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bibliomaniac2021's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
hopeful
informative
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.75
In SF writing there are two modes. The first is world-building which involves extensive planning of whole civilisations, societies, political systems, methods of transportation which allow the characters to interact. Usually, the author will have an omniscient view of the world, and step wise will describe the complications of it to the reader, usually early in the novel. The other manner is to take that bird’s eye view, and break it down into separate parts and incorporate them, not in an obviously logical sequence, but distribute them throughout the entire book leaving the reader to put the pieces together.
“Kuldesak” falls into the second category. From its outset, we’re given a deliberately confusing view of the action with two extra-terrestrials watched through the eyes of a telepathic animal – or “companion” by humans. These humans, or “roamers” are a low-level sect living in a ruined city beneath the earth’s crust which is where humanity has been for two thousand years. Their leader Mel is determined to break out to the surface, a rebellious act that is prevented by machines, obviously part of a giant computer network which ensures the human project is controlled. Society in the depths is interesting: the roamers live in “vans,” which suggests gypsies, who carry out pillaging raids throughout the desolate complex, as far away as Bristol. The next tribe are “Plants” who are not fully explained; but they seem to be a less directed, almost decadent bunch, almost spiritual in nature. One of the protagonists, Frankie, is an ex-plant who has generated impressive psychokinetic abilities. Maybe Cowper had in mind Well’s Elochs and Morlochs with this tribal division, though the Morlochs are not monstrous; some of them- like Mel- clearly have intelligence, and possess the will to break out. All the tribes are watched by “Handlers”, robotic guards who have the power to apprehend and brutally whip roamers who trespass in forbidden spaces. Then there are “factors”, elementary machines that perform various functions throughout the depths.
What I really liked in this novel was Cowper’s re-working of traditional vocabulary within a futuristic setting which allows the reader to construct the world through linguistic interpretation of the diction. All the usual Cowper elements are here: a telepathically gifted woman who can change the order of things; themes of love and compassion against a brutalising world; the use of flashback which is what we’re encountering at the start of the book; and a sense of renewed hope present in the persuasion of the hexagonal computer -on the urging of the alien visitors- to cease its programme of eliminating the human race in order to allow it to come out on the surface to thrive.
Reading this I was reminded of Brian Aldiss’s “Non-Stop”- which I should re-read sometime, and Harlan Ellison’s “A Boy and His Dog,” and there is a dog, but a mechanical one! But despite the possible influences, Cowper has his own clear voice, and as usual shows how literary elegance and speculative fiction can be joyously brought together.
“Kuldesak” falls into the second category. From its outset, we’re given a deliberately confusing view of the action with two extra-terrestrials watched through the eyes of a telepathic animal – or “companion” by humans. These humans, or “roamers” are a low-level sect living in a ruined city beneath the earth’s crust which is where humanity has been for two thousand years. Their leader Mel is determined to break out to the surface, a rebellious act that is prevented by machines, obviously part of a giant computer network which ensures the human project is controlled. Society in the depths is interesting: the roamers live in “vans,” which suggests gypsies, who carry out pillaging raids throughout the desolate complex, as far away as Bristol. The next tribe are “Plants” who are not fully explained; but they seem to be a less directed, almost decadent bunch, almost spiritual in nature. One of the protagonists, Frankie, is an ex-plant who has generated impressive psychokinetic abilities. Maybe Cowper had in mind Well’s Elochs and Morlochs with this tribal division, though the Morlochs are not monstrous; some of them- like Mel- clearly have intelligence, and possess the will to break out. All the tribes are watched by “Handlers”, robotic guards who have the power to apprehend and brutally whip roamers who trespass in forbidden spaces. Then there are “factors”, elementary machines that perform various functions throughout the depths.
What I really liked in this novel was Cowper’s re-working of traditional vocabulary within a futuristic setting which allows the reader to construct the world through linguistic interpretation of the diction. All the usual Cowper elements are here: a telepathically gifted woman who can change the order of things; themes of love and compassion against a brutalising world; the use of flashback which is what we’re encountering at the start of the book; and a sense of renewed hope present in the persuasion of the hexagonal computer -on the urging of the alien visitors- to cease its programme of eliminating the human race in order to allow it to come out on the surface to thrive.
Reading this I was reminded of Brian Aldiss’s “Non-Stop”- which I should re-read sometime, and Harlan Ellison’s “A Boy and His Dog,” and there is a dog, but a mechanical one! But despite the possible influences, Cowper has his own clear voice, and as usual shows how literary elegance and speculative fiction can be joyously brought together.
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