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The Pillars of Eternity / The Garments of Caean
A novelHow clones make murder a new sexual experience...How rebuilding one man's skeleton made him the most sensitive and powerful man in the galaxy...How a deck of cards was devised that was really programmed to reveal the future...How a lost planet became the mecca of every treasure-hunter in space...How Joachim Boaz plotted to derail the entire universe!
416 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1982
5 people are currently reading
134 people want to read
About the author
Barrington J. Bayley
72 books40 followersBarrington J. Bayley published work principally under his own name but also using the pseudonyms ofAlan Aumbry, Michael Barrington (with Michael Moorcock), John Diamond and P.F. Woods.
Bayley was born in Birmingham and educated in Newport, Shropshire. He worked in a number of jobs before joining the Royal Air Force in 1955; his first published story, "Combat's End", had seen print the year before in UK-only publication Vargo Statten Magazine.
During the 1960s, Bayley's short stories featured regularly in New Worlds magazine and later in its successor, the paperback anthologies of the same name. He became friends with New Worlds editor Michael Moorcock, who largely instigated science fiction's New Wave movement. Bayley himself was part of the movement.
Bayley's first book, Star Virus, was followed by more than a dozen other novels; his downbeat, gloomy approach to novel writing has been cited as influential on the works of M. John Harrison, Brian Stableford and Bruce Sterling.
Bayley was born in Birmingham and educated in Newport, Shropshire. He worked in a number of jobs before joining the Royal Air Force in 1955; his first published story, "Combat's End", had seen print the year before in UK-only publication Vargo Statten Magazine.
During the 1960s, Bayley's short stories featured regularly in New Worlds magazine and later in its successor, the paperback anthologies of the same name. He became friends with New Worlds editor Michael Moorcock, who largely instigated science fiction's New Wave movement. Bayley himself was part of the movement.
Bayley's first book, Star Virus, was followed by more than a dozen other novels; his downbeat, gloomy approach to novel writing has been cited as influential on the works of M. John Harrison, Brian Stableford and Bruce Sterling.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
October 18, 2013
I was trolling about the internet one day when I should have been working and I came across the Cheap Truth summary of Barrington J. Bayley’s science fiction. I thought anything described as the “literary equivalent of psilocybin” by the “Zen master of space opera” can’t be all bad.
Actually it’s a lot better! Comparisons with William S. Burroughs aside, this is space opera of a high order. The Pillars of Eternity is grand, fast paced, full of high adventure, and high ideas. Try to imagine Seneca the Stoic starring in a cross between The Maltese Falcon and The DaVinci Code crafted by Doc Smith and you might get the idea.
http://fireandsword.blogspot.com/2007...
Actually it’s a lot better! Comparisons with William S. Burroughs aside, this is space opera of a high order. The Pillars of Eternity is grand, fast paced, full of high adventure, and high ideas. Try to imagine Seneca the Stoic starring in a cross between The Maltese Falcon and The DaVinci Code crafted by Doc Smith and you might get the idea.
http://fireandsword.blogspot.com/2007...
December 12, 2024
3.5/5 stars, rounding down. This review is only for The Pillars of Eternity.
For some reason, Goodreads doesn’t have the book by itself. Well, I have a copy in my hands, so it exists, Goodreads!
A deformed boy is given a new lot on life after a man takes pity on him, giving the boy a new bone structure. These new bones are made of super processors, allowing the boy to gain superhuman abilities; for example, enhancing his senses.
Once the boy grows into a man, he explores the universe. On one of these trips, he accidentally comes in contact with a highly powerful fire that burns him alive—only because of his enhancements, he doesn’t die, he has his senses enhanced to the maximum, and he doesn’t lose consciousness. For most people, they would pass out at such high thresholds of pain, but he couldn’t.
Now psychically damaged and forced to use a spaceship to funnel his consciousness to him, our protagonist travels the galaxy hoping to end his suffering for good.
Bayley’s made something unique here. It’s a world that feels surreal and vivid. There’s a lot of potent themes that explore stoicism vs epicureanism, faith vs science, life vs death, pain vs pleasure—all in a unique setting full of space and adventure. It’s a lot. A lot to digest. It’s like drinking from a fire hose and the water is purely ideas and ideas and more ideas.
