as well as a bemused Shah and his befuddled interpreter as observers of the resulting confusion. Revolution has never been as enjoyable nor as frolicsome.
The theme of man being replaced by machines is an old one and perhaps a touch cliched, but in our age of computer domination and the sinister out-sourcing of American jobs to foreign companies, Vonnegut's apocalyptic novel is as fresh, relevant, and aptly cynical today as it was in 1952, the year _Player Piano_ was published.
Rating:
Summary: socially relevent
Review: This is my first Kurt Vonnegut book and certainly will not be the last. Vonnegut's book the "Piano Player" is a social commentary disguised as a science fiction novel. His choice of mixing religion and man's need to be useful with the ever-progressing technological evolution is genius. Even if his ideas of technology are a little out of date, the way it affects people's way of living definitely is not. His writing is very light and almost comical at times he doesn't burden the reader with extremes he merely comments on them in short excerpts switching back and forth from different view points and finally having them all come together in the end, proving that each point to characters are making are universally the same. Man needs to be needed. I look forward to reading more of his work.
Rating: 
Summary: if you do not like this book, don't stop reading Vonnegut
Review: This book did not appeal to me. I have read many Vonnegut books and this one was just boring. Unlike other Vonnegut Books, this did not hook me. It was not interesting or weird, thus boring me to death. To tell you the truth, I skipped many pages just to get done with this book.
Like I said, if you hated this book or are about to read it, do not judge Vonnegut by just reading this book. I would rather suggest reading Cat's Cradle, Galapagos, or Breakfast of Champions. This book does not include any of vonegut's black humor, or sheer bizzarity (I have no clue if that is a word) well anyway, The back cover may seem interesting, but the book rarely touches this subject.
Rating:
Summary: Player Piano
Review: Kurt Vonnegut's Player Piano is an interesting book about technology being mankind's ultimate undoing. The book really does not get much credit for being ahead of the curve especially considering how popular the novel 1984 is. I find this fear towards technology very fascinating. There is a great deal of fear of the unknown and change. This fear manifests itself in all forms of culture.
While not as good a Slaughterhouse-Five Vonnegut's Player Piano is a great book about total control and manipulation. It is funny and well written. For anyone that is a Vonnegut fan this is required reading.
Rating: 
Summary: Still relevant in 2004?
Review: The scenario of Player Piano is just a little unrealistic, when compared to today's reality: yes, computers seem to be taking over much of the work formerly done by humans (or other animals). But, humans keep finding other things to do. They seem always to stay one step ahead of the "machines." At least so far. Therefore, the world of Player Piano didn't really "grab" me. I can't see it happening. Oh, there is classism, as in this book, here in the good ol' US of A, but the system seems also to keep evolving, thus preventing the "revolution" that takes place in this book. People complain widely about the "trickle down" theory, but there seems to be something to it. The women in this story are pretty sad. You can tell they're from the 50s, when women, I suppose, seemed to lack original thought of any type. Paul's wife, Anita, seems a prototype in this regard, same with Kroner's wife, "Mom." How many "Moms" have we known? The idea of the Reeks and Wrecks, though, I think is workable. It was workable, with the Civilian Conservation Corps, and now we have the Job Corps, state Conservation Corps, and such. CETA was that type of program, but not all of the jobs were "make work." This just means that the government is the "employer of last resort." There's nothing wrong with that, it doesn't imply a ruling class of scientists and engineers, and it really has nothing to do with Marxism. CETA or CCC jobs can satisfy a person just as much as other jobs, and from that job they certainly can move up, if they have the ability to do so. Another point: Notice how the good ol' boys got together on an island and did competitive physical activities (with their wives at a separate location). This also gives Vonnegut's time period away: pure 50s stuff. Today, people don't compete so much one or two weeks a year, but they go to a gym and work individually in a non-competitive atmosphere. Times have changed? For the good, I'd say, otherwise, you get poor fools like this Shephard fella, who lives to compete (and seems to enjoy losing also....masochistic?). Anyway, except for the date and time "stamps" on this novel, it still does hold up well today, and it's certainly intellectually stimulating, makes you think and take a position regarding "encroaching" technology, so-called "technocrats," and, what should we call it, "Neo Ludditism" today. This will probably be an ongoing conflict throughout human history, or at least for a long time, so Vonnegut touched an archetypal chord there, and his book may still be relevant in 3004, who knows?
Diximus.
Rating:
Summary: top 2
Review: Some books I can plow through in an afternoon, regardless of the number of pages. However, every time I read something by Vonnegut, it becomes so deeply philosophical and thought-provoking that I can only take it in small bites.
It's about the future of America. It was written in 1952, as his first novel. In the book, a computer takes over the U.S. and most of mans' work has been taken by machines. Citizens are split into two groups: the ones who have high IQs and the ones who don't. In an almost communist society (where the government takes certain steps to ensure a person's well-being through provisions), a few people decide to call for a revolution against the machines, with surprising twists and an ironic ending.
It made me consider how much of my life seems automated--wake up, go to work, go home, repeat--and how much more I need to be less mechanized and more human.
This is a book that I think I'll buy so I can re-read it.
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