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A review by manwithanagenda
The River Wall by Randall Garrett, Vicki Ann Heydron
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
And so it ends.
The 'Gandalara Cycle' was a touchstone of my adolescence, coming around at a time when I first really began exploring fantasy and science fiction as independent genres as opposed to just the more exciting brand of book. I was bowled over by it, I thought and thought and thought about it, creating imaginary sequels or paralell journeys within it.
Without an overburdened imagination to help me along this time, things got a little rough. The first three books came out fine, a little hokey, but fun. Then they kept going on and characters gallavanted across the small face of their world back and forth three times - for nothing! And the author decided to keep trying to force emotion into these characters, and worse, explain that emotion. We're not Vulcans, lady. I think we could have connected the dots by how they were acting...but back to the story.
The Ra'ira so much effort has been spent chasing has been a fake all along! Tarani and Rikardon figure out the identity of an evil mastermind in Raithskar, and must stop him at all costs. On the way an earthquake shakes up the poisonous gases of the Well of Darkness, a volcanic crater, which settles on and threatens to exterminate the breeding grounds of the sha'um. One world travesty, or two, or three for that matter, are never enough. So things are stalled while Rikardon rallies the Sharith to save as many sha'um as possible from their poisoned valley.
Eventually there's a big face-off between the corrupt power-mad despot who's taken over Raithskar and our heroes, so they can get the Ra'ira back and complete the arch-quest. The whole civilization of Gandalara is in dire peril and only the unique qualities of our heroes can come up with a plan to save everybody!
See, 'The River Wall' has the payoff that the whole series was building up to, sometimes not so subtly, but payoff is payoff. Throughout the series Rikardon, an amalgam of Ricardo Carillo of our time (say, early '70s American) and Markasset a strapping young man of Gandalara, who were cosmically mashed together to accomplish some destiny, has been speculating on what the land of Gandalara is.
The big payoff [serial spoiler here]:It's noted, often, that Rikardon can't see the stars through the constant cloudcover and that there are some odd coincidences in biology between Gandalara and Earth. (Any geologist out there who thinks you could figure out the big secret of Gandalara from this information, please correct me of my scorn) The shape of the map reminded Tarani/Antonia, (Antonia is essentially only the memories of an Italian woman who was similarly cosmically mashed with a Gandalaran, with less positive results) of something:
[Map of Gandalara]
Furthermore, Rikardon kept adding together the constricted boundaries of the world, essentially two desert valleys bounded by mountains so high the low-tech Gandalarans cannot climb over them; the high salt-content of the deserts; large copper and tin desposits in the Eastern rock; marble quarries in the center dividing mountains; and tiny, tiny iron deposits in the far West. Also, the beginings of volcanic activity near that central mountain chain.
Eureka! He's got it!
Gandalara is actually the bed of the Mediterranean Sea 50 million years ago when Africa and Europe collided and blocked that area from the ocean for a time. The waters receded and the flora and fauna of Gandalara developed with all of its mind powers and tusks. When the continents parted, the ocean flooded back in and washed away the entire civilization built of stone and salt and wood, and left no traces behind.
Come on, Ricardo was a linguist! How did he know that? The city of Eddarta (upper right) is supposed to be at the mouth of the Nile, and the clusters of mountains in the lower left with the pass through them are Corsica and Sardinia....I don't know, pretty sneaky sis.
So the grand destiny of Rikardon and Tarani turns out to be not only getting the Ra'ira and stopping all the big baddies in the whole world, but to also psychically project a master plan to migrate all of the people over a couple generations up the slopes of the River Wall to our 'surface' level and thus escape the waters about to flood back into the Mediterranean.
So they do save the day, it is an ambitous, if truly flawed, SF epic. Its seven short novels could have been condensed quite a bit but I got a big kick out of them when I was younger, the appeal is there and the ending is grand and complete. But, we all know that it's the journey that counts and the journey here is only just barely worth it. Sort've.
Gandalara Cycle
Previous: 'Return to Eddarta'
Gandalara Omnibus I
Gandalara Omnibus II
The 'Gandalara Cycle' was a touchstone of my adolescence, coming around at a time when I first really began exploring fantasy and science fiction as independent genres as opposed to just the more exciting brand of book. I was bowled over by it, I thought and thought and thought about it, creating imaginary sequels or paralell journeys within it.
Without an overburdened imagination to help me along this time, things got a little rough. The first three books came out fine, a little hokey, but fun. Then they kept going on and characters gallavanted across the small face of their world back and forth three times - for nothing! And the author decided to keep trying to force emotion into these characters, and worse, explain that emotion. We're not Vulcans, lady. I think we could have connected the dots by how they were acting...but back to the story.
The Ra'ira so much effort has been spent chasing has been a fake all along! Tarani and Rikardon figure out the identity of an evil mastermind in Raithskar, and must stop him at all costs. On the way an earthquake shakes up the poisonous gases of the Well of Darkness, a volcanic crater, which settles on and threatens to exterminate the breeding grounds of the sha'um. One world travesty, or two, or three for that matter, are never enough. So things are stalled while Rikardon rallies the Sharith to save as many sha'um as possible from their poisoned valley.
Eventually there's a big face-off between the corrupt power-mad despot who's taken over Raithskar and our heroes, so they can get the Ra'ira back and complete the arch-quest. The whole civilization of Gandalara is in dire peril and only the unique qualities of our heroes can come up with a plan to save everybody!
See, 'The River Wall' has the payoff that the whole series was building up to, sometimes not so subtly, but payoff is payoff. Throughout the series Rikardon, an amalgam of Ricardo Carillo of our time (say, early '70s American) and Markasset a strapping young man of Gandalara, who were cosmically mashed together to accomplish some destiny, has been speculating on what the land of Gandalara is.
The big payoff [serial spoiler here]:
[Map of Gandalara]
Furthermore, Rikardon kept adding together the constricted boundaries of the world, essentially two desert valleys bounded by mountains so high the low-tech Gandalarans cannot climb over them; the high salt-content of the deserts; large copper and tin desposits in the Eastern rock; marble quarries in the center dividing mountains; and tiny, tiny iron deposits in the far West. Also, the beginings of volcanic activity near that central mountain chain.
Eureka! He's got it!
Gandalara is actually the bed of the Mediterranean Sea 50 million years ago when Africa and Europe collided and blocked that area from the ocean for a time. The waters receded and the flora and fauna of Gandalara developed with all of its mind powers and tusks. When the continents parted, the ocean flooded back in and washed away the entire civilization built of stone and salt and wood, and left no traces behind.
Come on, Ricardo was a linguist! How did he know that? The city of Eddarta (upper right) is supposed to be at the mouth of the Nile, and the clusters of mountains in the lower left with the pass through them are Corsica and Sardinia....I don't know, pretty sneaky sis.
So the grand destiny of Rikardon and Tarani turns out to be not only getting the Ra'ira and stopping all the big baddies in the whole world, but to also psychically project a master plan to migrate all of the people over a couple generations up the slopes of the River Wall to our 'surface' level and thus escape the waters about to flood back into the Mediterranean.
So they do save the day, it is an ambitous, if truly flawed, SF epic. Its seven short novels could have been condensed quite a bit but I got a big kick out of them when I was younger, the appeal is there and the ending is grand and complete. But, we all know that it's the journey that counts and the journey here is only just barely worth it. Sort've.
Gandalara Cycle
Previous: 'Return to Eddarta'
Gandalara Omnibus I
Gandalara Omnibus II