The rousing conclusion. For me personally, a sense of elation and accomplishment having read all three books of this epic. The combined SF Masterworks edition clocks in at 1,300 pages. Unforgettable.
Helliconia Winter is the third volume in monumental Heliconia by British author Brian Aldiss who most definitely wanted his trilogy to be read in order: first Helliconia Spring, then Helliconia Summer, and finally Helliconia Winter.
Following the spirit of the author's wishes, I'll assume readers are familiar with the first two volumes and thus take an immediate shift to highlighting several of the many unique features of Helliconia Winter, the story picking up during the time when the planet of Helliconia is on the cusp of entering its extreme winter phase - 300 years of minimal sunlight and temperatures plunging to well below zero degrees.
Action Adventure - At the center of the novel, we have a hero's journey - Luterin Shokerandit, a young man, son of a great political and spiritual leader, assuming the role of army lieutenant leading his men into battle against the forces of barbarism. But then the unexpected, forcing Luterin to flee. Brian Aldiss takes this opportunity to describe the various forms of fauna and flora, peoples and customs as Luterin walks, rides, sleds and sails across lands and seas. Fortunately, Luterin has travel companions, most notably beautiful, dark haired Toress Lahl, a young woman Luterin captured following a victory on the battlefield.
The Fat Death - Plague is a necessary part of life as the planet moves away from huge sun Frayr and temperatures plummet - necessary in the sense that for humans to survive winter, they must be transformed by "the Fat Death" wherein each person gains in body mass and becomes shorter, thicker. The downside: less than half the human population survive the Fat Death - harsh, certainly, but that's the way it is.
Here's a snip of Luterin Shokerandit metamorphosis via the Fat Death: "After a rest, he stood up and felt his filthy body. He was changed. He had survived the Fat Death and was changed. The painful contortions to which he had been subject had served to compress his spine; he was now, he estimated, three or four inches shorter than he had been. His perverted appetite had caused him to put on flesh. . . . His limbs were thicker. He gazed down at his barrel chest in disbelief. He was now a smaller, rounder, more thickset person."
Art and Theater - Ah, theaters exist on Helliconia! In a small medieval-like city: "To one side of the street stood a small theatre where extraordinary plays were produced, plays which could not fill the theatres in the center of town: plays trafficking in magic and science, fantasies dealing with possible and impossible things (for both sorts were much alike), tragedies dealing with broken teacups, comedies dealing with wholesale slaughter. Also satires. Irony and satire were things the authorities could neither understand nor abide. So the theatre was often closed."
This bit of detail relating to theater is critically important, underscoring the common humanity between men and women on Helliconia and on Earth. I love that part where irony and satire are things people in power will never understand or tolerate - so much like cultural politics here on Earth.
These two actors could be performing on the stage of a small theater on Helliconia. No wonder those of us on Earth, both readers of the novel and the Earthlings in the novel, can identify so readily with women and men from distant Helliconia.
Stone Sculpture - Sailing near a mountainous shore, Luterin and the others on board catch sight of a colossal statue carved from the side of a mountain: over 1,000 yards high, that is, ten times as tall as a football field is long, a gigantic statue of a man, arms upraised, knees slightly bent, a cap or wings flowing back from his broad shoulders, suggesting he is about to take flight. "The statue was stylized, cut with curious whorls as if to confer an aerodynamic shape. The face was sharp and eaglelike, yet not entirely inhuman." When someone asks the captain what the statue symbolizes, he replies, "He represents nothing. He is himself. He's the Hero."
Again, the arts to the rescue to convey to readers that Helliconian civilization might not have our advanced technology but the population takes its ability to express and create seriously. One can only marvel at how many years and how much effort and creative energy went into sculpting such a gigantic figure out of rock.
Smokin' the Peace Pipe - There's no mention of recreational drugs in the first two volumes as Helliconians stick to drinking their own version of beer and wine. A certain drug, occhara, makes its appearance in Helliconia Winter: the effects are much like marijuana. On Helliconia, occhara is entirely legal.
Avernus Anarchy - "After being ruled by the head, men and women on Avernus turn into savages ruled by their guts." Sorry to say, after many centuries orbiting Helliconia in the Avernus, at a certain point, all those test tube men and women get fed up with the strict rules put forth by their elders. Rebellion! The androids take over the technical running of the ship while human activity begins to resemble those boys in Lord of the Flies. Brian Aldiss chronicles the ship's devolution in all its sordid detail.
Meanwhile, Back on Earth -- In this final volume, we're given the backstory regarding the ways in which those advanced futuristic civilizations on Earth began exploring other lifeless planets. But then New Earth was discovered, a planet with its own organic lifeforms. Colonies from Earth were sent to New Earth. Fascinating. But with the discovery of Helliconia, every single person on Earth became enthralled with their distant human cousins.
New Humans - One of the more intriguing parts of Helliconia Winter is the change in human nature in the centuries following nuclear devastation - empathy and an enhancement in brain chemistry and neural networks. And what do humans on Earth do, now that they are empowered with their new found capacity for empathy? Help those on Helliconia!
Helliconia Winter is a fitting conclusion to the British author's masterful worldbuilding.
British author Brian Aldiss, 1925-2017
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