Retro Review - Tower at the Edge of Time (Lin Carter, 1968)
Introduction
This short novel (about 45,000 words) is basically a fun, though rather cheesy, science-fantasy romp through a regressed-technology interstellar universe. But in one respect, it demonstrates Lin Carter's overall skill as not merely a writer, but a fabricator of fascinating fictional worlds.
Setting
Tower at the Edge of Time is set in a period far in our future. For six thousand years the Carina Empire ruled the stars; it fell before the Star Rovers who were in turn vanquished by the White Adepts of Parlion.
Nine centuries of interregnum later, interstellar civilization has partially collapsed. Starfaring technology exists side by side with weird magic and pre-industrial technology, in a Schizo Tech (see tvtropes.org) situation caused by the fact that much of the Galaxy has forgotten the secrets of manufacturing the starfaring technology.
Hero
In this world strides Thane of the Two Swords, a barbarian from Zha the Jungle Planet. He's strong, fairly smart, brave, and possessed of preternatural reflexes, skilled both with his trademark two swords and with other weapons such as laser pistols.
Plot
In the city of Zaithera on the planet Daikoon, a semi-barbaric desert planet, he easily defeats a thug in physical and a mage (Druu the Dwarf, of Yoth Zembis) in psychological confrontations. The thug and the mage were both sent by the wily and despicable Prince Chan to test Thane.
Prince Chan approaches Thane with an offer of wealth if Thane aids him on a quest, but Thane rejects the offer. Prince Chan is determined to bend Thane to his will, for he suspects that Thane may be the only one who can help him achieve his goal.
Thane winds up rescuing a dancer named Ilara. Both of them are pursued, and captured, by the minions of Shastar of the Red Moon, a space pirate, who takes them offworld. Shastar is the partner of Prince Chan in Chan's quest. They are held captive by Shastar, and Thane starts to fall in love with Ilara.
Defeating a Mind-Gladiator in a duel, Thane reveals strange mental powers, including precognition and telekinesis. These powers came to him years ago, after he tried to raid the Temple of the Time Priests, and was possessed by the spirit of an alien entity that become symbiotic with his own mind. They have greatly enhanced his fighting prowess, and this symbiosis is the reason why Chan finds him indispensible. Thane uses these mental powers to temporarily escape captivity.
Thane is recaptured, because Ilara is revealed to have been an agent of Chen all along. Thane feels betrayed, but later learns from Shastar that Chen's minion, the mind-warlock Druu, placed Ilara under a geas to force her to this action. Thane and Ilara are taken by Chen and Shastar to their final destination: the Tower at the Edge of Time.
An ancient prehuman race built this Tower, on the Dark Planet of Mnom, and in there were said to have placed an enormous treasure. But the treasure was placed in the Tower in the far future, so that only one with their own time-spanning powers could get at it.
These are the powers which Thane received from the symbiosis. Thane is the key to the treasure.
Thane, Ilara, Shastar, Chen and Druu enter the Tower. There, they are projected into the future and receive an awesome glimpse of the whole history of Mankind that is yet to come. Druu attacks Chen and the two slay each other.
It turns out that the treasure is ... wisdom.
Anviliciously enlightened, the surviving trio return to their time. Shastar decides to continue to be a star rover, and Thane decides to marry Ilara and settle down. End of story.
Bad Points
The characterization is cardboard. Thane is very much the generic hero with a tinge (only a tinge) of Conan and a tinge (again only a tinge) of Kinnison. He's highly competent, and a decent fellow for a barbarian space-reaver, but that's about it.
Ilara is just the Love Interest. That's it, really -- she's beautiful, not without virtue (she's a dancer rather than a prostitute) and basically a good person. She and the similarly-named Ilona of Lonabar (Lensman series) would get along famously, save that Ilona's a much more three-dimensional character).
Druu is Warped By Knowledge. He could pass without comment at any Mad Mythos Sorcerors' convention.
Chen is the Slimy Aristocrat. He's even a homosexual, which was definitely villainous in most books of the 1960's.
Shastar is the Bluff Hearty Warrior. Falstaff, Prince Voltan, etc. etc.
The theme is basically that love and friendship are the greatest treasures of all. This happens to be true, but it is presented very clumsily by having love and friendship be what the hero actually gets from a literal quest for a gigantic legendary treasure, and then having a Sufficiently Advanced Alien actually tell Thane this directly.
Good Points
It's Lin Carter. Which means it's written well in stylistic terms. Not namby-pamby lit-crit stylistic terms, but cool sword-and-planet lurid purple prose stylistic terms. You know, the sort of writing that lasts :)
The setting is potentially-interesting but not well-enough developed (at least in Thane's time). I wish Carter had done more with that universe.
Finally, there was one scene in which Carter redeemed the whole book and made me glad I bought it ...
For I dip't into the Future, far as mortal eye could see ...
... the scene where Thane and his companions receive their vision of the future.
