What do you think?
Rate this book
Helliconia #3
Helliconia Winter
The third and final book in the epic Helliconia trilogy.
The centuries-long winter of the Great Year on Helliconia is upon us, and the Oligarch is taking harsh measures to ensure the survival of the people of the bleak Northern continent of Sibornal. Behind the battle with which the novel opens lies an act of unparalleled treachery. But the plague is coming on the wings of winter and the Oligarch's will is set against it - and against the phagors, humanity's ancient enemies, who carry the plague with them.
The centuries-long winter of the Great Year on Helliconia is upon us, and the Oligarch is taking harsh measures to ensure the survival of the people of the bleak Northern continent of Sibornal. Behind the battle with which the novel opens lies an act of unparalleled treachery. But the plague is coming on the wings of winter and the Oligarch's will is set against it - and against the phagors, humanity's ancient enemies, who carry the plague with them.
400 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1985
36 people are currently reading
1525 people want to read
About the author
Brian W. Aldiss
831 books669 followersPseudonyms: Jael Cracken, Peter Pica, John Runciman, C.C. Shackleton, Arch Mendicant, & "Doc" Peristyle.
Brian Wilson Aldiss was one of the most important voices in science fiction writing today. He wrote his first novel while working as a bookseller in Oxford. Shortly afterwards he wrote his first work of science fiction and soon gained international recognition. Adored for his innovative literary techniques, evocative plots and irresistible characters, he became a Grand Master of Science Fiction in 1999.
Brian Aldiss died on August 19, 2017, just after celebrating his 92nd birthday with his family and closest friends.
Brian W. Aldiss Group on Good Reads
Brian Wilson Aldiss was one of the most important voices in science fiction writing today. He wrote his first novel while working as a bookseller in Oxford. Shortly afterwards he wrote his first work of science fiction and soon gained international recognition. Adored for his innovative literary techniques, evocative plots and irresistible characters, he became a Grand Master of Science Fiction in 1999.
Brian Aldiss died on August 19, 2017, just after celebrating his 92nd birthday with his family and closest friends.
Brian W. Aldiss Group on Good Reads
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 94 reviews
Read
August 12, 2022
The rousing conclusion. For me personally, a sense of elation and accomplishment having read all three books of this epic. The combined SF Masterworks edition clocks in at 1,300 pages. Unforgettable.
Helliconia Winter is the third volume in monumental Heliconia by British author Brian Aldiss who most definitely wanted his trilogy to be read in order: first Helliconia Spring, then Helliconia Summer, and finally Helliconia Winter.
Following the spirit of the author's wishes, I'll assume readers are familiar with the first two volumes and thus take an immediate shift to highlighting several of the many unique features of Helliconia Winter, the story picking up during the time when the planet of Helliconia is on the cusp of entering its extreme winter phase - 300 years of minimal sunlight and temperatures plunging to well below zero degrees.
Action Adventure - At the center of the novel, we have a hero's journey - Luterin Shokerandit, a young man, son of a great political and spiritual leader, assuming the role of army lieutenant leading his men into battle against the forces of barbarism. But then the unexpected, forcing Luterin to flee. Brian Aldiss takes this opportunity to describe the various forms of fauna and flora, peoples and customs as Luterin walks, rides, sleds and sails across lands and seas. Fortunately, Luterin has travel companions, most notably beautiful, dark haired Toress Lahl, a young woman Luterin captured following a victory on the battlefield.
The Fat Death - Plague is a necessary part of life as the planet moves away from huge sun Frayr and temperatures plummet - necessary in the sense that for humans to survive winter, they must be transformed by "the Fat Death" wherein each person gains in body mass and becomes shorter, thicker. The downside: less than half the human population survive the Fat Death - harsh, certainly, but that's the way it is.
Here's a snip of Luterin Shokerandit metamorphosis via the Fat Death: "After a rest, he stood up and felt his filthy body. He was changed. He had survived the Fat Death and was changed. The painful contortions to which he had been subject had served to compress his spine; he was now, he estimated, three or four inches shorter than he had been. His perverted appetite had caused him to put on flesh. . . . His limbs were thicker. He gazed down at his barrel chest in disbelief. He was now a smaller, rounder, more thickset person."
Art and Theater - Ah, theaters exist on Helliconia! In a small medieval-like city: "To one side of the street stood a small theatre where extraordinary plays were produced, plays which could not fill the theatres in the center of town: plays trafficking in magic and science, fantasies dealing with possible and impossible things (for both sorts were much alike), tragedies dealing with broken teacups, comedies dealing with wholesale slaughter. Also satires. Irony and satire were things the authorities could neither understand nor abide. So the theatre was often closed."
This bit of detail relating to theater is critically important, underscoring the common humanity between men and women on Helliconia and on Earth. I love that part where irony and satire are things people in power will never understand or tolerate - so much like cultural politics here on Earth.
These two actors could be performing on the stage of a small theater on Helliconia. No wonder those of us on Earth, both readers of the novel and the Earthlings in the novel, can identify so readily with women and men from distant Helliconia.
Stone Sculpture - Sailing near a mountainous shore, Luterin and the others on board catch sight of a colossal statue carved from the side of a mountain: over 1,000 yards high, that is, ten times as tall as a football field is long, a gigantic statue of a man, arms upraised, knees slightly bent, a cap or wings flowing back from his broad shoulders, suggesting he is about to take flight. "The statue was stylized, cut with curious whorls as if to confer an aerodynamic shape. The face was sharp and eaglelike, yet not entirely inhuman." When someone asks the captain what the statue symbolizes, he replies, "He represents nothing. He is himself. He's the Hero."
Again, the arts to the rescue to convey to readers that Helliconian civilization might not have our advanced technology but the population takes its ability to express and create seriously. One can only marvel at how many years and how much effort and creative energy went into sculpting such a gigantic figure out of rock.
Smokin' the Peace Pipe - There's no mention of recreational drugs in the first two volumes as Helliconians stick to drinking their own version of beer and wine. A certain drug, occhara, makes its appearance in Helliconia Winter: the effects are much like marijuana. On Helliconia, occhara is entirely legal.
Avernus Anarchy - "After being ruled by the head, men and women on Avernus turn into savages ruled by their guts." Sorry to say, after many centuries orbiting Helliconia in the Avernus, at a certain point, all those test tube men and women get fed up with the strict rules put forth by their elders. Rebellion! The androids take over the technical running of the ship while human activity begins to resemble those boys in Lord of the Flies. Brian Aldiss chronicles the ship's devolution in all its sordid detail.
Meanwhile, Back on Earth -- In this final volume, we're given the backstory regarding the ways in which those advanced futuristic civilizations on Earth began exploring other lifeless planets. But then New Earth was discovered, a planet with its own organic lifeforms. Colonies from Earth were sent to New Earth. Fascinating. But with the discovery of Helliconia, every single person on Earth became enthralled with their distant human cousins.
New Humans - One of the more intriguing parts of Helliconia Winter is the change in human nature in the centuries following nuclear devastation - empathy and an enhancement in brain chemistry and neural networks. And what do humans on Earth do, now that they are empowered with their new found capacity for empathy? Help those on Helliconia!
Helliconia Winter is a fitting conclusion to the British author's masterful worldbuilding.
British author Brian Aldiss, 1925-2017
November 8, 2024
This was the shortest book in the magnificent Helliconia series by Aldiss. It is very pessimistic about human nature - the visit to the planet Armageddon in particular was depressing - but it is done with such a fantastic, sweeping vision. I loved how Aldiss opposes the lives of the humans going to hell on Aventus, coming back from nuclear holocaust on Earth, and continuing its eternal back and forth on Helliconia itself. It was a brilliant idea to have the Wheel under the mountain - and that is what really wins in this book, the imagination here rivals that of Silverberg's Majipoor. Fabulous sci-fi.
The only reservation I have is the pseudo-babble around Gaia, but I think the book was still a 5* read.
The only reservation I have is the pseudo-babble around Gaia, but I think the book was still a 5* read.
December 29, 2019
So relieved to have finally finished this trilogy....
December 27, 2014
I loved this series.
Aldiss achieved an incredible feat of world-building. Helliconia is detailed and intricate and rich, the ecosystem finely tuned to the specific quirks of the binary star system he imagined. The necrogenic animals, the cycles across the Great and Small Years, the subhuman races and their quirks all blew my mind. The Bone Fever and Fat Death and their use for adapting Helliconia's humans to the changing seasons were just brilliant. The subplot dealing with background developments on Earth was just as well done.
Even though each book dealt with an entirely different set of characters, it was never difficult to empathise and become involved in their struggles. The characters were realistic and human, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. The interactions between man and woman across the books (Shay Tal and Aoz Roon, MyrdemInggala and JandolAnganol, Luterin and Toress Lahl) mimicked the themes and progression of each phase of Helliconia so well that I just stand amazed.
This is a world that has not left me since I read Helliconia Spring. It is an immense tapestry of story and world, threads from centuries ago resurfacing for some small relevance in a new setting created by the position of a planet relative to two suns. It is simply genius.
