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ethanpoole's review
3.0
The intricate world building in Helliconia is incredible. There is more plot in Summer than Spring, as in there are characters and things actually happen. Still, the book was painfully slow.
cornreads's review against another edition
adventurous
reflective
relaxing
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
gullevek's review against another edition
5.0
As equal amazing as the first part, the second part plays mostly in a different region on Helliconia and also circles back to the place of the first book. Again we get amazing story telling and wonder writing. Absolute perfect.
imyerhero's review
3.0
So far, I’ve completed 2/3 of the Helliconia series by Brian Aldiss. They’re categorized as science fiction, and while they are most definitely fiction, you can’t count out the science part of it. Sometimes I felt like I needed a degree to follow Aldiss’ lengthy explanations of the hows and whys Helliconian ecology was the way it was. There was also such a psychological edge to the story that after a few chapters, there was no way you could ever doubt the reasons for the Queen of England awarding him for his services to British Literature. He is truly an all-encompassing author. He doesn’t just cover one aspect of Helliconian culture, nor just one species; he examines the phagors and humans and madis, their history and culture, their thought processes, and their motivations. He studies the evolutionary history of many of the animals of Helliconia. And he also integrates the lives of both the earthlings on Avernus, and the 1,000 year distant Earth.
jonmhansen's review against another edition
4.0
Epic science-fantasy indeed, and somewhat sad, as you know that at some point, the cold will return and this fantastical civilization will eventually disappear beneath the ice.
medea_jade's review
5.0
Really really long book but extremely enjoyable. Expanded the mythology so much and I found myself regularly getting lost in it. MUST read book one first. Aldiss has a unique style of writing that can take some time to get used to, but once you do this book and series is highly rewarding.
metaphorosis's review against another edition
3.0
reviews.metaphorosis.com
2.5 stars
On a planet with a complex orbit and centuries-long seasons, humans dominate the warmer times, only in some places living quietly with phagors and other sentient species. Their lives are observed remotely by Earth, via the Avernus, an orbital observation station. On the station, whose occupants have their own fascination with Helliconia's royal scandals, one resident has just won a lottery, offering him a ticket to the surface, and to certain death.
After the sweeping, Michenerian scope of the Spring volume, Aldiss tries hard to bring the story to a human scale in Helliconia Summer. He frames the story with an abandoned queen, pining for her cruel husband, and he comes back to her occasionally and toward the midpoint of the volume. But it's an artifice that is only partially successful. There's not enough foundation for the queen's situation to support the groaning, top-heavy mass of social and historical commentary that burdens the first half of the book.
More successful is the introduction of an outside observer. Billy Xiao-Pin, from the Avernus orbital station. His presence seemingly forces Aldiss to stick more close to a limited range of time and space, making the story both easier and more interesting to follow. Even when Billy is out of the picture, the story stays close to its other lead characters, and in particular King JangolAnganol, a tragic figure all of whose options are bad.
The result is a slow, but still much more intimate and entertaining book than its prequel. While first half is slow, the second begins to fulfill the promise that Aldiss must have hoped for with his reams of setup and background in the Spring volume. By the end, one feels somewhat satisfied - much the feeling of finally reaching "Of Beren and Luthien" after plowing through the duller bits of Tolkien's Quenta Silmarillion.
2.5 stars
On a planet with a complex orbit and centuries-long seasons, humans dominate the warmer times, only in some places living quietly with phagors and other sentient species. Their lives are observed remotely by Earth, via the Avernus, an orbital observation station. On the station, whose occupants have their own fascination with Helliconia's royal scandals, one resident has just won a lottery, offering him a ticket to the surface, and to certain death.
After the sweeping, Michenerian scope of the Spring volume, Aldiss tries hard to bring the story to a human scale in Helliconia Summer. He frames the story with an abandoned queen, pining for her cruel husband, and he comes back to her occasionally and toward the midpoint of the volume. But it's an artifice that is only partially successful. There's not enough foundation for the queen's situation to support the groaning, top-heavy mass of social and historical commentary that burdens the first half of the book.
More successful is the introduction of an outside observer. Billy Xiao-Pin, from the Avernus orbital station. His presence seemingly forces Aldiss to stick more close to a limited range of time and space, making the story both easier and more interesting to follow. Even when Billy is out of the picture, the story stays close to its other lead characters, and in particular King JangolAnganol, a tragic figure all of whose options are bad.
The result is a slow, but still much more intimate and entertaining book than its prequel. While first half is slow, the second begins to fulfill the promise that Aldiss must have hoped for with his reams of setup and background in the Spring volume. By the end, one feels somewhat satisfied - much the feeling of finally reaching "Of Beren and Luthien" after plowing through the duller bits of Tolkien's Quenta Silmarillion.
steveatwaywords's review against another edition
I realized when I kept setting this book aside to read almost anything else I was in trouble. This is a rare book which I chose not to finish after completing about 1/3 of it. I'll return to it if anyone urges me, but . . .
The trouble with Aldiss's world is not that it isn't rich: it's one of the most systemically, astronomically, and politically developed worlds I've encountered. But the science and plot-level intrigues, matched by characters so narratively-distanced as to keep them made of an unsympathetic cardboard, do not make for satisfying reading. There's scarce a thematic idea to be found, though the palette offered suggests ample opportunities.
This was a problem in the earlier work, Helliconia Spring, as well, but I excused it as 1) he was still warming up to his own creation, and 2) the several disparate narratives gave him less room. Neither of these situations is true in this second title.
It's too bad, because I admire Aldiss's expertise and reputation in the SF world, but my reading time must be spent with works which satisfy some narrative demands rather than merely keep me scientifically curious.
The trouble with Aldiss's world is not that it isn't rich: it's one of the most systemically, astronomically, and politically developed worlds I've encountered. But the science and plot-level intrigues, matched by characters so narratively-distanced as to keep them made of an unsympathetic cardboard, do not make for satisfying reading. There's scarce a thematic idea to be found, though the palette offered suggests ample opportunities.
This was a problem in the earlier work, Helliconia Spring, as well, but I excused it as 1) he was still warming up to his own creation, and 2) the several disparate narratives gave him less room. Neither of these situations is true in this second title.
It's too bad, because I admire Aldiss's expertise and reputation in the SF world, but my reading time must be spent with works which satisfy some narrative demands rather than merely keep me scientifically curious.
nwhyte's review
5.0
http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2583651.html
Helliconia Summer also still worked for me - the twist here is that the Earth observation satellite sends a volunteer from its crew to the surface of Helliconia, where he knows he will not survive long due to a lack of immunity from local diseases, but gets very much mixed up in a complex dynastic / political / gendered dispute among local rulers. Aldiss plays the theme of technologically advanced individual failing to impress a much more medieval civilisation very nicely.
Helliconia Summer also still worked for me - the twist here is that the Earth observation satellite sends a volunteer from its crew to the surface of Helliconia, where he knows he will not survive long due to a lack of immunity from local diseases, but gets very much mixed up in a complex dynastic / political / gendered dispute among local rulers. Aldiss plays the theme of technologically advanced individual failing to impress a much more medieval civilisation very nicely.