Book Review 1 The Wall at the Edge of the World, more to follow
My book review on The Wall at the Edge of the World by Jim Aikin, published in 1993, by Ace Science Fiction.
I have managed to start reading fiction again folks, that's right, fiction. I'm reading multiple books simultaneously.
SUMMARY:
The Wall at the Edge of the World finds us with Danlo, a counter from Serameno in a world that had been ravaged by war 1,000 years ago, when a cult decides to take over their world, wiping out the non-psychics or non-telepaths of that world. The people of this world are telepathic, in something called a ktess, or a telepathic bond each person has with another. There can be no lying in such a world, but that’s the root conflict in the story, what happens when telepaths manage to block each other out and lie to each other? The people who are not telepathic are not called muggles like in Harry Potter but rather something worse, nulls. Danlo had lost his wife Julan in a "Cleansing" or a killing/beheading of the non-telepaths who can't use this faculty. Death also means in this world, that individuals’ life essence goes back into the “Body” or the telepathic essence that connects the people. Women from another town near the Mississippi River know how to survive in the forest beyond the expansive wall at the edge. They manage to come to the wall and climb over it, kidnapping Danlo and all the men in a coach headed towards Danlo’s destination because he was attending various Cleansings in his spare time off of work. He had already planted a seed of dissention into his heart if that was the case.
The men of the coach are kidnapped by the wild woman, hauled over the wall and are then lashed with whips, tied into a rope line, pushed around. The naked men are to be taken to the women’s village. Danlo figures out early on that the men have a shorter life expectancy due to lead poisoning when he discovers why women eat from the red bowls and men eat from the green bowls they had brought with them from their country, where it snows. The group he’s with is freed when the Body finds them, getting rid of the women save three who survive the massacre. In the craziness, Danlo somehow finds his pants, which allows him to get away. He escapes the frenzy by befriending Linnie, one of the wild women who had a bad leg but somehow survived as well. Fortunately, Danlo will have companionship in the forest even if she is somewhat a free spirit, being a null, or someone not telepathic, but they get along anyway. He learns from her how to survive outside the wall. Then he gets what he feels is a brilliant idea, to go back and save the other nulls from Cleansings, he could use his ability to counteract telepathy or at least to block it, something only a “joddie” or master telepath can do. The joddies are advanced telepaths who manipulate others’ feelings into remembering painful events differently or perhaps just being able to change what they are seeing in the physical world.
Danlo returns to civilization with Linnie hidden away, hiding in the remote areas closer to the wall. They meet Ainnie, a girl who resents the killing of Borry, her boyfriend, who had been a null. The Body likes to kill young children who are not telepathic because this takes them out of the telepathic gene pool that the cult leaders, Frank and Olivia, worked as god-like figures to cultivate. Danlo in his return to civilization, keeps his mind shut out from the collective in order to retain his privacy while trying to decide what to do next. He then finds two boys, Mooly and Gairth who are about to be put to death. Parents never feel good about killing their null kids in this world but the society expects it of them somehow so they go through with it. Danlo envisions a world where nulls and telepaths work together side-by side, and killing is seen as unethical in any situation.
Ainnie eventually decides to break away from her family using a horse despite her joddie uncle. She takes the horse to where Danlo is breaking the boys out of the prison. She helps him and manages to get away from her boring life. Danlo and company decides to steal a plane from Yubasty, and take it across the wall, but not after freeing the wild-women. The plane crashes but then many people decide to join them over the wall, the wild women and the rest of the people in their town could be their guides even if the Body plans another Great Cleansing. I’m not going to reveal the ultimate ending of the book but at least, your job as a reader is to go and get it from any library or Amazon.com and read it.
I have managed to start reading fiction again folks, that's right, fiction. I'm reading multiple books simultaneously.
SUMMARY:
The Wall at the Edge of the World finds us with Danlo, a counter from Serameno in a world that had been ravaged by war 1,000 years ago, when a cult decides to take over their world, wiping out the non-psychics or non-telepaths of that world. The people of this world are telepathic, in something called a ktess, or a telepathic bond each person has with another. There can be no lying in such a world, but that’s the root conflict in the story, what happens when telepaths manage to block each other out and lie to each other? The people who are not telepathic are not called muggles like in Harry Potter but rather something worse, nulls. Danlo had lost his wife Julan in a "Cleansing" or a killing/beheading of the non-telepaths who can't use this faculty. Death also means in this world, that individuals’ life essence goes back into the “Body” or the telepathic essence that connects the people. Women from another town near the Mississippi River know how to survive in the forest beyond the expansive wall at the edge. They manage to come to the wall and climb over it, kidnapping Danlo and all the men in a coach headed towards Danlo’s destination because he was attending various Cleansings in his spare time off of work. He had already planted a seed of dissention into his heart if that was the case.
The men of the coach are kidnapped by the wild woman, hauled over the wall and are then lashed with whips, tied into a rope line, pushed around. The naked men are to be taken to the women’s village. Danlo figures out early on that the men have a shorter life expectancy due to lead poisoning when he discovers why women eat from the red bowls and men eat from the green bowls they had brought with them from their country, where it snows. The group he’s with is freed when the Body finds them, getting rid of the women save three who survive the massacre. In the craziness, Danlo somehow finds his pants, which allows him to get away. He escapes the frenzy by befriending Linnie, one of the wild women who had a bad leg but somehow survived as well. Fortunately, Danlo will have companionship in the forest even if she is somewhat a free spirit, being a null, or someone not telepathic, but they get along anyway. He learns from her how to survive outside the wall. Then he gets what he feels is a brilliant idea, to go back and save the other nulls from Cleansings, he could use his ability to counteract telepathy or at least to block it, something only a “joddie” or master telepath can do. The joddies are advanced telepaths who manipulate others’ feelings into remembering painful events differently or perhaps just being able to change what they are seeing in the physical world.
Danlo returns to civilization with Linnie hidden away, hiding in the remote areas closer to the wall. They meet Ainnie, a girl who resents the killing of Borry, her boyfriend, who had been a null. The Body likes to kill young children who are not telepathic because this takes them out of the telepathic gene pool that the cult leaders, Frank and Olivia, worked as god-like figures to cultivate. Danlo in his return to civilization, keeps his mind shut out from the collective in order to retain his privacy while trying to decide what to do next. He then finds two boys, Mooly and Gairth who are about to be put to death. Parents never feel good about killing their null kids in this world but the society expects it of them somehow so they go through with it. Danlo envisions a world where nulls and telepaths work together side-by side, and killing is seen as unethical in any situation.
Ainnie eventually decides to break away from her family using a horse despite her joddie uncle. She takes the horse to where Danlo is breaking the boys out of the prison. She helps him and manages to get away from her boring life. Danlo and company decides to steal a plane from Yubasty, and take it across the wall, but not after freeing the wild-women. The plane crashes but then many people decide to join them over the wall, the wild women and the rest of the people in their town could be their guides even if the Body plans another Great Cleansing. I’m not going to reveal the ultimate ending of the book but at least, your job as a reader is to go and get it from any library or Amazon.com and read it.