Customer Reviews

Engine Summer

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If Little, Big is supposed to be his absolute masterpiece then I'm really looking forward to reading it (it's next on my list) because this book was one of the most lyrical and poignant books I've ever read. Crowley is one of the most poetic writers to grace the SF/fantasy genres, the only comparsions that come even close are Tim Powers, Michael Moorcock and Samuel R Delany and even then they're nothing like Crowley. This book here is his major contribution to the SF canon, but because of its out of print status (my edition was printed in the early eighties, how long ago did it go out? and why?) it's mostly stayed relegated to cult novel catagories, leaving people like me and others to sing its praises and get his name out there. But about the book. A riff on the theme of post-war America, this is completely unlike any of the books I've ever read on the topic. It's not surprising plot wise (in fact the plot is rather straightforward, progressing from point A to point B quite easily) and the idea of people growing up in the shadow of the end of the war, it having happened so long ago that nobody can even remember the old days, surrounded by pieces of machinery created by the old civilization (the angels) and just basically living. But I don't know, because of the way he writes, the entire novel is given this pastoral feel, like it takes place in an endless summer, I can vividly picture Rush That Speaks and his people frolicking in the lost land not even knowing what it all used to be. It gives it this dreamlike quality and sometimes the action borders on the surreal, but it's always gentle and lyrical. Simply put this is one of those books that has to be read, and slowly, to let the images develop in your head and lounge around there for a bit. And the ending is one of the best and most satisfying that I've seen in a long time and a little sad at the same time. Enough with the plaudits, this is one of the most distinctive SF books ever written and more than deserves everyone's attention.

You must read all of John Crowley's books, including the classics Little, Big and Aegypt. But save room in your heart for Engine Summer, the sunniest, wisest, and happiest. If you ever fear that you have grown too old and world-weary to be happy, if you have forgotten the child you were, if you can't remember the time before you knew that people lied or hurt others on purpose, read this wonderful book and be transported back to your heart's true home.

John Crowley (1942) is not a very prolific sci-fi writer, eight novels between 1975 and 2002, but all his books have a very distinctive style. A special "taste" I risk to say.

"Engine Summer" was the first novel he wrote (circa 1965), yet not the first he published, actually it was his third book (1979).

The story describes a post apocalyptic world where Humankind dwells in small and scattered communities with very little communication among them.

Little Bellaire is an enclave of "truthful speakers" that have developed a strange society full of myths about Saints and Angels.

Rush That Speaks is the young protagonist of the story. He has a fervent desire to become a Saint and in order to achieve this he starts peregrinate into the vast outside world.

At the same time he is looking for Once a Day his long lost love.

A strange, magic and poetic world unfold, full of surprises and surprising characters up to the satisfactory end.

Crowley confers his tale a structure that mix the classic "Hero's Quest" with the imagery of the "Flower Power" movement.

Crowley's approach has many points in common with PKD, but he is an optimist and this trait please me more.

A final warning: don't let the first pages full of exotic references stop you, they will soon be explained.

Enjoy this astounding opus!

Reviewed by Max Yofre.

Rush-That-Speaks is born in Little Belaire, into the Palm Cord family. Cords are like clans, Palm Cord, Buckle Cord, Water Cord, etc. In his seventh season, on his way to see the Gossip named Painted-Red, Rush meets a young girl named Once-A-Day from Whisper Cord who greatly impacts his life. The Gossips are close to fortune-tellers or story-tellers, with a slight reference to tarot reading in that they read glass slides called the Filing System. After his reading with Painted-Red, who tells him he's a Truthful Speaker, Rush-That-Speaks decides he wants to become a Saint.

After Once-A-Day leaves with the Dr. Boots List clan, Rush finds himself empty, and eventually decides to leave Little Belaire to find both her and himself. He spends a season with a Saint named Blink before finding the List, and sets about trying to learn the List's ways that are so alien to him as a Truthful Speaker. The Dr. Boots List lives with large cats, prowling their home of Service City as freely as the human do. Rush-That-Speaks must reconcile his present with both past and future, and make sense of the many riddles told to him about life.

While this may sound like the book is hard to follow, you'll find that it isn't. In a futuristic post apocalyptic world, people have carved out conclaves bearing resemblances to towns or cities, each unique in their lives and beliefs. Most people live and die in their own conclave, making Rush's journeys exceptional.

The world, consisting of what folks now call "angels", launched a satellite into the sky now called "Little Moon" before The Storm destroyed their society. They also sent out probes that returned carrying the seeds of bubble-like trees that produce "St. Bea's Bread", a smokeable source of food. These are items taken for granted in this vibrant yet languid fantasy classic. (though its often classified as SciFi, its more a fantasy tale)

You'll appreciate the complexities of a society alien to us, the survivors of what had once been ours, and how they live their lives among the ruins. Little Belaire held such charm for me that I was as sad when Rush left as he must have been.

The story is told as Rush-That-Speaks relays his tale to an angel, beginning with the beginning and ending with the ending. The story is well-written, intriguing, complex with riddles and mysteries, and ripe with fully-fleshed characters. Let you imagination go, and pick up this hidden jewel of a book. Enjoy!

