The Book Genie picked an old paperback that I found at a Friends of the Library sale, and I can see why it was a giveaway. I could not last even my usual minimum 50 pages before giving up on this 40 year old Sci-Fi snoozer.

NEXT! ( )

2842

review of
Gred Bear's Hegira
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - June 15-17, 2018

This occupies that netherworld of bks that seem like fantasy at 1st but then prove to have an SF subtext. I've read Bear's fantasy entitled The Infinity Concerto (my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2021056471 ) & declared it "dagnabbit-all-to-heck'n'tarnation excellent". I wasn't quite so fired up about this one but there's never a Bear bk that doesn't have substance.

The epigraph beginning the bk consists of this:

""I had a dream, which was not all a dream.
The bright sun was extinguish'd, and the stars
Did wander darkling in the eternal space,
Rayless, and pathless, and the icy earth
Swung blind and blackening in the moonless air;
Morn came and went—and came, and brought
no day . . ."

"—Darkness, by Lord Byron" - p 5

I was immediately reminded of William Hope Hodgson's The Night Land, one of the most tedious things I've ever read but not completely w/o interest (see my review here: "The Night Soil: The Sleep Crust & the Mantel of Gloom": https://www.goodreads.com/story/show/625122-the-night-soil ). That & a quarter won't buy you a cuppa. Still, it seemed like a strange coincidence given that I'd just read The Night Land in the past mnth. I mean, what's up w/ no sun n'at?

""What can you tell me about Kristians?"

""My country had a few, Bey. But I am of the Momad persuasion myself, as you understand, and we avoid intercourse with the unfaithful. Except for yourself, sir, who shine like a light . . ."" - p 8

Given that fantasy usually hearkens 'back' to a sortof alternate reality Middle Ages of limited technology, much superstition, & rule by violence, this one's 'classic' insofar as the 3 main characters are a religious pilgrim, a retired conquering soldier & 'his' freed slave. BUT, there're mysteries that hint that things might be a little less obvious. The soldier meets the penitent & 'saves him from himself'. They talk:

""I'm starving now. It brings me close to my goal."

""And what is your goal?"

""To live in the light of God, not the mud of the world."

""What's your name?"

""Jacome. Yours?"

""Bar-Woten."

""A peculiar name."

""I'm an Ibisian. I picked the name up when I killed a bear fifteen years ago. He clawed out an eye before he died. Bear-killer. One-eyed. Bar-Woten.["]" - p 20

As they travel, they ponder the strangeness of their environment & the practice of calling its inhabitants the "Second-born":

""Wind and water did this," Bar-Woten said. "Hegira has to have been here for millions of years."

""Been here?" Kiril asked. "Ah, if you're going to be profound, where is here?"

""Wherever, it is not the land of the First-born. It has no stars, no sun, and no moons. Scrittori, can your learning explain that?"" - p 49

While there's no sun or stars there is a cyclical light source:

"His neck hair prickled, and he sat down on his knees wanting to run. It was near dawn—soon the sky would be green at the zenith as it always had.

"But ten minutes passed and the dark remained. Two fire doves twinkled pink and orange just above the northern horizon. A third, bluish in color, hovered above the western mountains.

"They winked out.

"Thousands were sitting awake, watching the sky as he was. A low moan rose from the city, the sound of distant screams and wailing." - p 84

"For the first time in memory of anyone living, starshine visibly brightened the land." - p 85

Given that there were ordinarily no stars or sun but that they knew about such things one gleans that they learned of them from reading the OBELISKS that are scattered around the planet.

"The ship would soon be midway between Obelisks, where the ocean air would be cooler and the weather less predictable." - p 96

"Navigation on Hegira, they explained, was entirely different from navigation as described by the Obelisk texts. There were different objects to be sighted and different problems to be dealt with. The meteorology of Hegira was radically different from old Earth, and there were no stars or sun or moon to use as guides. Instead the paths of certain fire doves were charted, and each fire dove was given a name according to its peculiar qualities. In all there were at least five hundred different fire doves, two dozen of which were easily discernible." - p 98

The Obelisks are a mystery for our heros to ponder:

""That means the Obelisks have light and heat on top," he concluded. "That explains why some deep canyons are dark the same way all the time and others aren't."" - p 105

The Obelisks are a stable center of reality on Hegira until..

"The Obelisk was tilting and falling.

"He was enough of a seaman now and had studied the charts enough to know that anything of such size falling would wreak havoc along that distant sea and coastline. The result would be more quakes, and something he had never imagined until now, but knew was inevitable.

"The sea would rise from the collision of world and spire like an unleashed monster." - p 114

""They have come to read the Obelisk. They have requested our help in digging out the buried portions—as much as possible—and reading and deciphering. The admiral tells me this is a monumental task, enough to fill decades, perhaps centuries. In that time the Northerners will support us, help rebuild, re-establish our economy—apparently making the Obelisk the center of all business and trade.["]" - p 168

My edition of the bk came w/ a pop-up Obelisk that seems to be several miles high. When I got to this page it popped erect & ripped thru the roof of my house but then sealed immediately. It's even more crowded inside now but it looks like it may have a working elevator so if I suddenly stop writing this review it'll be b/c I've figured out how to open the doors.

""I'm beginning to piece together this stuff about the Wall of the World," Bar-Woten said, regaining his breath with even, deep inhalations. "It's five thousand kilometers from here, to the north, which explains why there are no more Obelisks visible no matter how far north you travel. From what I understand the Wall itself gives off a glow at the top. There may be smaller Obelisks there or normal ones just beyond it."

""How tall is it?" Kiril asked. Barthel stood beside them and leaned on his cimbing pack, his face red and sweaty.

""At least as tall as an Obelisk."

"Kiril looked down the Northern slope and saw a helicopter landing on a broad rock outcrop. It looked like a bee setting down on a stony gray flower. "Is it true there's writing on the Wall, too?"" - pp 170-171

"The three had to pass beyond the Wall. It was a dead certainty that what lay beyond the Wall was the Land Where Night Is a River." - p 172

""We have a pretty good idea of the history of the First-born to the middle of the twentieth century anno Domini," he said, pointing to the end of the Obelisk. "Information here could already give us a lifetime of study and development, since we come across complicated philosophies, whole new brands of physical science, and vast, important literatures. But now we need to know how we are related to the First-born and what sort of world Hegira is. With this knowledge we might begin to find some meaning in our ex ( )

Since Greg Bear is one of my usual authors, it was interesting to see one of his early works. Not a bad book, with glimpses at the future B dispersed within. ( )

I went into this book with low to zero expectations. That proved to be a good strategy because the rather slow start and getting to know the people and world took a little patience. This is a very early novel, possibly the first for Greg Bear. My copy of the book shows it was originally written in 1979 and revised in 1987. I read quite a bit of Greg Bear in the 1980's and a smattering in later years but never this one.

I was quite satisfied with the book by the end. This is not a book to reveal plot points in a review since it would potentially completely spoil the read for the reader. The story takes place on a world where all of human history is inscribed on huge obelisks erected across the world which the populace strive to read and learn from. Society seems to be in something like a mixed 17th-mid 20th century level. At the very beginning we see a Christ cult that flagellates itself and so on trying to achieve enlightenment since the story of "This Heisos Kristos - or Yesu as we knew him - is mentioned on all the Obelisks I have ever known and his story is always the same." We follow the journey several men are taking across their immense world in an attempt to learn what it is all about.

The biggest complaint one can have is that the book feels a little derivative of other science fiction but that is hardly new. It just seems a little more obvious here, but it is put together in an interesting way and I enjoyed the book. ( )