Customer Reviews

World Enough & Time

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I vividly remember going into The House Of Speculative Fiction here in Ottawa, in December 1980, on my 16th birthday, looking for a book. Immediately, this stark yellow and black cover caught my eye. Simple silhouettes of mythological beings, a unicorn, bears, nymphs. Not a very action packed story, from the look of it. No barbarian with a wench clinging to his thigh and a dead ogre at his feet. Not the typical Conan or Fafhrd & Mouser story I was used to. I read the back cover and decided to buy it, as I was also a big Xanth fan at the time, and "World Enough And Time" had a Centaur as one of the heroes. I began reading it that night and finished it in a day and a half. Then I read it again immediately, and in the next two years until the sequel came out I read it 4 times.

The story is an epic quest through California, long after the holocaust. Civilization is at a pre-industrial, pastoral level. Humans are a dying breed. Numerous fantasy creatures and intelligent animals share the earth, descendents of the decadent pre-holocaust obsession with genetically engineered vanity pets. Reading and writing is outlawed and has become an underground religion, much like early Christianity. Pseudo-religious armies of talking beasts and monsters roam the land like the free companies of Renaissance Europe. The human wives of a young man and his best friend, a Centaur, are kidnapped by a Vampire and his gang of slave traders and taken south to a mysterious and technically advanced city on the site of Los Angeles for sinister purposes. The heroes set off to rescue the women, and along the way they encounter many friends and enemies, including a type of cyborg known as a neuroman, a friendly Vampire and a genetically enhanced housecat. The novel draws upon the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. (With a rather neat explanation at the end of vol. 2) This book is the reason I started to write for a hobby. The characters are vivid and true to themselves. The mood and atmosphere are so perfect, and constant throughout, and the blend of post-holocaust and fantasy is the best I have ever seen in any novel. This book and the first sequel, "Time's Dark Laughter" are just amazing. Imagine "The Chronicles Of Narnia" for adults.

If you are a fan of fantasy, horror or science fiction, or just plain great adventure, you should by all means track down the first two books in the series. The third volume, "Timefall", was somewhat of a letdown, but the first two stand alone, anyway. To tell the truth, I never finished the third. It really is not a continuation of the first two installments. James Kahn also wrote several film novelizations for Spielberg and Lucas, including "Poltergeist" and "Return of the Jedi". Too bad they never tried to film "World Enough And Time".

This is an exceptionally engaging story about a post apocalyptic world. Only it isn't quite ours. Its set far in Earth's distant and long forgotten past. The characters have a raw kind of sensuality which I've not encountered in any other novel. This is a story about genetic engineering gone haywire. Mythical beasts and peoples were once created by a decadent and highly advance human civilisation. After their empire fell, the slave races picked up the pieces and tried to erase humanity from the face of the Earth. There are bears, vampires, griffins, talking panthers, centaurs - you name it. And of course, there are "Neuromen" - humans who have traded their flesh for a synthetic body and immortality. It is the Neuromen and their greed which are central to this interesting and thought provoking story.

I recently read "A Plague of Angels" by Sheri S. Tepper, and was struck by the many similarities between the way Tepper integrated fantasy into science, and Kahn's work in this book and its sequel, "Time's Dark Laughter". Given that this work precedes Tepper's by at least a decade, it seems likely that Tepper was inspired by Kahn's work, though it's certainly possible she came upon the idea independently.

Kahn introduces many interesting forms of modified humans and genetically-engineered fantastic beings living in a post-technological world. There are engineered vampires, who generally live peacefully with large harems of humans; centaurs; and "neuromans", cyborgs who have replaced all their body parts and fluids with synthetic materials. The "neuromans" chose to modify their brains also, with different groups enhancing different personality traits to become ultimate hedonists, philosophers, warriors, etc.

If you enjoyed "Angels", you will enjoy the "Time" books, assuming you can find them, of course. If you didn't enjoy "Angels", or didn't read it, try to track these books down for a well-written tale of science as fantasy.

