Necromancer

Childe Cycle #2

by Gordon R. Dickson

He wears the guise of a the black cloak, the broad-rimmed hat, the gauze mask painted with a death's head. But raising the dead is the least of his Talents. He is a wild card that threatens the True Game itself. Demon, Doyen, Dragon and Tragamor, Sorcerer, Seer, Armiger and King - take your places. Let the Game begin

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Fantasy, Science Fiction Fantasy, Military Science Fiction, Military Fiction, Space Opera

189 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1962

About the author

Gordon Rupert Dickson was an American science fiction author. He was born in Canada, then moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota as a teenager. He is probably most famous for his Childe Cycle and the Dragon Knight series. He won three Hugo awards and one Nebula award.

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not how I expected the intial Childe Cycle book to go... it could have been a great book, but it's weighed down by Dickson's use of parapsychological / philosophical goobledegook that chases its own tail into incoherence.

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Chronologically, this is the first book in Dickson's Childe Cycle though it was written after the Hugo Award winning Dorsai!. I was really torn between 3 and 4 stars on this one as it had some really amazing ideas and was very well written. Unfortunately, I thought the plot was a little slow and the period between great ideas/revelations dragged a bit.

That said, I would still recommend reading this as it is a fairly short book and provides some very worthwhile insight into the universe of the Childe Cycle. It really lays out the inherent conflict between technology/science on one side and human evolution and unleashing human potential on the other. When exploring these issues, the book is terrific.

[Olethros · Rating 3 out of 5]

-¿Shai Dorsai? Diría que no...-

Género. Ciencia-Ficción.

Lo que nos cuenta. Paul Formain es un ingeniero de minas huérfano desde muy niño y que hace cinco años estuvo a punto de morir a bordo de un velero. En la actualidad trabaja en la Mina Malabar, en las Montañas Rocosas de la Columbia Británica, y un accidente le hará acercarse a la Hermandad del Chartre, una sociedad que ya le había llamado la atención. Aunque escrito varios años antes del segundo, se considera el tercer volumen del Ciclo Dorsai (aunque hay discusión sobre el particular e incluso se puede considerar el primero de toda la serie si nos basamos estrictamente en la línea temporal de la misma, y no me consta que el propio Dickson interviniese para arrojar luz sobre el asunto, pero en español se editó de esa forma).

¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:

http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

There isn't much action in this book compared to the rest of the series & the philosophy is a bit weird, but the observations about society are fantastic. In some very interesting examples, he points out the craziness that happens when a society has everything it needs & no longer has to focus on survival. Sound familiar? It is. Amazingly so. There's also a brief look at what happens when a computer runs a society. Very interesting & worthwhile reading, even if you don't read any other book in the series.

[Alien · Rating 1 out of 5]

Bergwerksingenieur Paul verliert bei einem Unfall einen Arm. Nach der Reha schließt er sich einer Weltuntergangssekte an, weil die verspricht, man könne verlorene Glieder nachwachsen lassen.

Dieser Roman funktionierte für mich von Anfang an nicht. Den Stil fand ich auch sehr ungelenk (normalerweise achte ich da nicht übermäßig drauf).
Er gehört zu einem ambitionierten Romanzyklus des Autors über eine fiktive Geschichte der Menschheit.
Ich fand ihn so schlecht, dass ich nach 70 von 160 Seiten abbrechen musste.

[Jacob · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truly enjoyed reading this book for Vintage SciFi Month! Felt the action was well paced and the story engaging and enjoyable.

[Marina · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great sci-fi book with a lot of metaphysical elements and philosophical discussions, but the character development is all over the place. Mainly due to the fact the book is so short, but no-one was characterized particularly well. Still, the ideas and setting were good enough to carry it and make it thoroughly readable.

[Rogue · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am not really sure what I just finished.

I didn't enjoy this really, in any sense. I have this feeling that Dickson was trying to do something big and grand with this, but it just mostly passed right over my head. It made just under 200 pages feel more like 600, and took me longer to finish than a 600 page novel too!

With the plot, not much really seemed to happen, and when it did, it was a bit disjointed. Mostly things get metaphysical and philosophical very quickly, which put me off a bit- especially as I've not read many scifi books, and don't really find them gripping when I do manage to get through them. This, I found myself wanting to put it down a good few times, but refused to do so, mostly on the facts that A) it was a borrowed copy, and B) it was under 200 pages, and therefore should have been a quick read.
It wasn't a quick read. I did half expect something like this though, considering it's 1960s scifi.

