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Joined: 02/12/2008
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This one plopped through my letterbox a few weeks ago, as an unexpected freebie from the British Science Fiction Association. I must admit that I hadn't heard of this author before, but he has had several other books published with some favourable review extracts, so I decided to give it a look.
The setting is the distant future with humanity spread across many star systems by means of faster-than-light ships, but divided into two warring factions: those who believe in terraforming marginal planets to make them suitable for standard humans, and those who believe in genetically adapting humanity to survive on unmodified planets. Karl Allman is an enhanced human who crash-lands on a remote and forgotten planet, and discovers that it was settled by standard humans who were Icelandic traditionalists, attracted by its cold and bleak environment. A start had been made on terraforming the atmosphere to stabilise it at an endurable level but this had been abandoned centuries before, leaving the settlers only just able to survive in the equatorial lowlands, scattered in small farming groups. Ever since, they had been cut off from civilisation and were slipping back into a medieval way of life as their technology gradually failed and their environment deteriorated.
Allman has a difficult time understanding and coexisting with the settlers, who have a strongly feudal culture centred around the head man of each settlement. He isn't helped by having to share his brain with a knowledgeable but uncooperative artificial intelligence dubbed Loki, downloaded by his ship as a parting gift. On hearing a legend of an artificial beacon in a remote and uninhabited part of the planet, he sets out on a journey to reach it in the hope that it might enable him to place an interstellar call for help.
The first three-quarters of the story is unremittingly grim as Allman first struggles to resolve his inner conflict while working with the settlers and then tracks across a bleak wilderness, at risk from wild animals and trolls and pursued by a posse led by an angry head man. Although the SF background is always there, this part of the story has more of the flavour of a fantasy. The pace and mood change when he arrives at the beacon and discovers what it is, and the tale then becomes a tense SF drama with a spectacular, if open-ended, conclusion.
The story is well-enough written, and the complex relationships between Allman, Loki and the settlers sufficiently intriguing, to carry me through a grimness which could otherwise have become tiresome. Worth the read.
(An extract from my SFF blog)
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Joined: 02/12/2008
Posts: 178 |
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Hallo Anthony---Thanks to your description of Colin Harvey's book, I shall definitely read it. If it is as grim as you say it is, it will reinforce my bleak view of reality and especially of humankind. I don't often read books with the express intention of escaping from too much bad stuff, so I shall put this book on my READ SOON pile. | |
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Joined: 03/03/2009
Posts: 66 |
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Too late for you, Tony, now you've read it, but George - have you seen the thread in the Members-only bit of the Forum, suggesting that a few of us might read Winter Song together, perhaps later this month? Seems like quite a good idea to me, given that we've all got a copy of it! | |
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Joined: 02/12/2008
Posts: 178 |
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Hi Patrick----That is a good idea. Thanks for telling me about the bit in the members only section. I shall do my best to look for it later today, but whatever is proposed you can count on me and count me in. So I shall let you know asap. | |
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Joined: 02/12/2008
Posts: 178 |
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Hi Patrick---I just visited the Members Only section and signed up to read the book. Please keep me informed about dates, or whatever. | |
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Joined: 02/12/2008
Posts: 178 |
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Hi Partric---I hope I can take part in the reading group, but I'm not sure I still have access to the members only section. My mind has been preoccupied with personal matters lately, so I no longer remember if or how I got access. I wrote a contact message about this. For that matter I don't know if I am still listed as a member. My payment should hasve been last december, but the personal stuff made that impossible. I used the membership address but have not yet heard back from the BSFA people. I would be quite distressed to lose my membership, since I enjoy you people so much.
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Joined: 02/12/2008
Posts: 51 |
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The plan is to do the reading group in mid March. We want to announce it in the next print mailing as well, which should be out in a few weeks. | |
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Joined: 02/12/2008
Posts: 178 |
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Thanks Niall, I wasn't sure. My access to the Member Only section works fine right now, so that's one problem solved. I told Patrick that I plan to start reading the book this afternoon or tomorrow morning. | |
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Joined: 03/03/2009
Posts: 66 |
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Niall - the next mailing that you're referring to: is that the next issue of Focus? Or Vector? Just wondering!
George - glad you've managed to get back on to the Members-only bit of the Forum. I haven't started reading Winter Song yet, but aim to do so shortly, and certainly in time to take part in the online discussion. I'm looking forward to it! | |
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Joined: 02/12/2008
Posts: 178 |
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Hi Patrick---- There was some sort of technical problem. I wrote to Del, who fixed it very quickly.
I started Reading the book this morning. It's excellently written and quite dense. I read about 20 pages and had to read them slowly. But I do not mind productive density at all. | |
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