The Chalk Giants

by Keith Roberts, Peter Andrew Jones (Illustrator)

One of the author's major works of science fiction, created by assembling a striking sequence of novelettes into a coherent whole. An impressive work second only, perhaps, to "Pavane." It is the eve of twentieth-century man's final conflict. But Stan Potts is ready for Armageddon In his auto, specially equipped with his own unique survival kit, he heads for Corfe Castle, the Purbecks and the girl of his dreams. It is to be an eventful journey This is both the story of one lonely man and a compulsively readable account of a civilisation's catastrophe. Across Potts' gaze pass the ravaged survivors; the mutant genius born outside his time; the villagers of the new stone age with their credulous, sexually complex lives; the iron age horsemen; the terror of the sea-borne marauders Until finally, after the pillage, the cruelty of superstition, the fragility of love and its horrific consequences, the story leaps from the Dark Ages into a new awareness.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Fantasy, Novels, Science Fiction Fantasy

267 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1974

About the author

Used These Alternate Names: Alistair Bevan , John Kingston , David Stringer

Keith John Kingston Roberts was a British science fiction author. He began publishing with two stories in the September 1964 issue of Science Fantasy magazine, "Anita" (the first of a series of stories featuring a teenage modern witch and her eccentric granny) and "Escapism.

Several of his early stories were written using the pseudonym Alistair Bevan. His second novel, Pavane, which is really a collection of linked stories, may be his most famous work: an alternate history novel in which the Roman Catholic Church takes control of England following the assassination of Queen Elizabeth I.

Roberts wrote numerous novels and short stories, and also worked as an illustrator. His artistic contributions include covers and interior artwork for New Worlds and Science Fantasy, later renamed Impulse. He also edited the last few issues of Impulse although the nominal editor was Harry Harrison.

In later life, Roberts lived in Salisbury. He was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1990, and died of its complications in October 2000. Obituaries recalled him as a talented but personally 'difficult' author, with a history of disputes with publishers, editors and colleagues.

Reviews

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

Keith Roberts’ The Chalk Giants is not so much a novel, but a collection of linked novellas. This linkage, in the edition I read, is slight, involving a returning fertility goddess. How these links are harmonized, is a bit muddy. On one hand, it may be better to take the stories as stand alone efforts, but what you lose with that approach is Roberts’ sense of History as a Wheel of Time, endlessly repeating itself (even with the nuclear possibility). And if you take a step back, you will see the rise and fall of religions, kingdoms, and peoples. It’s not a pretty sight, as death and cruelty are commonplace. There’s also a fair amount of sex, including rapes, and strong hints of incest. However, such outrages are never done in a gratuitous way, but are a part of Roberts’ often brutal but realistic fictional landscape. Where the elevation comes, is in Roberts’ use of language, which is often darkly poetic. You will find in these stories fully developed characters, which includes abusive priests, heroes, a philosopher king, a mad king, a calculating court fool, and a returning female figure that can be both kind and cruel. The range of the stories is impressive, opening with the Post-Apocalyptic “Monkey, Pru, and Sal”, followed by the Gilgamesh-like (“God House” and “The Beautiful One”), the Norse (“Rand, Rat, and the Dancing Man”), and closing with the very Lear-like “Usk the Jokeman.” The Chalk Gods definitely follows an historic arc that is both tragic and beautiful. And the beauty is found in the characters – for whatever their shortcomings, they are never less than human. Roberts is a writer I want to read more of.

One note on editions: My edition omits a framing story (and I believe another story as well), involving a man dreaming of a coming nuclear apocalypse. So beware the 1973 Berkley Putnam edition. I thought about rating this book 4 stars because of this, but the quality of what I did read was so high, than anything less than 5 stars seemed wrong.

[John Tetteroo · Rating 1 out of 5]

Pfft... Dit boek struikelt van mystiekerigheid over zijn eigen voeten. Een aantal korte verhalen die verbonden worden door een mysterieuze reiziger die zich voorbereidt op een wereld na de ineenstorting, maar vooral in de file zit en dan in een fles watert. Het is hoogdravend, pretentieus en ridicuul tegelijkertijd.