I never felt that connected to the characters, especially Paul (the main character). Nobody seemed to really stand out to me, with side-characters being names that passed by without any real personality. 'Arrogance' was assigned to Paul, but this never really came across to me that well; as for the others, they barely were more than names on a page, which registered as 'important', but never got much further than that. Things definitely focused on the philosophical points, rather than any sort of plot or character development.

I have a few other Dorsai books lying around, so will give those a go, but I'm hoping they won't be as slow as this one. If you like something weird and meta, give this a read.

[Christopher Sutch · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a difficult book because it's mainly a philosophical novel in which most of the action takes place (appropriate to its subject matter) "off stage." It's a novel of ideas not action. This disappointed me when I first read it 25 years ago, but I can appreciate it better now (and after having read it in its proper relation to _Dorsai!_: AFTER that novel, not before it). It's important to the overall arc of Dickson's Childe Cycle, but not a necessary novel to the understanding of the Cycle as a whole: _The Final Encyclopedia_ would do just as well.

[Mitchell Friedman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wow. That was weirder than I remembered. This was a really early book for Dickson to have written in the Childe Cycle. It would have worked better if he had written it in order hence writing it later. As such it kind of overreached in terms of what the Chantry Guild could do at this point. Well at least from what I remembered. This book was also unevenly paced. And our main pov character Paul in some way doesn't do much. And still with the occasional token female character. And lots of philosophizing in an almost brilliant way. And self-driving cars.

[Bill · Rating 2 out of 5]

Baffling, but a necessary step along the path

After beginning with a fairly straightforward description of a mining accident set in the future, Book 2 of Gordon Dickson’s Childe Cycle then shifts from one incomprehensible scene to another. The whole book is like a mad hallucination, but I don’t think it was intended to make sense on its own. Rather, it serves as a way of setting up the plot for the rest of the Cycle yet to come.

[Josh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great concepts and philosophy but at times babbling incoherently. Took some real focus to make sense of some of it but loved the zero time DMTish trip he took through the universe. This author must be a serious hallucinogenic lover. Laughed a little to myself at some of the futuristic tech the author imagine in the future like a parachute copter LOL. Liked the twist about paul and blunts identities but the final scene was the biggest anticlimactic cop out I’ve ever read... pretty sure a newborn babies first words would have made a more exciting ending.

[Chris Tower · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this as I am exploring books I never read all those years ago when I bought them for my Dad and then they became mine when he wanted to take them to Goodwill or the library.

This one was unusual and not at all like the first one, Dorsai. I was less engaged by it, though it had interesting elements. I am still determined to read the remaining Dorsai books but not next.

8.1/10

[prcardi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Storyline: 2/5
Characters: 3/5
Writing Style: 4/5
World: 5/5

Some writers simply function on a different plane of existence. There, the mechanics of worldbuilding, the requirements of anticipation and climax, and the function of characters all work differently in a novel. Gordon R. Dickson compiled this book on whatever plane he operated on and then brought it over to the reader. The work survived the shift, and we get a delightfully bizarre work.

This reminds me a lot of van Vogt's Null-A. It has that same pseudo science hand-waving where the author convinces the reader of the plausibility of the technology by talking nonsense in circles. It worked out especially well here because of the paranormal tone to the book. Dickson's Necromancer can't be neatly fitted with Golden Age pulp or the speculative-themed 1960s labels, however. It achieves its suspense not by pushing the protagonist into dangerous situations with narrow escapes but by being entirely unpredictable. At no point does the author give the reader a solid preview into the bigger world or characters that inhabit it, thus we get revelation after revelation of unanticipated worldbuilding. The point of the novel - the idea at which it is working at - too is quirkily obscured. Somewhere nested in all that circumlocution and technobabble there are some neat ideas about humanity and progress, but you just have to wonder if Dickson himself was aware of that or instead if your own mind was providing order to the author's chaos.

I recommend this to fans of 1940s-1960s era science fiction classics. Though it is the second in the Childe Cycle, I saw no obvious connection between the two books (other than in tone and ideas). The current book summary available on this site:

Throughout the Fourteen Worlds of humanity, no race is as feared and respected as the Dorsai. The ultimate warriors, they are known for their deadly rages, unbreakable honor, and fierce independence. No man rules the Dorsai, but their mastery of the art has made them the most valuable mercenaries in the known universe.

is not correct.

[Stuart McMillan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reread, some 35 years later as part of a look at the Childe cycle.

This was the first one I read when I was about 15, setting the scene for an attraction to the world of the Dorsai that stayed with me long enough that I felt I had to reread it a whole generation later.

Like the earlier 'Genetic General' there's an awful lot of empty space in this novel that we're invited to fill-in with our imagination. This is what makes it all a bit weird as, with the following books the gaps are all filled in.

