The IBIC Guide to Books By Bill Adams and Cecil Brooks
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February 5, 1995
I thoroughly enjoyed THE
UNWOUND WAY and THE
END OF FAME by Bill Adams and Cecil Brooks (Del Rey). The
protagonist of these two stories is Evan Larkspur, a charismatic
figure whose careers (and I do mean careers) as poet,
playwright, naval officer, politician, and philosopher span
a hundred years in the repressive far future government of the
First Column. He's a likable and engaging character who lives up to
his considerable advance billing within the novel. His inner life is complex
and interesting enough that I had no difficulty in imagining him as a successful
playwright.
Indeed, the exploration of Larkspur's inner life is the real
raison d'etre for the book. The SF elements of this book are
pretty tame--hypothetical far future technology is not the
authors' forte. This really isn't hard science fiction in the
traditional sense of inspiring awe at the strangeness of the
universe and the magic of technology (viz. Clarke's Law). The awe
that one feels on reading this book is inspired by the boundless
ingenuity of the human narrative facility--as exemplified by
Adams and Brooks's clever plotting--and by the nobility of the
human spirit as described in Larkspur's Kanalist philosophy.
Perhaps the best testimony to the quality
of the thought about values is that within a week after reading this book I found
myself bringing it up in e-conversation with a close friend. Like a lot of other good SF (Star Trek and Heinlein come to
mind), this book makes you wish you lived with the protagonist
and his cronies.
Strongly recommended.
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Editor's Recommendations, Summer 1996
In this inaugural edition of IBIC's Featured Books, I'd like to
draw your attention to several titles which have helped to shape my life
and thinking.
- When I was around fifteen, I came across Larry Niven and
Jerry Pournelle's science fiction novel, INFERNO. This '70s remake of Dante's
classic describes science fiction writer Allen Carpentier's
descent into Hell. It's still a very fresh, accessible take on
the classic. What a great movie it would make!
- The Niven/Pournelle INFERNO
immediately inspired me to read the original Divine Comedy.
I've read a number of translations over the years, but my
favorite is the one by Dorothy Sayers (INFERNO;
PURGATORY;
PARADISE). The notes
are excellent, and Sayers had such a knowledgeable and witty mind that reading
her prose is a pleasure in itself. (For those interested in a more contemporary translation, I should mention that Robert Pinsky received excellent notices for his 1995 THE
INFERNO OF DANTE : A NEW VERSE TRANSLATION; it's a very handsome book.)
- I also want to tell you about the late Henry Fairlie's THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS TODAY,
which probably did more than any other single book to galvanize me into a lifetime interest
in Christianity that led me, eventually, to faith. Ironic, because Fairlie was a self-proclaimed agnostic socialist! But
reading between the lines of this insightful and deeply feeling book, one realizes
that the love of God cannot have been far from Fairlie's heart.
- Finally, I should draw to your attention a more recent
acquisition, the very handsome NIV
STUDY BIBLE (10TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION) from Zondervan, indexed and bonded in leather in
IBIC's theme color, burgundy (black
and brown
are also available). The notes to this Bible are amazing. They
appear to provide you with a very substantial portion of what you need to
know to have an intelligent layman's appreciation of the
linguistic and historical issues involved in understanding
Scripture.
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