"Every passing hour brings the solar system forty-three thousand milescloser to Globular Cluster M 13 in Hercules - and still there are some misfits who insist that there is no such thing as progress." -- The Sirens of Titan

Vonnegut, who was hospitalized for smoke inhalation Sunday after an apartment fire, made his mark as a populist -- literary enough to be taught in school yet accessible enough for casual reading.

In Sirens, Winston Niles Roomford, eccentric millionaire, builds a spaceship and sets off for outer space with only his dog Kazak to accompany him. But poor Winston flies his ship into an "uncharted chrono-synclastic infundibulum" which converts him into a pure wave of energy -- a spiral around the galaxy.

Only when a heavenly body intercepts this spiral do Winston and his sad, confused dog reappear as solid objects.

Like a heavenly vision, these two appear and disappear throughout the book on different planets, offering commentary on the sad finality of fate and how pointless it is to question it.

As one of Vonnegut's many existential Men Behind the Curtain, Winston sees it all, and there's nothing anyone can do to change the outcome. But Malachi Constant, hero and confused billionaire, is determined to try.

Toying with his familiar theme of random chance, Vonnegut sets Constant in motion like an interplanetary ping-pong ball.

Shot into space, bouncing from planet to planet, spaceship to spaceship, having little say in the matter, Constant is the ultimate Vonnegut character, denied even the illusion of control over his immediate surroundings, much less his destiny.

Sirens takes us on a journey to Mars, Mercury and back to Earth for a highly surreal interstellar war -- and finally to Saturn's moon, Titan.

There, we meet the Tralfamadorians, an alien race that would continue to appear in Vonnegut's work for decades, figuring most prominently as Billy Pilgrim's kidnappers in Slaughterhouse-Five.

Powerfully existential, yet with a light pop touch, Sirens was one of the first attempts at truly tragicomic SF vision, balancing the pessimistic, tiny presence of humanity with beautiful imagery of space, planets and stars.

At its heart, the book has the power to inspire awe at the surreal yet wonderful nature of life itself.

Beyond all the detached irony, Vonnegut seems to be saying that when life kicks you around, poetry and beauty can be found in the most unlikely places -- whether in the caves of Mercury or the rocks of Mars, it's out there.

The journey may be painful, but it can also be beautiful. And waiting, always waiting, are the Sirens on Titan. That unattainable beauty that we all believe is out there, waiting for us on our sad, improbable journey of life.

Vonnegut remains in critical but stable condition at New York Presbyterian Hospital. His family has expressed confidence that the science fiction master will make a speedy recovery, and the thoughts of SPACE.com staff go out to them..