Celestis

by Paul Park

Paul Park's world of Celestis is not as dark and brooding as that of Paradise in his Sugar Rain books, but the story is even more disturbing. Humans have subjugated the planet's native aboriginals in those ways that humans often do. On the surface, all is calm and civilized: aboriginals appear happy with the lifestyle change, the cultural opportunities now available, and a victory over another native race that had enslaved them for centuries. But the calm is only a veneer that hides the decay and anger beneath, a short-term peace.

Park details the worms of decay through his description of Katherine, the daughter of a wealthy, Westernized native merchant. Katherine is a devout Catholic and takes drugs and undergoes periodic plastic surgery to make her more human; with her transplanted knucklebones, she can even play Beethoven on her concert piano. Katherine and Simon, a young diplomat assigned to Celestis, are thrown together when they're kidnapped during an uprising. Simon falls in love with her, but Katherine, cut off from the medication she needs to keep her humanlike, begins to revert to her natural--though to her quite unnatural--alien state.

A tangled predicament of violence, transformation, and loss, Celestis delivers an eerie view of history, psychology, and the perception of others.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Speculative Fiction, Aliens

Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Paul Park (born 1954) is an American science fiction author and fantasy author. He lives in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, with his wife and two children. He also teaches a Reading and Writing Science Fiction course at Williams College. He has also taught several times at the Clarion West Writing Workshop.

Park appeared on the American science fiction scene in 1987 and quickly established himself as a writer of polished, if often grim, literary science fiction. His first work was the Starbridge Chronicles trilogy, set on a world with generations-long seasons much like Brian Aldiss' Helliconia trilogy. His critically acclaimed novels have since dealt with colonialism on alien worlds (Coelestis), Biblical (Three Marys) and theosophical (The Gospel of Corax) legends, a parallel world where magic works (A Princess of Roumania and its sequels, The Tourmaline, The White Tyger and The Hidden World), and other topics. He has published short stories in Omni Magazine, Interzone and other magazines.

Reviews

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

At times I had a problem finding a sympathetic character, but the portrayal of aliens (to us at least) is as thoughtful and interesting as any I've seen in science fiction. Paul Park's portrayal of futuristic imperialism is imaginative and disturbing.

[Celeste · Rating 5 out of 5]

A well-written dark view of humanity through a Sci-fi lense. The ending is haunting.

[Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have the hardback of this book.

Ostensibly, Paul Park writes Science fiction. But I believe he writes literary fiction using SF as a skin around the body of his work. There are definitely ideas of importance in this book, but it's not something I would normally read if I hadn't met Paul Park and know him to be a nice and generous fellow. Frankly, there are elements here that I didn't understand, which may be good, although it can be frustrating at times. If you are looking for space opera type SF, or SF heavy with adventure, then this book probably isn't for you. If you like a literature of ideas or are a literary reader looking for something a bit different, this might be right down your alley.

[P.A. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm writing this review a good year after finishing the book. Life happened and all the things... so my memory of the exact details is not great. I'll just say that if life would kindly get out of the way for a bit, and if I can find my copy of this excellent work, I'll happily re-read.

Loved it. Surprising, insightful, complex, are the features I recall. Yeah, OK I do need to go find that dog-earred copy.

[Purlewe · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't tell if I liked this or not.

It truly makes us humans look the most inhumane than any other sci-fi book I've ever read.

Simon, a kind of attache to the gov't, is sent to a party in place of his boss. Katharine is an altered human, a native to the planet who has taken drugs and surgery to make herself look as human as possible. She is devoted to religious icons, she plays the piano, she has attended private schools with other human girls. She is at the party with her wealthy father. Both Katharine and Simon are captured during a raid of aboriginals who hate humans. Cut off from her medications, Katharine is slowly returning to her native form. Which is dark and wild and rich and more connected to the world they live on than any human could ever hope to understand.

You see the book thru both their eyes. And the end is full of hopelessness. I think that is what gets me. It has no hope. Humans continue to bulldoze their way past anything that they can't understand. Making others conform or be eradicated. You could see this parallel with say any dominate culture over another. And this is what is upsetting.. altho good to see it done in such a complete way. You GET why Katharine is adjusting to her original state.. and you GET why Simon is continuing in the only way he knows. And yet is is hopeless.