Aldiss achieved an incredible feat of world-building. Helliconia is detailed and intricate and rich, the ecosystem finely tuned to the specific quirks of the binary star system he imagined. The necrogenic animals, the cycles across the Great and Small Years, the subhuman races and their quirks all blew my mind. The Bone Fever and Fat Death and their use for adapting Helliconia's humans to the changing seasons were just brilliant. The subplot dealing with background developments on Earth was just as well done.
Even though each book dealt with an entirely different set of characters, it was never difficult to empathise and become involved in their struggles. The characters were realistic and human, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. The interactions between man and woman across the books (Shay Tal and Aoz Roon, MyrdemInggala and JandolAnganol, Luterin and Toress Lahl) mimicked the themes and progression of each phase of Helliconia so well that I just stand amazed.
This is a world that has not left me since I read Helliconia Spring. It is an immense tapestry of story and world, threads from centuries ago resurfacing for some small relevance in a new setting created by the position of a planet relative to two suns. It is simply genius.
March 4, 2020
This final book of the trilogy plays out similar to the first book, but in reverse order. The circumstances of the climate change are well known and understood by this point so this book focuses on a single character over about 20 to 30 years of his life. Obviously over such a short period of time little changes in the overall climate. Instead, the prejudices and persecution of the common people by the secular and religious leadership take center stage in this book.
I am giving this trilogy a 4 star rating overall as there is some very detailed and complex world building. The appendices detail a lot of the science behind Helliconia and it's obvious the author did a lot of research.
If you have read, and liked, the first book, then it's well worth continuing the journey until the end.
I am giving this trilogy a 4 star rating overall as there is some very detailed and complex world building. The appendices detail a lot of the science behind Helliconia and it's obvious the author did a lot of research.
If you have read, and liked, the first book, then it's well worth continuing the journey until the end.
July 8, 2013
This probably ought to be called "Autumn" rather than "Winter" as it mostly concerns the Sibornalese civilisation's preparations for the forthcoming "Weyr"-winter, rather than life in the depths of the planets centuries long "mini ice-age". Technology hasn't quite advanced as far as one would hope either; this is a few centuries after Summer and I'd have thought they'd have got as far as steam engines (there is a very brief mention of some primitive railways) if not electricity, but they aren't quite there and will obviously be knocked back again by the deteriorating conditions. Given that this is around 500 years after "Summer" I'd have thought they'd have got as far as the 19th Century but they seem to be stuck in around the 17th - there has also not been a religious reformation and God the Azoiaxic still reigns supreme.
The first half of this is another great adventure yarn - we have the battle of Isturiacha, the retreat and then the dash along the coast before the challenges of the journey up to Kharnabar. We also have the grotesque challenges of the Fat Death and the tyranny of the Oligarch. This is all enjoyable and a lot less bogged down with politics than Summer. However, the second half is dominated by asides covering deteriorating conditions on the Avernus and indeed a lot of future history, and philosophy, on Earth itself.
I found the Earth stuff in particular getting in the way of the main story. It also dates the book badly - lots of 1980s obsessions with nuclear war and Gaia. A similar phase now may include a new incarnation of Gaia but would focus more on an environmental catastrophe.
A highlight of the book is the description of the Great Wheel itself. This is mentioned in the other books but the claustrophobic and isolating experience of Luterin's time in it is quite profound. But, like him, I do wonder how the thing could be made and started (I think the river actually does everything and the prisoners' contribution is negligble - otherwise they'd never had got it started and would be at risk of it stopping permanently if a plague or anything else wiped out a large enough proportion of them. "Pull you biwackers!").
An enjoyable conclusion to the series and better than "Summer" though the very nature of Helliconia's Great Year means the end is with a sombre mood as civilisation girds its loins for the impending centuries of cold, even while surrounded by summery murals and in snow covered fields called "the vinyard".
I still think it should be called Autumn. And I think the map is wrong - with two suns I'd expect the planet to have two sets of tropics and polar circles - unless the orbit of Batalyx around Freyr corresponds to Helliconia's ecliptic around Batalyx (and that there are eclipses suggests it doesn't). Unless my understanding of celestial mechanics is faulty (which it may be).
There is scope for another "Winter" book I think, perhaps set in Hespagorat (which has a Scandinavian feel in Summer) as Freyr never sets but also never gives much warmth.
The first half of this is another great adventure yarn - we have the battle of Isturiacha, the retreat and then the dash along the coast before the challenges of the journey up to Kharnabar. We also have the grotesque challenges of the Fat Death and the tyranny of the Oligarch. This is all enjoyable and a lot less bogged down with politics than Summer. However, the second half is dominated by asides covering deteriorating conditions on the Avernus and indeed a lot of future history, and philosophy, on Earth itself.
I found the Earth stuff in particular getting in the way of the main story. It also dates the book badly - lots of 1980s obsessions with nuclear war and Gaia. A similar phase now may include a new incarnation of Gaia but would focus more on an environmental catastrophe.
A highlight of the book is the description of the Great Wheel itself. This is mentioned in the other books but the claustrophobic and isolating experience of Luterin's time in it is quite profound. But, like him, I do wonder how the thing could be made and started (I think the river actually does everything and the prisoners' contribution is negligble - otherwise they'd never had got it started and would be at risk of it stopping permanently if a plague or anything else wiped out a large enough proportion of them. "Pull you biwackers!").
An enjoyable conclusion to the series and better than "Summer" though the very nature of Helliconia's Great Year means the end is with a sombre mood as civilisation girds its loins for the impending centuries of cold, even while surrounded by summery murals and in snow covered fields called "the vinyard".
I still think it should be called Autumn. And I think the map is wrong - with two suns I'd expect the planet to have two sets of tropics and polar circles - unless the orbit of Batalyx around Freyr corresponds to Helliconia's ecliptic around Batalyx (and that there are eclipses suggests it doesn't). Unless my understanding of celestial mechanics is faulty (which it may be).
There is scope for another "Winter" book I think, perhaps set in Hespagorat (which has a Scandinavian feel in Summer) as Freyr never sets but also never gives much warmth.
September 19, 2020
1.5 stars.
Oh. my. god. Everything I feared would happen in this book while reading the first two happened and then some: the deeply unscientific Gaia BS, the preachiness, assimilating every human ambition to "possession", "power" and delusions of grandeur, anti-space and anti-technology propaganda, and if it wasn't enough the characters were less interesting if not infuriating at times. I liked Spring and Summer - not very much, but I liked them. This one is just terrible.
Edit: on the plus side, some of the landscape descriptions were nice (in this respect the whole planet is interesting, but then again, worldbuilding is the trilogy's forte and the whole reason I finished it at all), *especially* that of the Shivenink peninsula (chapter VIII).
Oh. my. god. Everything I feared would happen in this book while reading the first two happened and then some: the deeply unscientific Gaia BS, the preachiness, assimilating every human ambition to "possession", "power" and delusions of grandeur, anti-space and anti-technology propaganda, and if it wasn't enough the characters were less interesting if not infuriating at times. I liked Spring and Summer - not very much, but I liked them. This one is just terrible.
Edit: on the plus side, some of the landscape descriptions were nice (in this respect the whole planet is interesting, but then again, worldbuilding is the trilogy's forte and the whole reason I finished it at all), *especially* that of the Shivenink peninsula (chapter VIII).
August 16, 2017
A science fiction series with fantasy plots and a planet as the main character is how I'd describe this series. The books share very few plot lines, but closely follow the changes of an entire ecosystem across three seasons, so should be read in order.
What Brian W. Aldiss does here is nothing short of amazing. I have yet to read such interesting and detailed biological descriptions of the denizens of "Helliconia". He is also very adept at building local "legends" that are slowly unraveled as the series progresses, but not necessarily by the characters in the book.
The only thing I regret is that there wasn't a fourth "Autumn" book in the series. I'm sure the author would've been able to find more to write about.
What Brian W. Aldiss does here is nothing short of amazing. I have yet to read such interesting and detailed biological descriptions of the denizens of "Helliconia". He is also very adept at building local "legends" that are slowly unraveled as the series progresses, but not necessarily by the characters in the book.
The only thing I regret is that there wasn't a fourth "Autumn" book in the series. I'm sure the author would've been able to find more to write about.
December 12, 2017
The world of Helliconia is moving away from the supergiant star Freyr. The Great Winter is about to descend on the planet with full, unmitigated fury. The tropical continent of Campannlat is ill-prepared to deal with the falling temperatures, and the defeat of their armies by the forces of the harsh northern landmass of Sibornal signals the beginning of the end of their period of dominance. Luterin Shokerandit, a soldier in the Sibornalese army, returns home in triumph, only to face treachery. The ruthless leader of Sibornal, the Oligarch, has decreed that the victorious army is returning home infested with plague, and cannot be allowed to reach succor.
