THE CELESTIAL STEAM LOCOMOTIVE: Volume I of The Song of Earth

by Michael Coney ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 28, 1983

Take the Just So Stories, add Alice in Wonderland, mix with Vance's The Dying Earth--and you have some idea of the scope, inventiveness, and sheer spectacle of this first-of-a-series performance by a Britisher whose previous sf outings have been solid-to-stolid. On Earth, a vast, ancient, omniscient computer, the Rainbow, has created a fantasy world, Dream Earth, to accommodate the minds of the helpless ""neotenites,"" the last True Humans whose adult-sized babies' bodies slumber in protective Domes. Meanwhile, the god Starquin, trapped in the ""Greataway"" (space time) by Hate Bombs, plans to break free with help from ""the Triad"": artist Manuel, a young shore-dweller searching for the vanished girl of his dreams; old Zozula, Ciudador of one of the Domes; and the Girl-with-No-Name, extracted from Dream Earth (where, unlike most, she insisted on being Herself) to replace Zozula's dying computer-expert assistant. But then the Rainbow becomes erratic and paranoid; it absorbs the Mole, a mathematical genius who, regarded as a threat because he has extrapolated the existence of the universe from first principles, is now exiled to the land of Lost Dreams. Thus, the Triad's quest will involve entering Dream Earth to find the Mole and restore sanity to the Rainbow. And all this is just a hint of the richness, complexity, and wit of Coney's creation: a dating, often dazzling storytelling feat--and absolutely not to be missed.

Pub Date: Sept. 28, 1983

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1983

Categories: FICTION