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Breakout #3
The Wildings of Westron
1st edition paperback, vg
- GenresScience Fiction
189 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published June 21, 1977
1 person is currently reading
24 people want to read
About the author
David J. Lake
20 books7 followersDavid Lake was educated in both India and England, then taught English in various countries, including Vietnam and Thailand; since 1967 he has been at the University of Queensland, Brisbane. He began creative writing as a poet about 1970.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 30, 2021
I enjoyed this rather too short book (at 188 pages) by David J. Lake, published in 1977. It's the sequel to Lake's "The Right Hand of Dextra," and on the back it says it is a follow-up book, but it "stands on its own." I don't think so. I think you need to read the first book and be introduced to the Planet Dextra.
Humans have settled Dextra and have learned that the native purple plant life is inedible for them and the Terran animals they have brought with them. And the green Earthly plants are inedible for native Dextrans. So we have the conflict between the green and the purple. At the end of the first book, a stalemate seems to have been reached in which humans have their area of the planet which they have terraformed and the Dextrans have kept their own areas. In the "Wildings" book, after a number of centuries, the conflict is going to break out again. It looks like one side or the other will have to be exterminated.
David J. Lake (1929-2016) was an Australian literary critic, poet, and science fiction author. Unfortunately, his SF output is rather small and, as I enjoy his writing, I wish he could have written more novels and short stories. At least, there are several books of his I have not read and I will look for them. I have to add that this book reminded me of Philip J. Farmer's "Dare" and it's interesting to compare that book to Lake's two books about Dextra.
Humans have settled Dextra and have learned that the native purple plant life is inedible for them and the Terran animals they have brought with them. And the green Earthly plants are inedible for native Dextrans. So we have the conflict between the green and the purple. At the end of the first book, a stalemate seems to have been reached in which humans have their area of the planet which they have terraformed and the Dextrans have kept their own areas. In the "Wildings" book, after a number of centuries, the conflict is going to break out again. It looks like one side or the other will have to be exterminated.
David J. Lake (1929-2016) was an Australian literary critic, poet, and science fiction author. Unfortunately, his SF output is rather small and, as I enjoy his writing, I wish he could have written more novels and short stories. At least, there are several books of his I have not read and I will look for them. I have to add that this book reminded me of Philip J. Farmer's "Dare" and it's interesting to compare that book to Lake's two books about Dextra.
March 13, 2014
Yeah, if you claim to base your novel on biological science and then make a huge deal about hymens and virginity, I have a hard time suspending my disbelief. If you don't take it seriously, it's a silly, fun read. Luckily, it's almost impossible to take it seriously.
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November 21, 2011Blurbs are perilous things. Too often they emphasize conflicts to the point that they bear no resemblance to the content.
I understand that it's very difficult to convey the complex shadings and flavor of a book of more than 100 pages in a paragraph or two. But if I had not already read the first book in this series (The Right Hand of Dextra), or other works by Lake, I would have put this one down unread after I'd read the blurb.
I remember that The Right Hand of Dextra ended in a truce. I don't remember thinking that this truce couldn't grow up to be a true peace, perhaps with trading relations between the various peoples (after all, though they can't trade foodstuffs, they must both need cloth, for tarps if nothing else).
I'll reread this one carefully. What I remember is that the attitudes of the immigrants from Earth are presented as implacably hostile and miserly (toward themselves, each other, and other creatures), and that the attitudes of the native Dextran peoples are represented as better. But I don't remember the details.
One minor note: Lake seems to have the soul, not so much of an artist, as of an interior decorator. His loving descriptions of villa and other interiors are perhaps fun (as when one looks around the room in a painting to see what the cat is up to), but they're useful mostly as decoration and stage-setting. Which is fine with ME, because I have the soul of a stage decorator, and enjoy that sort of thing. But it's a little distracting sometimes.
