Rating: 
Summary: Doubleplusgood!
Review: Most certainly a must read.This book shows how the government can easily take control of its power, and use it against the ordinary people. They control your memories. A must read for any conspriracy theorist,or just about anyone else. Big Brother is watching.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing.
Review: I really enjoyed reading this. It's a shame I didn't get the more expensive hardcover because I plan to keep this book and read it as many times as I possibly can in my life time. It's a brilliantly written satire of what our world would be like without the free will that some people take for granted. This book was so good that I would say that there should be a law that everyone read this, but that would kind of contradict what the book is about. I'm pretty confident that after you've finished, you'll be glad you bought this book.
Rating:
Summary: Required Reading
Review: 1984 is, quite simply, a book that everyone should read. It is one man's view of the world that we were, and still are, becoming, and it is a view that is not a pleasant one. Told through the eyes of an ordinary citizen living in London, George Orwell expounds upon the ways in which an unchecked government would intrude into our daily lives. From the cameras that are always watching, to the children who are brainwashed by the state to spy on "thought criminals," to the revisionist history that is nothing but pure propaganda, and the continual reduction of one's rations for military purposes, the country that is run by Big Brother is one in which there are truly no freedoms, and those who speak out are quickly silenced. It is also a story of hope, even in the face of such an invincible enemy. The main characters attempt futily to fight back, trying to find their own form of seclusion. Yet, whom can they trust? It seems as though everyone is on the government's payroll. In the end, they have to make a last ditch effort for a piece of freedom, knowing the consequences will be severe if they are caught. 1984 is, to some extent, a slow read, but this is necessary due to the intricate descriptions of the characters' ordinary actions. While news of the war is always heard of in the background, the front is far off, if it exists at all. Rather, we are taken into the homes, workplaces, pubs, and streets of a horrifying world in which we have no power, save that to succumb to the wishes of our rulers. 1984 is a warning to those who would place too much power into our government's hands, for as we have seen in real-life examples, the government is not afraid to abuse the power it is given.
Rating: 
Summary: Strong Good
Review: What can I say about this book that has not been said many times by people that are way more respected than me. This is a look at psychology as well as polotics. This novel reveals the strenghts' of human spirit as well as the weakness' of the human mind. Orwell wrote this book as a warning. Educate yourself, read this book.
Rating:
Summary: A nightmarish look into totalitarian regimes
Review: The year 1984 is gone but the portrait George Orwell gives of the control a totalitarian regime exerts on the daily life of its citizens is not. Think about the actual dictatorships regimes in North Korea, Irak and Cuba and you have an idea of the portrait given by Orwell. In 1984 the world is divided in three super-powers, each one of them exerting total control of the lives of its inhabitants via all the means avaiable, turning the lives of them into real nightmares. The mechanisms of control are the total repudiation of love and its demonstrations between human beings, the incentive to finger-pointing, specially among family members, etc... The politics is based upon a permanent state of war againt external enemies, with alliances alternating themselves almost in a mechanical way. Thus, power has to be exerted with its utmost potency. A sci-fi still valid many years after 1984 and the fall of the Iron Curtain. A real classic.
Rating:
Summary: A disturbing look into the human mind...