Meanwhile, life on the Earth Observation Station Avernus, in orbit around Helliconia for almost four millennia, is drawing to an end as the inhabitants revert to savage barbarism, even as the world beneath them falls from the glories of Summer into the abyss of Winter. But some in Sibornal have vowed that humanity and civilisation will ride out the Winter no matter the cost in blood...
Helliconia Winter picks up the story of the world of Helliconia 478 local years - 669 Earth years - after the events of Helliconia Summer. As before, whilst the individual characters who starred in the previous novel are long dead the fall-out of their actions continues to have consequences in this novel, although in this case at something of a remove, since the action is now transplanted to the northern continent of Sibornal. Here, we follow a band of characters led by the betrayed Luterin as he struggles to return to his distant home in the Shivenink Chain, giving rise to what, potentially, should have been the most dynamic storyline in The Helliconia Trilogy. Instead, we get a travelogue. A fascinating, intelligent, well thought-out travelogue, but nevertheless there is the feeling of Aldiss pointing out the cool scenery at the expense of developing his themes in tandem with the plot.
This is not to say that the themes Aldiss wished to explore with the trilogy have been neglected, but they have been shunted into a somewhat unfocused subplot that ranges from the Avernus back to Earth and to one of Earth's almost-failed colony worlds. These ideas are interesting and intelligently-handled, but whilst in Spring and Summer they integrated nicely into the Helliconian story, here they are separated, to the detriment of both. That said, it is satisfying to get an answer for the mystery of why the Helliconian afterlife spirits went from angry, monstrous creatures in Helliconia Spring to peaceful, loving entities in Helliconia Summer, and these developments do a good job of tying the relevance of events in the two earlier books to the events of this one.
On the plus side, Aldiss's gift for invention remains formidable here. The landforms the characters pass through, the political machinations within the government of Sibornal and its member-states and the constant evolution of the flora and fauna of Helliconia to deal with its climatic extremes all remain stunning. His characters are similarly well-drawn and convincing, but it has to be said in this case they are mostly unpleasant and selfish characters whose ambitions and motivations are interesting on an intellectual level, but unengaging on an emotional one. In particular, his female characters receive short shrift here, which is odd especially after the first book in the series (where it is the women of Oldorando who drive forward its scientific and technological development). The ending is also rather more unsatisfying than in the first two books, where the ambiguous conclusions are alleviated by us learning what happened next in historical texts mentioned in the succeeding volume. With no succeeding volume to Helliconia Winter, the ending is too abrupt.
Helliconia Winter (****) is packed with inventive ideas, fascinating characters and some genuinely exciting and dramatic moments. However, it is the weakest book of the trilogy, with an unsatisfying ending and a cold, remote prose style that is not as engaging as the first two books in the series. Nevertheless, the ambition and achievement of the trilogy as a whole remains stunning. The novel is available now in the USA and in the UK will be reissued as part of the new Helliconia omnibus due for release on 12 August this year.
Meanwhile, life on the Earth Observation Station Avernus, in orbit around Helliconia for almost four millennia, is drawing to an end as the inhabitants revert to savage barbarism, even as the world beneath them falls from the glories of Summer into the abyss of Winter. But some in Sibornal have vowed that humanity and civilisation will ride out the Winter no matter the cost in blood...
Helliconia Winter picks up the story of the world of Helliconia 478 local years - 669 Earth years - after the events of Helliconia Summer. As before, whilst the individual characters who starred in the previous novel are long dead the fall-out of their actions continues to have consequences in this novel, although in this case at something of a remove, since the action is now transplanted to the northern continent of Sibornal. Here, we follow a band of characters led by the betrayed Luterin as he struggles to return to his distant home in the Shivenink Chain, giving rise to what, potentially, should have been the most dynamic storyline in The Helliconia Trilogy. Instead, we get a travelogue. A fascinating, intelligent, well thought-out travelogue, but nevertheless there is the feeling of Aldiss pointing out the cool scenery at the expense of developing his themes in tandem with the plot.
This is not to say that the themes Aldiss wished to explore with the trilogy have been neglected, but they have been shunted into a somewhat unfocused subplot that ranges from the Avernus back to Earth and to one of Earth's almost-failed colony worlds. These ideas are interesting and intelligently-handled, but whilst in Spring and Summer they integrated nicely into the Helliconian story, here they are separated, to the detriment of both. That said, it is satisfying to get an answer for the mystery of why the Helliconian afterlife spirits went from angry, monstrous creatures in Helliconia Spring to peaceful, loving entities in Helliconia Summer, and these developments do a good job of tying the relevance of events in the two earlier books to the events of this one.
On the plus side, Aldiss's gift for invention remains formidable here. The landforms the characters pass through, the political machinations within the government of Sibornal and its member-states and the constant evolution of the flora and fauna of Helliconia to deal with its climatic extremes all remain stunning. His characters are similarly well-drawn and convincing, but it has to be said in this case they are mostly unpleasant and selfish characters whose ambitions and motivations are interesting on an intellectual level, but unengaging on an emotional one. In particular, his female characters receive short shrift here, which is odd especially after the first book in the series (where it is the women of Oldorando who drive forward its scientific and technological development). The ending is also rather more unsatisfying than in the first two books, where the ambiguous conclusions are alleviated by us learning what happened next in historical texts mentioned in the succeeding volume. With no succeeding volume to Helliconia Winter, the ending is too abrupt.
Helliconia Winter (****) is packed with inventive ideas, fascinating characters and some genuinely exciting and dramatic moments. However, it is the weakest book of the trilogy, with an unsatisfying ending and a cold, remote prose style that is not as engaging as the first two books in the series. Nevertheless, the ambition and achievement of the trilogy as a whole remains stunning. The novel is available now in the USA and in the UK will be reissued as part of the new Helliconia omnibus due for release on 12 August this year.
August 23, 2007
My feeling about this is that Aldiss was running out of steam by Book Three - and why not? It is an absolutely magisterial trilogy; encompassing the best of world-building, almost before that phrase was invented, superb anthropology and biology, not to mention complex cosmology and wonderfully absorbing stories. Helliconia Summer is my favourite, because the characters (human and phagor) brim with life.
On reflection then, as Aldiss writes about the Great Year, and in Helliconia Winter, about the turning of that more than millennial year to cold, to exhaustion, to hibernation and loss of knowledge, of community, of faith, perhaps he wasn't running out of steam after all. Perhaps, in fact, the writing style here mirrors the material; the great unknown exhaustion of a race that is about to become almost a cypher on a planet that swings its great ellipse of centurys-long seasons so that sometimes humanity is ascendent and sometimes clings to the bare edges of existence.
Either way, if you've read the first two, you must read the third. If you love good science fiction, Helliconia will satisfy you, and if you enjoy epic scale stories, Aldiss, here, surpasses himself.
On reflection then, as Aldiss writes about the Great Year, and in Helliconia Winter, about the turning of that more than millennial year to cold, to exhaustion, to hibernation and loss of knowledge, of community, of faith, perhaps he wasn't running out of steam after all. Perhaps, in fact, the writing style here mirrors the material; the great unknown exhaustion of a race that is about to become almost a cypher on a planet that swings its great ellipse of centurys-long seasons so that sometimes humanity is ascendent and sometimes clings to the bare edges of existence.
Either way, if you've read the first two, you must read the third. If you love good science fiction, Helliconia will satisfy you, and if you enjoy epic scale stories, Aldiss, here, surpasses himself.
January 31, 2022
I reviewed Helliconia Spring and Helliconia Summer last month. I noted in the latter review that Aldiss seemed to be tiring of the story.
Helliconia Winter nailed that feeling with a vengeance. The book is still a storehouse of technique - proving that even when an author tires of their story they're still a gifted author - and Aldiss was throwing so much into the story - politics, religion, philosophy, ... - if there was something he left out it wasn't for lack of trying.
I read it to the end for study purposes. I also (being honest) wanted to see how he managed to pull the rabbit out of the Helliconia Hat, how he'd tie everything together.
Well, he did, except his nice, tidy package more resembled a butcher's wrapping of a porkchop than a beautiful holiday package.
Does he tie everything together? Yes. And thank goodness for big hammers and large wrenches and hats full of rabbits (and hoxneys, phagors, Others, protognostics, et al).
Helliconia Winter nailed that feeling with a vengeance. The book is still a storehouse of technique - proving that even when an author tires of their story they're still a gifted author - and Aldiss was throwing so much into the story - politics, religion, philosophy, ... - if there was something he left out it wasn't for lack of trying.
I read it to the end for study purposes. I also (being honest) wanted to see how he managed to pull the rabbit out of the Helliconia Hat, how he'd tie everything together.
Well, he did, except his nice, tidy package more resembled a butcher's wrapping of a porkchop than a beautiful holiday package.
Does he tie everything together? Yes. And thank goodness for big hammers and large wrenches and hats full of rabbits (and hoxneys, phagors, Others, protognostics, et al).
