Customer Reviews

Hawksbill Station and Press Enter (Double Paperback)

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

 

 

Out of all the Silverberg books (or the classic ones at least) this has to be the most direct and least complex out of all of them. The plot is fairly simple, a rigid Earth government sentenced all its dissidents to a station billions of years in the past and with the way technolongy is, they can only move time in one direction, that being back. So they're all stuck there. The leader of the camp, Barrett, isn't the first one there but has been there the longest but recently was crippled, making him doubt his continued usefulness. The character of Barrett is fleshed out remarkably well, showing both how such a man became a political activist and how he holds up against the pressure of being stranded forever. Silverberg also showz us everyone else in the camp, and shows how they didn't take the pressure so well. If Silverberg had just stuck with the stories on Hawksbill Station then the book would be little more than highly entertaining genre SF but because of his deep delving into the characters he manages to make several pointed political comments in general that aren't the least bit dated, which is the point. Definitely lacks some of the intensity of his later works, as well as some emotional involvement but still stands head and shoulders above a lot of what is out there today.

This book is about political prisoners who are exiled back in time a billion years to the cambrian period in a place called Hawksbill Station. There is nothing but solid rock, no plants or animals on land, only in the sea. The story alternates between the cambrian and the present. Most of the men at Hawksbill are losing their minds because of the deprevation. I found those chapters interesting. The chapters from the present time focused on what landed the main character in Hawksbill. They aren't all that interesting, unless you like reading ca. 1960's political subversion. The writing is great, typical Silverberg, and a well told story. But I didn't like it enough to give it 5 stars.

One of the more "conventional" science fiction novels that came out of Silverberg's most fruitful period, Hawksbill Station is still pretty much a classic, mostly for his vivid imagination and deep streak of humanity that colors all of his best work. In this novel, a brutal yet humane US government has taken any dissidents they find too dangerous to be left around and sent them back to Hawksbill Station, a billion years in the past, and unable to get back to the future because time travel apparently works only one way. The prisoners are led by Barrett, who has been there the longest (though he's not the first, the others have all since died from old age) and he presides over a lot of men who are without hope, without women (that seems to bother them a lot) and for the most part going absolutely crazy trying to deal with the fact that everything they have ever known is forever lost to them, friends, family, everything. To add to this, Barrett has recently had his foot crushed in a rockslide and this once proud strong man is forced to hobble around like the weakest cripple. Into all of this comes a new stranger, one who seems to hide a secret that could change them all. Meaty stuff and Silverberg tells it with such ease that the plot seems effortless and ends after the perfect length of time, nothing feels rushed or slowed and the pace never slackens. Along the way Silverberg fills in the life of Barrett with numerous flashbacks and the cutting between his past life and his current life create a great if artificial kind of suspense even if you do know what's going to happen, it still makes your heart quiver. And through these, as with all Silverberg's best work, we learn about what makes Barrett the man tick, what made him join the revolutionaries, what made him think he could change the world and how it helps him cope a billion years before everything. Unfortunately totally out of print these days, it's a book well worth trying to find in a used book store, along with all of his books from this period, not a sequel in the lot and they're all finely honed exmainations of science fiction. If any of this plot sounds familar to you it's probably because they've all become staples of science fiction plots, imitated by hundred of writers in an attempt to better the master, while some are inspired to seek out new pathways to explore. And that's probably the best praise a writer can get.

I find it fascinating that so many SF novels that are considered classics are out of print. This one currently is not available (though used copies are always available in large quantities), but it has been printed and reprinted so often in the past that I'm sure it is just a matter of time before a new edition appears. Certainly it has more relevance at the present than at times in the past, when we have seen our political leaders more willing than ever to squelch political dissent and label those not agreeing with administration policy as unpatriotic and even un-American (ignoring Teddy Roosevelt's insistence that dissenting from public policies that one disagrees with is the essence of patriotism).

I am currently in the middle of a reading project in which I'm working my way through a number of dystopian novels. These present a number of ways in which society could go wrong, whether through ecological disaster (as in the novels of Kim Stanley Robinson) or economic and societal collapse (Octavia Butler's Earthseed novels), or political repression, as in George Orwell's 1984 or in this novel. What is remarkable about the best of these novels are the ways they highlight real possibilities within our own society. The most encouraging thing about America -- at least to date -- has been that we have remained remarkably tolerant of dissent. Even in the fifties and during the Bush years it has been possible to dissent with prevailing political policies. I see this -- though perhaps I'm being an optimist -- as the furthest swing toward intolerance of which we seem to be capable. But there have been times when we've branded as un-American those who don't agree with majority or dominant opinion (they are not the same thing).

I found the structure of this novel to be fascinating. The plot is simple: a totalitarian rightist regime is so intolerant of political dissent that it sends all major political prisoners back in time a billion years, well before the evolution of the dinosaurs. The principles of travel backwards in time were developed by a mathematician named Hawksbill (something that I found interesting, since even our greatest physicists are always great at math), hence the name of the station to which political dissidents are sent. The novel is told in both present narrative time and in flashbacks. What is interesting about this is that usually in novels the flashback is to an earlier date. Here the flashbacks are to the distant future, while the "present" exists in the late Cambrian period.