Anyway to this book. Paul Formain is a mining engineer who discovers he has some kind of precognition - but only after he has an accident that loses one of his arms. He gets involved with a group of people who promise him that he will be able to regrow his arm if he subscribes to their (eastern mystic) kinda philosophy.

...and then it all goes bonkers. In (literally) minutes, we're transported from a chess match on earth to an underground habitat on Mercury. Then to interstellar space. Then to the depth of the ocean.

The pivotal moments are the creation of the world governments and their philosophies - none of which really make any sense at this point (though you'll start to see things if you've read the earlier book). It's not really until book 3 ('Soldier Ask Not') that all this become clear. Which is pretty remarkable given that the publication dates are 7 years apart.

Worth reading for the background on the Chantry guild.

[Douglas · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a difficult book to review because it isn't your standard sci fi. So difficult, in fact, that I took a look at another review to see what others were saying about it.

The one other review I looked at proclaimed this a prequel to Dorsai! instead of being book 2 in the series as it is listed on Goodreads. That is an understandable mistake because the proof that this isn't a prequel only comes at the end and only in subtle reference to Dorsai! which I probably would have missed had I not read Dorsai! immediately before this book.

This book is set many years before Dorsai!, hence the ability to mistake it for a prequel. It tells the story of humanity immediately before its spread to other solar systems. The story is told from the perspective of a man who ends up joining an organization seeking to prevent the domestication of humanity by its own technology.

I was put off somewhat by such a huge deviation from the story line of Dorsai! but I didn't think it fair to punish this book for my inaccurate expectations. This was a well written and intelligent book with an excellent twist ending that is made doubly excellent if you catch how it ties back into Dorsai! In fact this book was so good I expect to make time to reread it and Dorsai! at some time in the future.

[Jayendren Subramoney · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked this up because it had a gorgeous cover. I absolutely love the book cover art of novels from the sixties. And this is very true of sixties sci-fi books.

Unfortunately the excitement of the cover dissipated very quickly upon reading the book.

The book really isn't very good. It's a tedious read. The story is bland, the characters not interesting and the plot is plodding. There is coherence in the story but it's strung together so badly that whenever you get to a great revelation in the book, it ends up being a let down.

The thing that annoys me the most about it is that characters just seem to do random arbitrary stuff all the time. There is a reason for it, but when you get to the the reveal it's a totally anticlimax because the plot and writing were constructed so poorly.

A big positive of the book is that it's has some interesting philosophy that I actually tend to agree with. Almost always sci-fi has some great nuggets of insight into the human condition, and this book does have some of that. It's not articulate, it's not well presented, but it is there. I think that's the saving grace of this book. But all in all, it's only for die hard sci-fi fans.

[astaliegurec · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gordon R. Dickson's 1962 novel "Necromancer (Childe Cycle Book 2)" straddles the line between science fiction and fantasy. There's a lot of parapsychology or perhaps the occult in the book (which isn't really surprising given what Dickson's setting up here). As with the first book of the series, "Dorsai! (Childe Cycle Book 1)," I'd read it multiple times before this, with the last reading being around 30 years ago, and enjoyed it. But, since it was written back in the 1960s, it carries a lot of baggage from that era. Still, it's a well-written, nicely-paced story. I'm rating it at a Very Good 4 stars out of 5.

BTW: this book was very obviously scanned in and published without proof-reading. The number and "quality" of the OCR errors (particularly the wrong words) is pretty bad for a 55 year old $9 book.

[Sirbooksage · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. This is an odd book, far more a metaphysical, philosophical, look at human society and the impact of a life of comfort, through all-encompassing technology, and the splintering impact it can have upon society. While the 2nd book in the Childe Cycle books of the Dorsai, the events in this predate the rest of the Dorsai books in that this deals with Humanity on Earth before they went out among the stars and splintered into vastly different groups. Dickson tackles a lot of ideas here, sometimes in a very clunky, uneven way, and other times, exceptionally well.

[Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the twists & turns I did not see. Not at all like the preceding book, ie set near present day with science fiction elements but was set far in the past relative to the first book. The action progresses similarly to the first book meaning it advanced quickly and without preamble. I went into this blind and I enjoyed it but it might have been better had I prepared myself. The ending was spooky and hailed back to the first book. Ready for more.

[Leon Rogson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Expected a warrior

Too much Deus ex machina, both real and mythical. Incomplete plot, but interesting premise. Not based on tactics, but on enlightenment of the obscure kind we cannot reach.