After the destruction, little BelAir is a community of truthful speakers who have survived and built a unique city- a microoculture with deep roots in the recovering earth and a rich emotional life. Crowley's young protagonist goes on "Walkabout", in search of their version of sainthood and finds far more than he envisioned. He achieves his goal, but in a terrifying and poignant way that he (and you) never dreamed of. This powerful little masterpiece has remained in my heart for 30 years. I take it out and reaquaint myself with it often.

Just as Crowley redefined the fantasy novel in his masterpiece LITTLE, BIG, he does the same for the post apocalyptic novel with ENGINE SUMMER. Instead of dwelling on the negative and serving up a diatribe against mankind's folly, he offers us a poignant, lyrical coming of age story with a post apocalyptic backdrop.

The catastrophe, termed simply the Storm, is not elaborated upon. In it's aftermath, society splits into 3 factions..Angels, who were technologically advanced and built a floating city to escape..the female dominated Long League, which broke away from the male technocracy..and people who settled in warren like communities like Little Belaire. The main character, named Rush That Speaks, comes from Little Belaire, a member of the Palm Chord (truth speakers). There is a resemblance to Native Americans in the names, dwellings, and customs of these people. I thought of Belaire as a kind of Pueblo village, and chords as tribes with special abilities and unique personalities. There are also resemblances to hippie communes in some of the rituals. Rush, whose destiny is to become a Saint, falls in love with a Whisper Chord girl named Once a Day, who leaves Belaire to join a group of wandering traders known as Dr. Boots List. Rush embarks on a journey to find her, and in the process makes some startling discoveries about himself and the world he lives in. Does he fulfill his destiny to become a Saint? In a way he does, but in an original, and strangely unsettling way. As in LITTLE, BIG, Crowley explores the complexities inherent in relationships between partners whose basic natures are incompatible, emphasizes the symbolic significance of the seasons, and elevates the telling of stories or tales to the status of myths.

Crowley might be too intelligent a writer to have mass popularity. This kind of fiction requires careful reading and some serious thought. His books are loaded with original ideas, and the prose is beautifully crafted, but they are not always easy to digest and demand a refined palate.. the literary equivalent of dining at a fine French restaurant, as opposed to a fast food joint.

To say much about this elegant little book, stuffed beyond bursting with all manor of wonders, is to risk saying too much. It is one of the finest books I've ever read. Also one of the more difficult. Crowley not only plunges the reader deep into a post-apocalyptic world filled with biologically transformed animals and the remnants of a future civilization, he never comes clean about how many levels he has incorporated into that story. The sheer breath of this masterpiece does not become evident until the book is finished.

Crowley's rare prose facilities are very evident in Engine Summer. From Little Belaire, the spiral home of antihero Rush that Speaks, to the Avvengers, who wander a post-apocalyptic America where the present day is lost in the mists of memory, every phrase, idea and resolution is perfect. Rush's wistful romance with Once a Day is a wonderful love story. As with other Crowley books, there is a strong flavor of the psychedelic. The plot is mechanical, but also so surprising and human that I felt drawn into fate itself by this story. That feeling didn't subside when I put the book down.

I "accidentally" read this book while I was trying to find a book I had read as a Jr High student. I put out a few aspects of the story I remembered and some suggested this could be it. It wasn't, but it was still pretty good.

It is a post apocalyptic coming of age tale. Crowley's style is fairly distinct, and once you get used to it, the pages just fly by. There are spacklings of advanced technology, but in this piece it does not take center stage, it is just a prop. I don't know exactly how a writer can make me feel melancholy and nostalgic for a time and place I have never been, but Crowley does it with this one.

I stop just short of calling this a must read though, as it seems to leave off just where I was REALLY curious what was next... Guess I will have to read Little Big and see if it ties in the way some folks suggest.

ENGINE SUMMER takes place in a world somewhere in the dim tomorrows (or is it yesterdays?) A world where memories and stories of memories seem to tell of history, - but whose and when and where? A world of saints and angels, avengers and Filing System, Path and Road, and That River. And snake's hands. Yet all these things may not be as they seem.

The story is told to a questioner who may already know the answers but wants to hear them again. It is a story full of surprises, - and not--so surprises, --and things you knew but maybe didn't know you knew.

"There's a time in some years, after the first frosts, when the sun gets hot again, and summer returns for a time. Winter is coming; you know that from the way the mornings smell, the way the leaves, half-turned to color, are dry and poised to drop . . . A small false summer, all the more precious for being small and false. We called this time, - for some reason nobody now knows, -- engine summer." But you'll know why - and may even shudder a bit at the knowledge. Haunting. Possible? Inevitable? Could it be? Will it be?

John Crowley has penned a masterful mixture of science fiction and fantasy. His importance in the field grows with each successive novel. His first, "The Deep", was followed rapidly by "The Beasts". ENGINE SUMMER is the third and a truly beautiful and extra-ordinary excursion into the realm of `what if?'

Published in "Baton Rouge Sunday Advocate:", July 8, 1979, over my byline.

Kent Goldsmith