I found both central narratives to be very interesting and a lot of fun. The very end I found somewhat contrived, as if merely a way to wrap things up, rather than an end toward which the two narratives were leading. Still, this was one of those occasions when a classic SF novel fully lived up to its reputation. Hopefully it will be back in print sometime soon.

Robert Silverberg strikes gold with Hawksbill Station (1968), a dark, restrained, and powerful rumination. Hawksbill Station`s setting, Earth's Cambrian era, provides the perfect backdrop for the all-too human dramas that unfold. Jim Barrett's flashbacks enhance the poignant loneliness and sense of missed opportunity that pervades every page. The pangs of old age, responsibility, and disability that afflict the elderly Barrett are convincingly portrayed. Silverberg's use of time travel is limited, simplistic, and solely to facilitate the novel's basic premise. Thankfully it's not a cool gadget to expound endlessly on, to construct bizarre paradoxes, to kill world leaders and accidentally meet ones own parents i.e. the gaudy/silly type of time travel I despise (well, most of the time).

Hawksbill Station should be high on any sci-fi fan's MUST be read soon pile.

Brief Plot Summary (limited spoilers)

Hawksbill Station is a penal colony in the Cambrian era for political dissidents of an oppressive but humane future Earth. The penal colony is only for men for fear that if there were women they might reproduce causing drastic consequences for Earth's timeline.

The most disturbing aspect of the novel is the fact that time travel is a oneway process. The dissidents which are sent back are unable to ever return to their time. The prisoners occasionally receive supplies, games, and tools through the time machine (called the Anvil) but are unable to communicate their needs to the "present." These factors create intense isolation and claustrophobia.

The landscape of Cambrian Earth adds to the claustrophobia. The land is barren rock. The colony, consisting of prefabricated plastic huts, is perched high above the ocean. The ocean is teaming with trilobites and other animals. The inhabitants of the station supplement their diet with trilobites and one prisoner even starts a scientific study of trilobites despite the fact that he'll never be able to communicate his knowledge to Earth's present.

The barren landscape, the disconnect from the present, the absence of activities to occupy oneself, the absence of women/family/lovers drives many of the inhabitants into despair. A large percentage of the population are considered insane and have to be cared for by the rest.

One of the few remaining sane men is the one-time revolutionary Jim Barrett, the crippled 60-year old leader of the colony. It is from his perspective and flashbacks that the novel unfolds. We learn how Barrett became the leader of a revolutionary movement on Earth that never "did" anything but instead devolved into sessions of endless arguments over ideology. We learn about Hawksbill, the corpulent inventor of the time machine and his one-time role in the revolutionary movement. We learn about Barrett's intelligent lover, Barrett's rivalries, his eventual imprisonment. Even Barrett's depressing flashbacks provide relief from the claustrophobia of life in Hawksbill Station and Barrett's daily routine of caring for the disillusioned and insane.

The Hawksbill Station portion of the "plot" concerns the arrival of the mysterious Law Hahn who lacks any firm political beliefs (unlike the other prisoners who were sent to the colony because of their radical stances).

I won't spoil any of the the mystery but the end is spot on and unforced.

Final Thoughts

Jim Barrett is one of best realized characters I've ever come across in science fiction. He's old enough that he can reminisce about his youth. Likewise, he derives his will to live from caring for the others in the colony, a role that is challenged by his recent crippling foot injury. Barrett's flashbacks to his revolutionary past reveal the emptiness and aimlessness of his previous life and despite being severed from the world he was born in he is able to find purpose, however hollow it might seem, in his position as leader of the penal colony.

The tone of the novel is one of intense isolation and claustrophobia. The characters struggle to find meaning and purpose in their world and many completely are unable to do so. One writes a book on trilobites, another (verging on insane) attempts to construct a portal with his mind to the "present", others cry endlessly in bed, another (Barrett's old friend) lies drugged by the doctor all day in his hammock.

In my top five favorite science fiction novels. Silverberg at his best. I highly recommend Hawksbill Station to all sci-fi fans.

Political prisoners are sentenced to exile one billion years in the past, before the appearance of the first land-dwelling lifeforms. The story alternates between the exiles in the past, ageing and battling mental illness brought on by their isolation, and the activities that resulted in their sentences. The primary character, Jim Barrett, struggles to maintain his deteriorating community while investigating the puzzle of a new prisoner who is unlike any of the others. The end is a bit unsatisfying--merely a conversation that wraps up the various plot points. Published in 1967, this novel nevertheless includes some startling predictions of later political developments, including an inconclusive presedential election that had very unfortunate results!

The authorities have come up with an unconventional but effective way of controlling dissidents. Send them back a billion or so years into the past. A bit hard to escape from there, really.

When a new prisoner is sent back, the current top dog, an aging main with a recent serious injury has to try and hang onto his life, and work out what is up with the new guy.

Jim Barret is an old and crippled man, but he is the leader of a group of political exiles, exiled 1 billion years in the past. The story tells how Barret and the others came to be prisoners, and how Barret deals with growing old. And then a new prisoners arrives, a man not like any of the others