Rax [Paperback]

Michael G Coney (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Daw (1970)
• ASIN: B000PDABQK
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Bittersweet YA SF novel, June 16, 2006

By 

Richard R. Horton (Webster Groves, MO United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Rax (Mass Market Paperback)

Rax is told from the POV of Drove, a teenaged boy on an alien planet. (It's not clear whether the planet has been colonized in a forgotten past by humans, or whether the humanlike characters are natives to the planet who just happen to appear very human.) The boy's father is a functionary in the Parliament of the country Erto, which is engaged in a long war with the country Asta. As the novel starts, they leave on their annual summer trip to the coastal town of Pallahaxi. Drove and his father have a dreadful relationship -- part of which seems simply adolescent rebellion on Drove's part, but part of which seems to result from his father's very real shortcomings.

At Pallahaxi Drove hopes to meet again the girl he met the previous summer, Brighteyes. But Brighteyes is an innkeeper's daughter -- too lower-class for Drove's father's taste. Still, they do meet again, and they begin a sweet love affair. Their friends include another son of a "Parl", a rather blustering boy named Wolff; and a pretty but somewhat vapid fisherman's daughter named Ribbon. The relationship of all four is strongly affected by tensions between the Pallahaxi villagers and the government. It seems that the government is building a new fishing cannery, so many more functionaries than usual are in town. Also, the villagers (led by Ribbon's father, Strongarm) are not enthusiastic supporters of the war, and they are suspicious of the government's motives in diverting supplies from Pallahaxi, and of their intentions for the weapons that are passing through town. All this is set against a backdrop of climatic change caused by the planet's unusual orbit about its Sun and the effect of the large nearby planet Rax.

The SFnal color in the background includes interesting creatures such as ice-demons and the telepathic (or at least empathic) lorin; the apparently highly mutagenic environment of this planet; the somewhat exaggerated fear the natives have of cold; and some curious weather such as the grume -- a decidedly odd ocean current that comes every summer. Much of this is fascinating but scientifically absurd -- though the astrophysical setup on which the novel's climax turns is probably the most absurd thing of all. Still, I didn't find this a drawback -- I was mostly reminded of Jack Vance in everything but the prose.

The novel comes to a rather unexpected climax, when the reason for the war and especially for the government's actions in Pallahaxi are revealed. They are quite surprising, and rather bitter in implication. Drove's sympathies of course lie with the villagers and Brighteyes, but his father forces him in another direction. The ending of the novel is deeply sad, but also somewhat ambiguous -- there is a hint of a possible sort of redemption for at least Drove. I liked it.

5.0 out of 5 stars One of my favorites, July 15, 2011

By 

Seraxia - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rax (Paperback)

Great science fiction taps into the multi layered nature of our existence. What is, what could be,what strange motives lie behind things ... How appearances are so often deceiving. This is a well written fun read even if you miss out on all the messages both timeless and contemporary.

5.0 out of 5 stars A strange, beautiful fable for our age, October 30, 2008

By 

Herr Frog (Washington DC area) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Rax (Mass Market Paperback)

Michael Coney's Rax is both a coming-of-age tale of a boy quickly turning into a young man, his first love and their teenage companions, in times of trouble and war in a seaside town ... and well, on a fantastic, distant world full of colorful and fantastic creatures, portrayed in eerie, loving detail by Coney. This is classic "new wave" science fiction, strongly reminding me of both Leigh Brackett and Ursula K. LeGuin.

I read this in my teens, just the right age, when the fantastic allure of this magical world and its alien beauty and terrors seduced me. And the tale of a forbidden first love could never be sweeter than on this particular alien planet. :)

But the poignancy of the message that this lush world are the vehicle for continues to have some influence on me even now, 30 years later. With the young protagonist's love story weaving in and out of a great war and a wartime government's dark agenda, this apparently sentimental novel packs a punch for our times.