Icehenge….where the demons roar…. :)
Couldn’t resist a Spinal Tap reference when a ‘henge’ is involved. Just finished reading Kim Stanley Robinson’s Icehenge sci-fi novel. And as the wiki entry notes, it is similar in many ways to his later Mars Trilogy, although with different characters and plot. The book is divided into three sections, based around three central characters that live in three successive time periods, but have inter-weaved history with one another as you progress through the book. The book touches themes of separation, revolution/resistance, and friendship.
One common feature of this book and the Mars Trilogy is the very long life given to the characters based on advances in medical science (the books in both cases take place at least 100-200 years from now), which adds a new dimension to their experiences and perspective – again explored much more thoroughly in the later trilogy. Given that we don’t presently live over 100 years (and most often not even that long), the way the main characters deal with these situations is interesting and unique. Sci-fi has long discussed extending life through a variety of means (read about Lazarus Long in Heinlein’s Methuselah’s Children for one of the earliest, best examples) but I still think the perspectives in these Mars books is a unique one on the subject.
I liked it. If you like this book, you probably would *really* like the Mars Trilogy, because there is a lot more going on, across three much more detailed (and longer) books. And in that series, the interplay between the various lead characters is pretty diverse and definitely not all harmonious (I read the series several years ago, been meaning to re-read it someday again). This is a quick read, too – in some ways it kind of reminds me what the later Mars-related plots of Babylon 5, specifically seasons 3 & 4, might have achieved with a little more detail (and in many cases better dialogue and less silly melodrama). Check it out and see what you think!
candybowl