Here it is:
They watched as the White Wizards of Parlion clashed in magic wars against the evil sorcerors of Yoth Zembis the Black Planet ... they saw the Red Witch of Altair cast out her webs of wizardry and enslave minds and worlds to her dark empery.
They watched as the new Empire arose from Valdamar to replace the Old Empire that had broken and collapsed a thousand years in the past ... they saw the proud Sons of Calastor lead the bright, steel-clad legions from the Nucleus World of the New Empire in wars of conquest that spread from star to star like a sheet of flame.
Before their dazed and astonished eyes, Torje adn the Star Crusaders carried forward the starburst banners of Valdamar in savage struggles against the Machine Kings of Atrogon the Robot Planet ... and the Sky Lords of Bartosca, who enslaved the Tigermen with their will-destroying death drug ... watched as they battled the dread science of the Sun-Stealers of Arlomma the Ice Planet, and fought against the Mind Masters of Pelizon.
As they gazed, an incredibly panorama of interstellar battles unfolded before them. They saw fleets of heroes, armed and armored with the weird science of the future, locked in combat with strange enemies on a hundred worlds -- the Space Hag, with her terrible armies of the living dead, and the Red Slavers of the Demon Stars wh ospread out their light-league-wide gravity nets to ensanre the bright fleets, and the Black Dragons of Nephog Quun with their uncanny power to control the future.
They saw the bold Warrior Emperors sally forth with their glittering armadas, the heroic Phascalon of the Legions, and young Hajandir, Zarlon of the Star Sword and Androthar ... they watched the New Empire grow, and spread, and ... change.
Conclusion
This is pure adventurous Sense of Wonder, and it goes on for pages like this, slowly changing from the blood-and-thunder space opera to the more deeply scientific and philosophical in the changes narrated, as the human race (which, by the end has become definitely transhuman) matures. I avoid quoting the whole thing largely out of belief that this would be downright plagiarism, and so great a spoiler as to destroy much of the novel's worth to a new reader.
This sort of thing is what science fiction is for. Vast civilizations, bizarre alien cultures, strange sciences, stunning sweeps of space and time. This is the sort of thing that might unfreeze the soul of even a Mundane SF Manifesto signer, were it not certain to shatter his narrow little brain with the attempt to take it all in.
This is the sort of thing that when you read sends shivers up your spine, as you contemptlate both the majestic potential of Mankind, and the smallness of any one human or any one culture against the awesome scope of the Cosmos.
Read this book. Read everything by Lin Carter, much of which was better than this book. He was sometimes hokey, but he always got the DREAM.
And that, in the end, is what is important in science fiction.
This short novel (about 45,000 words) is basically a fun, though rather cheesy, science-fantasy romp through a regressed-technology interstellar universe. But in one respect, it demonstrates Lin Carter's overall skill as not merely a writer, but a fabricator of fascinating fictional worlds.
Setting
Tower at the Edge of Time is set in a period far in our future. For six thousand years the Carina Empire ruled the stars; it fell before the Star Rovers who were in turn vanquished by the White Adepts of Parlion.
Nine centuries of interregnum later, interstellar civilization has partially collapsed. Starfaring technology exists side by side with weird magic and pre-industrial technology, in a Schizo Tech (see tvtropes.org) situation caused by the fact that much of the Galaxy has forgotten the secrets of manufacturing the starfaring technology.
Hero
In this world strides Thane of the Two Swords, a barbarian from Zha the Jungle Planet. He's strong, fairly smart, brave, and possessed of preternatural reflexes, skilled both with his trademark two swords and with other weapons such as laser pistols.
Plot
In the city of Zaithera on the planet Daikoon, a semi-barbaric desert planet, he easily defeats a thug in physical and a mage (Druu the Dwarf, of Yoth Zembis) in psychological confrontations. The thug and the mage were both sent by the wily and despicable Prince Chan to test Thane.
Prince Chan approaches Thane with an offer of wealth if Thane aids him on a quest, but Thane rejects the offer. Prince Chan is determined to bend Thane to his will, for he suspects that Thane may be the only one who can help him achieve his goal.
Thane winds up rescuing a dancer named Ilara. Both of them are pursued, and captured, by the minions of Shastar of the Red Moon, a space pirate, who takes them offworld. Shastar is the partner of Prince Chan in Chan's quest. They are held captive by Shastar, and Thane starts to fall in love with Ilara.
Defeating a Mind-Gladiator in a duel, Thane reveals strange mental powers, including precognition and telekinesis. These powers came to him years ago, after he tried to raid the Temple of the Time Priests, and was possessed by the spirit of an alien entity that become symbiotic with his own mind. They have greatly enhanced his fighting prowess, and this symbiosis is the reason why Chan finds him indispensible. Thane uses these mental powers to temporarily escape captivity.
Thane is recaptured, because Ilara is revealed to have been an agent of Chen all along. Thane feels betrayed, but later learns from Shastar that Chen's minion, the mind-warlock Druu, placed Ilara under a geas to force her to this action. Thane and Ilara are taken by Chen and Shastar to their final destination: the Tower at the Edge of Time.
