Customer Reviews

CELESTIAL STEAM LOCOMOTIVE (Song of Earth, Vol 1)

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To say that this is a great novel is an understatement. It is, however, easy to say that The Celestial Steam Locomotive is highly original, thought provoking, and very entertaining. It does exactly what a good science fiction novel should do. It's sequel, Gods of the Greataway, is equally entertaining. However, I found the third book in the series, Fang the Gnome, to be quite disappointing. But don't fret--only the first two novels are truly connected; Fang the Gnome is connected in a mythological sense--sort of like having a conversation about religion while eating at Denny's. Odd reference, but there ya go...

This is truly one of the best books I have ever read. It was the first science fiction novel I have read, and I could'nt think of a better story to introduce someone into the sci-fi genre. This story is so complex, and the characters are so unique. By best advice is to say, "read it, and become one of the lucky few who have ridden the celestial steam locomotive".

This is truly one of the best books I have ever read. It was the first science fiction novel I have read, and I could'nt think of a better story to introduce someone into the sci-fi genre. This story is so complex, and the characters are so unique. By best advice is to say, "read it, and become one of the lucky few who have ridden the celestial steam locomotive".

I love this book. I truley do. It has everything I could ever want. The characters are vibrant and strong. The plot has so much meaning and most of all it has heart. An amazing book...a truley amazing book.

For over twenty years, my adoptive home city has been Chattanooga. Back in the days of the Civil War, Chattanooga was the railroad center of the South. And so it remained for many years thereafter. But it is not so today. Train stations that have not been razed have been converted into shopping malls or railroad museums. The local railroad museum has a few miles of track on which visitors can ride on a train for an hour or so. But Chattanoogans who wish to go to another city by train must first travel south to Atlanta.

Yet Romance can still call forth the General or the Chattanooga Choo-Choo on occasion. Sometimes trains are conjured up in science fiction tales. There is the lunar monorail in Arthur C. Clarke's _Earthlight_ (1955), described in loving detail: "The monorail was losing speed as it climbed up out of the shadowed lowlands. At any moment now, thought Sadler, they would overtake the sun" (1). Similar trains appear in future or alternate Earth settings like A.E. van Vogt's _The Weapon Shops of Isher_ (1951), H.G. Wells's _A Modern Utopia_ (1905), and Ernest Callenbach's _Ecotopia_ (1975). Monorails tend to be sleek, fast, clean, and (for the most part) civilized.

Perhaps monorails do not set your pulse a-flutter. Perhaps nothing will do but the old-fashioned steam engines. You want the pounding pistons, the fiery furnace, the billowing smokestack. The uniformed conductor checking his watch and punching tickets. The crystal water glasses nestling on white linen tablecloths, eh? Well, there are a few of those still around. Randall Garrett's "The Napoli Express" (_Asimov's_, 1979) is an alternate history version of the Orient Express. John M. Ford's "The Wheels of Dream" (_Asimov's_, 1980) involves an old-fashioned train designed for Phobos. Eric Vinicoff's "The Great Martian Railroad Race" (_Asimov's_, 1988) takes the race to Mars itself, with a straightforward message: What Mars needs is a good railroad. All three stories involve a certain amount of adventure and skulduggery.

Some science fiction tales even involve model railroading. Raymond F. Jones's "Rat Race" (_Analog_, 1966) recounts how model railroading clubs may become revolutionary organizations against a computerized dictatorship. John M. Ford's "Double in Brass" (_Asimov's_, 1979) involves a plot to smuggle sophisticated engines about in the guise of model trains. And remember Robert A. Heinlein's _Double Star_ (1956)? There is a marvelous model railroad scene in that novel that takes place in outer space.

But the damndest train in all of science fiction appears in Michael Coney's _The Celestial Steam Locomotive_ (1983). It is called the Senshi. It looks like an old-fashioned steam engine, but it does not run on tracks. It flies like a comet between planets and is captained by Long John Silver. It was created by a boy discovering how to be human. And passengers find that it is easier to board than to disembark. There is something a bit archtypical about it:

Above [the Girl] the huge boiler throbbed, tapering from the square-topped firebox to the black cylindrical smokebox. The boiler, like the cab and tender, was a warm green lined out in gold and black. Above the buffers sat a large brass bell. (153)

Now I did not say that the novel is all about the engine. Nor did I say that it is mostly about the engine. Nor did I even say that you will encounter the engine early in the novel. The work as a whole is a well-written collage of myths and legends in a distant-future galaxy with characters often very different from you or me. But what I did say is that this novel does contain the engine named the Senshi, and that it is the damndest train in all of science fiction. That's what I said.

For those of you that like a little psycodelia, and mystism in your Sci-fi, this is a book for you.

This novel sounds more like it was written in the late sixties than early eighties. Be therefore advised.