Return To Eden
Through the 60's and 70's, Harry Harrison was known in the sci-fi community for his Stainless Steel Rat series and to a lesser extent "Make Room! Make Room", which was the inspiration for the movie Soylent Green. While "Make Room!" was a serious work, the Stainless Steel Rat books invoked alot of humor. So when West of Eden was announced, many long time fans of his work expected Harrison's trademark humor. It wasn't to be the case.
Published in 1984, West of Eden imagines an Earth where the dinosaurs weren't wiped out 65 million years ago. Instead, they survived and continued to evolve. An intelligent species, the Yilane, came to be the dominant life form, instead of humans. It might, in fact, be the first alternate history novel. If not, it certainly popularized it. Harry Turtledove fans are free to check me on this one. And political junkies should bear in mind that I wrote "novel." Repressive governments are known to re-write history all the time to justify their actions or paint themselves as the good guys.
I just finished the trilogy this month. I'd read West of Eden about the time it came out. I was in high school and in a science fiction book club of some sort. I picked up Winter in Eden a few years later, though it came out in 1986. Return to Eden came out in 1988, during my college years when the only things I read were textbooks, album lyrics, and Discover magazine. I was oblivious to its existence until I stumbled across Harry Harrison's website earlier this year. It's not like they were obscure works. Each book sold half a million copies. I was just out of touch.
Harrison did alot of research for this series. He consulted with a biologist to paint a realistic portrait of the Yilane. He recruited a linguist to help him with the native languages. He even utilized a philosopher to craft the Principles of Ugunenapsa, the tenets of the pacifist Yilane group, the Daughters of Life. And the homework pays off.
As mentioned above, the dominant saurian lifeform are the Yilane, who live in a matriarchal society where the males exist only for breeding. Like certain species of frogs, they carry the young around inside them while in a torpid state. 1/3 of all males die during this process, but their inferior status prevents them from changing their predicament. Their language is a mix of vocalizations, skin color changes, and physical gestures. And they're masters of genetic engineering. Over millions of years, they've bred domesticated animals into the tools, weapons, and vehicles they needed. Everything is grown, even their cities begin as a single large seed which germinates into a metropolis.
The Yilane are more than one-dimensional cold-blooded reptiles. Theirs is a complex hierarchal society with a dynamic range of characters from the all powerful eistaas and egomaniac scientists to the illiterate fargi (undeveloped ones) and docile males trapped in sexual servitude.
There are humans: Tanu (nomadic hunters), Sasku (agricultural city dwellers), and Parmutan (furry, Arctic dwelling hunters). Their mastery of technology is limited to Stone Age tools. They evolved in North America with other ustuzou (mammals) while the Yilane exist in Africa and Europe. No idea about Asia though. The Yilane hate the cold and retreat from anything less than sub-tropical.
Humans and Yilane lived blissfully ignorant of one another until a Yilane city was established in South Florida. A small tribe of Tanu were ambushed by Yilane hunters, who were trying to determine who ambushed one of their own hunting parties. Two children were captured, one survived. Kerrick is his name and he proves to be more than a dumb animal. He's kept as a pet and an object of scientific curiosity. He begins to learn the Yilane language, as a matter of survival, and grows up as a Yilane. Vainte, the eistaa ("leader") of the city, takes a perverse interest in Kerrick, especially when he reaches puberty.
At the heart of the trilogy is the relationship between Kerrick and Vainte. After years of living among the Yilane, Kerrick is eventually rescued by Herilak, a Tanu hunter, and betrays Vainte in the process. Vainte becomes obsessed with tracking Kerrick down and killing him. It's an obsession that rivals Ahab's.
Back among his own kind, Kerrick struggles with his identity. He's a bridge between two worlds, but a member of neither. His knowledge of the murgu (dinosaurs) is invaluable to the Tanu, but when he speaks in Yilane, the physical aspects of the language make it seem like he's got Parkinson's disease, and he is shunned.
