Customer Reviews

Songs from the Stars

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A really well-crafted story. A lot of elements that might be described 60's/new age utopianism, but it gives the book a unique rather than dated feel. If you can get a hold of a copy of it, it's worth reading.

I'll summarize it briefly since Amazon hasn't posted any information: It takes place in the United States, many years after a technologically-driven holocaust reduced civilization to agrarianism. Technology is developed in small, socially acceptable forms, but certain forces wish to revive it again, and the book follows three people; a new-age shaman-like man, a young woman who heads a network of information distributors and involves herself with forbidden technologies, and the leader of an insular band of engineers and scientists, who are trying to resurrect ancient technologies. All three become involved with a startling discovery made in the last days before the apocalypse. Hopefully I've gotten most of the facts straight, it's been a while since I read it. Definitely worth picking up if you can.

Spinrad blends two different motifs from science fiction - post-apocalypse and firs contact - in this unusual entry in the science fiction field. In the "Big Smash", most of Earth was blown to cinders. Centuries later, the only surviving civilzation clings to a feeble existence on the west coast of the former United States. Gathered in tribes with names like "Lightning" and "Eagle", they live roughly halfway between traditional native Americans and hippie communes. In the absense of government, we instead get "Perfect Masters" flying around in balloon/bicycles, dispensing justice whenever forbidden industrial technologies make an appearance. Spinrad pulls of a difficult trick with this society. He wants us to laugh at the raunchy side of their lifestyle (sex, drugs, and rock and roll, minus the rock and roll) while also taking seriously their commitment to clean technology and the concept of karma.

However, there are also "spacers" living in the desert, using bad black technology such as oil and electricity. Their plan is to build a space ship capable of reaching the Big Ear, and radio telescope built before the nuclear showdown that recieved messages from alien civilizations. No spoilers here, since this is all spilled forth on the inside jacket. Anyway, the success of this novel rides on the revelations that the character get when they actually reach the Big Ear being big and thought-provoking enough. In my humble opinion, Spinrad doesn't quite cut it at this point in the story. His creativity runs out and starts recycling stuff that sci fi fans have seen before.

An enjoyable read. Post-Smash earth has pockets of society that find pre-Smash technology abhorent. They prefer the white magic of muscles, sun and wind. La Mirage skirts the grey magic by being a center of commerce where one can get supposedly pre-Smash white solar cells, etc. upon which their Way of life depends. Beyond the mountains, beyond the atomic ruins, a small enclave of scientists, using 'dark' science, support the vestiges of civilisation producing the items of trade while working to build a space shuttle to reach the Big Ear in space which may hold a message of hope for the future...