Review by Ian Braidwood
Cast of Characters:
Cheron Felix, Teresa Janeat, Cyriac Salvador, Vito
Talvar, Sarid Jerome, Qapel, Baya Undi, Midas, Spektros,
Mondo, Cpt Donsella ti Ria, Toran Zeyer, Alaric da
Lancha, M'Lise, Gy'liu, Or'u'um, Gedeon Macabel, Immanuel
Spiridion Raban la Cabral, Vianna Cascorial.
In outward appearance The Castaways of
Tanagar looks a lot like The Realms of Tartarus: a thick
volume, crammed with text and split into titled sections.
These similarities can't help but give you a sense of
anticipation, but unfortunately Castaways isn't anywhere
near as successful as Realms in realising them.
Initially, things look promising. The story begins as Cheron
Felix awakes aboard the Sabreur, a Tanagaran starship taking its
passengers on a mission to the recently rediscovered Earth.
Felix is a murderer who had been sentenced to languish in
suspended animation indefinitely; but after thousands of years, he
and a few others have been resuscitated, so they can explore the Earth's
surface. Interestingly, Cheron's punishment is severe, because his
was a crime of passion; if it had been a calculated act of assassination,
he would have been treated with more leniency - an inversion of the
norm typical of Brian.
While still on board the Sabreur, the landing party is prepared
by having skills and knowledge fed into their brains as they sleep.
This allows Brian to introduce the idea that, by bypassing Felix's
conscious editing process, the Tanagarans have changed him as a person
- a theme, which will reappear later in the story.
Once Cheron is transferred to the Earth's surface, the tone
of the novel changes completely.
Though not particularly heavy to begin with, the story suddenly
turns into a light adventure as Felix is conscripted into the Macarian
army and transported across land. There are then some incidents and
a close study of the various prejudices displayed by the native Earthers.
The tone stays this way for quite some time until quite suddenly,
Brian slams down two chapters of almost pure discourse; effectively
an essay on the history and sociological development of Tanagaran
society. The affect of this is to totally unbalance the novel and
I wouldn't be at all surprised if many readers put the book down there
and then.
It
turns out that the Tanagarans are descendants of the crew and colonists
of Marco Polo, a generation starship, which left Earth in search for
a new world. At the outset, the crew didn't know how long their voyage
would last and so they tried to set up a social system which would
last for millennia if necessary.
The model of the perfect state they used was that described
in Plato's Republic, but they also used mind exercises and somatic
engineering to enhance the natural tendencies Socrates proposed. This
split the proto-Tanagarans into three groups: intels, prags and sensuals,
which are roughly analogous to Plato's guardians, auxiliaries and
craftsmen. If you don't bare this in mind as you read it, the point
of Castaways will sail right past you.
There is no doubt that The Castaways of Tanagar is seriously
flawed, but it still has ambitions and there is a lot in here to interest
the Stableford fan.
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