The Starbridge Chronicles

Soldiers of Paradise (©1987)
Sugar Rain (©1989)
The Cult of Loving Kindness (©1991)

Paul Park is not an easy read. At times this series dragged on, but it was so real I could not stop reading the books. They are dark, perverted, and deeply moving. Religion plays a key role in the series, and the nature of belief and control is tackled in a way few if any other "sci-fi" writers dare to attempt.

The books are set in a strange world where the seasons run for generations. In that way they resemble Brian Aldiss' Helliconia series. And like Aldiss' work there are two groups of "humans" who populate the world. After that this is nothing like Helliconia. The role of predestination, and the granting of status through infant tattooing is an amazing concept. As is the role of Paradise and the other minor planets as vehicles for atonement.

The Starbridges rule through divine authority, and in the first book we come in near the end of the winter season, and of course with the changing of the weather comes a change in political climate. We meet a bunch of sad and pathetic characters who are despite their flaws are oddly engaging. Of course there is revolution, and we get a strange Messiah who sets the stage for the return to power for the Starbridges (okay, I'll admit this is a crappy synopsis, but hey, I'm not going to write out a condensed version of the books here).

The first two books stand alone, while the third story pulls it all together to repeat the cycle. Soldiers of Paradise and Sugar Rain are easy to find (there is a Sugar Festival omnibus), and I suspect Avon expected this series to really take off. The last book is somewhat harder to find, as it took me about seven years to find in a used book store.

Bottom line is that this was not an easy series to read and the characters are pathetic and not very likable. Still for all that this is a world so vivid and rich in its imagining that it's hard not to recommend.

Reviewed December 2002

Celestis

An ambitious effort to examine the nature of prejudice, and man's intolerance of those things different. The story revolves around Simon, and Katherine who is an alien who has been altered to resemble a human being. The pair find themselves kidnapped, and as the story progresses Katherine begins returning to her natural state, both emotionally, and physically.

The narrative style is complex, and the chapters written from Katherine's point of view are hazy, confused, and disjointed. You really get a sense of her struggling to hold on to what she was, and the helplessness of being unable to stop her descent.

I really wanted to like this book, but I wasn't able to make any emotional connection to the characters. In the end it was an okay read, but nothing special.

Reviewed June 4, 2000

The Guns of Terra 10 (©1970)

A story that could only have been written in 1970. It has the sort of naive quality the first Star Trek series had in terms of championing ability of humanity to overcome its shortcomings. I like these stories once in a while.

The basic premise is that in the distant future, mankind has managed to breed out all of the undesired qualities (aggression, flatulence, and breasts - no kidding), and we've more or less reached utopia. Of course there are genetic throw backs, and these people are second class citizens who live alone. Our granite jawed hero spends some time vacationing with the Reevers, and along the way learns who he is, fights the bad guys, defeats an alien invasion, and gets the girl with the pendulous breasts (whoops, spoiler alert. Better late than never, eh?).

My favourite bit, was Mister Pendleton's attempt to come up with a Heinlein-like Grok term in his word Skronk. It was so obvious it brought a smile to my face. Heck, I doubt most people even remember the term Grok. I was too little, but it did make it into some dictionaries - unlike Skronk.

Skronk?

Reviewed June 2002

The town of Hellmouth is stuck in time – and our reluctant hero (who just happens to have a metal plate in his head) sets off to find his friend who had sent a mysterious tape to him from a town that no longer exists. Along the way our silver plated hero discovers that the townsfolk seem to be a little behind the times, and the giant in the cave with the winged helmet is Ukko, head of the Finnish pantheon who has designs on world domination throw worship. A world enslaved in mindless devotion to Ukko isn’t what Dr. Steve has in mind. But Ukko is determined to make a comeback, and it’s up to Steve to save the day.

Yeah, this is as cheesy as it sounds, but it was a fun read. I enjoyed the morality tale on the dangers of unqualified belief, and got to learn that among the Scandinavians, there was more to their mythology than Odin and Thor. Besides, it’s not everyday you get a hero with a plate in his head.