This book is even more reminiscent of Nazi propaganda than most of Lake's work. It's not just 'dyed in the wool' racism (all human misbehavior is attributed almost solely to an imputedly universal 'darkness of the flesh' in humans, which cannot be eliminated by any educational reforms). The only possible solution (in this version) is that the humans must either stop being human--or be ruthlessly slaughtered. How this is any different from the behavior of the humans in the book is not explained--indeed, the subject seems to be deliberately avoided.
Indeed, the behavior of the Wildings is in many ways worse than that of the humans--because few of the humans favor complete annihilation of their 'enemies' or the 'speaking animals' (in itself a ridiculous concept, yet too common a belief in many cosmologies and zoologies).
Furthermore, I have little faith in the benevolence of the 'Mothers'. Any creature that is so difficult to communicate with that one has to be drugged (generally) to manage must necessarily be ambiguous. I don't know what they intend: but there is (for one thing) the question of what happens to NONhuman earthlife, which often CAN'T give informed consent to any transformation.
I note, in addition, a strong prejudice against polygamy per se (all of the examples in the story are of polygyny, and mostly of female concubinage). The one female in the story who willingly accepts her role as a junior wife is presented as an unreachable pervert.
And speaking of 'perversions' Lake's books generally are somewhat slyly homophobic. Homoerotic situations are mentioned only in passing: but they are dismissed contemptuously on the few occasions they're even hinted at.
One other thing--Lake's worlds seem to have little or no weather. Specifically, there seems to be almost no rain. People camp outdoors with no fear that they'll be flooded out. So where DOES the water come from?
This also has bearing on the nudism. I have no objection to nudism per se: but there must be SOME conditions that require at least a cloak--and maybe a cushion or two to sit on or lie on. Don't these people have ANY luggage?
I understand that it's very difficult to convey the complex shadings and flavor of a book of more than 100 pages in a paragraph or two. But if I had not already read the first book in this series (The Right Hand of Dextra), or other works by Lake, I would have put this one down unread after I'd read the blurb.
I remember that The Right Hand of Dextra ended in a truce. I don't remember thinking that this truce couldn't grow up to be a true peace, perhaps with trading relations between the various peoples (after all, though they can't trade foodstuffs, they must both need cloth, for tarps if nothing else).
I'll reread this one carefully. What I remember is that the attitudes of the immigrants from Earth are presented as implacably hostile and miserly (toward themselves, each other, and other creatures), and that the attitudes of the native Dextran peoples are represented as better. But I don't remember the details.
One minor note: Lake seems to have the soul, not so much of an artist, as of an interior decorator. His loving descriptions of villa and other interiors are perhaps fun (as when one looks around the room in a painting to see what the cat is up to), but they're useful mostly as decoration and stage-setting. Which is fine with ME, because I have the soul of a stage decorator, and enjoy that sort of thing. But it's a little distracting sometimes.
This book is even more reminiscent of Nazi propaganda than most of Lake's work. It's not just 'dyed in the wool' racism (all human misbehavior is attributed almost solely to an imputedly universal 'darkness of the flesh' in humans, which cannot be eliminated by any educational reforms). The only possible solution (in this version) is that the humans must either stop being human--or be ruthlessly slaughtered. How this is any different from the behavior of the humans in the book is not explained--indeed, the subject seems to be deliberately avoided.
Indeed, the behavior of the Wildings is in many ways worse than that of the humans--because few of the humans favor complete annihilation of their 'enemies' or the 'speaking animals' (in itself a ridiculous concept, yet too common a belief in many cosmologies and zoologies).
Furthermore, I have little faith in the benevolence of the 'Mothers'. Any creature that is so difficult to communicate with that one has to be drugged (generally) to manage must necessarily be ambiguous. I don't know what they intend: but there is (for one thing) the question of what happens to NONhuman earthlife, which often CAN'T give informed consent to any transformation.
I note, in addition, a strong prejudice against polygamy per se (all of the examples in the story are of polygyny, and mostly of female concubinage). The one female in the story who willingly accepts her role as a junior wife is presented as an unreachable pervert.
