Phoenix

by Richard Cowper

Front Cover: "He was from the decadent past -- and there was no place for him in the primitive future..."

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

186 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1967

About the author

Pen name for John Middleton Murry Jr.

Reviews

[iambehindu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Colin Murray wrote his second science fiction novel, Phoenix, under his pseudonym Richard Cowper in 1968. A late bloomer to SF, Cowper was around 41 when he made the transition from literary novels to our infamous genre. I am reminded of George Turner, a forgotten Australian SF writer, who composed his first novel in the genre at the ripe age of 62. It's always impressive when ideas are still flowing as writers enter the creative dog days of later life.

Phoenix is not a masterpiece like The Twilight of Briareus , but contrary to the widespread dismissal of Cowper’s work on this platform, it is nowhere near a bad novel.

The thing about Cowper is that he is a writer first. This should come as no surprise given his roots as a fiction novelist and that his father, John Middleton Murry, was also a writer and an acclaimed critic who associated around the likes of D.H. Lawrence and T.S. Eliot. Cowper grew up in the literary shadow of his father but it was not a shadow that swallowed him; Cowper became an excellent novelist.

As a reader, if you have that presupposition that story must come first, Cowper is worth a try. Perhaps what makes him so unusual among other writers in the genre is his craftsmanship. Cowper’s stories are anachronistic, at times sprinkled with soft magic and medieval romance. They do appear to long for another time, but not like some meretricious daydream, his writing welcomes you into time and place, almost convivial in its composition, but still very much concerned with the spectra of human behavior that is entirely relevant to the reader.

Despite that Phoenix was marketed as science fiction, this is science fantasy, and here we find a thematic seedling to what Cowper would later explore in the White Bird of Kinship trilogy.

The early parts of the novel are concerned with Bard, likely an autobiographical stand-in for Cowper, who lives in the 24th century, a technologically advanced future with the usual symptoms of genre utopia. Bard is a misplaced romantic, a poet whose heart belongs to another age. No doubt a symptom of idealistic youth, he is unable to contend with his current position in life, despite having every opportunity available to him. Bard opts in for Suspended Animation, a sophisticated form of cryonics, where he can sleep away the confusing years of the young and wake up into his inheritance and when the woman he loves returns from Mars.

Unbeknownst to him for the majority of the novel, he wakes up in exactly the time that is most befitting of his atavistic qualities. 15 centuries in the future, where the world has reverted back to a Dark Age, where all the mystique of those early centuries now mostly lost to us, has revived.

No doubt, these are simple tropes: young man who lives in future does not fit in and conveniently wakes up in a era, that while not without issues, is more becoming of his character. But again, it’s Cowper’s abilities as a writer that give him a pass here. His characters are vivid, their dialogue realistic and feverishly readable. Fans of Christopher Priest, Michael Coney, Keith Roberts, and D.G. Compton should find good company in Cowper’s stories.

Personally, my own aesthetic taste tends to lean toward the more fringe areas of artistic exploration, metaphorical atmospheres and deliquescent narratives. Cowper strikes a chord in me that wants to feel directly, with intention, his stories are stable but not without dimension. In some sense, he makes the fantastic feel grounded and human. An important genre writer worthy of remembrance.

[Karl I · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting to read a Science fiction from way back. A very interesting story which thrusts you into a futuristic world, which drags for a bit with its little explanation and leads you into another world with even less explanation. All this creates a curiosity which grows throughout the read and surprisingly creates a pleasant experience after the very slow start. There seems to lack a definite plot, but there is a bunch of interesting ideas scattered in the 186 pages that kept me engaged trying to understand more of this alternate universe. As the book moved closer to the end, I didn’t know what to expect, but found the ending to be warm and charming, overall creating a pleasant experience!

[Des · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's certainly interesting but it's more about the ideas than any actual plot.

[Kathryn · Rating 1 out of 5]

The trouble with Phoenix is that Richard Cowper had an interesting idea for a story, but no story to go with it. He spends most of the book developing the setting, establishing the characters, and building suspense. And then he doesn’t do anything with what he’s established, and the ending reads as if it were hurriedly slapped on. It’s almost as if the editor forced Cowper to change his original ending, and gave him only a couple hours in which to do so.

I did a little googling, but couldn’t find any information on whether there is a sequel that ties up all the loose ends left dangling by the patched-on ending, and I gotta tell you, I really don’t care if there is. I was pretty pissed by the ending.

[Perry Whitford · Rating 1 out of 5]

A 23rd century student enters into suspended animation for three years in order to get to the day when he can legally withdraw his inheritance, but doesn't wake until over fifteen hundred years later where, for mostly unexplained reasons, society closely mirrors that of Ancient Rome.

Flimsy characterisation, pulp-quality writing, implausible plot resolutions and patronising attitudes towards women - many of sci-fi's worst crimes are all present and correct in this lame period piece.

I have another couple of books by Cowper on the shelf. I won't be rushing to read either of them.

[SciFiOne · Rating 4 out of 5]

1979 grade B+