Customer Reviews

The Books of the Wars

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Geston writes very little today, but the late 60's saw a brief efflorescence of his work. OUT OF THE MOUTH OF THE DRAGON and its clumsier predecessor LORDS OF THE STARSHIP are set in approximately the same future history - one where humanity has retreated from the stars to a crippled Earth and now fights repeated apocalyptic battles, False Armageddons, in a futile attempt to end creation.

The brutality of this scenario is set off and framed by images of great sadness and beauty: angels scarred by napalm, dead prophets speaking with prosthetic voiceboxes, ancient machines of nearly sentient cunning, and a maddening not-quite-engagement with the authentic supernatural which reflects the existential torment of the prophets and pilgrims who move through this darkening world.

THE SIEGE OF WONDER is unconnected except thematically: on an Earth divided between science and magic, science scents triumph, dissolving the mantichores and demons with a solvent understanding more destructive than any weapon. The book focuses on an agent become a refugee, now ground between the two opposing sides, seeking some lost reconciliation.

I could not believe after all these years Lords of the Starship and Out of the Mouth of the Dragon are finally available. I have had used original paperbacks of both for over ten years and I have had to read them carefully because they are so old. I consider these the two great unknown SF novels and either is well worth the price of this book. Siege of Wonder is just a bonus.
In some ways it is similar to Lord of the Rings as an original work of the imagination and while I will not put it quite in the same company as that masterpiece, I feel what Geston has done in far fewer words is create a world with an ancient, mysterious, fascinating history, with some great battle scenes and a true sense of wonder.
Highly recommended!

Almost 20 years ago, I happened to read Geston's novel, the Day Star, because an old copy was in the college sf collection. The book made very little sense to me but I never forgot about it because of the beautiful title and the poetic prose style.

So I decided to give the Book of Wars a try, which reprints 3/5 of Geston's novels. As a previous reviewer noted, the 3 books are a mixed bag but they do show steady improvement. (The first 2 were written while the author was in college.) I would consider only the 3rd book, the Siege of Wonder (1976) to have enduring value because it shows Geston was on the verge of becoming a top-notch writer. First of all, it's beautifully written and Geston had greatly improved his dialogue and characterization, which was quite weak in the first two novels. (Unfortunately, Geston would write only one more novel in 1991.)

Mark Geston's The Books of the Wars is neither worth the time nor the money. The first 2 stories are not very interesting. The third story at least has that going for it. Overall, they are fairly depressing. The climaxes are anti-climactic and the stories have little or nothing about them to make you glad you read them. Comparing Geston's work in any way, shape or form w/Tolkien is patently ridiculous. When Geston writes vaguely about some distant past, you don't really get the feeling that there actually is one. When Tolkien writes about some distant past, you know that he's got the historical facts to back it up.

Don't waste your time or money on this book.

I bought this book primarily because of the introduction by David Drake. After all, reading books that are introduced or endorsed by my favorite authors is a good way to meet new authors. Or their works, anyway.

In this case, the "new" author wrote his stories in the '60's and '70's. That's OK by me. It's interesting to read these three stories published together. Interesting, because I could appreciate his progression as a maturing author.

Why is this progression important? Without it, I probably wouldn't have been able to finish the book. The first two stories have interesting premises, but they are difficult to read. Not in the way that Tolkien can be difficult - Geston simply used so much descriptive prose that, well, it's like trying to watch a movie when the bulb is too bright and the sound is too loud. He also used the word "welkin" waaaay too much.

The third story (The Siege of Wonder) is a vast improvement. Not only does it retain a good story, it is also quite readable. And he didn't use "welkin" once!