Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut

Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut

1999, Henry Holt and Company

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Rating

Synopsis: Dr Felix Hoenikker, one of the founding 'fathers' of the atomic bomb, has left a deadly legacy to the world. For he is the inventor of 'ice-nine', a lethal chemical capable of freezing the entire planet. The search for its whereabouts leads to Hoenikker's three ecentric children, to a crazed dictator in the Caribbean, to madness. Felix Hoenikker's Death Wish comes true when his last, fatal gift to mankind brings about the end, that for all of us, is nigh ...

The Good: Cat's Cradle was more interesting than some of the Vonnegut books I've previously read. It was easy to get into and had an a great premise that could have resulted in something spectacular.

The Bad: It may be an unpopular opinion, but Vonnegut is so strangely random. His books start out as something and bounce all over the place until the original idea is pretty much forgotten about. Cat's Cradle was an extreme example of this. While science fiction world annihilation is the broad focus of what the book is about, the story becomes much more focused on random off on a tangent plot points.