Eyas (Paperback)

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Key Phrases: bitter river, great cataract, bitter spring, Crawford Kilian, Peter Three, Mount Aspen (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

A ground-breaking page turner in the realm of speculative science fiction by Crawford Kilian.

A nameless newborn is named Eyas by the Seagoddess. She spared his life and gave him understanding, but Earth and sky would eventually shatter as a result of this New Year's Day in the Year of Freedom 242 at Gathering Cove.

About the Author

Crawford Kilian has been around. He's explored Western Canada and even lived in China, but when it comes to writing, he does his homework the new-fashioned way.online. A professional writer and educator, Kilian spends much of his "writing time" in research. For Icequake alone, he put in thousands of hours learning everything he could from a variety of resources about Antarctica and its denizens. The author estimates that he spent six to eight months "getting it right." However, Kilian is quick to assure you that the research is part of the pleasure of writing. It brings believability to the work and a real relationship with the subject matter. From his snowy enclave in Vancouver, Kilian does his research from the comfort of his cozy home using the Web. But, it hasn't always been that way. In the early '80s, this full-time college English professor realized that the Internet was the wave of the future...for writers, teachers, and students. So, he took up his department's challenge to develop writing courses that integrated technology. What started with some phone conferencing is now an expertise in distance education that takes him to numerous speaking engagements each year. Like many educators, Kilian feels that the Web is a good supplement to the classroom, not a replacement for it. He says, "It's not just a valuable tool for research. It also forces us as educators to examine what works and doesn't work in our teaching...in both areas, the real and the virtual classroom." Kilian is also sold on the latest technologies in publishing and has republished most of his out-of-print classics with toExcel. He says, "I thought the books could find a new audience in a new generation, and toExcel offered that opportunity." toExcel is pleased to add this terrific writer/educator to it's stable of republished authors! ************************** Crawford Kilian's writing career has included a decade as regular weekly columnist for the Vancouver Province, eleven novels, two ch

Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: IUniverse (January 29, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1583481168
• ISBN-13: 978-1583481165
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #3,677,996 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Oddly Good, February 27, 2000

By	John Dolan (the eXile, Moscow) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Eyas is a very strange book. One of the strangest things about it is the fact that it's good. It shouldn't be good; Kilian writes from a pretty superficial Canadian/Progressive sensibility (check out his map of North America a million years from now, with the Great White North hugely expanded and most of the US gone).

But Eyas has a strange, cumulative power. It starts small, but moves very smoothly into bigger and bigger scale. And the notion of evil Kilian invents is brilliant. I won't give it away, but it's perhaps the best narrative metaphor for the baneful influence of the past you'll encounter anywhere.

Kilian transcends his conscious ideology in this book. Its climax is a Jihad as grand as any in Fantasy, and this Greenish author shows himself to be very adept at describing a complex military campaign. Like Eyas at the end of the novel, Kilian, in writing this book, crashed through layer after layer of ideology to make something greater than its maker.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great book!, February 22, 2000

By A Customer

The first two thirds of this book were great. It starts with a tribe who live like Indians. They have a naming ritual for infants which occurs at a cove. A giant sea creature surfaces there and names the baby. The baby in question becomes a heroic warrior named Eyas. The only problem I had with this book came at the two thirds mark. There was a jarring change in focus that could have easily ground the book to a halt. Still, I'll probably read this book again.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, but not good, June 6, 2003

By	themindzi "themindzi" (Columbia, MO) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Eyas (Paperback)

This book was alright. I wouldn't call it good, but it wasn't -horrible-. I did manage to finish reading it, but it was a stretch. A tribe of people living in a primitive society that worships their goddess (a whale that speaks to them) find one day a great ship of the People of the Sun about to crash into the rocks. They rescue three of those aboard the ship, one is the son of the Sun (a ruler who was dethroned and driven from his homeland), one is the Sun's concubine, Silken, and the last is a tiny baby. They name him Eyas. Eyas grows, finding he has an ability to communicate with animals, and a natural affinity with the Brutes (centaurs, lotors, and windwalkers). As he grows, the young Sun grows ever more angry, aloof, and determined to take back the throne that is rightfully his. In short, he runs off to take back his throne, decides he will come back and conquer the peaceful people that raised him, and Eyas decided to round up an army of Brutes to defeat the Sun.

Oh, but wait, this is -also- in a far-flung future and the dead are fighting for the Suns and oh, my, they must destroy Skyland to win. This last bit wasn't introduced until the last eighth of the book. I think the author came up with various ideas -as he was writing-. Had any of this been incorporated in the beginning it would have been -much- better, but he started too small and moved too slowly. This book had a lot of potential, but the climax was just crammed into about twenty pages and disappointing.