Onderwerpen als verkrachting en mogelijke incest met een pseudo religieus spiritueel tintje komen regelmatig terug en lijken verbonden te worden door een terugkerend thema maar voelen achteraf als los zand. Ik vond het verschrikkelijk moeilijk om te lezen en moest de neiging tot doorbladeren voortdurend bedwingen. Dit is het soort psycho-mystieke crap wat we in de 70er jaren veelal als SF gevoerd kregen. Het meest verdienstelijk is de cover en die heeft geen donder met de inhoud uit te staan. Deze kun je missen.

[Patrice · Rating 3 out of 5]

SPOILERS: Well, I have to say that I read Monkey and Pru and Sal decades ago ( I just guessed at the date) and the story haunted and stuck with me forever after. I tracked it down fairly recently and when I discovered it was part of a novel I was thrilled. I had so many unanswered questions, like: Who put Monkey in the truck and why? Who were Pru and Sal? What exactly was wrong with Monkey?
Anyway, I had high hopes that the novel would weave the answers to these questions into the narrative. I did have the edition with the framing story. I had no problem with the changing narratives and the time jumps, and I understand (at least I think I do) that we have the ancient civilization, the folks who carved the original naked guy on the hill, repeating itself into the far future, with Stan Potts floating in and out between chapters and acting weird—but it never did. For a while I thought creepy Stan and his huge truck full of food and other supplies might have been the Monkey prototype but no link was ever established. So one of my favorite short stories of all time is just sitting in the book like a large goose egg. It could have been left out entirely.
I did get a little weary of the same storyline repeated over and over. The goddess who seems lovey-dovey then turns murderous. Her female love interest. The rapey corn god.
But who was Monkey?

[Alex Sarll]

A story cycle covering the apocalypse and after, dominated (like Roberts' masterpiece Pavane) by the ancient, English omphalos of Corfe Castle. Heady and mystical though it is, for me it's not quite the equal of that book (or indeed Kiteworld). There's a lot to admire in Roberts' portrayal of the double-edged sword of lust et cetera, and its impact on the end of our history and the beginning of what comes after, but the recurrence of certain details feels a little more like authorial obsession than evidence of any eternal cycle.
(I didn't actually read it in this rather lurid paperback, but in an omnibus with two others I've read before, printed by SF Gateway - a Gollancz project with the commendable aim of getting some of the huge amount of SF classics out there back into e-'print' at least)

[Peter Dunn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have really been getting into Roberts lately with his fascination for pre or post technological societies and with his hankering for elements mystical "lost" old Britain, but this book rather put me off with its constant use of rape as a plot device.

[Lucy Honeychurch · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wonderful style and transporting ideas but repeated unsettling and violent sexual fantasies about women and very young girls. Ick. DNF.

[Dfordoom · Rating 3 out of 5]

Keith Roberts is best known for Pavane, one of the masterpieces of alternate history. The Chalk Giants is a post-apocalyptic novel, but very different from the usual run of post-apocalyptic books. There are parallel narratives that loop back on themselves. Much of the book deals with a society that is once more in the grip of ritual and myth, and a belief in magic. Roberts deals with these subjects particularly well, and also with the interactions between myth, magic, power and sex. It’s a rather brutal book – Roberts had a rather pessimistic view of human history. He reminds me just a little of Henry Treece in his skill in conveying the feel of society dominated by belief in magic and the supernatural. The Chalk Giants isn’t as good as Pavane, but it’s still pretty good. It’s a book that isn’t quite fantasy and isn’t quite science fiction either. Definitely worth reading.

[Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

After a nuclear war, it seems that England reverts to a state of barbarism, with warring medieval-style kingdoms and a pagan religion; the later parts reminded me of "Game of Thrones", though this was written many years earlier. This is more a series of linked stories than a novel, and although some of the individual stories are good, they did not really hang together well in my opinion.