April 17, 2023
A brilliant end to a spectacular trilogy. Aldiss mixes fantasy and science fiction seamlessly in this highly influential epic. Together, the three novels constitute a masterful work of literature. Part one, "Spring" is perhaps the most fantasy-like, containing as it does some spellbinding description and utterly convincing characterisation. Part two, "Summer", is filled with action and contains some thrilling plot twists; which sets quite a challenge for the third episode to follow. Nevertheless, "Winter" is definitely a five-star novel, even if it is slightly below par of the previous two novels. It is the darkest of the three, perhaps not surprisingly. It is also more self-reflective and post-modern. Overall, Heliconia is an utterly engrossing read that both entertains and informs. Very, very highly recommended.
September 15, 2015
And it ends, still a few centuries before true Winter descends upon the world. This time the story is a little less epic, but still compelling, as the cycle comes a little closer to home. The Earth Observation Station is a ruin, as is Earth, and Helliconia itself seems to be descending slowly into hibernation. There's a lot here to depress you, as Helliconian society seems determined to do the work of the winter for it and wipe itself out. People behave badly and do stupid things in the name of things even more ridiculous than themselves. However, this story does contain the Great Wheel, one of the most magnificent Big Dumb Objects in all of spec fic, which makes the journey worthwhile. It also contains Hope, one of the best things in the world. This is a much shorter volume than the previous two but it feels no less immense or weaker for it. It ends with a cry against tyranny as society begins to shrink and huddle in on itself. Questions are answered, more are asked, and you begin to wonder if it (meaning everything, really) is really worth it at all. But the hint is that there is always something of value to inspire us and keep us going. Like this series.
February 12, 2023
Well, here I am at the end of the trilogy and feeling a sense of achievement and satisfaction. The third epoch has its own characters with only a few mentions of previous characters. The arena this time is the North where the winter is approaching fast with Freyr (one of the suns) diminishing for centuries. The circle is almost complete.
We meet a Captain of the Army, born to high nobility and a hero to many but a villain to a war widow who he takes with him as spoils. We meet a roguish soldier who organises an escape for our protagonists when needed. We meet a porcelain maker and merchant who realises the racism is becoming rampant in the city where three generations have grown up but are no longer acceptable. We meet the Oligarch whose laws seem arbitrary to some of our protagonists and turns out to be a surprise when his identity is revealed. Two strong women move throughout the book and surprise us.
All in all, having re-read my reviews of the two other books I can say this is a series that is high up my list of books I might actually re-read.
We meet a Captain of the Army, born to high nobility and a hero to many but a villain to a war widow who he takes with him as spoils. We meet a roguish soldier who organises an escape for our protagonists when needed. We meet a porcelain maker and merchant who realises the racism is becoming rampant in the city where three generations have grown up but are no longer acceptable. We meet the Oligarch whose laws seem arbitrary to some of our protagonists and turns out to be a surprise when his identity is revealed. Two strong women move throughout the book and surprise us.
All in all, having re-read my reviews of the two other books I can say this is a series that is high up my list of books I might actually re-read.
Read
June 4, 2018When asked by his publisher about the underlying theme of his recently-published trilogy, Brian Aldiss replied in the most English way possible: a change in the weather.
Starting from a simple idea in celestial mechanics: the climate changes provoked by a planet's orbital eccentricity, the author develops the most fascinating history of a people's discovery of its own origins and its complex relationship with nature. He acknowledges the influence of (non-fiction) author James Lovelock and his 'Gaia' hypothesis postulating that all living and non-living parts of the Earth form a single organism.
In the previous two volumes the artificial satellite Avernus was closely living up to its stated role of an observation station, i.e., sexless from a storytelling perspective (although the second volume has one of its inhabitants briefly descending to Helliconia and leaving a small mark). Not so in the dramatic finale, where we even get a glimpse of recent events back on Earth. The Helliconia storyline itself centres on the captivating adventures of a nobleman turned deserter against the background of despots who blame all setbacks on alien races.
Starting from a simple idea in celestial mechanics: the climate changes provoked by a planet's orbital eccentricity, the author develops the most fascinating history of a people's discovery of its own origins and its complex relationship with nature. He acknowledges the influence of (non-fiction) author James Lovelock and his 'Gaia' hypothesis postulating that all living and non-living parts of the Earth form a single organism.
In the previous two volumes the artificial satellite Avernus was closely living up to its stated role of an observation station, i.e., sexless from a storytelling perspective (although the second volume has one of its inhabitants briefly descending to Helliconia and leaving a small mark). Not so in the dramatic finale, where we even get a glimpse of recent events back on Earth. The Helliconia storyline itself centres on the captivating adventures of a nobleman turned deserter against the background of despots who blame all setbacks on alien races.
October 14, 2019
Ce dernier tome de la trilogie Helliconia n'est peut-être pas mon préféré, mais il conclut tout de même de belle façon l'oeuvre phénoménale de Brian W. Aldiss.
Après le printemps et l'été, l'heure de l'hiver arrive et la boucle va pouvoir être bouclée. L'humanité s'apprête à subir plusieurs siècles de climat défavorable et de déclin, alors que les phagors veulent reprendre possession de leurs territoires ancestraux.
J'ai tendance à penser que ce troisième volume amplifie les qualités et les défauts des précédents : le récit principal n'est pas toujours passionnant, on ne s'attache pas forcément aux personnages, mais l'ensemble transcende l'histoire globale d'Helliconia et de ses saisons multi-centenaires.
C'est une belle conclusion à une trilogie mémorable, parfois ardue à lire, exigeante, mais qui vaut vraiment le coup.
Après le printemps et l'été, l'heure de l'hiver arrive et la boucle va pouvoir être bouclée. L'humanité s'apprête à subir plusieurs siècles de climat défavorable et de déclin, alors que les phagors veulent reprendre possession de leurs territoires ancestraux.
J'ai tendance à penser que ce troisième volume amplifie les qualités et les défauts des précédents : le récit principal n'est pas toujours passionnant, on ne s'attache pas forcément aux personnages, mais l'ensemble transcende l'histoire globale d'Helliconia et de ses saisons multi-centenaires.
C'est une belle conclusion à une trilogie mémorable, parfois ardue à lire, exigeante, mais qui vaut vraiment le coup.
October 9, 2022
Fitting conclusion to the trilogy with the "long season" winding down to "Myrkwyr" (I might not have spelled that correctly!) with the breakdown/reorganisation of societal and natural processes as the background to a few characters's (esp. Luterin Shokerandit) individual stories.
Overall, the trilogy's main coup is to stand as the greatest example of world-building that I've ever come across, and Aldiss's writing/storytelling is not bad either (he is woefully under-appreciated in this respect I feel).
My fave is "Spring" and I think I'll just stick to that one for future re-read.
Overall, the trilogy's main coup is to stand as the greatest example of world-building that I've ever come across, and Aldiss's writing/storytelling is not bad either (he is woefully under-appreciated in this respect I feel).
My fave is "Spring" and I think I'll just stick to that one for future re-read.
November 21, 2025
2/5 ⭐️⭐️ ★ ★ ★
Spodziewałam się, że będzie to najlepsza część z całej trylogii, a okazała się najgorszą. Ledwo dotarłam do końca. Bardzo zawiodłam się na kompletnym pominięciu całego faktu zmiany pory roku, a cała fabuła kompletnie mnie nie interesowała i nudziła.
Całościowo trylogia ma bardzo ciekawy koncept, ale jest bardzo ciężka do czytania i tylko dla wytrwałych.
Spodziewałam się, że będzie to najlepsza część z całej trylogii, a okazała się najgorszą. Ledwo dotarłam do końca. Bardzo zawiodłam się na kompletnym pominięciu całego faktu zmiany pory roku, a cała fabuła kompletnie mnie nie interesowała i nudziła.
Całościowo trylogia ma bardzo ciekawy koncept, ale jest bardzo ciężka do czytania i tylko dla wytrwałych.
November 9, 2025
It was not as terrible as the one star may suggest but if this was not for review I wouldn't have finished it. It was too much of everything packed into too little me meaning. The Earth-observer plot was disjointed and did not contribute to the main plot. The story of Helliconia was not developed much further and was cut off from the previous ones.
October 29, 2017
3 stars
Metaphorosis Reviews
In Helliconia Winter, Brian Aldiss finally settles into the human-scale story he approached in Summer. The result is, if not exactly intimate, still substantially more engaging than the previous volumes. Winter is coming, and with it the Fat Death, the plague that kills some and transforms others to prepare them for centuries of cold ahead.
Metaphorosis Reviews
In Helliconia Winter, Brian Aldiss finally settles into the human-scale story he approached in Summer. The result is, if not exactly intimate, still substantially more engaging than the previous volumes. Winter is coming, and with it the Fat Death, the plague that kills some and transforms others to prepare them for centuries of cold ahead.
It's hard to say that any of Helliconia's characters is particularly likeable, but they are, at least, interesting. There's more action and less philosophy here. Enough of the secrets of the world are revealed for the content to be satisfying, though some of the mechanisms lean toward the arbitrary.