[Greg Scott · Rating 1 out of 5]

Found this book in a used bookstore and knew nothing about it. Wow! It was hard to follow which were dreams and which was reality. Difficult to follow in general. Honestly it felt like I was reading something from someone on an LSD trip. I never did understand all of the connections between the Brotherhood, the Abo's, the demons and the humans. The writing style could be choppy, overly descriptive and confusing. I do think the premise of colonialism was a good one and it did make me think of past social conflicts.

[Skai Sheline · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was able to make it halfway through the book before my engagement fizzled out. Celestis is challenging to follow because the character descriptions and their motivations were often written far past their introductions, making it hard to sympathize with them or keep track of them.
However, I do find Paul's ideas to be very interesting, and I also held interest in the symbolic and dream-like scenes that explored alien psychology, which was the part of the book that emotionally resonated with me. Yet, it was not enough for me to push through till the end.

[Reet · Rating 3 out of 5]

Imperialist HUmans find a planet to sustain life after the Earth is all used up. Two Aboriginal races live there and the humans genocide one of the races, and force the other to take a medication that limits their senses; to enslave them. A good story for a misanthropa like myself, but not for a misandrist like myself.

[Cynthia Myers · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very sad and sobering tale, a replay of our European treatment of so many native peoples here on earth. The Americas, Australia, Africa, but through a futuristic lens. The writing style was different but the story was moving.

[Paul Abukhalil · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thinly veiled commentary on colonialism where the natives live in another world both literally and figuratively. Some of the imagery was haunting and has stuck with me. The story breaks down toward the end. I think I may need to reread this someday.

[Cynthia · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read it because of Kim Stanley Robinson 's quote....yeah no. I kept reading it to try to understand. Nope nope nope.

[Daniel · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.5 - not good. Weird.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hmm. Interesting start, I enjoyed it until about halfway through, and then it all went a bit weird.

[Anne Hamilton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Simon Marayam has left earth, sere and dessicated, to become a consular official on a distant planet. His linguistic skill has enabled him to master the language and culture of twentieth century America, a society whose mores have been reproduced in all their imperialistic violence and jingoism on a world where the aboriginal inhabitants have undergone extreme enhancements to appear human. Few have had more surgery and chemical additives than Katharine Styreme who has become the epitome of a flawlessly beautiful and talented teenager.

When revolution threatens, Simon and Katharine are at a party when they are taken hostage. But the hoped-for exchange vanishes when the prisoner they were to be swapped for is murdered. They find themselves relying on the erratic Kiyungu priest, Martin Cohen - a man who is able to understand the language of the "demons" - the giant and alien homo coelestis, Celestial Man - who feed on pain and who are both the masters and slaves of the aboriginal peoples.

Without her drugs, Katharine is reverting in spurts and jerks to something other than human. Simon, sexually and emotionally entangled with her, is blinded by his own needs to the emerging changes in relationship as they seek safety by heading for the dark road crossing the ice to Shackleton Station.

A complex and subtle exploration of condescension, exploitation, colonialism, bigotry, manipulation and cultural misunderstanding.

[Shawn Szczepanski · Rating 2 out of 5]

A few lines of brilliant writing and prose are scattered among the first hundred pages, but the characters are nearly impossible to care about or for, and the plot is so obtuse and poorly conveyed there's little reason to pay it mind either. A textbook example of why explicit sex scenes are rarely necessary and nearly always cringe inducing events that make the books worse.

[Sarah]

don't know what was going on at all, so i didn't bother finishing. it's fine if you don' tknow what's going on, but you have to be interested in finding out!

[Altairdroke♥82 · Rating 5 out of 5]

interesting book, the author mudt br a genius

[Ron Henry · Rating 4 out of 5]

As with all of Park's books I have read, I found Celestis elegant, compelling, disturbing, and stylishly-written. Complex, troubled, and troubling characters struggling to deal with an ambiguous and morally difficult set of situations.

Certainly recommended for all those interested in literary speculative fiction.