Planet of the Stupids - Robert Newton

Planet of the Stupids is an odd little book. Interesting but definitely odd. Having never read any of the previous works by this author, I picked the book up because of the interesting cover and title. One of my all-time favorite books is Animal Farm and this sounded quite a bit like it so my interest was piqued. There are two characters in the book that are in previous books by this author but I found there was little explanation as to who they are as if it’s assumed the reader will be aware of their back story. There was little character development in this book because it is mostly observations of the world that is written about in the book. Then again this is not a typical story with a beginning, middle and end. James, the main character, spends the book observing life on a parallel Earth that is run by the animals, in particular the Nazi-like pigs. As time flows by, corruption and greed take over, the animals move away from spirituality and basically life begins to go downhill for all of the other animals that aren’t high in the pecking order. Everything mirrors what has happened on Earth and I did find the book quite interesting. It certainly makes the reader think and somewhat question different aspects of how we live our lives. I agree with much of what is written but find some of it to be a bit “conspiracy theorist”. Then again I didn’t always understand what the author was trying to get across so maybe I misunderstood some of the writing. The whole book did give me food for thought which is what I think the author was trying to do. If you’re looking for an easy read this is not the book to pick up. It is challenging and thought provoking but that is also what makes it interesting. I read this book in the digital form and it worked well on my ereader. As I previously said, the title and cover is initially what drew me in.