To be frank, my reaction on finishing the series was mainly of relief. It's seldom that I find books this slow. Mainly, I think the issue is that Aldiss, lost in the vast scope of his plan, forgot to approach it through characters we could identify with. That gradually improved as the trilogy progressed, but even in this last volume, I didn't care enough about the lead protagonist, Luterin Shokerandit, to have strong feelings about what happened to him. While an improvement on its predecessors, Winter is not a strong book.
To be frank, my reaction on finishing the series was mainly of relief. It's seldom that I find books this slow. Mainly, I think the issue is that Aldiss, lost in the vast scope of his plan, forgot to approach it through characters we could identify with. That gradually improved as the trilogy progressed, but even in this last volume, I didn't care enough about the lead protagonist, Luterin Shokerandit, to have strong feelings about what happened to him. While an improvement on its predecessors, Winter is not a strong book.
July 17, 2009
Dans ce roman, on suit les pas d'un homme, Luterin Shoderankit, dans ses aventures autour du glacial continent de Sibornal, qui s'enfonce doucement dans l'hiver des grandes années d'Helliconia. Toutes ces aventures n'ont hélas pas vraiment de but, car Luterin est un pantin dont les ficelles sont tirées par son père (mais de loin, donc il s'en doute pas). Du coup, on le voit errer à travers les préparatifs militaires d'une nation qui souhaite survivre par tous les moyens à un hiver qui durera plusieurs siècles. Et dans ce cas, d'une manière typique, on voit apparaître le combat classique entre les conservateurs, qui vont tenter de faire survivre un mode de vie quitte à le vider de sa substance, et les partisans de l'adaptation, qui ne savent pas trop ce qu'ils vont venir, mais savent néanmoins qu'ils veulent voir changer les choses.
Je ne sais pas si ça se voit, mais j'ai trouvé l'ensemble de ce roman franchement ennuyeux. Le héros n'est pas franchement charismatique, pas plus que les personnages l'accompagnant, ses aventures ne sont pas non plus vraiment palpitantes et les décors traversés sont (à l'exception de la roue de Kharnabar) quasiment sinistres.
Et ce n'est pas le paratexte qui nous présente une Terre transformée après un hiver nucléaire qui va semer ce roman. car ce paratexte vire dans le new-age le plus sordide, avec amour universel, illumination de Gaïa et nomadisme bobo.
En fait, je me demande bien ce qui a pu m'attirer dans ma jeunesse dans le cycle d'Helliconia. Parce que oui, c'est une relecture. Je devais avoir environ quinze ans quand je l'ai lu la première fois et je dois reconnaître que ces bouquins m'avaient plutôt marqué, avec leurs phagors et autres nécrogènes. Je n'y vois plus maintenant qu'un moyen pour Aldiss de masquer les multiples incohérences de ces livre-mondes. Car incohérences il y a : de l'apparition de l'homme à la station Avernus, il n'y a pas grand chose qui tienne la route.
Et du coup, je n'ai plus qu'à vous recommander de passer votre chemin, pour lire des oeuvres plus intéressantes (et il y en a quand même un paquet).
Je ne sais pas si ça se voit, mais j'ai trouvé l'ensemble de ce roman franchement ennuyeux. Le héros n'est pas franchement charismatique, pas plus que les personnages l'accompagnant, ses aventures ne sont pas non plus vraiment palpitantes et les décors traversés sont (à l'exception de la roue de Kharnabar) quasiment sinistres.
Et ce n'est pas le paratexte qui nous présente une Terre transformée après un hiver nucléaire qui va semer ce roman. car ce paratexte vire dans le new-age le plus sordide, avec amour universel, illumination de Gaïa et nomadisme bobo.
En fait, je me demande bien ce qui a pu m'attirer dans ma jeunesse dans le cycle d'Helliconia. Parce que oui, c'est une relecture. Je devais avoir environ quinze ans quand je l'ai lu la première fois et je dois reconnaître que ces bouquins m'avaient plutôt marqué, avec leurs phagors et autres nécrogènes. Je n'y vois plus maintenant qu'un moyen pour Aldiss de masquer les multiples incohérences de ces livre-mondes. Car incohérences il y a : de l'apparition de l'homme à la station Avernus, il n'y a pas grand chose qui tienne la route.
Et du coup, je n'ai plus qu'à vous recommander de passer votre chemin, pour lire des oeuvres plus intéressantes (et il y en a quand même un paquet).
Read
August 8, 20164.5 stars from Jesse, read the full review at FANTASY LITERATURE
Like an architect seeing a cathedral they’ve designed have the steeple raised, or an engineer watching the bowsprit attached to a ship they’ve built, so too must Aldiss have felt writing the final chapter of Helliconia Winter (1985). The orbits within orbits, themes revolving around themes, and characters caught in the cycle of life, come to an end. But only on the page.
The series has covered millennia. The third and final book, Helliconia Winter, continues to tell a human-scale tale in harmony with the larger forces at play — geology, astrophysics, and biology all heavily influencing the narrative. This time around, however, Aldiss wields a heavier thematic hammer. The understated Gaian theme of Helliconia Spring and Helliconia Summer is now pressed on the reader in more overt and convincing tones. Tying into the major concepts presented in earlier volumes, Helliconia Winter is a genuine capstone to a sublime series.
Like Helliconia Summer, Helliconia Winter does not pick up the story where the previous volume ended. It instead jumps roughly 500 Helliconian years into the future. Steam engines are beginning to replace livestock, a railway network is starting to take shape, and cannons and guns are manufactured with precision and consistency. The apex of the planet’s blistering summer has passed and the onset of winter moves imminently closer with each technological advance. ...read the full review at FANTASY LITERATURE
Like an architect seeing a cathedral they’ve designed have the steeple raised, or an engineer watching the bowsprit attached to a ship they’ve built, so too must Aldiss have felt writing the final chapter of Helliconia Winter (1985). The orbits within orbits, themes revolving around themes, and characters caught in the cycle of life, come to an end. But only on the page.
The series has covered millennia. The third and final book, Helliconia Winter, continues to tell a human-scale tale in harmony with the larger forces at play — geology, astrophysics, and biology all heavily influencing the narrative. This time around, however, Aldiss wields a heavier thematic hammer. The understated Gaian theme of Helliconia Spring and Helliconia Summer is now pressed on the reader in more overt and convincing tones. Tying into the major concepts presented in earlier volumes, Helliconia Winter is a genuine capstone to a sublime series.
Like Helliconia Summer, Helliconia Winter does not pick up the story where the previous volume ended. It instead jumps roughly 500 Helliconian years into the future. Steam engines are beginning to replace livestock, a railway network is starting to take shape, and cannons and guns are manufactured with precision and consistency. The apex of the planet’s blistering summer has passed and the onset of winter moves imminently closer with each technological advance. ...read the full review at FANTASY LITERATURE
December 9, 2022
A tale of a young man's coming of age and the men and women he meets along the way, set amidst the back drop of the twilight days of the great year of Helliconia (that last over 1,000 earth years) as it begins the long, dark winter. We also see the folly of mankind as they seek to resist the very things that will ensure mankind's long term survival.
The collapse of civilization on Earth, and the Avernus observation station, is also seen in this volume. No longer are images of Helliconian life to be broadcast back. We hear about how humanity on earth nearly anhillates itself (and all life on earth). Perhaps the harsh cycle of Helliconia regulates humanity, keeping it in check with nature and leads to a more stable long term future.
To be honest though, the passages focused back on earth were not very interesting and I would have preferred the narrative to have remained on the main characters in the story back on Helliconia.
Still, all in all, a towering achievement and definitely deserves to be regarded as one of the classics.
The collapse of civilization on Earth, and the Avernus observation station, is also seen in this volume. No longer are images of Helliconian life to be broadcast back. We hear about how humanity on earth nearly anhillates itself (and all life on earth). Perhaps the harsh cycle of Helliconia regulates humanity, keeping it in check with nature and leads to a more stable long term future.
To be honest though, the passages focused back on earth were not very interesting and I would have preferred the narrative to have remained on the main characters in the story back on Helliconia.
Still, all in all, a towering achievement and definitely deserves to be regarded as one of the classics.
Read
October 11, 2022This book probably should be called more accurately as Helliconia Autumn. In many ways it plays out similarly to first book, but in opposite order. Finally we see first hand effects of Fat Death Plague. We also has a chance to see more background to fate of the Earth and it's Helliconian satellite. There were something tragic that it didn't survive.
There was twist which explained how dead people seem to be more positive towards alive, and that's apparently not the effect of long seasonal changes, but machinations of Earth people. It is heartwarming that this limited "communication" happened between these two worlds. I wasn't particularly convinced by mythical character of that communication.
It was monumental trilogy and I think that its last book was a little bit diluted and going away too much from science-fictional worldbuilding into more vague parapsychic tropes.
There was twist which explained how dead people seem to be more positive towards alive, and that's apparently not the effect of long seasonal changes, but machinations of Earth people. It is heartwarming that this limited "communication" happened between these two worlds. I wasn't particularly convinced by mythical character of that communication.
