Customer Reviews

Otherwise: Three Novels

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Crowley has made a career of being one of the most underrated masters of American fiction. Only one book, "Little, Big," has ever been a modestly big seller. His "Aegypt" tetrology, not yet complete, is a piece of visionary work on an epic scale. His only fault is that the writing is unclassifiable, so it has fallen between every conceivable crack. Bad for sales.

"Engine Summer" is the first of his novels, though the last of the early three to be published. It leaves the others behind as a work of astonishing originality and almost hallucinogenic vision. (Crowley admits that his first draft was written at a time when he was smoking a lot of, well, you know.) In this elegant and beautifully understated work (if it goes a little slowly at first, stick with it: it will sweep you away) the Crowley themes have a true beginning: a world constantly transforming in which the only way that the history of the human as the strangest of races can really be kept alive is through the stories we tell.

He has an enormous talent for inducing laughter of utter delight and rolling tears simultaneously. His gift is in his humanity, his innate understanding of the deep pathos and utter ridiculousness of being self-conscious creatures in a world that is not and will never be wholly comprehensible. Thus it is our stories that keep us sane. Barely.

The future which he envisions (this is not the kind of future fantasy that even pretends to forsee the world as it might actually turn out) is one in which the split between the natural, instinctual half of our human dichotomy and the mental, synthetic one actually become separate species, with no real capacity to comprehend each the other. How this plays out through his richly detailed imagination and alchemical control of the Engish language is something to be experienced, not described. The narrative device, which leaves us guessing until a breathtaking revelation at the end, is alone, worth the price.

Get this book. Read it. Please. The later Crowley may be greater, but never more brilliantly imagined than this.

Oh, yeah. "Beasts" and "The Deep" are mighty fine, too.

It is about 20 years since I first read "Engine Summer". I don't know what made me buy it, since it's the sort of book which I would not have been likely to pick up even then, when I was in my late teens and read a lot of science fiction. However, I did buy it, and did read it, and I thoroughly enjoyed it, and have had fond memories of it ever since.

These days, two decades later, I almost never read science fiction, and certainly never read fantasy. But when I saw that "Engine Summer" had been reissued with two other early Crowley novels, I decided to buy it and see if it lived up to my memory of it.

It did. "Engine Summer" is still a thoroughly engaging book. It's pastoral, summery feel makes it ideal to read while sitting in the garden, with your feet up, on a warm, sunny day.

Next I read "Beasts", which I hadn't previously encountered, and which was something of a disappointment - it read as though it was written to fulfill a contractual commitment. Perhaps I'm being unfair, but it was nowhere near the standard of "Engine Summer".

Finally, "The Deep", a short novel I remember looking at twenty years ago but not being motivated to read. This time, however, I did read it and it was almost as good as "Engine Summer", although very different. While "Engine Summer" has a breezy, pastoral feel, "The Deep" has a darker, claustrophic atmosphere. Although a short novel, I often had the sensation that its depth (trying to avoid a pun on its title) exceeded its length. There are many passages of great beauty, and I found it a very compelling story. It is an unusual book, but it is not nearly so weird as some reviewers have suggested. It also hs nothing to do with the English Civil War or the War of the Roses, as some people have suggested, although it does have many echoes of Norse mythology and the Nibelung saga. My only criticism is that the names of the characters (many are variation of "Red" and "Black") are confusing.

Both "Engine Summer" and "The Deep" contained worlds I was sorry to leave behind. If Crowley ever wrote sequels to either, I would eagerly buy both. As it is, this collection of three early novels by Crowley contains two absolute gems, "Engine Summer" and "The Deep" which I would recommend highly to anyone interested in good writing and with a taste for the unusual.

The first three novels in one package.
The first, "The Deep", is a touch different from Crowley's normal work, but he comes into full form in the second book, "Beasts, and truly flowers in the third, "Engine Summer".

The last book is arguably one of Crowley's very best (for which I believe he was predicted to become 'the next Bradbury', a rather unfortunate title for him in my opinion), while the first two are not in the same league. That said, as with all of Crowley's work, The Style and The Meter of the first two are eminently enjoyable. Not to mention the creativity.