And speaking of 'perversions' Lake's books generally are somewhat slyly homophobic. Homoerotic situations are mentioned only in passing: but they are dismissed contemptuously on the few occasions they're even hinted at.
One other thing--Lake's worlds seem to have little or no weather. Specifically, there seems to be almost no rain. People camp outdoors with no fear that they'll be flooded out. So where DOES the water come from?
This also has bearing on the nudism. I have no objection to nudism per se: but there must be SOME conditions that require at least a cloak--and maybe a cushion or two to sit on or lie on. Don't these people have ANY luggage?
September 1, 2023
Hmmmm.
I have lost respect for myself as a younger reader. I showed an appalling lack of discernment as to what constitutes good writing. Oh well, what can be expected of a twelve year old? I loved this book when I was twelve. Now I look at it and am like...why?
Don't get me wrong. The world is very interesting. I like the nymphs and how he actually explored alternative ways of experiencing sexuality. I love the mothers and the idea of switching around back and forth to different species. It's an interesting idea.
But the characters! The female characters! "Oh Will, it's so hard to be just a female." "Oh, Darling I know. But sit at home and wait for me." "I bow my head in submission."
Gah.
The society and the rules make absolutely no sense. So Will is going to make a new society where all species live in peace and prosperity and utopia. But the golden nymphs sniff at the green nymphs and call them 'mere greenies' why? I mean you can just plop them into a mother and out they come as gold ones, so there's no inherent difference on the inside, just the outside, so what does it matter? Why are there different social values and hierarchies established when one can move back and forth through those hierarchies just by spending a couple of hours inside a plant? That doesn't make sense.
It also doesn't make sense that it took this long for the mothers to act, they don't have a problem with killing itself, since they made an entire race of carnivores, and went off on this war to annihilate all the evil people who believe in slavery and the Bible, so why didn't they do that earlier. I mean they have telepathic control over every member of the kinfolk on the world, why didn't they just poison everyone? It would have worked out much faster and without as much loss of life on the kinfolk side.
It was just really unbelievable. I probably wouldn't give it to a 12 year old to read, there's a ton of sex in it. But, then again, I read it as a 12 year old and somehow managed to come away from it without really remembering the sex...or the wiccanism...or the appalling lack of real characters, or plot, so it couldn't have been all that bad, but I definitely wouldn't qualify it as good.
I have lost respect for myself as a younger reader. I showed an appalling lack of discernment as to what constitutes good writing. Oh well, what can be expected of a twelve year old? I loved this book when I was twelve. Now I look at it and am like...why?
Don't get me wrong. The world is very interesting. I like the nymphs and how he actually explored alternative ways of experiencing sexuality. I love the mothers and the idea of switching around back and forth to different species. It's an interesting idea.
But the characters! The female characters! "Oh Will, it's so hard to be just a female." "Oh, Darling I know. But sit at home and wait for me." "I bow my head in submission."
Gah.
The society and the rules make absolutely no sense. So Will is going to make a new society where all species live in peace and prosperity and utopia. But the golden nymphs sniff at the green nymphs and call them 'mere greenies' why? I mean you can just plop them into a mother and out they come as gold ones, so there's no inherent difference on the inside, just the outside, so what does it matter? Why are there different social values and hierarchies established when one can move back and forth through those hierarchies just by spending a couple of hours inside a plant? That doesn't make sense.
It also doesn't make sense that it took this long for the mothers to act, they don't have a problem with killing itself, since they made an entire race of carnivores, and went off on this war to annihilate all the evil people who believe in slavery and the Bible, so why didn't they do that earlier. I mean they have telepathic control over every member of the kinfolk on the world, why didn't they just poison everyone? It would have worked out much faster and without as much loss of life on the kinfolk side.
It was just really unbelievable. I probably wouldn't give it to a 12 year old to read, there's a ton of sex in it. But, then again, I read it as a 12 year old and somehow managed to come away from it without really remembering the sex...or the wiccanism...or the appalling lack of real characters, or plot, so it couldn't have been all that bad, but I definitely wouldn't qualify it as good.
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