Customer Reviews

A far sunset

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I read this SF novel 35 years ago and really enjoyed it. Cooper wasn't especially well-known as an SF writer, but I recently looked up his name, and he has at least a dozen books out, and a number of short story collections. They're probably all out of print now, but I wished I'd seen more of his books back then as I would have bought them. His real name was Richard Avery.

Anyway, this story about a psychiatrist on an interstellar ship who gets marooned on a planet with an Iron-Age culture was one of my favorite SF novels of the 60's. When it becomes clear he won't be rescued immediately, he settles into local town life, and has various misadventures there, such as when a kite he makes for a young boy gets away from the boy and ends up in the local ruler's palace in a place where it shouldn't have been. The ruler isn't very happy about this, so he's briefly interrogated and tortured, then let go.

He pensively watches life around him in the village, and there's a sort of wistful nostalgia to his situation of being a 21st century earthman trapped in a more primitive culture. He finds a certain satisfaction in living the simple life, and we see the absurdities of our more complex and advanced civilization reflected in their simplicity and naivete. He observes the villagers continue to make progress in much the same way as the early Greeks and Romans must have, such as the invention of the wheel and axle, and primitive ball bearings. In some ways the inhabitants of this planet are more intelligent than humans and he's occasionally surprised by their ingenuity and intelligence.

After several years a rescue ship arrives and he's finally saved. Overall a fine story from an author who should be better known.