THE SWORD OF THE SPIRITS

Back from Beyond the Burning Lands (1971) Luke is installed as Prince of Winchester (one of the almost medieval cities which has arisen in the geographically and genetically deranged post-Disaster world). But his stubborn pride causes a mutiny among the Captains when he orders the unfaithful Lady Blodwen and her lover Edmund imprisoned, and Luke becomes an exile — journeying to the home of the Seers (possessors of the ancient scientific knowledge disguised as a spiritualist religion). The army Luke gathers to regain his kingdom is based on a Combination of the Seers' technology (Sten guns and mortars) and the soldiers provided by his Wilsh father-in-law-to-be (whose code of honor demands that he aid in Blodwen's recovery). Though Luke is momentarily moved to pity by the Christians' willingness to sacrifice themselves in front of his mortars, it's obvious that he intends to use the newly revived machines to build a Wilsh power base. Once again, since Luke's static and unsympathetic personality inhibits emotional involvement, it's the exotic backgrounds (mixing castles and cinema screens, kings and polymufs) and the game of figuring out what the author is trying to say about Science that must be relied upon to hold the reader's interest.