I first read this book when it originally came out in the late 70's or very early 80's (the date listed in Amazon is a reprint), and at the time found it very different from the usual veins of fantasy (Howard/Lieber/Tolkien, Piers Anthony/Terry Brooks/Alan Dean Foster, LeGuin/McCaffery etc). It incorporates sci-fi and fantasy, anthropormorphic animals and fantastic creatures, and a post-apocalyptic setting in what seemed (at the time) a fairly innovative manner. I lost the book in a house fire back in '87 and found another copy a few months ago; having forgotten all but the basic plot it was pretty much a new read again, and very different this time. I got the same feeling reading it that I got when reading The Worm Ourborous: the work is very dated and much has come since then to lessen its standing among the fantasy genre. It's been a long time since Metamorphosis Alpha/Gamma World and "sexy fantasy" (70's style, not the "Chicks in Chainmail" or "VampLust" stuff you get today). It was definitely R rated and aimed at a college age audience, unlike most of the genre today.

Nonetheless it was a good story and worth reading again, though I doubt I'll read it a third time. Others have reviewed the plot extensively, so I won't bother here. I will say though: don't waste your time with any of the others in this series. It's very obvious from the way the story is structured that this was a one-off that became a trilogy (the same way Star Wars was a one-off that became a trilogy (now a dual trilogy), but nowhere near as well put together), and the other books (Time's Dark Laughter and Timefall, which I also found at the used book store when I bought this one) are very disappointing. In both the author totally re-interprets his setting, characters and history, attacks the original material from a different angle, and drags the reader along for a few hundred painful pages.

"World Enough & Time" is the first volume of a trilogy.
Nevertheless it looks like the "trilogy" idea came to the author as an afterthought and we may consider this book as a standalone one.
Why do I remark this fact? Well I just finish reading "World Enough & Time" and found it a delicious romp thru a maddening world.
As usual when a book pleases me I look for more stories from the author and probably add some to my Wish List. Doing this research I found this was the first volume of three, yet the two later installments received a bad critic from reviewers I esteem. It also seems they were written after long time the first one was published.
Bottom line: that may be so or not but does not invalidate that the present one is a very good piece of fantasy and sci-fi.

The story is placed in a post-apocalyptic world where humans coexist with a plethora of mythic creatures: Centaurs, Griffins, Vampires, and Sphinxes, whatever you thought about, the creature will show up. Still if that's not enough; there are also mutated intelligent and speaking animals like Bears and Cats; or kind of insects as enhanced delicious Butterflies; or cyborgs and even clones. Last but not least there is a mysterious "New Animal".

A human family is destroyed and two younger members kidnapped. A beautiful neighbor girl is also abducted.
Their lovers are a Centaur and a young Human hunter; both of them start an epic rescue-revenge party. Pending the course of their quest they collect valuable allies and confront mighty enemies. At the same time the reader gets in touch with a rich new-old universe full of marvels and horrors.
Even if main characters have not a very complex and deep personality they are not cardboard either, so the reader may enjoy a good story that is not only action-driven.

All in all "World Enough & Time" is a good read for fantasy and sci-fi lovers!
Reviewed by Max Yofre.

"World Enough & Time" is the first volume of a trilogy.
Nevertheless it looks like the "trilogy" idea came to the author as an afterthought and we may consider this book as a standalone one.
Why do I remark this fact? Well I just finish reading "World Enough & Time" and found it a delicious romp thru a maddening world.
As usual when a book pleases me I look for more stories from the author and probably add some to my Wish List. Doing this research I found this was the first volume of three, yet the two later installments received a bad critic from reviewers I esteem. It also seems they were written after long time the first one was published.
Bottom line: that may be so or not but does not invalidate the present one as a very good piece of fantasy and sci-fi.

The story is placed in a post-apocalyptic world where humans coexist with a plethora of mythic creatures: Centaurs, Griffins, Vampires, and Sphinxes, whatever you thought about, the creature will show up. Still if that's not enough; there are also mutated intelligent and speaking animals like Bears and Cats; or kind of insects as enhanced delicious Butterflies; or cyborgs and even clones. Last but not least there is a mysterious "New Animal".

A human family is destroyed and two younger members kidnapped. A beautiful neighbor girl is also abducted.
Their lovers are a Centaur and a young Human hunter; both of them start an epic rescue-revenge party. Pending the course of their quest they collect valuable allies and confront mighty enemies. At the same time the reader gets in touch with a rich new-old universe full of marvels and horrors.
Even if main characters have not a very complex and deep personality they are not cardboard either, so the reader may enjoy a good story that is not only action-driven.

All in all "World Enough & Time" is a good read for fantasy and sci-fi lovers!
Reviewed by Max Yofre.