All three books are very worthwhile and necessry reads for Crowley fans. Like all of Crowley's novels up until the Aegypt series, all three are wondrous self-contained universes when compared with the majority of 'literature' that gets written.

These three works are wonderful in themselves, and fascinating in their anticipations of Crowley's visionary masterpiece--and one of American fiction's handful of true masterpieces--Little, Big (1981).

Perpetually warring factions on a distant planet are thrown out of equilibrium when a stranger appears among them...The Deep is a gnostic parable ingeniously hidden in a just-this-side-of-cheesy '70s sci-fi adventure novel plot. Its secret concern is with the origins of the Renaissance, historically and as an emblem of personal rebirth. The ending is really, really something.

Beasts hides itself a bit also. In the dying America of a future Earth, biologically engineered man/animal hybrids attempt to throw off their chains and find a place in the world. They are variously aided and opposed by the novel's human beings, each of whom proves to be a very much distinct creature as well. It is a story of violent revolution, but also of our turning toward one another, from truly different perspectives, for the first time.

Engine Summer shrugs free of all adventure plot conventions and delivers the first dose of full Crowleyan power. It's a hair-tearing shame that this most perfect of books is buried away in genre fiction, to be sniffed at absently by seekers of pedestrian escapism now and then, but discovered by so few of the millions who would love it...The setting is the future again, but who cares? Well, Crowley, in a sense: the question here is what remains when all else has passed away. A young man chases a lost love and lost civilization across a world of painfully mortal beauty. Where beauty and pain merge completely we are completely alive, we learn. Words stop, there; but, somehow, not Crowley's.

And then Little, Big...

In Engine Summer, Crowley's jewel, I first saw the unreliable narrator concept. The semi-literate hero, Rush-That-Speaks (RTS), lives in post apocalytical America in a hippie commune that grows and barters some obscure recreational drug. America experienced some sort of war - the Storm - before the book starts - which left society in taters. In their feminist run commune, the hippie tribes blissfully live their out lives. Outside is the remnants of the world with technologies that few, if any, know how to use anymore. Innocent RTS asked one of the elder women what the broken interstate highways he sees were once used for? She answers for drivers to "kill themselves" in cars(!)

RTS falls in love hard for Once-A-Day who leaves the commune and RTS goes in search of her. He also yearns to be a "truth speaker" (he does the best he can) and meet "The Angels".

Corwley's book with wonderful prose, meanders thru RTS journey outside his commune. The title of the book is a pun, based on RTS's funny and frequent misunderstandings of words and phrases he hears. The title of the book should, of course, be "Indian Summer", but RTS honestly repeats what he thinks he hears. Despite what sounds like downbeat subject matter, (the other books on this topic usually are depressing) this is a pleasant, gentle and idyllic book, marvelously well written. Very clever. The reader often has to look behind the words or say the words out loud to puzzle out what RTS (& Crowley) meant. The heartbreaking ending book left me unexpectedly in tears.

In thinking the book over today, I feel it may also be a oblique commentary on religion and the true nature of the supernatural.

"Engine Summer" and "Little Big" remain Crowley's best works.

Engine Summer is wonderful, the other two novels are not nearly as good. ES seems often like fantasy, but it's really science fiction.

I was in Spain around 1980 and I met an author living there. I explained to him about personal computers and word processors, then in their infancy. He marvelled at how great this would be, not having to retype up all the pages and inserting changes, etc. These short books were written before that time - when authors without computers told their stories in much less words, and editors were more active clearing out deadwood. Quality not quantity! (This is often reversed in overlong books today.)

(Forget Amazon's verfication program, not that it's anyone's business, but I bought these books before Amazon existed)

John Crowley is a treasure. He combines gorgeous, haunting writing with a wealth of intelligent, thought-provoking ideas. Otherwise collects his three early novels, all nominally science fiction but so far from the stereotypical forms of that genre as to almost deserve their own literary classification. In each of these small but perfectly formed jewels, Crowley demonstrates complete control of his medium. In barely 200 pages, he creates and destroys worlds, makes us fall in love with his characters, and leaves us wanting more.

