The Search for Fierra (Empyrion, Book 1) [Paperback]

Steve Lawhead (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1985

Orion Treet, an itinerant and often-unemployed writer, is abducted at gunpoint. Then he is offered eight million dollars and the adventure of a lifetime. The mission? To observe and chronicle the growth of a new extraterrestrial colony: Empyrion. Arriving on the planet Fierra, Treet discovers a civilization in decline, fragmented by millennia of mistrust and hatred. To survive, he and his odd assortment of companions must unscramble the mysteries around them . . . before time runs out for the settlement. The Empyrion novels are among Lawhead's most captivating accomplishments of storytelling and adventure -- the best there is in science fiction. The Search for Fierra won the Campus Life Editor's Choice Award. Look for Empyrion II: The Siege of Dome, at your local bookstore.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Traveler, debt–dodger, itinerant critic, and writer of history books nobody buys, Orion Treet is astonished when he’s invited to accompany a top–secret mission—to observe and document an extraterrestrial colony on a newly discovered planet. But when Treet and his companions reach the paradise planet they have been promised, they find themselves enmeshed in an ancient and deadly conflict between two highly evolved civilizations. Can the free and perfect world of Fierra escape annihilation? Treet, with a handful of rebels, stands alone against the evil might of Dome, as events move inexorably towards a world–shaking climax. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

From the Author

Stephen R. Lawhead is an internationally acclaimed author of fantasy and imaginative fiction. He is the author of many book, including, the Byzantium and the Pendragon Cycle series. He lives in Oxford, England, with his wife and sons --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 436 pages
• Publisher: Crossway Books (1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0891073582
• ISBN-13: 978-0891073581
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,472,934 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Stephen R. Lawhead is a prolific and bestselling author of mythic history and imaginative fiction. He is best known for his King Raven trilogy, a re-telling of the Robin Hood legend, and Pendragon Cycle, centering on the King Arthur legend. Other notable works include the Song of Albion, Celtic Crusades and Dragon King Trilogies, Byzantium, Patrick, Avalon, and the works of science-fiction Dream Thief and Empyrion saga. Lawhead makes his home in Oxford, England, with his wife.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not for the simple minded, August 22, 2002

By 

Samuel Krikorian (Charlotte, NC United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: The Search for Fierra (Empyrion, Book 1) (Paperback)

Firstly, I should say that the omnibus version, containing both books, is available. It is humongous, but you can get it and save some cash. These books have a lot of depth to them and aren't the average sci-fi "lets see how many futuristic ways we can kill people" approach. Lawhead's character's are developed over time. Sometimes they will surprise you. The standard first chapter synopis of main characters is absent. You have to follow the development of the individuals throughout the books. Lawhead writes with a different sense of pace and buildup than you may be used to from his other series. I read this series as a kid and have always liked it for its uniqueness. The books create a believable world and a complex society while leaving the thinking reader plenty of mysterious clues and hints to ponder. Lots of fun elements of political science, anthropology and sociology undergird this first book,which takes place mostly in Dome. Don't expect everything to be spelled out right away, and don't expect wholesale slaughter and gigantic battle scenes. The great sci-fi epics like "Dune", and "Lord of the Rings" succeed because they give a reader a sense of reality. Events seem like real history. The "Dome" books don't reach the level of Herbert or Tolkien; few if any books do. However, they have an element of this same reality that allow the reader to become immersed and enter a new world and, after all, isnt that the point of sci-fi?

15 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dystopia and Utopia fantastic, January 9, 2004

By 

A. Ryan "Merribelle" (Westminster, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Empyrion (2 Books) (Paperback)

Take a colony on an alien planet, throw in a plague and a civil war, and cut off all contact from its parent organization for about three thousand years. Don't forget, they still have their atomic weapons. Result: Empyrion, split into Fierra and Dome, with a wasteland in between.
In Part One: After landing on Empyrion, the four companions Treet, Yarden, Pizzle and pilot Crocker are literally stunned. Apparently, the colony established four years ago (by Earth's reckoning) has somehow gone terribly wrong; a backward, almost Orwellian government has taken over and the society and technology have degenerated. Without the clear guidance of their earthly parent corporation (Cynetics), the humans reverted to a rigid caste system to keep order. Erecting their own form of religion came next - essentially a kind of demon worship. Paranoia ruled their leaders' decisions, and individual human welfare was not a consideration against the status quo. A true dystopia, the fruit of fragile human understanding untempered by love.

Orion Treet is our main interface to Empyrion. A historian and a writer, he is able to maintain some emotional distance from what is happening around him; his friends are not so fortunate. Yarden, a sympath, is traumatized by her stay in Dome . She is able to sense a malevolent presence that the others cannot. Pizzle, a genius, had a backbreaking, filthy job in the lowest caste and couldn't wait to leave. Crocker was severely injured at first contact, comatose for most of his stay, but even still there is a hole in his memory during which something sinister happened...

Part Two: the companions have somehow made it across the wasteland to the smaller human settlement. This is Fierra, a true utopia and a foretaste of Heaven in this life. Fierrans have relied on the Infinite (God) for guidance and wisdom for over a millennium, ever since the atomic Holocaust. The results were not only a beautiful city in harmony with nature but a beautiful people in harmony with each other. Their vow of non-aggression may now backfire on them as Dome turns a paranoid eye toward Fierra once again...

Empyrion was not perfectly plotted and written. The first half drags in areas, has a generally unsatisfying feel to it which I believe is because author Stephen Lawhead offers a hasty sketch of the main characters and then neglects them to explore the wonders of the alien world; their inner lives are largely unexplored until the second half. A pet peeve of mine surfaces in the form of a romantic subplot between Treet and not one but three knockout females, but don't get excited - I don't think I'm spoiling much by revealing that they come to nothing and serve no real purpose in the plot. Worse, the reader is left wondering what they saw in him to begin with; Treet seems to have the EQ of a jackrabbit. Finally, Lawhead resorts to some generic descriptions of what is by all accounts supposed to be an exotic and interesting world. He could have spent a few more imaginative words revealing the physical Empyrion to us.

All these flaws drop away from memory when the magic of this alien place becomes apparent in random moments of storytelling brilliance. I recall vividly the sensory weirdness Lawhead evoked with a narrative about a nameless disease that cocooned its victims in shells of their own flesh. The haunting loneliness of the desert wastelands and the quiet green crunch of the forests crept into my soul as I read. Lawhead chronicles the spiritual journeys of the travellers through sensitive inner dialogs. And finally, nobody does war strategy and battle sequences like this author. For such gratifying passages I am willing to forgive much.

So perhaps Empyrion was not a complete five stars in every respect. Since the whole added up to more than the sum of its parts, however, it may be read by sci fi fans without reservation.
-Andrea, aka Merribelle

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best, July 30, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Search for Fierra (Empyrion, Book 1) (Paperback)

I am a big sci-fi buff. And with all the unbelievable sci-fi coming out now it is refreshing to see a good read like this. The Empyrion series is top notch. Be sure you have both volumes ready because as soon as you finish the first (The Search for Fierra) you will want to read the next (The Siege of Dome). Orion Treet is someone you can relate to as a person without all the usual Hollywood nonsense in books and movies that plauges us now.