[Zare · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well this was unexpected find. I knew it was situated at the very beginning of the Dickson's Childe Cycle but I was not expecting it to be origin story of the Malcador the Sigilite :)

Humanity is at the cross-roads, expansion to outer space is starting up and several factions start to appear, technocrats that are using AI (or is it other way around?) to provide people with all they need but it seems that ultimate result is to make a docile, compliant mass out of people; Chantry Guild that speaks in very strange terms of magic and new-age like topics, and see only future of humanity through utter destruction of existing society, and finally religious zealots that are against all the others.

In this messy situation, at the critical point in time, steps in our hero, man with what you might call sixth sense [that maybe something more in the end]. As such he attracts the attention of all parties because he is anomaly and as such he either needs to be controlled or removed from the board. But they are all in for a quite a surprise.

I truly enjoyed this book. Author's view of humanity's future is very contemporary, especially AI that is so beautifully portrayed as completely in-human-like in its reasoning but devastating and unrelentless when it comes to achieving its goals. As a matter of fact portrayal of the society in the book is very very contemporary (AI algorithms, "anomalies", marching people, oh my.....).

Same as Dune, book sees future of humanity not as homogeneous species but as a set of various "branches" that need to be given breathing room to develop and not stifle each other. Actions of our hero are very similar to actions of Emperor Leto II - after the existing civilization is brought to violent end (what you might call end of its natural life), humanity is released and allowed to spread uninhibitedly among the stars thus creating basis for Dorsai universe society.

If you enjoy W40K this book might be read like birth of Malcador, The Sigillite :) it is uncanny how story resonates even with that fictional world.

Highly recommended.

[Some Random]

Montana, February 2025.

I actually liked this one more than Dorsai!. It raises similar questions, how to understand the inherently illogical? What tools do we have to use when science is inappropriate?
This is an idea I've toyed with quite bit. Science deals with the objective, the quantifiable, which leaves many things outside of it's grip. The part where Paul converses directly with his invincible self is a little esoteric, even for me. But I wonder if this is part of what Dickson is driving at.

As far as the main conflict of the novel, that of subjective human experiences versus objective technocracy, it's one I first encountered reading Bakunin. As I recall, Bakunin argues against technocracy and other attempts to apply the scientific method to government because science can only deal with statistical averages. So while a particular method of government may be the best for everyone collectively; it, by definition cannot be the best for each human individually. Dickson seems to reach a similar conclusion to Bakunin after pursuing this train of thought, namely that anarchism is the only solution. I'm much less sold on anarchy than I was say, 5 years ago. (Oh halcyon days!)

I'm always a sucker for books exploring the power of perception set against the illusory nature of reality. And I found Paul to be a compelling character despite the fact that he really isn't much of a character at all.

This book lacked a lot of the world building of Dorsai! and probably wouldn't make any sense without reading that book first. I'm interested to see where the series goes from here. Now that we've explored intuition and empathy as distinct from logic and reason, what illogic will we examine next?

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd just finished Dorsai! and was eager to read more about the protagonist, so imagine my disappointment when I realized that Necromancer took me back several centuries to a more mundane Earth.

Normally, stories spread across immense timelines work to establish some common thread, however tenuous it may be. For example, the main character of one work may be the great, great, great uncle of a side character in another work. These connections, I think, are important in helping the reader re-orient over tremendous changes in setting.

Dickson didn't seem to consider this an issue.

The main character here is really "humanity," not any one character. There are pivotal characters who appear over the course of humanity's growth, and while they may recur, they aren't really the main characters of the story -- just helpers.

It took a while for me to adjust to this throughout the course of the book, but just as I managed to, Dickson threw a curve that took me by surprise. At first I was disgruntled by how it seemed to tear away the foundations of the entire book, but then I realized it was internally logically consistent with the world Dickson had built, no matter how much I might dislike it.

Ultimately, I feel like Necromancer is less a story than it is a guidepost, a helper to show us the way from where we are now to the world of Dorsai!. How could we possibly have gotten from our modern, earthbound society to a space-faring culture split by specialties?

Dickson's explanation is clever and rings true, even today. In some ways, it may ring truer today than it did over 65 years ago, when it was first published.

[Joel Hacker · Rating 2 out of 5]

I know its a prequel, though the second book published in the series, and I haven't read the first one but this sure seems to have a lot of first book-ism going on. Its super unclear whether the powers our one (super strong)armed protagonist Formain, our antagonist, or various other parties exhibit are semi-mystical in nature, genetic, produced by technology, or psychic...and/or which of those explanations is being actively used by parties in the book as obfuscation or which various folks actually believe. Other than a lot of really vague rambling about the Alternate Laws. Add in a lot of very vague supernatural/metaphysical talk that doesn't seem all that important to the plot nor to be serving a ton of world building purposes. There's also some messianic stuff mixed in near the end. I'm also still really confused by all the pseudo-masonic trappings of the Chantry Guild.
Its a pretty mixed bag...as short as it is I think it could've used a lot of tightening up and maybe just been a novella. I know the other Dorsai books are considerably longer, and I wonder if this wasn't just kind of a space filler. Something Dickson put together to bridge a gap in time for his publisher before the next book in the series was ready, assembled out of fragments of backstory he had kicking around in his head padded out considerably to meet length requirements and in an effort give a little more context to some of what would happen in later books.