It was monumental trilogy and I think that its last book was a little bit diluted and going away too much from science-fictional worldbuilding into more vague parapsychic tropes.
Read
September 21, 2013The epic trilogy about the world of Helliconia, in some ways so similar to Earth, and yet, because of the virus, forever out of our reach, is finished, and in a good way. It is a very ambitious project to cover the span of a few thousand years, and more, in a science fiction trilogy, but Aldiss managed to do it -- and he did it through human (and not just human) drama and political intrigue, thus making it very alive and never boring or like an encyclopedia entry.
December 17, 2017
The final book of the series brings us to the beginning of winter, and the machinations of various groups trying to see society through the looming period. This one gets a little weird as Aldiss talks more about Earth and injects more sentiment. The characters continue to have a murky sense of morality and killing remains shockingly casual. It doesn't bode well for humanity changing their trajectory through winter in any positive way.
April 6, 2024
Took a while to read, but that was due to life events. It started off really well with an interesting character, location and circumstances.
We see the world of Helliconia turn into it's winter cycle – good.
We learn more of Earth, find out for the first time (for sure) that Helliconians are not actually just Earth humans that have settled Helliconia.
Finally we get some glimmer of a notion what all that gossies and fessup and talking to the dead stuff is meant to be about; there is meant to be a Gaia theme. Not terribly well done I think, but apparently Aldiss was heavily influenced by The Gaia Hypothesis proposed by James Lovelock in the 70's, so still pretty fresh when Helliconia was being written. This hypothesis suggests that living organisms on the planet interact with their surrounding inorganic environment to form a self-regulating system that make life on Earth possible. Aldiss took it one step further (which is what I like to see in speculative fiction/science fiction) and made Helliconia have it's own Gaia 'the original beholder' or something like that. He further extrapolated that the post nuclear war humanity on Earth could communicate with all the Gaias.. or something like that, I didn't quite follow what he was getting at but I was not immensely impressed by what I did get out of it.
Characters, as always in the Helliconias, are pretty bad, one is not interested in them, cannot care about them, they are just there as a hook for the story to hang from. While I don't NEED likable characters, a likeable or relatable character does help the story along and this is a LONG story.
Our first character Luterin Shokerandit – starts us off, a young man living in the North of Sibornal, he is the son of landed gentry and has an actual story arc which takes the novel through the growing of winter as he goes to fight for the 'country? Empire? Then returns home.
Shokerandit starts out as a not especially nice kid who was a younger son but when his elder brother died is not his father's successor. He is sent into the army, as the natural step for an eldest son, then goes off to battle: I have to say writing battles does not seem to be one of Aldiss' strong points, a major clash between two nations over a border town, in the last desperate throes of summer. Led by a national hero.... not sure how Aldiss managed to make that tedious, but he did. Interesting overall for the way it sets up the social dynamics of human on human, Phagor on human and the seasonal disease of the Fat Death.
The grasslands in which the battle is located are actually more passionately described in all their species and ecology than the battle... I was cool with that as I like ecology.
Captain Fashnalgid – our second major character is thoroughly despicable, has little enough story arc but persists through most of the book. His character seems to consist of running away whenever threatened and raping every woman unlucky to cross his path. Not gratuitous rape, but what did Aldiss think he was doing with this?
And then we have a female character Toress Lahl, originally the doctor wife of a soldier in the opposing army. She becomes Shokerandit's slave and appears to be there solely for the purpose of being raped by both characters.
Really, the characters and attempts at characterisation are embarrassingly bad. On page 280 for example, we have Shokerandit reflecting that Fashnalgid 'has a good side to his nature'. Really? That completely floored me. Where? WE never saw this, he is about as likable as that character out of American Psycho. Nor has Shokerandit ever given us a reason to think he liked Fashnalgid. Or is this meant to convince us that S is a raving psychopath as well? It's ok Aldiss – you don't need to convince me! I am already sure he has less humanity than the log I put on the fire yesterday!!
Random things happen throughout the book; we meet an interesting social structure in a china merchant and his family, we take a trip by ship that is pretty good. We see the social structure of Sibornal starting to become fully authoritarian because... the long winter coming means that this is a good idea.... Or something... Wut? Various characters survive / don't survive the Fat Death with it's ecological and evolutionary implications. Stuff happens. None of it all that consistent or amazing, but not that terrible either just some pretty rocky writing in my honest opinion.
I did enjoy the book, overall, despite it's issues. I really like the world and watching it retreat into winter. The attempts at social development are clumsy, but ok. If I have to put up with unlikable, bare bones characters to do it. Well. Whatever.
Aldis writting would suddenly descended into fascinating little science rants; about iodine and it's place in body chemistry. About how nuclear winter can be triggered (by Earthmen, back home). About the ecology and Geology and the climatology. I was there for that completely. The civilisation changes were not terrible either, just I really didn't care much if they did or not.
Again with the 'ancipital' Aldiss; that word does not mean what you think it means, it refers to a two sided blade of grass not whatever it is about Phagors that you think it means.
Well, glad I finished the trilogy, I set out to do it and I finished them. Now I know.
Bit of a series wrap up on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLoXv...
We see the world of Helliconia turn into it's winter cycle – good.
We learn more of Earth, find out for the first time (for sure) that Helliconians are not actually just Earth humans that have settled Helliconia.
Finally we get some glimmer of a notion what all that gossies and fessup and talking to the dead stuff is meant to be about; there is meant to be a Gaia theme. Not terribly well done I think, but apparently Aldiss was heavily influenced by The Gaia Hypothesis proposed by James Lovelock in the 70's, so still pretty fresh when Helliconia was being written. This hypothesis suggests that living organisms on the planet interact with their surrounding inorganic environment to form a self-regulating system that make life on Earth possible. Aldiss took it one step further (which is what I like to see in speculative fiction/science fiction) and made Helliconia have it's own Gaia 'the original beholder' or something like that. He further extrapolated that the post nuclear war humanity on Earth could communicate with all the Gaias.. or something like that, I didn't quite follow what he was getting at but I was not immensely impressed by what I did get out of it.
Characters, as always in the Helliconias, are pretty bad, one is not interested in them, cannot care about them, they are just there as a hook for the story to hang from. While I don't NEED likable characters, a likeable or relatable character does help the story along and this is a LONG story.
Our first character Luterin Shokerandit – starts us off, a young man living in the North of Sibornal, he is the son of landed gentry and has an actual story arc which takes the novel through the growing of winter as he goes to fight for the 'country? Empire? Then returns home.
Shokerandit starts out as a not especially nice kid who was a younger son but when his elder brother died is not his father's successor. He is sent into the army, as the natural step for an eldest son, then goes off to battle: I have to say writing battles does not seem to be one of Aldiss' strong points, a major clash between two nations over a border town, in the last desperate throes of summer. Led by a national hero.... not sure how Aldiss managed to make that tedious, but he did. Interesting overall for the way it sets up the social dynamics of human on human, Phagor on human and the seasonal disease of the Fat Death.
The grasslands in which the battle is located are actually more passionately described in all their species and ecology than the battle... I was cool with that as I like ecology.
Captain Fashnalgid – our second major character is thoroughly despicable, has little enough story arc but persists through most of the book. His character seems to consist of running away whenever threatened and raping every woman unlucky to cross his path. Not gratuitous rape, but what did Aldiss think he was doing with this?
And then we have a female character Toress Lahl, originally the doctor wife of a soldier in the opposing army. She becomes Shokerandit's slave and appears to be there solely for the purpose of being raped by both characters.
Really, the characters and attempts at characterisation are embarrassingly bad. On page 280 for example, we have Shokerandit reflecting that Fashnalgid 'has a good side to his nature'. Really? That completely floored me. Where? WE never saw this, he is about as likable as that character out of American Psycho. Nor has Shokerandit ever given us a reason to think he liked Fashnalgid. Or is this meant to convince us that S is a raving psychopath as well? It's ok Aldiss – you don't need to convince me! I am already sure he has less humanity than the log I put on the fire yesterday!!
Random things happen throughout the book; we meet an interesting social structure in a china merchant and his family, we take a trip by ship that is pretty good. We see the social structure of Sibornal starting to become fully authoritarian because... the long winter coming means that this is a good idea.... Or something... Wut? Various characters survive / don't survive the Fat Death with it's ecological and evolutionary implications. Stuff happens. None of it all that consistent or amazing, but not that terrible either just some pretty rocky writing in my honest opinion.
I did enjoy the book, overall, despite it's issues. I really like the world and watching it retreat into winter. The attempts at social development are clumsy, but ok. If I have to put up with unlikable, bare bones characters to do it. Well. Whatever.
Aldis writting would suddenly descended into fascinating little science rants; about iodine and it's place in body chemistry. About how nuclear winter can be triggered (by Earthmen, back home). About the ecology and Geology and the climatology. I was there for that completely. The civilisation changes were not terrible either, just I really didn't care much if they did or not.
Again with the 'ancipital' Aldiss; that word does not mean what you think it means, it refers to a two sided blade of grass not whatever it is about Phagors that you think it means.
