peterson@vaxwrk.DEC (Bob Peterson) (07/18/85)
While we're on the general subject, there's also "Status Quotient: The Carrier"
by Ralph A. Sperry, pub. Avon 1981. Have I mentioend this before on the net?
Forgive me if I have.
Loosely it could be termed a science-fiction novel, but it is very
unself-conscious about being either s-f or gay lit. It is not a happy book but
rather I found it deeply moving. Enough to actualy get me to write to the
author, whom I had never heard of before or since. He had planned a trilogy of
trilogies of which this was the middle book of the middle trilogy, and has/had
been working on them for about ten years before publishing this first book. I
have only had one other person read it, also gay, and he thought it dull. You
have to make your own decision, but it is currently VERY hard to find since not
many stores picked it up to begin with.
Here is the blurb from the back cover:
One the planet of Ath, there is only one building left, and inside it is
the last human being [humanoid, whatever], Ancil, the only man to escape
the horror which destroyed the human [?] colonists which came to Ath
thousands of years ago. Ancil is a regenerative. He can never die, but
will live to see _everything_ change with time.
Ancil is utterly, utterly alone except for the haunting legacy of the
Imitators, man-like creatures whose planet this once was before the humans
came and annihilated them.
Suddenly a strange and beautiful cat arrives at Ancil's home, the first
living creature he ahs seen for many years. But the cat is just the first
of the extraordinary phenomena about to enter Ancil's life-- and before his
story's over, you will have wondered where the mind ends and reality
begins...
In that final respect Sperry shares some of the effects of Samuel R. Delany
(who happens to also write non-traditional novels): the reader is left
pondering the nature of the "reality" the character is perceiving and
discussing. Stylistically the book is written as a diary which concentrates
even more the effect of seeing Ancil's world and life through his eyes alone.
Wow. My first book review. But then it is one of the top ten books ever I
read. If you can find it read it.
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