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Eight Keys to Eden by Mark Clifton check out website: www.renebooks.com
This can be a good idea but it can also seem like old food re-heated: unappetising and stodgy, time making it even worse than the original. There's a certain amount of similar fayre here! Just who was Mark Clifton, I hear you say. Born in 1906, he had a career as an industrial psychologist, which was another way to say he was a union buster in these good old days of stormy American labour relations. This attitude comes through in his work where the organised working man is often portrayed as a slave to convention, an intransigent person of limited intelligence. Only the free-marketeers bring wealth and prosperity. Have we heard this stuff many times since? Anyway, Clifton retired in early 1950s and set out to become a famous writer of Science Fiction. He made a flying start. With co-author Frank Rylovich, he picked up a Hugo in 1955 for the novel 'They'd Rather Be Right' and it was thought that he would go on to great heights. It was never to be. Clifton's writing output was rather limited. When he died, relatively young in 1963, he'd managed three novels and twenty or so short stories. Some were collaborations with other writers and it may be the case that poor general health didn't allow him to produce more. 'Eight Keys To Eden' which appeared in 1960 was all his own work. Earth has many colonies in the galaxy, organised in a rigidly controlled network which requires them to be in contact with the central bureaucracy, a stratified unimaginative entity populated by buffoons and rendered paralysed by excessive demarcation. The boffin Extrapolators are an elite and revered class of their own and it's their job to sort out any problems which appear. The problem comes when the colony at Eden fails to respond. Much ado and many words are spent on useless speculation until they decide to send a ship and an Extrapolator to investigate. Another ship to investigate the investigators is also dispatched. Eden is a nice place with a warm climate and an abundant free supply of food - a paradise garden. When the first investigating ship arrives, they find the colonists without any clothes to their name. Unfortunately, it's not long before the ship and any other trace of technology disappears, too. Soon they are all left naked. Is the poker playing Sergeant Bilko about? The descent of man goes even further in that the attempts to make fire are thwarted by an unknown force and even mathematics scribbled in sand soon get erased. What is this mysterious menace which has robbed man of his civilisation, leaving him to run about naked in the trees? Someone decides to investigate by making a journey to the top of a crystal mountain. It seems that another race, one which has left its physical form behind, is in control of everything. The entire destiny of humans now comes under scrutiny. This is an interesting story but the style of writing and the tedious and turgid paragraphs don't help. It could have been written in half the space and words. A lot of good fiction came out of this period of time some forty to fifty years ago but we have to remember that there was a lot of bad fiction, too. I would assign this work to the latter category. Despite the good ideas, the delivery doesn't keep up with the expectations. Should you wish to take part in a scholastic exercise to read dated fiction and make comparisons between style and society then and now, fair enough, this volume will suffice. Much of Clifton's work does appear very dated now. Its basis lies in the politics and culture of America many years ago but it isn't sufficiently interesting to be appealing. Should you wish a good read, then this isn't for you. Look for something else in the extensive catalogue that the publisher provides. Rod MacDonald
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OTHER REVIEWS - April 2004
Other reviews: April 2004 Lucifer's Dragon by Jon Courtenay Grimwood The Companions by Sherri S. Tepper Beyond Infinity by Gregory Benford Sunshine Patriots by Bill Campbell The Skies Of Pern by Anne McCaffrey Eight Keys to Eden by Mark Clifton The Adam Strange Archives Volume 1 Wit'ch Gate: Immortal Magic - Infinite Vengence by James Clemens Dime Store Magic by Kelley Armstrong Deep Space Nine: Rising Son by SD Perry Absolution Gap (The Inhibitors series book 3) by Alastair Reynolds Alchymist (The Well Of Echoes book 3) by Ian Irvine Hal Spacejock: Second Course by Simon Haynes Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris The Dancers At The End Of Time by Michael Moorcock The Crow: The Story Behind The Film by Bridget Baiss British Summertime by Paul Cornell The Year Of Our War by Steph Swainson April 2004: Hardback to Paperbacks The Chesley Awards: A Retrospective by John Grant and Elizabeth Humphrey with Pamela D. Scoville
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