Well, glad I finished the trilogy, I set out to do it and I finished them. Now I know.
Bit of a series wrap up on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLoXv...
January 24, 2012
It's difficult to summarise my experience reading this trilogy in a simple review. For starters, I felt I couldn't adequately judge the first book alone, no more than one could judge a tree by its first leaves, so I read the whole trilogy as if it were part of one large arc - if not quite a great circle. Besides the sheer length of book to review, the other problem I have is that I just didn't enjoy it very much. But this is a trilogy about aliens living in a complex biosphere and plots the rise and fall of multiple empires in the vastness of space. It combines biology and physics and romantic fantastical stories. If I, an avid fan of science fiction and fantasy, don't enjoy it, who on earth is its target audience?
So - to the review.
Helliconia is a planet orbiting a star (Batalix) distant from Earth, in a highly elliptical orbit about a binary companion (Freyr). As an astronomer, I can thoroughly vouch for the accuracy and detail into which Aldiss goes describing the stellar and planetary types, and the astrophysical (mis)fortunes through which Helliconia goes. I am more confused by his astronomy in how it relates to the Great Summer and Winter. In spring, around the equator, Freyr is depicted as becoming brighter and larger - fair enough, the Batalix--Helliconia system is approaching periastron with Freyr, so the latter will increase in apparent luminosity. However at the end of the third book, set in Sibornal, at a latitude similar to the UK on Earth, Freyr is depicted as sinking below the horizon, not to rise again for many centuries. If it sets, then it must be visible elsewhere on the planet. If by some twisting of orbits one can ensure that Freyr no longer rises on Sibornal (like our own Sun does not rise north of the Polar Circle during the Arctic winter), then on the other side of the planet, there must be a comfortable country where they will observe Freyr happilly for several centuries, only losing it at periastron, when it returns to Sibornal. This would also mean that the Helliconian Freyr-day is the same length as the Great Year, or near enough that humans have yet to have determined the difference. Which I'm pretty sure humans would have noticed by now, and all migrated to the country where Freyr is visible during the Great Winter, and invisible during the all-too-hot summer. So - my issue here is that the world is believable *up to a point*, and then the system of logic is discarded in favour of making a scene work. This is a familiar pattern throughout the books.
In Helliconia's biology, humans are depicted as
While we're on the subject of language, I'd like to tell you about a few of my friends. They have names. I know, names, eh? Useful things, everyone has them. Some of my friends have two syllables in their name, some have three. A couple are known only by one, and a startlingly large number are called Dave. A tiny minority have names which are difficult to read on first try, but in those cases, are usually known by a part of their name more easily pronounceable.
On Helliconia, everyone has a unique name. In Winter, it's a nice short name like 'Grunt' or 'Augh!'. For the rest of the year, it's an utterly unprounceable mishmash of syllables with capital letters randomly added throughout. The only ones I can remember are 'Yuli' - because it appears twice, and is the Helliconian equivalent of 'Dave' - and 'Sartorilvrash' - again because it appears twice, and on second viewing I actually tried to say it out loud, but gave up when I bit my tongue on the fourth attempt, the pain giving me temporary eidetic powers. I know that one of the major female characters has a name a bit like the sound that murlocs make in Warcraft. I didn't even try to pronounce that one, much as I enjoyed the character.
Back to the biology point, Aldiss does paint a beautiful picture of a very 'other' world that has adapted (8 million years is ok, should be enough) to a long difficult winter and melancholy flowering of a fleeting summer. But again, some of the biological details are just not consistent and cry out for an explanation.
Frustratingly, I could see what Aldiss was trying to do. I loved how much detail he put into everything - but despite the amount it just didn't hang together well enough. The characters were... memorable, I will give him that. Their names are impossible but some of the stories were quite dramatic to follow - Helliconians really have a tough lot compared to Earthlings.
Of course - I find that scene funny because it agrees with my own sentiments, that religion is the enemy of science, but Aldiss too often sets up these stories to justify his morality; I enjoy the bits I agree with and get annoyed by the bits I don't, but either way it's a cheap trick.
Writing-wise, Aldiss does well, although he's far better at describing landscapes, ecosystems and the movements of the sky than he is at describing people and events. Many crucial events are skipped over for dramatic emphasis. A man hears something extraordinary from an authority figure, and then is being pursued, blood on his hands - we don't see the actual moment of violence, but we do get to hear internal agonising about it later. The point-of-view of the books is a little weird - the reader is treated to long objective discourses on anatomy and astronomy, but also hears the thoughts inside the Helliconians' heads. It basically feels like Aldiss is talking - I could never get away and feel really immersed in what was going on.
I liked the melancholy, I liked the examples of human striving in the face of adversity, the pathos of a 2,000-year-long-year, the need of people to make sense of the world, and not to be alone. But to me the world-building was a misspent distraction, because Aldiss didn't follow through and really use what he'd built up. We had no just... many disconnected threads strolling through a beautiful but shakily-constructed world. I am glad I managed to get through the books, and appreciate the effort that went into them, but I was disappointed that the internal logic didn't hold, so neither could my suspension of disbelief. I could not escape to Helliconia.
So - to the review.
Helliconia is a planet orbiting a star (Batalix) distant from Earth, in a highly elliptical orbit about a binary companion (Freyr). As an astronomer, I can thoroughly vouch for the accuracy and detail into which Aldiss goes describing the stellar and planetary types, and the astrophysical (mis)fortunes through which Helliconia goes. I am more confused by his astronomy in how it relates to the Great Summer and Winter. In spring, around the equator, Freyr is depicted as becoming brighter and larger - fair enough, the Batalix--Helliconia system is approaching periastron with Freyr, so the latter will increase in apparent luminosity. However at the end of the third book, set in Sibornal, at a latitude similar to the UK on Earth, Freyr is depicted as sinking below the horizon, not to rise again for many centuries. If it sets, then it must be visible elsewhere on the planet. If by some twisting of orbits one can ensure that Freyr no longer rises on Sibornal (like our own Sun does not rise north of the Polar Circle during the Arctic winter), then on the other side of the planet, there must be a comfortable country where they will observe Freyr happilly for several centuries, only losing it at periastron, when it returns to Sibornal. This would also mean that the Helliconian Freyr-day is the same length as the Great Year, or near enough that humans have yet to have determined the difference. Which I'm pretty sure humans would have noticed by now, and all migrated to the country where Freyr is visible during the Great Winter, and invisible during the all-too-hot summer. So - my issue here is that the world is believable *up to a point*, and then the system of logic is discarded in favour of making a scene work. This is a familiar pattern throughout the books.
In Helliconia's biology, humans are depicted as
While we're on the subject of language, I'd like to tell you about a few of my friends. They have names. I know, names, eh? Useful things, everyone has them. Some of my friends have two syllables in their name, some have three. A couple are known only by one, and a startlingly large number are called Dave. A tiny minority have names which are difficult to read on first try, but in those cases, are usually known by a part of their name more easily pronounceable.
On Helliconia, everyone has a unique name. In Winter, it's a nice short name like 'Grunt' or 'Augh!'. For the rest of the year, it's an utterly unprounceable mishmash of syllables with capital letters randomly added throughout. The only ones I can remember are 'Yuli' - because it appears twice, and is the Helliconian equivalent of 'Dave' - and 'Sartorilvrash' - again because it appears twice, and on second viewing I actually tried to say it out loud, but gave up when I bit my tongue on the fourth attempt, the pain giving me temporary eidetic powers. I know that one of the major female characters has a name a bit like the sound that murlocs make in Warcraft. I didn't even try to pronounce that one, much as I enjoyed the character.
Back to the biology point, Aldiss does paint a beautiful picture of a very 'other' world that has adapted (8 million years is ok, should be enough) to a long difficult winter and melancholy flowering of a fleeting summer. But again, some of the biological details are just not consistent and cry out for an explanation.
Frustratingly, I could see what Aldiss was trying to do. I loved how much detail he put into everything - but despite the amount it just didn't hang together well enough. The characters were... memorable, I will give him that. Their names are impossible but some of the stories were quite dramatic to follow - Helliconians really have a tough lot compared to Earthlings.
Of course - I find that scene funny because it agrees with my own sentiments, that religion is the enemy of science, but Aldiss too often sets up these stories to justify his morality; I enjoy the bits I agree with and get annoyed by the bits I don't, but either way it's a cheap trick.
Writing-wise, Aldiss does well, although he's far better at describing landscapes, ecosystems and the movements of the sky than he is at describing people and events. Many crucial events are skipped over for dramatic emphasis. A man hears something extraordinary from an authority figure, and then is being pursued, blood on his hands - we don't see the actual moment of violence, but we do get to hear internal agonising about it later. The point-of-view of the books is a little weird - the reader is treated to long objective discourses on anatomy and astronomy, but also hears the thoughts inside the Helliconians' heads. It basically feels like Aldiss is talking - I could never get away and feel really immersed in what was going on.
