Customer Reviews

Look into the Sun

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

 

 

The conventional wisdom about Jim Kelly is that he's first and foremost a master of short fiction, but this terrific novel argues otherwise. One of the rare novels about a creative artist in which we are actually shown, not just told about, the work of art being created -- not just Kelly's character but Kelly himself has solved the problem of devising a suitable tomb for a goddess! I read the first half of this a bit at a time, finding it engaging and thought-provoking but not compelling. Little did I know that Kelly was just putting his many plot pieces on the chessboard; I read the second half in one sitting.

I really like Kelly's short stories, and I badly wanted to like this novel, but it just doesn't work. Two main problems: first, the protagonist is far too passive and mealy-mouthed, and an utterly unconvincing portrayal of a supposedly brilliant artist. And second, the alien civilization that he visits is very confusing, and facts about it are revelaed piecemeal and without enough context for the reader to be able to tell what really makes these creatures tick. Overall it reads like the first effort of a guy who might one day produce something really good - read Kelly's other stuff and ask for yourself if that promise has been fulfilled.

Overall, I found I disliked and could not identify with the majority of the characters. I could not relate to their emotional states, nor did I find the picture painted of civilization(s) at all coherent.

Two things rescued the novel for me: the inspiring descriptions of the Phillip Wing's two master works -- the Tomb of the Goddess and the Glass Cloud, and one passage.

This is the distilled and brilliant passage from p238:

"Immortality was simple... Essence consisted of viewpoint and structural memory. Viewpoint was each individual's unique style of processing experience; structural memories were those that composed viewpoint. All other memories were trivial, extraneous to existence.... Only structural memory, overwhelmingly the result of genetics and environment, was essential."

Never before I had I thought of self redux in such a fashion, though I found the author's embrace of behavioralism over free will annoying. It made the characters less real.

Phillip Wing is a supposed genius architect on earth. His first effort made him famous, but the random inspiration for it has always left him doubting his own abilities. A mundane career has followed, leaving him unfulfilled. He is also restless and lonely. He has "learned how to fit in anywhere but not how to belong". When his wife becomes involved in the cause of the Messengers, aliens who have come to earth with a new religious philosophy, it separates the two of them. She leaves for another man, leaving Wing with very little meaning in his now solitary life on earth.

Wing is approached by the Messengers, who want his help to design a grand tomb for a dying priestess on Aseneshesh.They have studied Wing and his best known work, and believe his ability and personality are ideal for the job. He is told the lengthy trip across space will be one way for him, with no possibility for return to earth. He reluctantly agrees to the job. During the trip there, he is genetically altered so that he can survive the new planet's atmosphere. The changes are profound, and Wing wages a continual struggle to retain some humanity afterward. The story follows his new life on the new planet, and his physical and psychological struggles to find contentment and love. Much time is devoted to the aliens, their culture, religion, and politics.

There seems, at first, to be plenty of detail. But as the book goes on, the information alone is just not enough to create interest in the aliens, who are hard to connect with. Wing's character seems to grow a little bit, but there are no great transformations in his character, and his struggles on his new planet are simply extensions of those he endured on earth. The views of the aliens are never revealed fully enough to understand, and so their various motives and personal drives provide little meaningful effect. Basically, when the story leaves earth and arrives at Aseneshesh, the story seems to have been in progress there long before the reader is introduced, and I felt like I never caught up. It was like eavesdropping - a few details overheard here and there, but not enough to know the whole story or care.

Look into the Sun is an expansion of an earlier short story.

A human architect who does rather ambitious work is desired by a group of aliens to do a job for them.

This involves leaving his family, and a lot of physical and mental changes, along with getting stuck in the middle of at times incomprehensible alien politics.

A decent book, overall.


3.5 out of 5

This is a great book. I loved it. James Patrick Kelly has written a book that's facinating. How do I know this? I met James Patrick Kelly and had him autograph my copies of Look Into The Sun and Planet of Whispers. This is the story
of Philip Wing, an architect who'd built the New Wonder of the World. However, the aliens who'd provided the technology, the Messengers, have returned to Earth with a
new message of "religious" significance. It saps the human
aggressiveness and Philip loses his wife, Daisy, to the Messengers. In the process, he meets Haruman, a Chani,
from a planet around 82 Eridani. When he loses Daisy to the Messengers, he turns to Harumen.