Review: Imagine a world when every human being is under constant scrutiny...constant surveillance, by an unknown master. Everything, your thoughts, your emoticions, and even your past can be altered to fit an unknown diety's liking. Welcome to the mind of Eric Blair (aka George Orwell) in "1984" From page one...the reader is captivated. He is introduced to Winston, and is granted access to his thoughts through a third-person narrarator. While walking down the street, he sees a giant poster with an unknown man reading "BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU." He sees a beautiful woman, and we are sucked into Winston's bizzare fantasies. He wants to rape her, and torture her, for no apparent reason but for the fact that she is "beautiful, and he can't have her." Disturbed? It gets worse... In this brave new world, there is no individual. Free thought is obliterated, and all means of human satisfaction are (or are being) eliminated. Only "approved" literature may be read...and the news (and even history) is being knowingly altered by men and women whose sole purpose is to deceive the masses. A new language is being developed, which basically just dumbs down the English language to prevent people from truly expressing their emotions. After all, if they are surpressed for long enough, they will disappear. Sex is an act of pure duty, not of love. You have sex to reproduce...you get no pleasure out of it. This world has no place for love, because love is an emotion. Thought manipulation is used to control the very fabric of the universe. This book is rich in metaphysics (the study of ultimate reality), and is similar to "The Matrix" in a sense. If I say to you "I can fly." You say to me, "I believe it". We come to the mutual agreement that I can fly. I believe I can fly, so I do. The person sees this, and I "flew" without leaving the ground. In order to gain the full loyalty of the masses...the lines between reality and fiction must be blurred...and eventually obliterated. A full review of this book would be longer than the actual story. A man cannot express, in one lifetime and with a limited imagination, every idea that is given to us by this modern-day Nostradomis. George Orwell was one of the greatest geniuses, and most disturbed men to ever live. This story takes us into a world of fear that no nightmare can compare to. Alarming, disturbing, yet surprisingly realistic, this book may leave you in a feeling of utter hopelessness. A friend of mine said he wished "he was dead" after reading this book. A temporary but severe state of depression may very well overtake the reader upon the completion of "1984." Be forewarned, this is not a book for the light-hearted. However, it will stretch your imagination to a breaking point. It will leave you in a state of enlightenment that you will never return from, and you know what? You won't ever regret it...
Rating:
Summary: Every Bit as Great as you've heard
Review: Mark Twain said a classic is a book that everyone talks about and no one reads. I hope that cannot be said about 1984. I was assigned this book back in high school, and with apologies to Mr. Johnson, I read the Cliffs Notes instead. But since I am unable to discard a book, especially a classic, I have spent the ensuing years having it stare me back in the face. While the totalitarian warnings are well known and the 1984 terminology is widely used, I just couldn't believe how gripping the whole thing is. The main character, Winston Smith is no abstraction. He's easy to identify with. Suddenly totalitarianism isn't some far off gulag or death camp, but the horrors of a man alone. The thoughts and details are slowly revealed in a way that you can really root for Winston. As he learns more about a world he scarcely remembers as ever being different, you hope that he is about to change everything. What does happen is a pretty good secret considering how much has already been written about this book. I've read other Orwell books since High School, but I'll admit that I was scared of 1984's classic nature. I shouldn't have been. Orwell was always easy to understand. His insistence on using straightforward language to convey complex issues makes the book easy to follow. Now, I regret that I will never have the pleasure of reading it again for the first time.
Rating:
Summary: WICKED BOOK!!!
Review: One word for this book. HAUNTING!!! This book and what is has to say will stick with you. HAUNTING literature at its finest and I would even be interested in reading books about the history and notes about the philosophical and social concerns of the author that compelled him to write this work aside from the plot. There is much said in this book about the idea of moral superiority, eco social class wars, history, power and even conditions of mass contentment versus revolution and insurrection and the how human nature negatively affects production in a totalitarian society. Even the limits of reason as a weapon in the face of cunning yet evil fanaticism. Fascinating and I even learn some general 20th Century philosophy and alot of good new vocabulary words if you are to proud to look them up. I recommend this book and wish to tell the reader that they can`t go wrong here. Read it in a few days. Very haunting./ Thanks George Orwell.
Rating: 
Summary: Over the Top
Review: I read this book for the first time after noting all the comparisons various friends and journalists have made between the system of government in the book and the system into which American government is evolving.
But the book lacks subtlety and hits readers over the head with the details of tyranny. No doubt, Orwell writes this way to underscore the dangers of complete trust in government, but I find the plot to be so far fetched as to be unbelievable. NO form of government could ever gather the resources or achieve the efficiency needed to monitor each individual in the way the Party does. Wouldn't a more realistic cautionary tale be more effective and entertaining?
Rating:
Summary: Hackneyed but prophetic
Review: The power of Orwell's writing comes from the ideas expressed therein, not from the characterization or the quality of the writing. Orwell's characters in this novel are crafted of the finest cardboard, the writing is crafted of the finest of didactic lead, but the ideas therein are important -- because they are prophetic of what 2004 could be, and what 2003 may be becoming, if the current leadership of our country has its way.
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