Reviewed May 11, 2005

5 Novels (©1997)

Alan Mendelsohn, the Boy from Mars (©1979)
Slaves of Spiegel (©1982)
The Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death (©1982)
The Last Guru (©1978)
Young Adult Novel (©1982)

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. I finished this omnibus in October of 2001, and it's taken me a while to get caught up with things. So here it is May of 2002, and I'm finally getting around to putting down my thoughts.

First off I should point out that Mister Pinkwater helped put many smiles on my face while life around me wasn't worth smiling about. My father was dying of brain cancer, and I wasn't in the mood for anything heavy, or depressing. Work was very busy, and my afternoons and evenings were spent at the hospital so something funny was what the doctor ordered. So for that alone, I will forever have a soft spot for this book. I lent it to my Mom who thought is was pretty funny and paid me a nice compliment saying she could imagine me writing these stories (I wish!).

So here I am writing more a letter of thanks than a review. I'm allowed at least one shamelessly maudlin review - and besides it's my site and I'll gush if I want to. It's amazing to me that I'd never heard of this guy growing up. This is a great set of books. Even Slaves of Spiegel was funny. Although I have to say that Young Adult Novel was wicked. Since I never read them as a kid, I'm entitled to see what I missed - I'm not that old (yet).

Mister Pinkwater, should you ever read this, know sir, that you have made a lifelong fan and helped put some much needed smiles on my face during a truly dark period of my life.

Reviewed May 21, 2002

The Complete Paratime (©1981)

This collection has all of the Paratime stories, plus the Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen novel. I'd never heard of Piper, and this omnibus looked intriguing so I took a chance on it. Piper himself tragically committed suicide in 1964, leaving behind some very good tales.

The stories themselves concern the fragments nature of alternate time lines and the infinite variations of possible history. The basic premise is that the great Paratime Secret must be guarded at all costs across the hierarchy of timelines. The secret of course being that there are time lines and that some people are able to move about these dimensions at will. I'm a sucker for alternate reality stuff so it sounded appealing.

The series didn't immediately capture my imagination, the tales were good but nothing exceptional. Of course reading them forty years after they were fresh puts them somewhat behind the eight-ball in terms of being bleeding edge sci-fi. However as stories progressed I found myself enjoying them more and more. The last sequence featuring Lord Kalven was very good, and features a fish out of water character who finds himself in a world where his talents and abilities change the course of history. This series had great potential.

I like reading stuff which is somewhat out of fashion to "modern" sophisticated tastes (being an idiot more or less excludes me from most Mensa activities in my community). It's nice to be reminded that a good story will stand the test of time (this isn't War and Peace, but does features them). I wonder how much of today's cyber-bleeding edge self indulgent hubris will be read in forty years. Most of it will probably seem as challenging as the old Buck Rogers stories.

Too bad Piper took himself at the height of his ability.

Reviewed January 24, 2003

Twilight of the City (©1977)

Set in what was the near future in the 70's, this is all pretty dated now, but the overall message and story itself hasn't really aged too badly. After the collapse of the economy, the cities have decayed, and people have resorted to a common level of barbarism.

The novel starts off set in the late 1990's. By this point the gap between the haves and have nots is pretty substantial, and the offspring of the haves listen to suicide rock. Michael writes the music, and Bobby is the new messiah. Both can't stand each other, but their partnership is one of convenience, and is jarred by the arrival of Lisa, a young woman attempting to leave the city.

Things are literally hanging by a thread, which snaps when the government collapses, and the rich retreat to their hidden bunkers leaving the rest of the world to fend for itself.

Michael and Lisa escape and survive by scavenging off of the remnants of their old society. Bobby eventually gets what is coming to him as his manipulating and scheming finally catches up with him. The moral message is somewhat heavy handed at times, but you have to remember this was written at a time when the future did indeed look somewhat bleak.

This was a pretty good read, and for people who like the post apocalyptic stories, this isn't standard cookie cutter stuff.

Reviewed July 13, 2005

The Voices of Heaven (©1994)

A strangely engaging book.  There's not much in the way of action, but the narrative style does hold you pretty close.  Barry the main character suffers from a mental psychosis, and finds himself on route to a distant planet against his will.  The story is a first person recollection that is told to an unknown presence for much of the book.  As we learn the identity of the "questioner" the novel asks some of the basic human needs questions, and talk about the motives of human nature, and the role of religion.  The book just ends, rather than finishing and left me thinking "that's it?"  However, it was an interesting book.