[KitKat · Rating 5 out of 5]

For all the metamorphosing minds, for the beautiful insanes, this one’s for you.
Necromancer is a psychic corridor where revolution is disguised as a narrative. It speaks to those who are mid-transformation, those who feel the old frame of sanity cracking under pressure, who know that to become is not to ascend but to see and choose. Gordon doesn't glorify the power, if anything he dismantles it through true awakening that is at the heart of 'Necromancer'. The awakening can never come from the coercion but through clarity. The evolution must shape itself without domination and in that free reflexivity comes the beauty of true revolution.

To become the center of the pattern is all about reflection. Awareness. Locking yourself away in isolation and reflecting, acting from a place of full vision, rather than blind reaction. That’s where real autonomy is born for ourselves and for others. The destruction for me was never about nihilism. It’s the annihilation of the codified and the brittle structures society accept as “sanity.” The so-called insanity in Necromancer is liberation and the self-destruction isn’t erasure. It’s an intentional becoming, a conscious undoing of what never served.

This book isn’t for the comfortable. It’s for those mid-metamorphosis, who feel the burn of undoing and keep going. For those who understand that revolution doesn’t start outside, it begins the moment we choose to see.

[Al "Tank" · Rating 4 out of 5]

Paul is constantly escaping death while growing in knowledge.

Okay, it's an apocalyptic novel (without the mass death of humanity). Several major "movements" of people vie for the control of Earth's huge population. Many wallow in comfort without working and follow the wishes of the technology group. Machines do most of the work and manage to eke out a minimum amount of food to keep people alive and complacent. Then there's a group of "necromancers" who believe in "Alternate Laws", a mysterious way of doing the impossible. Their motto is "destruct". Caught between them, Paul must adapt to survive. Add to that, some other groups and you have a recipe for chaos and perhaps the end of civilization.

I was caught up in Paul's struggle, although a bit perplexed about what was going on. Some of the explanations are a bit overdone (and confusing), but I ignored the baffle-gab and struggled through to the end and the final face-off (and explanation of what was happening).

[Stuart Dean · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book from early in the Dorsai! universe. Paul is a mining engineer in a future where the government is run by a computer. He is in an accident which ends his career and goes to Chicago and joins an Aleister Crowley type cult that promises to teach him how to clap. They want to destroy the current system through inaction and free mankind from their computer overlords. They send him on missions that nearly get him killed and he learns that he has superpowers.

There is a lot of psychology babble mixed in with action and intrigue, and the underlying theme of man controlling his own destiny is buried within. In the end it really goes off the rails. And Paul learns how to clap. It's an interesting 1960s scientifiction story but all the psychological stuff makes for a problematic read.

[Lucas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinante libro de Ciencia Ficción que juega con la idea de que lo sobrenatural sea la salvación de la humanidad en un mundo controlado por máquinas.
Me ha encantado la cantidad de ideas filosóficas que maneja, las cuales tienen la profundidad suficiente para que pese a ser un libro escrito en los 60, sigan siendo relevantes (casi aun más) hoy en día.
La única pega que le pongo es que pese a tener pasajes casi psicodélicos súper interesantes, y algun momentito chulo de ciencia ficción sesentera, la mayoría del libro está constituida por diálogos existencialistas entre personajes. Como ya decía, me encanta todo el fondo filosófico que tiene, pero me hubiese gustado verlo aplicado a la historia, en vez de explicado a través de los razonamientos de los personajes; lo cual, se hace un poco bola.
Aún así, me ha gustado mucho.
3 estrellas y media.

[Amanda · Rating 2 out of 5]

I came across a hardcover version from 1962 and thought the cover art was fantastic. Unfortunately, the very stylized cover of a man at the bottom of a mineshaft was pretty far removed from the actual book which skewed much more metaphysical. Although the version I got is very cool, the more recent ones do a much better job of representing the overall vibe of the book. It was a very short book, but I never formed a strong bond with the characters and the plot just wasn't that interesting so it was kind of a slog to get through. The book's only female character was also so peripheral that I honestly wish she wasn't in it at all. We never even find out what power she may have had.