[Pete · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is remarkable book of linked stories concerning a postapocalyptic Britain. In this edition, the first two stories concern a group of people sheltering from an imminent nuclear war and invasion of Britain. There are five main characters in these two stories. Potts is the main focus of the first story, and he features in each of the short linking sections between stories. The others are Martine (Pott's obsession), Maggie (a lesbian attracted to Martine), Richard (an artist and friend of Maggie), and Martin (a playboy sleeping with Martine). This group shelters in an abandoned farmhouse as war approaches. With the anxiety of the coming war and inherent tensions among the group, there is bound to be conflict, and the group fragments at the end of the first story. The second story also deals with most of these characters, but during and immediately after the war. The book then really shifts gears. The third story is the closest to the norm for a postapocalyptic tale, featuring a group of mutants that wander England. The final four stories, the real meat of the book, details a postapocalyptic Britain dominated by many small kingdoms, religious cults, and brutal savagery. The stories read more like historical fantasy than science fiction. Robert E. Howard's Conan would have found this imagined future/past a familiar place. However, Keith Roberts' focus in these stories is not adventure, but a meticulous examination of how cults, kingdoms, and myths could arise. The closest comparison that I can make for these final stories are the works of Tanith Lee. However, with Lee, the fantasy elements were overt. With Roberts, the fantasy elements are present but only because the characters actually believe in gods and monsters. This book is frequently quite beautiful, but I admit that it can be slow going. Some editions actually cut the first two stories and linking sections, and I can understand this editorial decision because the links between the present and the future/past are tenuous. However, it does presage how quickly people can descend to chaos and conflict, and the stories are a good starting point for the wheel of time framework of the book.

[Count of the Saxon Shore · Rating 4 out of 5]

The 'modern' chapters add nothing of any real worth or significance. The substance of the work is the future-past world that Roberts creates in a much altered post-armageddon Albion. No shells of ruined cities here - the detritus of 20th century society, and the manner of its downfall is no more than hint and suggestion. The odd patch of tarmac, a reoccupied Corfe Castle, the enduring desolation of nuclear blast sites that have become the stuff of legend.

I can't help but wish that Keith Roberts had progressed to have a more productive publishing career as he was stylistically really very good, and a decent trilogy would have placed him in the top tier of fantasy writers anywhere.

The central theme of the work is the wheel of time. The society Roberts creates moves from one with Iron Age characteristics, through Migration Period to something very akin to the 11th century, inviting the assumption that our modern world would eventually recreate itself.

[Sean Rickard]

Be aware that if you get hold of a copy of the American version of The Chalk Giants published in the 1970's, Berkley [pb] and Putnam [hb], then you are not getting the full story. I have the Berlkey paperback edition here as well as a copy of the british Panther paperback with the bad taste cover and a couple of Hutchinson hardback copies. The Berkley copy starts at chapter 3, 'Monkey and Pru and Sal' and besides missing the first 2 chapters, is also missing the 1-2 page italicised sections prefacing each of the 7 chapters as well as a couple of italicised pages that comes after 'Usk the Jokeman', and in short, the entire framing story has been removed from the American copies so that the volume is presented like a collection of 5 short stories.

[Daniel Máscolo · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ininteligible bodrio.

[Alien]

(alte Wertung: nicht fertiggelesen)

[Benjamin · Rating 1 out of 5]

DO NOT GET THIS BOOK! I don't often hate a book, but this qualified. Could not finish it. [update: I finally finished it. Still don't like it, but it isn't hanging over me any more.]

[Adam Dewitt · Rating 2 out of 5]

It has good stories, but it is terribly difficult to read. I would say the reading difficulty would be comparable to opening 1984 about halfway through and trying to understand what is going on.

[Erik Graff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Linked post-apocalyptic stories by a better-than-average English science fiction writer.