Customer Reviews

The Cloud Walker

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

 

 

In this short but powerful story of an artist & aspiring aviator in an oppressive future, the criminally neglected Edmund Cooper returns to one of his favorite themes: the need for the imagination to soar & find its own life, its own reason for being (see also his novella "The Firebird" in "Double Phoenix," for example). Like so many science fiction novels from the late 60s/early 70s, this is a concise, straightforward story without any unnecessary padding; yet it's also rich in detail, characterization & depth. I think it's Cooper's single finest work, and urgently in need of reprinting. Any reader of adventurous science fiction could do far worse than discover this stirring tale. Recommended!

This novel could have been called Rise of the machines. Men has destroyed civilization twice and in the third age of Man, machines are proscribed by the Luddite Church.
The first part of the book introduces Kieron, an artist painter who want to fly. Anybody is thinking about Leonardo di Vinci? The pace of the story is slow but it is well written and the chapters are short so it all flows well.
The second part, however, is all about war and revenge. Strange how war always brings out the best in ingeniosity in men. I had a lot of fun reading this story and I expect you will.

Glad to see that a large selection of Edmund Cooper's works will be coming to Kindle in late Sept 2011. He deserves much wider recognition as a great writer of social science fiction.

This is a fun book to read. I purchased it back in 1973 for $1.25 and was delighted with the story. 35 years later, I found it again and just finished reading it. With only 216 pages, it's a quick read but entertaining and well written. It's a good story about a young boy (Kieron) who had his life and wife picked out for him and how it all changed. Placed in an age when building a machine meant being burnt at the stake, Kieron changed the way of the people and the church and entered the third rebirth of man in to birth of aviation once again. Edmond does a good job of describing the characters, what the do and what they see. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a bit of fantasy in their readings.