I recently started reading through my giant pile of books I bought and said I'd eventually get round to reading - Brave New World by Aldous Huxley being one of them! I'd read a bit about it and knowing that it's quite a well known and liked book is probably what lead me to it in the first place. I bought this book from a library, however it is available in Waterstones for around £8 and on Amazon for the usual discounted price of around £2.

The storyline of Brave New World focuses around a time set in AF (After Ford) in the years 632. The world has changed from the one that we live in today, and those living in 632 can't imagine how the past people (us!) used to live and frown upon it. The world that those in the novel face is a clean organised system where marriage or relationships between two people are frowned upon and babies no longer need to be produced as there is an artificial system making humans for the world.

I found the mass producing of humans and how they change them through conditioning to be one of the most interesting parts of the book. Throughout the novel we are introduced to what are basically the classes of society, the Gammas who are changed from their development to enjoy the jobs that normally would be disliked, the Deltas who are slightly higher up from the Gammas yet still not as high in ranks, the Betas who have some of the smarter roles in society and the Alphas who are the highest ranking and just below the Controllers.

There isnt really a main character throughout the novel, however we are introduced to some important characters throughout that make up most of the storyline. They aren't really characterised further really, as Huxley doesn't really focus on character development. First, we are introduced to Lenina who is a Beta and fully abides and understands everything the world wants of her, and she doesn't ever really question it. Secondly, there is Bernard, a stunted Beta who many believe to have been accidentally tampered with when he was created causing him to be different to all the Betas.

These two characters are what leads us to the main part of the novel and what eventually forms the most thrilling parts of the novel. They are sent to the human society which function outside the world, and its great seeing the contrast that they feel against the society and how much they wish to be back in the world where nothing is wrong and everything looks perfect. However, before leaving this society, they meet a man called John, later to be known as "The Savage" who wishes to escape. He manages to escape to the new world with Bernard and Lenina however this leads into the best parts of the novel and raises many questions from the minute he does. Will he be accepted? Can he adapt to this new world? How will others react to someone so different from themselves?

For the modern readers, I would say that probably the main thing that this book will be associated with is the idea of genetic tampering and the possibilites it can have for the future. The novel is interesting and does provide some thought provoking questions about the idea of society and how many believe that as people we are somewhat conditioned within society.

I have to be honest and say that while I did find the storyline to be very interesting and immersive in the writing, it is not one of the books that I have found to be most memorable. While I would read it again and would recommend it to friends, if asked what some of my favourite books were, I don't think this would spring to mind. However, as I was so interested in what would happen at the end, maybe upon second reading I will prefer it.

The book is well written, as it did keep me wanting to read on and find out about all the world that Huxley created. While it is very description based and not really about the characters speaking and developing their stories, I found this not to be a problem at all, as Huxley writes in such a way it's almost as if the characters don't have to be developed further than they are.

Overall, I did find this book enjoyable to read and was motivated to the end to find out what happens in the end and whether there really was a solution to this newly developed world almost. Although I don't think it will top my favourite books of all time list, I still think it was very enjoyable and would recommend it to anyone looking for a good science fiction novel.