In 1982, when this book was published, I was 14, a SFF fan and reading novels written for adults. I read it then, and I remember only that I wasn't enthralled. I remember literally nothing else about the book. Fast forward to 2024. I picked up a copy at a library book sale, along with the others in the series. I knew this series is considered to be a masterpiece, and I thought that maybe it was just over my head when I read it the first time. So I decided to give it another go.

I'm not quite halfway into the book, and I'm wondering if I'm going to finish. I'm kind of amazed that 14-year-old me actually DID finish. It's an ambitious premise that Aldiss has attempted, so I give him points for that. But as a story, it's not actually very interesting. The characters feel cardboard to me. And most of them, so far, are men. Women are definitely secondary to the main narrative, and largely interchangeable. Given the time it was written, that's perhaps not surprising, but I'm just tired of reading books like this.

Also, I'm experiencing some cognitive dissonance. The planet is essentially just coming out of an ice age, the people dress in skins and use spears, and follow a hunter gatherer existence. And yet...they have metal implements. They have cloth, even thought they wear animal skins, and they have flour to make bread, meaning agriculture and some kind of mechanical means to turn grain into flour. But none of these more technological aspects are satisfactorily explained, or even alluded to beyond the product mentioned. It seems beyond the capacity of a stone age civilization. Even leaving that aside (assuming some technology left over from previous civilizations), how could you have agriculture when the ground is frozen and always covered with snow and ice? Or, how can you have a permanent town where everyone is a hunter? Hundreds of people constantly hunting in the same area is going to quickly deplete the game. Yet, all the adult males are described as hunters (if they aren't priests), and the women don't seem to do anything but bake bread with flour from *somewhere* since nobody seems to farm. And the humans don't use draft animals. And there don't seem to be any artisans. I mean, who makes all the things that aren't spears? The alien phagor that share the planet do ride the animals that they herd, and they also have metal and cloth, but are nomadic herders with no towns. Again, who weaves the cloth? Who shapes the metal? Who mines the ore? The whole milieu just seems implausible to me.

In other reviews, Aldiss is lauded for his worldbuilding and the scientific basis for Helliconia's ecology. But he hasn't put the same care into creating a believable civilization, at least so far. I mean, maybe there's an explanation for all this, but right now it just seems like Aldiss is ignoring what to me are the keystones of any civilization or society.

Haven't decided yet if I'll go any further, or read the other books.

UPDATE: Read a little bit further, investigated reviews of this book as well as others in the series, and decided to not finish. It looks like, if I don't like it that much now, my opinion isn't going to improve. Those that love it, love it. Those that don't never do. ( )

SF. Pretty good story; 1st in series

A story that slowly unveils how life works on a planet around a binary star. There are still humanoid creatures, plants and animals but everything is affected by the very long cycles of weather. Different parts of the books track different characters, each showcasing some aspect of life, usually the characters being loosely related across a long time period. Captivating to see all the details and problems the humans have and also gives a feeling of how life could have been in some medieval time and place, with lack of knowledge, conflicts and resource management. The characters have both archetypal qualities but some also do have strong personalities and curious journeys. ( )

Diese Trilogie vereint meine liebsten SF-Romane. Nach der Lektüre der drei Bände war ich sehr beeindruckt von der Welt, die Brian Aldiss hier in Jahren kreativer Arbeit erschaffen hatte. Es ist bewundernswert, wie viel Mühe er darauf verwendet hat, die biologischen Grundlagen seiner einmaligen Welt, mit den außergewöhnlichen Lebensbedingungen aufgrund einer elliptischen Umlaufbahn um ihre Sonne, plausibel zu erfinden und auszugestalten.
Dennoch folgt die Romanhandlung in jedem Band den Schicksalen einzelner, und verflicht das große Gesamtbild mit dem individuellen Lebensweg der Protagonisten und Protagonistinnen, die uns allmählich ans Herz wachsen.

Viele andere Rezensionen hier schildern die Handlung detailreich, daher will ich mich darauf beschränken, die Helliconia-Trilogie wärmstens zu empfehlen: für historisch und naturwissenschaftlich Interessierte, für Menschen, die Freude haben an fremden Welten, und für die, die zwischen den Zeilen viele Parallelen zu Kulturen und kulturellen Bedingungen unserer Welt entdecken können.

Meiner Meinung nach ist Helliconia ein Meisterwerk. ( )

Heliconia Primavera es el primer volumen de una saga monumental que no tiene antecedentes ni siquiera en la obra del autor. Todo un sistema solar aparece en estas páginas, y junto con él un mundo -Heliconia- que es un reflejo perturbador del nuestro, un planeta parecido a la Tierra pero en el que la historia y las dinastías cambian junto con las estaciones.

En un principio un joven cazador solitario, Yuli, viendo que su padre ha caído en manos de los phagors decide alejarse de las baiteras de hielo y se incorpora como sacerdote a un mundo subterráneo en el que la oscuridad es sagrada y la religión tiene poder sobre el individuo. Luego de numerosas pruebas y sorpresas, Yuli consigue salir al mundo de la luz y allí vivirá en una ciudad llamada Oldorando, donde los descendientes lo recordarán siempre como el hombre que abandonó la fe para ayudar a su pueblo.