I won't tell you anymore than that. Suffice it to say that there is a clash of Human and Yilane civilizations and Kerrick and Vainte are at the forefront of the struggle. The tale is excellent and is worth reading for the look inside Yilane society alone.
\_/
DED
Published in 1984, West of Eden imagines an Earth where the dinosaurs weren't wiped out 65 million years ago. Instead, they survived and continued to evolve. An intelligent species, the Yilane, came to be the dominant life form, instead of humans. It might, in fact, be the first alternate history novel. If not, it certainly popularized it. Harry Turtledove fans are free to check me on this one. And political junkies should bear in mind that I wrote "novel." Repressive governments are known to re-write history all the time to justify their actions or paint themselves as the good guys.
I just finished the trilogy this month. I'd read West of Eden about the time it came out. I was in high school and in a science fiction book club of some sort. I picked up Winter in Eden a few years later, though it came out in 1986. Return to Eden came out in 1988, during my college years when the only things I read were textbooks, album lyrics, and Discover magazine. I was oblivious to its existence until I stumbled across Harry Harrison's website earlier this year. It's not like they were obscure works. Each book sold half a million copies. I was just out of touch.
Harrison did alot of research for this series. He consulted with a biologist to paint a realistic portrait of the Yilane. He recruited a linguist to help him with the native languages. He even utilized a philosopher to craft the Principles of Ugunenapsa, the tenets of the pacifist Yilane group, the Daughters of Life. And the homework pays off.
As mentioned above, the dominant saurian lifeform are the Yilane, who live in a matriarchal society where the males exist only for breeding. Like certain species of frogs, they carry the young around inside them while in a torpid state. 1/3 of all males die during this process, but their inferior status prevents them from changing their predicament. Their language is a mix of vocalizations, skin color changes, and physical gestures. And they're masters of genetic engineering. Over millions of years, they've bred domesticated animals into the tools, weapons, and vehicles they needed. Everything is grown, even their cities begin as a single large seed which germinates into a metropolis.
The Yilane are more than one-dimensional cold-blooded reptiles. Theirs is a complex hierarchal society with a dynamic range of characters from the all powerful eistaas and egomaniac scientists to the illiterate fargi (undeveloped ones) and docile males trapped in sexual servitude.
There are humans: Tanu (nomadic hunters), Sasku (agricultural city dwellers), and Parmutan (furry, Arctic dwelling hunters). Their mastery of technology is limited to Stone Age tools. They evolved in North America with other ustuzou (mammals) while the Yilane exist in Africa and Europe. No idea about Asia though. The Yilane hate the cold and retreat from anything less than sub-tropical.
Humans and Yilane lived blissfully ignorant of one another until a Yilane city was established in South Florida. A small tribe of Tanu were ambushed by Yilane hunters, who were trying to determine who ambushed one of their own hunting parties. Two children were captured, one survived. Kerrick is his name and he proves to be more than a dumb animal. He's kept as a pet and an object of scientific curiosity. He begins to learn the Yilane language, as a matter of survival, and grows up as a Yilane. Vainte, the eistaa ("leader") of the city, takes a perverse interest in Kerrick, especially when he reaches puberty.
At the heart of the trilogy is the relationship between Kerrick and Vainte. After years of living among the Yilane, Kerrick is eventually rescued by Herilak, a Tanu hunter, and betrays Vainte in the process. Vainte becomes obsessed with tracking Kerrick down and killing him. It's an obsession that rivals Ahab's.
Back among his own kind, Kerrick struggles with his identity. He's a bridge between two worlds, but a member of neither. His knowledge of the murgu (dinosaurs) is invaluable to the Tanu, but when he speaks in Yilane, the physical aspects of the language make it seem like he's got Parkinson's disease, and he is shunned.
I won't tell you anymore than that. Suffice it to say that there is a clash of Human and Yilane civilizations and Kerrick and Vainte are at the forefront of the struggle. The tale is excellent and is worth reading for the look inside Yilane society alone.
\_/
DED
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posted by DED at 3:13 PM
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