Customer Reviews

The New World: An Epic Poem (Princeton Series of Contemporary Poets)

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It is rare book that can be called unique. Frederick Turner's The New World is an epic poem about the future and the past, about democracy, fundamentalism, human nature, heroism, evil, honor and love. All this and great science fiction fantasy too! The language of the poem is wonderfully rich but easily readable, written in an iambic pentameter that ranges from conversational to grand. I can't recommend a book more highly. I am embarassed to say that I've read it five or six times.

This is the 25th anniversary edition of Turner's "Epic Poem"(as it's called on the title page)--an audacious undertaking but the very fact of a new edition after a quarter-century means that there's something there to take notice of.

I missed it the first time around, heard of it and scoffed lightly ("Epic, eh? We don't DO Epics any more.") But Fred Turner does, and did it here in such a way that I had to keep reading, and stop scoffing, pretty early in the 240 pages.

Is it "poetry"? There is a passage in the middle which emulates the first stanzas of Part II of SIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT describing the passage of the Four Seasons. Turner's is longer and more detailed in its accounting of the plants, and to his great credit equals the anonymous Middle English author in the richness and enthusiasm with which he conducts a verbal tone poem similar to Vivaldi's "Four Seasons."

There is also a Sci-fi element: the story takes place 400 years in the future, and although I am not a fan of this genre, I found the details convincing and satisfying. There's a lot of horseback riding (the world has run out of fossil fuels), and sword-fighting (the swords have micro-processors which tune them to their wielders' brain waves--I think), and a general "Renaissance Fair" feel to the settings, costumes, and food supply--but there are good ecological forecast reasons for all of this.

And the characters are a lot more convincing (this is largely dependent upon the surprisingly lively dialogue) than some I've seen in other contemporary prose novels.

All in all, I'd say, the Audacity is not of Hope but of Ambition and Accomplishment.

John Ridland

A sci-fi epic poem? OK. It sounds pretty geeky. But give it a chance. This book is actually really good.

The action takes place in a fractured and divided United States, some 400 years in the future. Jeffersonian free states are at war with religious fundamentalist, while the non-working inhabitants of the larger cities have enslaved the middle class to work for them and feed their addictions. Within this world, a hero, who has gained everything he desires in live, has to learn to sacrifice the things he values most for something even greater.

Turner's fusion of science fiction and epic poetry is actually a really good fit. The meter is is a type of "sprung" blank verse(that is, it doesn't rhyme), where each line contains five heavy stresses and up to ten or so light stresses. It's like iambic pentameter, but not quite as rigid. The poem has a rhythm and momentum that really makes things move along. In addition, Turner's capable use of poetic conventions allow us to explore the emotional richness of his imagined world, while simultaneously reflecting on the our own common human experience.

If you like well-written science fiction, or well-written narrative poetry, then this is really worth your time. The quality of the writing is really top-notch. And the story itself is awfully good, too.