An ancient prehuman race built this Tower, on the Dark Planet of Mnom, and in there were said to have placed an enormous treasure. But the treasure was placed in the Tower in the far future, so that only one with their own time-spanning powers could get at it.
These are the powers which Thane received from the symbiosis. Thane is the key to the treasure.
Thane, Ilara, Shastar, Chen and Druu enter the Tower. There, they are projected into the future and receive an awesome glimpse of the whole history of Mankind that is yet to come. Druu attacks Chen and the two slay each other.
It turns out that the treasure is ... wisdom.
Anviliciously enlightened, the surviving trio return to their time. Shastar decides to continue to be a star rover, and Thane decides to marry Ilara and settle down. End of story.
Bad Points
The characterization is cardboard. Thane is very much the generic hero with a tinge (only a tinge) of Conan and a tinge (again only a tinge) of Kinnison. He's highly competent, and a decent fellow for a barbarian space-reaver, but that's about it.
Ilara is just the Love Interest. That's it, really -- she's beautiful, not without virtue (she's a dancer rather than a prostitute) and basically a good person. She and the similarly-named Ilona of Lonabar (Lensman series) would get along famously, save that Ilona's a much more three-dimensional character).
Druu is Warped By Knowledge. He could pass without comment at any Mad Mythos Sorcerors' convention.
Chen is the Slimy Aristocrat. He's even a homosexual, which was definitely villainous in most books of the 1960's.
Shastar is the Bluff Hearty Warrior. Falstaff, Prince Voltan, etc. etc.
The theme is basically that love and friendship are the greatest treasures of all. This happens to be true, but it is presented very clumsily by having love and friendship be what the hero actually gets from a literal quest for a gigantic legendary treasure, and then having a Sufficiently Advanced Alien actually tell Thane this directly.
Good Points
It's Lin Carter. Which means it's written well in stylistic terms. Not namby-pamby lit-crit stylistic terms, but cool sword-and-planet lurid purple prose stylistic terms. You know, the sort of writing that lasts :)
The setting is potentially-interesting but not well-enough developed (at least in Thane's time). I wish Carter had done more with that universe.
Finally, there was one scene in which Carter redeemed the whole book and made me glad I bought it ...
For I dip't into the Future, far as mortal eye could see ...
... the scene where Thane and his companions receive their vision of the future.
Here it is:
They watched as the White Wizards of Parlion clashed in magic wars against the evil sorcerors of Yoth Zembis the Black Planet ... they saw the Red Witch of Altair cast out her webs of wizardry and enslave minds and worlds to her dark empery.
They watched as the new Empire arose from Valdamar to replace the Old Empire that had broken and collapsed a thousand years in the past ... they saw the proud Sons of Calastor lead the bright, steel-clad legions from the Nucleus World of the New Empire in wars of conquest that spread from star to star like a sheet of flame.
Before their dazed and astonished eyes, Torje adn the Star Crusaders carried forward the starburst banners of Valdamar in savage struggles against the Machine Kings of Atrogon the Robot Planet ... and the Sky Lords of Bartosca, who enslaved the Tigermen with their will-destroying death drug ... watched as they battled the dread science of the Sun-Stealers of Arlomma the Ice Planet, and fought against the Mind Masters of Pelizon.
As they gazed, an incredibly panorama of interstellar battles unfolded before them. They saw fleets of heroes, armed and armored with the weird science of the future, locked in combat with strange enemies on a hundred worlds -- the Space Hag, with her terrible armies of the living dead, and the Red Slavers of the Demon Stars wh ospread out their light-league-wide gravity nets to ensanre the bright fleets, and the Black Dragons of Nephog Quun with their uncanny power to control the future.
They saw the bold Warrior Emperors sally forth with their glittering armadas, the heroic Phascalon of the Legions, and young Hajandir, Zarlon of the Star Sword and Androthar ... they watched the New Empire grow, and spread, and ... change.
Conclusion
This is pure adventurous Sense of Wonder, and it goes on for pages like this, slowly changing from the blood-and-thunder space opera to the more deeply scientific and philosophical in the changes narrated, as the human race (which, by the end has become definitely transhuman) matures. I avoid quoting the whole thing largely out of belief that this would be downright plagiarism, and so great a spoiler as to destroy much of the novel's worth to a new reader.
This sort of thing is what science fiction is for. Vast civilizations, bizarre alien cultures, strange sciences, stunning sweeps of space and time. This is the sort of thing that might unfreeze the soul of even a Mundane SF Manifesto signer, were it not certain to shatter his narrow little brain with the attempt to take it all in.
This is the sort of thing that when you read sends shivers up your spine, as you contemptlate both the majestic potential of Mankind, and the smallness of any one human or any one culture against the awesome scope of the Cosmos.
Read this book. Read everything by Lin Carter, much of which was better than this book. He was sometimes hokey, but he always got the DREAM.
And that, in the end, is what is important in science fiction.