Three Novels: The Deep, Engine Summer, and Beasts [Paperback]

John Crowley (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 548 pages
• Publisher: Spectra; First Edition edition (August 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553373986
• ISBN-13: 978-0553373981
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.8 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,600,561 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

John Crowley was born in the appropriately liminal town of Presque Isle, Maine, in 1942, his father then an officer in the US Army Air Corps. He grew up in Vermont, northeastern Kentucky and (for the longest stretch) Indiana, where he went to high school and college. He moved to New York City after college to make movies, and did find work in documentary films, an occupation he still pursues. He published his first novel (The Deep) in 1975, and his 14th volume of fiction (Lord Byron's Novel: The Evening Land) in 2005. Since 1993 he has taught creative writing at Yale University. In 1992 he received the Award in Literature from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. He finds it more gratifying that almost all his work is still in print.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Engine Summer", a story Ray Bradbury wishes he had written, August 23, 1996

By A Customer

This review is from: Three Novels: The Deep, Engine Summer, and Beasts (Paperback)

"The Deep" was very intriguing, and "Beasts" a little to be desired, but "Engine Summer" packs it all with one punch! "Engine Summer" is absolutely the BEST SciFi story I have ever had the pleasure of reading, I cannot recommend it highly enough. The ending will definitely leave you awestruck and I promise when you are finished reading this book, you will wish you could erase the memory of reading it so you could enjoy the story for the first time all over again!

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Novel Ever Written, Plus Two, August 24, 2000

By 

Eric M. Van (Watertown, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Three Novels: The Deep, Engine Summer, and Beasts (Paperback)

How many books in the Amazon database have been called the best novel ever written (or the best novel in its genre) by *half* of all the reviewers? ENGINE SUMMER was actually the first novel John Crowley ever completed; the ms. then sat in a draw for years while he honed his craft with THE DEEP and BEASTS. The original draft was then rewritten. You thus have a unique combination of an author's most central concerns, his fundamental, primal Tale (always in the first novel), with the skills and knowledge of a mature artist.

Civilization has fallen apart and humanity has returned to a primitive way of life. It's one of the oldest ideas in science fiction, but ENGINE SUMMER is unlike any other post-holocaust novel ever written. Rather than a harsh existence and a struggle to return to former glories, Crowley has imagined a veritable utopian existence -- in a world which knows there can be no going back. This is the long "Engine Summer" ("Indian Summer" misremembered) of the world, and winter is coming. It's a setting of unbelievable poignance.

Rush That Speaks, an adolescent boy, finds himself in a strange place. An unfamiliar woman asks him to tell his story. Since Rush's ambition has always been to become a "saint" -- someone who tells the story of their life in a special way -- he is happy to comply. Where is Rush? Who is the woman? As Rush tells his remarkable tale, the special (and unbearably poignant) circumstance of that telling gradually becomes clear to the reader. ENGINE SUMMER is ultimately a story *about* Story, about the human ability to be moved by tales like this and about our desire to know what happens next. I would say more, but I don't want to even hint at what is going on here.

THE DEEP retells the story of the English Civil War in a unique setting which seems to be genre fantasy but turns out to be something very different. At the time it was published, I thought it was flawed but showed extraordinary promise. That promise was fulfilled in BEASTS, a novel I thought was the best sf novel of its year and one (I'm very proud to say!) I cited, in print, as evidence of Crowley's greatness before ENGINE SUMMER and LITTLE, BIG were ever published. You'll notice I made no attempt to summarize its plot. It's like that.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Two extraordinary novels and one absolute classic, April 22, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Three Novels: The Deep, Engine Summer, and Beasts (Paperback)

John Crowley leads up to his first masterpiece Engine Summer, with two earlier, less well known works of fantasy. The Deep is a strong first effort by a burgeoning fantasy author,while Beasts is Crowley's only true Sci-Fi novel, and a very overlooked post-apocalypse novel. Engine Summer is the true highlight of this collection, a stark and understated work of great beauty.