Crowley's first novel, The Deep, takes place in a semi-mythical world in the throes of a war of succession. Two factions, the Reds and the Blacks, are vying for the throne, and another group, the Just, have sworn to end the tyranny of all ruling houses. Into this war comes a visitor, something not entirely human. Due to injuries (or perhaps malfunctions) it is unable to carry out its mission, and ends up being drawn into human existence. There is a dissonance between the two halves of the story - the medieval palace intrigue and the visitor's search for its purpose - that keeps The Deep from being a complete novel, but still one can't help but marvel at Crowley's skill. Other authors writing about elaborate wars of succession and courtly machinations will sometimes fill thousands of pages without creating anything close to Crowley's instantly believable world and sympathetic characters. Although it is ultimately not a completely successful novel, The Deep is beautiful and engaging.

My personal favorite, Beasts, takes place in the not too distant future. America has fractured into numerous autonomies which eye each other nervously and prepare for war. Some decades previously, genetic experiments gave rise to animal-human hybrids, who now walk the earth as outcasts. In Beasts, Crowley examines the animal in the human and the human in the animal by assembling a diverse and fascinating cast of characters - a human-lion messiah and the humans who flock to his call, a super-intelligent dog trying to fight his devotion to the race that made him, a tame hawk set loose in the wild. Crowley examines the two-edged sword of intelligence and asks - is it better to be tame or wild? Some reviewers have complained about Beasts' sudden ending, but to me it seems right, as the question can never be answered and there's already so much in the book to ponder.

Engine Summer is my least favorite of the three books. Its protagonist, Rush That Speaks, lives in a post-industrial world only vaguely aware of the technological society that preceded it. Driven by wanderlust, curiosity, and love, Rush leaves his comfortable home and ventures out into the world. Through his eyes, we discover the different societies and ideologies that have arisen in the wake of some great destruction, and eventually Rush brings his wisdom to the survivors of that destruction. Although as beautiful as the other two books in its prose, I found Engine Summer cold and uninvolving. There was no plot to speak of, and no characters that I could care for.

Otherwise is a good introduction to Crowley's writing (although new readers might also begin with Little, Big, arguably Crowley's masterpiece). These three short novels epitomize his strengths and weaknesses as a writer, and clearly demonstrate the promise that he's since lived up to. A reader emerging from the depths of these three worlds can have no doubt - John Crowley is a treasure.

engine summer is fantastic, and needs to be read more than once. this is no problem however since it is a world to which i would gladly return again and again.

beasts is interesting, but crowley purposefully leaves the story unfinished; it is never seen through to completion. this aspect of the novel, although done in purpose, was not fully satisfying.

the deep is wonderful. i agree with the last reviewer that it is just as good as engine summer. but it is a retelling of sorts of the war of the roses. for those interested in such aspects of crowley's works one should turn to snake's hands, which is a book of criticism on crowley's writings;it is especially helpful in reading engine summer.

In future centuries, Crowley may be remembered as one of the greatest writers of fantastical literature and science fiction in the 20th century. Just the same, people expecting adventure and action will be disappointed. These works are about feelings, myths, ideas, wonder, fables, and such. The novel Beasts, for example, uses genetic engineering to tell stories about a lion that would be king and a sly fox. If you like Borges, Calvino, and Lem, you will appreciate Crowley. If you are looking for adventures in space or swordsmen fighting wizards, Crowley is not for you.

Crowley's greatest work is Little Big which the best novel to start. Read these stories if you want more.

This novel is hands-down my favorite. This almost comes as a shock to me, because I am usually not overfond of fantasy novels, as they tend to be predictable and set to a grade-school level.

Crowley creates worlds so fantastic and complex that the reader becomes instantly engaged. The fantasies are mysterious, dark, and beautiful. It goes beyond mere leisure reading - there is a concrete message embeded into each tale.

A must have.

I cannot review this particular novel for content, as I have yet to read it. However, the merchandise arrived in the condition that it was initially described and it was delivered in a timely fashion. I have read "Little, Big" by John Crowley and it was a fantastic tale! I highly recommend it as a great escape read that truly inspires the imagination! That wonderful story is what motivated me to seek other Crowley narrations.