I liked the melancholy, I liked the examples of human striving in the face of adversity, the pathos of a 2,000-year-long-year, the need of people to make sense of the world, and not to be alone. But to me the world-building was a misspent distraction, because Aldiss didn't follow through and really use what he'd built up. We had no just... many disconnected threads strolling through a beautiful but shakily-constructed world. I am glad I managed to get through the books, and appreciate the effort that went into them, but I was disappointed that the internal logic didn't hold, so neither could my suspension of disbelief. I could not escape to Helliconia.
August 20, 2023
8,7 It occurred to me that Brian Aldiss is a writer obsessed with ecological themes - this is clear from the ecology of a far future earth in 'Hothouse' and that in a generation ship in 'Non-stop'. But it is made explicitely clear in this third book in the Helliconia series. As we live in a time when ecological disaster threatens our existence, I think Aldiss's work is due for a re-appraisal. He was an author ahead of his time, and his works deserve to be read and pondered now as we see the threats he warned of in his books happening for real.
The Helliconia series and especially this third book, are concerned with the idea that a complex ecosystem has a self regulatory effect, achieving homeostasis. The web of nature covering our planet, and reaching deep into the earth's crust and up into the atmosphere, even takes in non living matter - as for example plate tectonics are thought to have started due to the activity of life on the planet (or think about the sequestering of carbon in underground coal seams or the deposition of chalk). This system is remarkably resilliant to change. The idea has been called the Gaia hypothesis by James Lovelock, who wrote “it can now be demonstrated… that a diverse chain of predators and prey is more stable and a stronger ecosystem than a single self-contained species.” Take note: this is NOT a supernatural or religious statement (even though it is taken to be that by New Age spirituality). Aldiss gives it some spiritual resonance, but his story too is more taken up by the physical, chemical and biological principles underlying this way of think. And most important by showing the effects of mankind thinking it's not part of nature, but above it.
This is why besides describing life on Helliconia itself, Aldiss also concerns itself with describing live on Earth and in the space station Avernus. In the space station mankind is wholly divorced from nature, living in an artificial environment, with leads to ennui and ultimately destruction. On earth mankind almost destroys the biosphere after a nuclear war leading to a nuclear winter and afterwards mankind has to search for a role as part of the ecosystem, not above it. On Helliconia mankind is as we are on earth, thinking ourselves as being above nature, trying to escape from its strictures and not thinking of the consequences.
Thus, for example, the people on Helliconia want to exterminate the Phagors, who bring the 'Fat plague' - even thought the 'Fat plague' is necessary to transform human beings to survive the centuries long winter that is coming. And what's worse - the people trying to exterminate the Phagors know this themselves. As Aldiss writes: "Toress Lahl said, 'The Oligarch KNEW that killing off all phagors meant ultimately killing the humans - still he passed his orders? That's incredible.' ' I can't defend what they did. But the knowledge did not suit them. Simply that'." I of course had to think of oil companies denying climate change even when they knew it was happening and until now funding climate denialism - because making profit to them is more important than the common good. I think Aldiss saw these themes very clearly and it's sad that since the almost forty years since the publication of this book our mentality still hasn't changed. Still our lust of power trumps taking responsibility for future generations and using our intelligance to care for nature instead of trying to dominate it. We ourselves are part of the ecosystem but - like 'The Matrix' noted - we have mutated into a virus, a disease that's burning up the rest of the living world that surrounds us.
This all makes this trilogy a timeless work of ecological science fiction. In this volume, my enjoyment was helped by the focus on one character and the revelations he stumbles upon in his journey. Also, finally we see the 'great wheel' that is alluded to in the two previous volumes and see it in action. There's a lot of great world building here too. The characters are not always likeable or sympathetic - this is not 'adventure novel SciFi', but speculative literature, with the characters not idealised stand ins for the reader, but a mirror to see ourselves in. Warts and all ...
The Helliconia series and especially this third book, are concerned with the idea that a complex ecosystem has a self regulatory effect, achieving homeostasis. The web of nature covering our planet, and reaching deep into the earth's crust and up into the atmosphere, even takes in non living matter - as for example plate tectonics are thought to have started due to the activity of life on the planet (or think about the sequestering of carbon in underground coal seams or the deposition of chalk). This system is remarkably resilliant to change. The idea has been called the Gaia hypothesis by James Lovelock, who wrote “it can now be demonstrated… that a diverse chain of predators and prey is more stable and a stronger ecosystem than a single self-contained species.” Take note: this is NOT a supernatural or religious statement (even though it is taken to be that by New Age spirituality). Aldiss gives it some spiritual resonance, but his story too is more taken up by the physical, chemical and biological principles underlying this way of think. And most important by showing the effects of mankind thinking it's not part of nature, but above it.
This is why besides describing life on Helliconia itself, Aldiss also concerns itself with describing live on Earth and in the space station Avernus. In the space station mankind is wholly divorced from nature, living in an artificial environment, with leads to ennui and ultimately destruction. On earth mankind almost destroys the biosphere after a nuclear war leading to a nuclear winter and afterwards mankind has to search for a role as part of the ecosystem, not above it. On Helliconia mankind is as we are on earth, thinking ourselves as being above nature, trying to escape from its strictures and not thinking of the consequences.
Thus, for example, the people on Helliconia want to exterminate the Phagors, who bring the 'Fat plague' - even thought the 'Fat plague' is necessary to transform human beings to survive the centuries long winter that is coming. And what's worse - the people trying to exterminate the Phagors know this themselves. As Aldiss writes: "Toress Lahl said, 'The Oligarch KNEW that killing off all phagors meant ultimately killing the humans - still he passed his orders? That's incredible.' ' I can't defend what they did. But the knowledge did not suit them. Simply that'." I of course had to think of oil companies denying climate change even when they knew it was happening and until now funding climate denialism - because making profit to them is more important than the common good. I think Aldiss saw these themes very clearly and it's sad that since the almost forty years since the publication of this book our mentality still hasn't changed. Still our lust of power trumps taking responsibility for future generations and using our intelligance to care for nature instead of trying to dominate it. We ourselves are part of the ecosystem but - like 'The Matrix' noted - we have mutated into a virus, a disease that's burning up the rest of the living world that surrounds us.
This all makes this trilogy a timeless work of ecological science fiction. In this volume, my enjoyment was helped by the focus on one character and the revelations he stumbles upon in his journey. Also, finally we see the 'great wheel' that is alluded to in the two previous volumes and see it in action. There's a lot of great world building here too. The characters are not always likeable or sympathetic - this is not 'adventure novel SciFi', but speculative literature, with the characters not idealised stand ins for the reader, but a mirror to see ourselves in. Warts and all ...
March 11, 2023
Well, I'm glad that I can say that I finally read the Helliconia trilogy.
The main reason I enjoyed it was the worldbuilding. The characters, their having to deal with not only this alien world during different Great Seasons, are, at least to me, secondary to my sheer enjoyment of trying to understand the world itself.
This volume goes all the way in giving us a full explanation of the great cycles, the physiological changes that the humans and sub-human and alien creatures have to go through to survive the great winter, or by remembering Helliconia Summer, the reversed changes from here. (A great plague in either case, killing off so many but whomever survives, survives vastly changed.)
The comparisons between this world and the Earth, what happened to the Earth, our many colonies, was a fantastic addition.
But this is me. I love great worldbuilding, and that includes the sociological upheavals in these books. It was often about plain survival and while I did have some issues about the returning of all this religiosity that they had apparently escaped in Summer, I understand it. Everyone's brains changed. It was survival of the most isolationist, exploitative. It's a good message even if I personally thought it was horrible. It's a great mirror to the first book. In that one, we got a rebellion and the collapse of the priesthood. In this, the re-establishment.
Definitely worth reading. I may not have cared all that much about the dated sex stuff or some of the side-stories but the amount of care he put into making everything hang together is quite extraordinary.
The main reason I enjoyed it was the worldbuilding. The characters, their having to deal with not only this alien world during different Great Seasons, are, at least to me, secondary to my sheer enjoyment of trying to understand the world itself.
This volume goes all the way in giving us a full explanation of the great cycles, the physiological changes that the humans and sub-human and alien creatures have to go through to survive the great winter, or by remembering Helliconia Summer, the reversed changes from here. (A great plague in either case, killing off so many but whomever survives, survives vastly changed.)
The comparisons between this world and the Earth, what happened to the Earth, our many colonies, was a fantastic addition.
But this is me. I love great worldbuilding, and that includes the sociological upheavals in these books. It was often about plain survival and while I did have some issues about the returning of all this religiosity that they had apparently escaped in Summer, I understand it. Everyone's brains changed. It was survival of the most isolationist, exploitative. It's a good message even if I personally thought it was horrible. It's a great mirror to the first book. In that one, we got a rebellion and the collapse of the priesthood. In this, the re-establishment.
Definitely worth reading. I may not have cared all that much about the dated sex stuff or some of the side-stories but the amount of care he put into making everything hang together is quite extraordinary.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 94 reviews