World Enough and Time is a strange, unevenly written book to read - at times entertaining, at times annoying, at times just downright bizarre. It is set in the future, a few hundred years hence, after a variety of natural and man-made disasters have nearly destroyed human civilization. The book takes a fairly dim view of genetic engineering, and envisions a world in which human beings have made a variety of mythical creatures come to life - Vampires, Elves, Centaurs, Minotaurs, Dragons, talking Animals, and even the occasional Hobbit. As a result, humanity is in decline, attempting to maintain a foothold to survival amongst all of its own creations.

The book's opening scenes are its weakest. It begins in a rather cliched, frontier-like setting, with the family Green gathered together, listening to the disturbing sounds outside their cabin. As the family converses with each other in faux-hillbilly dialog, the cabin door bursts in, with a Vampire, a Griffin, and a horrible mutant (known affectionately as an "Accident") standing in the doorway. The three villains proceed to slay most of the family, capturing the teenage girl and the young boy, who are spirited away into the dark of night.

The teenage girl has actually married into the family. Her husband is Joshua, the family's oldest son, who was away on a hunting expedition when the carnage occurred. On the way back from the hunting expedition, he stops by the farm of his great friends, Beauty the centaur and his wife, Rose. After an annoying scene in which they all banter with each other in Harlequin Romance style dialog (and the reader begins wondering about the mechanics of centaur-human sex), Joshua departs from his friends' farm, returning the cabin to find most of his family slain. In another rather cliched scene, he learns of who the assailants were from his dying grandfather, just before his grandfather expires. He also learns that both his bride, Dicey, and his brother, Ollie, have been taken captive. At that point, he swears that he will track the murderers down, rescue his people, and avenge the death of his other family members.

Eventually, Joshua returns to his friends' farm, only to find it burning. Beauty the Centaur, having returned from an errand, is standing there, watching his farm burn. The same assailants who had murdered Joshua's family have now captured his beloved Rose and spirited her away in the night. Together, Beauty and Joshua begin the long quest to rescue their people through what is now California. Here, the tale becomes much more engaging, as the two friends go through a variety of ordeals to complete their quest.

Along the way, Joshua and Beauty make new allies and defeat many enemies. Among the former are Isis (part teenage girl, part black cat), Jasmine (a centuries-old Neuroman, essentially a robot driven by a human brain), Lon (a magnanimous and stately Vampire), and Sum-thin (another Neuroman with a taste for philosophy and opium). Among the latter are Jarl (a huge, talking bear king), Poseidon-worshipping religious fanatics, more Accidents, a genetically engineered dragon, some evil scientist Neuromans, and - of course - the three original villains who had kidnapped Rose, Dicey, and Ollie. Of these, Isis, Jarl, and all of the Vampire characters are sharply defined and interesting.

The novel's greatest flaw, however, is its excessive use of exposition for world creation. The novel bogs down again and again when it has Jasmine describe previous history, or when Sum-thin describes the different kinds of Neuroman, or when the Neuroman Gabriel describes the evil plot that has Vampires and their allies kidnapping humans from all over the region. The novel comes to a screeching halt whenever this happens. It also tends to describe what's going on in the characters' heads too much, when simply showing this through their words and actions would be more effective.

There are some scenes in the novel that seem strangely out of place; for example, when Jasmine inadvertently offends one of the Poseidon worshippers, she is challenged to a fencing duel in the middle of the bar. What follows is a blow-by-blow description of it that sounds like the narration of a fencing match in the Olympics! It also has one of the most entertaining ways to kill a dragon that I have ever read, and some clever uses of a dead vampire. Because the novel was written in 1980, it also has a dated feel to it - the evil Neuroman scientists seen towards the end of the novel are still using file cabinets rather than computers. This dated feel to it isn't that big of a deal to me - I still enjoy reading Jules Vernes' works, even though those are even more dated than World Enough and Time.

Despite all of its flaws, World Enough and Time can be entertaining, even engaging - if you can get yourself past some odd scenes and boring exposition. I found its imaginative palette, its descriptive language, and its crisply defined and vivid characters enough to overcome its flaws. However, as they say, your mileage may vary.

This book will leave you reading the small print on the back cover for more. James Kahn is an excellent writer, and the characters are involved and interesting. I read this many years ago and loaned out copies that I never got back. There was a re-print and I bought 5 copies, and you can still find a couple in used stores. It is engaging, touching, surprising and total and complete fantasy reading. There were 2 sequels, Time's Dark Laughter, and Timefall. Time's Dark Laughter was also excellent, but Timefall took a different kind of twist, insinuating some reality in the story and a basis of fact for the previous 2 stories. Judge for yourself whether it is! This would make an excellent movie (but hard to do!)

