Denis Veiras

I was still undecided whether to give this 2 or 3 stars, but then near the end i hit the language section. With 20-30 pages of grammar lessons and thought nope 2 it is :) .

So this so is one of those descriptions of a utopia, there isn't much in the way of story, its just a frame for the details of the geography, politics, education, language, religion, history etc of this fictional place.

Its divided into 5 sections, the first is a description of the authors life and a shipwreck which strands 300 men and 72 women on some unknown island.
If your worried that the women arn't going to fair well in that kind of situation... you would be right.
So as to be classist aswell as sexist, the officers each take one and the rest are divided amongst the men about 5 women to each man... ugh.
But don't worry in section 2 they find a utopian society, who are shocked and appalled at the treatment of the women.
Because they're polygamists and feel multiple men to one women is very wrong, it should be multiple women to one man. Again its also classist as the number of wives you can have is determined by your rank, they're an employment bonus like a company car... ugh.
Until all the men can find wives they are given sex slaves instead which are apparently kept around for the use of travelers.
Don't worry though the men have to undergo a medical check for syphilis first, no i'm not kidding they actually did that, yay?

I could make this review really long but it would just be a recitation of everything in here. It is kind of fascinating because there are so many contradictions but overall its still pretty boring.

So i'll simply give a short list of the good and bad points of the supposed utopia on show here, note super big spoilers:
Good:
Equal education for men and women, semi-equality of employment, 8 hour workday, no poor, no capital punishment, equal male female army, semi-democratic elections, religious liberty, no hereditary jobs.
Bad:
Neighbouring tribes have to give tributes of children to be used as slaves, no private property, censorship, most female soldiers under 18, eugenics with anyone seen as physically or mentally damaged sent to one particular province, children taken and educated (indoctrinated) by the state from age 7, no females in positions of authority, blood sports, corporal punishment, spies sent to foreign lands but only if they have at least 3 children to be used as leverage for their return, all people must get married by 18 or 21 for women and men respectively, if a women can't find a man she must marry one of the high officials who has an open slot in his wife tally, the supreme leader gets first dibs on any pretty women.… (meer)