donn%utah-cs@sri-unix.UUCP (08/11/84)
From: donn@utah-cs (Donn Seeley) THE DEEP. John Crowley. Bantam, c1975; new edition 1984. BEASTS. John Crowley. Bantam, c1976; new edition 1983. It's taken me some time after reading John Crowley's ENGINE SUMMER and LITTLE, BIG to get around to investigating his earlier works. Both ENGINE SUMMER and LITTLE, BIG are fun books (although I incline more toward LITTLE, BIG, despite its mammoth size and occasional lapses into cuteness -- other people must have liked it too, since it won the World Fantasy Award). When an author has done so well with their current material, there's always a little hesitation for me in hunting up their older books; not infrequently a first novel that has dropped out of sight thoroughly deserved its fate, and reading it can spoil the taste of the other books. How many people have heard of Gene Wolfe's first novel, OPERATION ARES? After reading Harlan Ellison's comments, I've been afraid to even look for it... I was therefore very pleasantly surprised by THE DEEP and BEASTS. Both novels have been re-issued by Bantam books with striking new covers by Yvonne Gilbert, part of the promotion for the mass-market edition of LITTLE, BIG. Both books are well worth reading and I'm curious how I managed to avoid hearing about them for so long. BEASTS is the weaker of the two; it contains elements that prefigure both ENGINE SUMMER and LITTLE, BIG and can perhaps be regarded as a kind of transition book. Painter is a leo, a member of a breed that was created by fusing human and leonine genetic material using recombinant DNA techniques. The government of the US has crumbled and all that remains are petty 'autonomies' which struggle to maintain a semblance of authority. The leos have evolved their own alien culture living in the wild apart from humanity. When we meet Painter, however, he is on the run -- leos and other synthetic species have become undesirables under a new revival of the central government. How is it possible to persuade human beings to preserve something so unearthly as leos? The book investigates this problem at several different levels, from the experiences of humans in direct contact with leos to the incredibly tangled politics of xenophobia. Although the problem is not really resolved at the end of the book, it is still thought-provoking. Despite the occasional silliness of Crowley's assumptions (well, of course lion/humans act just like lions that think; well, of course leos can communicate telepathically with dogs, they're animals, aren't they?) and the jumpiness of the plot line -- some important events take place off stage, others are crammed together -- the book is worth reading for the quality of its writing and characterization. THE DEEP is full of beautiful images and is a surprisingly satisfying book; what an impressive debut this was... The title refers to the void which surrounds the world, from whose bottomless reaches rises the pillar of gleaming adamant that supports the circles of human existence, through whose limitless spaces the Sun must travel every night in order to return to its position in the East at dawn, and from which a mysterious traveler arrives on a day of battle. He is found injured; a sword has cut open his head and his memory has leaked out along with some of his curious blood. Thrust into the conflict between the Reds and the Blacks, two factions of the nobility who have perpetually struggled for supremacy, the Visitor must learn about the destiny of human beings before he can consider his own. It's hard to say much about the plot without saying too much, since it is very complicated, but one interesting aspect is the existence of the Just, who are a secret society whose purpose is to destroy the nobility and bring about the rule of Leviathan, whose technique is assassination, whose weapon is the Gun, a tool which despite its crudeness seems beyond the technological level of the otherwise feudal society. The 'answer' to the riddle of the world's existence, when it comes, is really amazing. I liked THE DEEP a lot and I can recommend it as being of a quality far superior to the current boring run of medieval fantasies. Donn Seeley University of Utah CS Dept donn@utah-cs.arpa 40 46' 6"N 111 50' 34"W (801) 581-5668 decvax!utah-cs!donn