The problem with reviews on amazon (and many other places) is that most often only the people who really love and those who really hate something bother to put it down in a review. But this book is merely... disappointing.
The whole thing basically hinges around the premise of genetic engineering, which the author uses to infuse fantasy elements into a post-apocalyptic SF setting. Now, genetic engineering may have been a new exciting and unique premise in 1980 but today it's beyond predictable, so the book is robbed of many of it's "revelation" moments.
And it all feels sort of "ok", nothing spectacular on that end.
What will turn most people away from the book is that it's oversexed in a sometimes disturbing way. We're talking- Man on wood elf/prostitute. Android on Centaur (while they're both tripping drugs, it's much less awesome than it sounds) and insane Stockholm-syndrome (I found it pretty sickening) woman on sadist vampire. -But it's written in such a way I don't think it would satisfy the perverse either.
Basically, the dark and oddly strong sexual undertones never mesh well with the fantasy elements. And while an interesting scene or idea pops up here and there none of it holds together. In his rush to show us the world the author allows the plot to become convoluted and unbelievable even within said world's own logic.
It just feels like your average post-apocalyptic, what-has-science-done "maybe we're the real monsters" story. ...if that's possible.

World Enough, And Time (1980) is the story of a post-Apocalyptic fantasy world, in which genetically-modified monsters threaten to wipe out the slim, remaining population of humans. The novel is set during one of the uneasy truces between the Human and non-Human tribes, but things are far from peaceful.

Joshua (Human) and Beauty (Centaur) are good friends and are trying to eke out peaceful existences as farmers. They're both married: Beauty to Rose, a human (creepy) and Joshua to Dicey (a human, age 15, also creepy). But their (creepy) happiness is shattered when a team of monsters kidnap their brides. Joshua and Beauty, in the best Western tradition, must lay down their plowshares and go hunting for vengeance.

Their journey of vengeance takes them across the wilds of former-America. They're joined by Lon (friendly Vampire), Jasmine (Android) and Isis (a Cat). There's a also a mutant Butterfly that sort of shadows them along the way. Joshua et. al are in a race against time - they soon learn that their own misfortune has been echoed all up and down the land. Someone is building an empire, and using human blood to do so.

Besides gratuitously glorifying Vampires and having part of the narrative told by the damn cat, World Enough, And Time fails in many other ways. For one, it is incredibly boring. You'd think a post-Apocalyptic road trip punctuated with violent combat and inter-species sex would be interesting (disturbing, but at least interesting), but Kahn somehow manages to make the journey as ponderously dull as possible.

World building plays a major part in this. Jasmine the Android is a billionty-twelve years old, which allows her to give lengthy, meandering historical lectures at every turn in the road. Getting caught in a lethal tropical rainforest is pretty awesome - having a lesson in climate change is not. Similarly, do we really need to know how Centaurs, Trolls, Hobbits, Vampires and Androids all came about? As a reader, I'm committed (to some degree) to this ridiculous world. Having chapter after chapter of post-rationalization doesn't help me suspend disbelief, it merely bludgeons to death any lingering excitement I may have had.

Worse than the world building is the philosophy. This book is an excellent reminder of how unbelievably, painfully, worthy science fiction was for almost two decades (internet: please fight back!). In this case, Joshua the unbearable moaner spends every alternate page espousing the virtues of belief and the printed word (he's an advocate of "Scribery"). Those pages in which he's not evangelizing literacy, he's arguing aesthetics with Beauty. Or Joshua and Beauty are teaming up to argue ethics with a pack of roving bears. (Not a joke). The Vampires (dark, noble, immortal, sexy, blah) could take a lesson from their author when it comes to sucking the life out of things...

As the book limped to its action-packed, yet ultimately meaningless, conclusion, I was stunned to find an ultimate reveal of... nothing. The big bad fizzled, the relationships built on the journey dissipated (there was a lot of shagging about for a pair of married men), and everything culminated in a lot of standing about and avoiding one another's gazes. Had I read this book backwards, it would've essentially been exactly the same story. I have no doubt that there's meaning in this - every leaf of every tree in World Enough, And Time is packed with meaning - but I have absolutely no desire to seek it out.

If there's one positive about this book it is that, although Kahn deluged the reader with world-building and philosophy, he spared us any poetry. I appreciate the self-restraint.