The Eschaton Sequence (©1999)

The Other Side of Time
The Siege of Eternity
The Far Shore of Time

I must say I liked this more than I expected to. This is an alien invasion story with a few twists along the way; and although it has a typical "humans rule - aliens drool" mentality to it, overall I found this to be an entertaining trilogy.

There are lots of fun bits with various aliens (there's even a zoo), and Pohl does a wonderful job fleshing out the characters, even when he gets going with his multiple copies of the same character he infuses each with a little unique bit that helps keep them separate.

The premise isn't anything outstanding, a mysterious group of aliens show up with the typical "I come in peace" message, which of course means watch your butt. Then to add to the confusion another group of aliens show up with their, "No, trust us instead" message. As you can appreciate, the human characters are put through the wringer, and thanks to a wonderful machine that can make perfect copies.

Along the way there's intrigue and love and death and destruction - all the ingredients for a darn good time.

And there you have it.

Oh, if you don't know (like me at the time) eschaton has to do with the last in a series, or end times - or something like that. You can use a dictionary.

Reviewed December 2004

The Johnny Mazwell Trilogy

Only You Can Save Mankind
Johnny and the Dead
Johnny and the Bomb

With the Johnny Maxwell books there some may argue that Pratchett has just written a juvenile adventure story, there is a little more to it than that, although not much.  Written during the Gulf War, TP takes a shot at the way we have turned warfare into a giant arcade game.  In the book Johnny finds himself inside a video game where the aliens get killed and stay killed, while he is able to return again and again.  There's a nice scene with the old space invaders as being nothing but wreckage floating about the void, as the Captain of the alien forces surrenders her forces and tries to escape safety, before likewise becoming part of the space garbage.  A fast quick read, that was more fun than I would have figured.

The second book in the Johnny Maxwell Trilogy, it continues the adventures of Johnny, Wobbler, Yo-less and Bigmac.  I really liked this book.  Johnny is able to see the dead in the local cemetery, and when a nasty conglomerate buys the graveyard, Johnny and his friends set out to save the day.  There are some nice moments, and the book is a very fast read.  If you like books that take you away, and make you feel good this is a nice getaway.

The third and final Johnny Maxwell adventure.  This was another very enjoyable book.  Johnny and his pals meet a bag lady who happens to be a time traveler of sorts.  They wind up going back in time to the second world war in hopes of averting a disaster.  There are some fun twists, and nothing overly brain numbing for a time travel story.  A solid story, and every bit as good as its predecessors.

Mount Dragon

This book pretty much has it all. Thrills, spills, and adventure. Our hero is Guy the cowboy scientist, and with his assistant the peppy abrasive Susana De Vaca, they go about saving the world from a killer flu virus. There is a fun storyline that features some computer chicanery, and some interesting virtual reality stuff. Brent Scope the billionaire "corn" mogul, and his former partner Levine banter about playing a game trying to one up the other with clever aphorisms. The winner takes all.

Don't get me wrong, this is a good book and I'll seek out more of their stuff.

Reviewed June 12, 2000

The Book of the Dead (©2006)

It's been a few years since I've picked up a book by these guys. I've read a bunch of their stuff, and have always gotten a kick out of them. The Book of the Dead I realized after I was almost finished was the third in a loose trilogy of books featuring uber FBI special agent Pendergast and his demented brother.

Like so many of the Preston / Child stories, once again, the guys prominently feature the New York Museum of Natural History. This time the back drop is the reopening of a long sealed away Egyptian Tomb - a tomb with a terrible curse. Whoooo scary stuff kids! (ah the ghost of Count Floyd lives).

The book goes along its merry way, and we have a prison break story, a scary mummy's curse story, and a demented little brother's revenge story all rolled into one. In short, it's a good old fashioned thrill ride. Nothing overly taxing, and it provided a few hours of enjoyment.

I suppose I'm going to have to look for the other two books now.

Reviewed March 1, 2008