Review by Ian Braidwood
Cast of Characters:
John 'Firefly', Matthew, Darling,
Queen of The Red Wolf, The Sun, Father Alvaro, an ugly dwarf, Conrad
- the guide at the crossroads of the world, a woman with a crossbow
and a baby, the man who walked through time, Brother Joaz, Brother
Xavier, Brother Leon, Raon the Outcast, the singer of dreams.
Firefly is a retelling and expansion of Beyond
Time's Aegis, the first story Brian ever sold.
Set
in the far future, it portrays Mankind after he has travelled to the
stars and recoiled, before settling into a long, slow decline.
Unable
to accept this state of affairs, John sets out with his brother Matthew
in search of a man who is rumoured to be able to travel through time.
The intent being to travel back to Man's glory days, where John feels
he can make a life for himself. He adopts the name Firefly as a declaration
of independence, feeling that like the insect, he casts his own light
and so is not tied to the fate of his contemporaries.
The first part of the book, now entitled Under Time's Spell, recapitulates
Aegis and reveals that Firefly is far from the only one unable to
stomach their lot. Whether by adopting some ancient piece of architecture,
technology, or by using hypnotic gewgaws or mind altering drugs, various
characters seek delusions either of grandeur or escape.
As
with Aegis, you get the impression that you could cut-and-paste each
episode, swapping them around, adding new ones or deleting at will;
so there seems to be no thematic development. Indeed at least two
episodes - with Condor and Lungfish - seem to have been excised without
significant affect.
Beyond
the deletions noted above, Under Time's Spell recapitulates Aegis
very closely, though two new characters are introduced. John's brother
Matthew helps to improve the story significantly by sharing a personal
stake in John's quest and taking over the narrative duties, lending
an immediacy to the story by virtue of being in it. The other new
character is Brother Alvaro of The Brotherhood of the Afterman and
his role appears to be to inform the various evolutionary speculations.
The
Brotherhood of the Afterman is a quasi-monastic society, which as
its name suggests, is dedicated to nurturing the successor to the
human race, who hopefully will succeed in conquering the galaxy. They
hoard knowledge to stop it being lost and like Brother Alvaro, wander
the earth in search of the first individuals of the new order. It
is through the brotherhood that the story continues.
The new section, titled Beyond Time's Aegis, sees Firefly and Matthew
join the brotherhood where they are at least able to settle for a
while, before undertaking one final journey not through space, but
time.
Among
the wisdom kept by the brotherhood, is detailed knowledge of the toxins
produced by plants to defend them from predation. By mixing a cocktail
of these poisons, the brotherhood hope to send four of its brethren
into the future in emulation of the man who walked through time.
Accompanied
by Brothers Joaz and Xavier, Firefly and Matthew take the drug, which
apparently causes their consciousness to be projected forward through
time, along with at least some sort of avatars, if not their actual
bodies. We are again treated to a series of poorly connected episodes,
before the stamina of the travellers begins to fail and they fall
away one by one.
Does
Firefly get to see gleaming cities, built by confident aftermen who
confidently straddle the interstellar void? Well, that would be giving
away too much, but it would do no harm to consider the timescales
over which evolution is thought to operate and also whether it has
the progressive nature the brotherhood seem to believe. Brian has
generally stayed true to the logic of his stories and this one is
best understood, and appreciated, by baring that in mind.
Bear
in mind also, that Firefly doesn't belong among Brian's later novels
like Young Blood. It was written in the early part of 1971 and so
would be more at home next to To Challenge Chaos and is really of
interest only to the completeist.
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