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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Little English Fireside Chat,
By
This review is from: The Sound of His Horn (Hardcover)
This work has a heavy reputation in literary circles. I suppose this is because it is written in that old, dry English style of describing the perfectly ordinary in very quiet tones, with much description and little action, till suddenly you find that what is being presented is not ordinary at all, but rather the stuff of all too realistic nightmares. In fact, it strongly reminded me of some of H.G. Wells work in style and tone. Supposing a future world where the Nazi's really did establish themselves as the rulers of the world (and the War is long past), the story deals with an Englishman who `falls' into this world by inexplicable means. Dealt with initially as an honored guest, he does not really begin to see the problems in his host's society till it is almost too late. The horrors of this society are kept almost totally in the background, hidden behind a façade of gentility, and not reaching the foreground and directly stated till near the very end. This type of presentation can be effective, but in this case it kept me at a distance from the horrors, not able to really feel them, leaving me asking "would the Nazi regime really be no worse than this?" For me, anyway, the horror was too little, and the work was too short, as in construction it's really an extended short story, not a novel. Also, perhaps, the envisaged final structure of the Nazi regime, after having finished dealing with their `problem' of Jews and other `impure' races, is too much based on the country manor lord, who wants only peace, discipline, and a chance for a good hunt (even if that hunt is well beyond the pale of normally acceptable human behavior), while the demands and problems of cities, factories, and schools are not touched on. Still, especially for those who like this kind of dry, understated style, it is reasonable reading experience, and provides one more portrait of just how depraved some humans can be when allowed total free reign to their every impulse. --- Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)
7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A haunting hunting night.,
By
This review is from: The Sound of His Horn (Hardcover)
The Sound of His Horn is a book that has haunted me since the first time I read it in the early `60s. At that time it was one of the first (if not THE first) story I've read about a world dominated by triumphant Nazis, and it shocked me the kind of ghoulish universe, that a hundred years of their dominion, may have produced.
In later years I've read other good novels on the same subject, and may be better ones, as Dick's "Man in the High Castle", Harris' "Fatherland", Deighton's "SS-GB", but Sarban's creation has stayed in the back of my mind forcing me to read it once and again. I had wondered why this happens. My explanation is that is due to the brief but electrifying description of the final hunting night. The whole story is a crescendo, starting with the foggy awakening of Alan in a hospital room, and the discovery of a new and astounding scenario. New rules: the war is an event a hundred years old, new power structure: the Nazis are ruling the world, new beings: mandrill boys, modified hounds and cat girls. Each new step drives Alan to more and more horrible situation, until he is ejected as a wild beast into the forest. The fears of a haunted prey running for his life are depicted with masterful hand by Sarban and conduct the reader to a breathless ending. If you are interested in these subjects give the book a try, it deserves it. Reviewed by Max Yofre.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Hauntingly Beautiful Tale From A Master Of His Craft,
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This review is from: The Sound of His Horn (Mass Market Paperback)
Sarban presents us with a vision that is both uncompromising and visceral. Unlike a large majority of less potent works, he does not deign to rationalize or explain the groundings of his tale. Like a unicorn grazing in a pasture, it simply exists, unable to be denied. This tale has a logic all its own and as Sarban says, Querdilion is not only an outlaw from man's laws (the laws created by the Nazi Germany he is trapped in), he is also an outlaw from the laws of Nature. As such, no reason should be given for his transportation to and from this nightmare realm. To give a reason would be contradicting Sarban's initial premise that Querdillon is an outlaw of Nature's laws for reason is a law which Nature follows. It is not a law of Hackelnberg. Madness is. Human beings stripped of all that can be called human, reduced to the most animalistic state imaginable captures this madness beautifully and Sarban's most powerful prose centers on this theme. Yet. There is another law, perhaps one that cuts across reality, which gives this tale its unique power and mystery. Kit and Alan. Trapped in a nightmare, somehow they manage to find a love that is pure and pristine, untouched by the Count, untouched even by death. As the Count stares across the Bohlen ray fence at Alan at the end of the novel, one has the sense that there are some laws which are beyond man, some powers which are beyond the control of even the most brutal potentate. Love is definitely a necessary part of this power, but to say that love is this power would perhaps oversimplify Sarban's complex and achingly beautiful tale. No, it is something else, something ineffable, that same something which transported Alan to Hackelenberg and back to WWII Nazi Germany. Something that haunts him even as he tells the tale. Something that touches him to the core as he says that he "learned for the first time how such a loss uproots all other agonies from the soul and makes of the heart a desert where fear and pain can never grow again." And it is that something, that force which draws the reader time and again to this beautiful, mysterious piece of prose.
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