Welcome back for part 2 of my contribution to the tour for Trackers by Kathryn Mackel. Kathryn has a website devoted to the Birthright Project. Trackers is book 2 in the series.
I am reading(and enjoying) Trackers now. My review will be published next week.
Instead of a review, I thought I would reflect on the whole Dying Earth subgenre. It was named after Jack Vance's Dying Earth books. Wikipedia has a good article that gives you a basic listing of books in this catagory. The books I refer to in this section are not necessarily Christian books.
Some of the stories that I remember are:
Gene Wolfe-The Book of the New Sun-someday I have to re-read and review this series. Wolfe is a Christian and the hero of this story is a disgraced torturer who is on the path of redemption. Wolfe is excellent at working Christian themes into the background of his tales.
Mark Geston-The Siege of Wonder-I read this book back in 1976 and I have never forgot it. Parts of it are poorly written, the ending is terrible, but Geston's innovative ideas carry stay with you. The main plot of the book is an invasion of wizards(with magical powers) into the modern scientific world. This book is one that I regret not keeping in my collection. This is a theme that I would like to tackle from a Christian point of view.
Don McGregor-Killraven-one of my favorite comic book series. Created as a sequel to H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds, this series was based on the idea that the Martians returned and conquered the Earth. Humans were mainly used as breeders or gladiators. Killraven was one of the gladiators. He managed to escape and gaither a group together to become freedom fighters. The group travelled through eastern North America on a search to find Killraven's brother. Some humans, and animals, were experimented on by the Martians. This part reminds me of Trackers.
What are some other Dying Earth type stories that you have read?
Please take the time to visit other participants in the tour.
Jackie Castle, Valerie Comer, Frank Creed, Gene Curtis, Chris Deanne, Janey DeMeo, April Erwin, Beth Goddard, Todd Michael Greene, Karen Hancock, Elliot Hanowski, Katie Hart, Sherrie Hibbs, Sharon Hinck, Joleen Howell, Jason Joyner, Karen and at Karen¹s myspace, Oliver King, Tina Kulesa, Mark Goodyear, Lost Genre Guild, Kevin Lucia and The Bookshelf Reviews 2.0 - The Compendium, Terri Main, Rachel Marks, Shannon McNear, Rebecca LuElla Miller, Caleb Newell, Eve Nielsen, John Otte, Cheryl Russel, Hannah Sandvig, Mirtika Schultz, James Somers, Stuart Stockton, Steve Trower, Speculative Faith, Chris Walley, Daniel I. Weaver
1 comment:
Hey, interesting subcategory to bring up. I linked over and posted thusly on Mirathon (below my review):
recommend you visit The Bedford Review's addition to the tour's last day, where Jim talks about the Dying Earth subgenre of SF, and how Mackel's book fits in with that. Wikipedia's article on Dying Earth says:
The Dying Earth subgenre is a sub-category of science fantasy which takes place at the end of Time, when the Sun slowly fades and the laws of the Universe themselves fail, with the science becoming indistinguishable from magic. More generally, the Dying Earth sub-genre encompasses science fiction works set in the far distant future in a milieu of stasis or decline. Themes of world-weariness, innocence (wounded or otherwise), idealism, entropy and the hope of renewal tend to pre-dominate.
Tell him which are your fave Dying Earth novels. (If any.) I've read Aldiss' HOTHOUSE, which was astonishingly creative, and stories of the Instrumentality (which are are classed in this subcategory). Was The Foundation Trilogy (which went on to be more than a trilogy, but, eh..) on the list. Seems to me it should be. I read that one early in my sci-fi explorations and loved it. I should re-read it. And would A CANTICLE FOR LEIBOWITZ fit in there? "A Boy and His Dog" might fit, too. They had that underground culture trying to preserve some old notions of what order and society ought to be, while "upstairs" it was a post-apocalyptic, free-for-all, scrabble to survive. And the whole "communication with animals thing" as in Mackel's tale. Yeah, some correlations.
Thanks for touring...
Mir
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