The characters aren’t really engaging, which is fine. None of them stand out from each other, but they represent different aspects of the protagonist’s journey. Likewise the world is unique, but only a fleeting glimpse of the full universe. The book will reveal “people have death sex—they will ask to be murdered and their consciousness goes into a clone body”, and then the book moves on. There’s a few things like this. In fact, in my DAW edition, the whole back cover copy is just snippets of these fleeting ideas, and I think it would take a savant to try and mesh them all together into a perfect novel where each idea coalesced into a solid execution. I think Bayley was really smart—smarter than me—but I don’t think he quite stuck the landing.
I think this is a book that I would like I would like better upon a reread. Perhaps I could tie the pieces together better if I understand where Bayley was going. Perhaps I could ignore the extraneous details and just get swept up in the desperation of the protagonist’s plight.
Perhaps, perhaps.
For some reason, Goodreads doesn’t have the book by itself. Well, I have a copy in my hands, so it exists, Goodreads!
A deformed boy is given a new lot on life after a man takes pity on him, giving the boy a new bone structure. These new bones are made of super processors, allowing the boy to gain superhuman abilities; for example, enhancing his senses.
Once the boy grows into a man, he explores the universe. On one of these trips, he accidentally comes in contact with a highly powerful fire that burns him alive—only because of his enhancements, he doesn’t die, he has his senses enhanced to the maximum, and he doesn’t lose consciousness. For most people, they would pass out at such high thresholds of pain, but he couldn’t.
Now psychically damaged and forced to use a spaceship to funnel his consciousness to him, our protagonist travels the galaxy hoping to end his suffering for good.
Bayley’s made something unique here. It’s a world that feels surreal and vivid. There’s a lot of potent themes that explore stoicism vs epicureanism, faith vs science, life vs death, pain vs pleasure—all in a unique setting full of space and adventure. It’s a lot. A lot to digest. It’s like drinking from a fire hose and the water is purely ideas and ideas and more ideas.
The characters aren’t really engaging, which is fine. None of them stand out from each other, but they represent different aspects of the protagonist’s journey. Likewise the world is unique, but only a fleeting glimpse of the full universe. The book will reveal “people have death sex—they will ask to be murdered and their consciousness goes into a clone body”, and then the book moves on. There’s a few things like this. In fact, in my DAW edition, the whole back cover copy is just snippets of these fleeting ideas, and I think it would take a savant to try and mesh them all together into a perfect novel where each idea coalesced into a solid execution. I think Bayley was really smart—smarter than me—but I don’t think he quite stuck the landing.
I think this is a book that I would like I would like better upon a reread. Perhaps I could tie the pieces together better if I understand where Bayley was going. Perhaps I could ignore the extraneous details and just get swept up in the desperation of the protagonist’s plight.
Perhaps, perhaps.
August 1, 2011
Before even cracking it open, this book raises the question: was it written by the Barrington J. Bayley of the quirky and intriguing The Fall of Chronopolis or the BJB of the lazy and slipshod Empire of Two Worlds? Fortunately, the former.
Bayley has an interestingly off-kilter viewpoint. He plays with philosophical systems of dubious merit, from the zenlike collinadors with their refined version of tarot reading to the actual practice of alchemy, described loosely as a system that parallels that of chemistry. This seems to be his recurring theme: presenting ancient spiritualism or superstition within a scientific or science-fictional context.
Bayley has an interestingly off-kilter viewpoint. He plays with philosophical systems of dubious merit, from the zenlike collinadors with their refined version of tarot reading to the actual practice of alchemy, described loosely as a system that parallels that of chemistry. This seems to be his recurring theme: presenting ancient spiritualism or superstition within a scientific or science-fictional context.
March 1, 2020
Full review: https://sciencefictionruminations.com...
"Barrington J. Bayley, an English sci-fi writer and a member of the Science Fiction New Wave, is considered a lost great — if not for his novels as novels, but for his well of bizarre/extraordinary/and disturbing ideas. I recently reviewed one of his earlier works, Star Winds (1978) and was completely put off. However, a trip to the local book store yielded very few works [...]."
"Barrington J. Bayley, an English sci-fi writer and a member of the Science Fiction New Wave, is considered a lost great — if not for his novels as novels, but for his well of bizarre/extraordinary/and disturbing ideas. I recently reviewed one of his earlier works, Star Winds (1978) and was completely put off. However, a trip to the local book store yielded very few works [...]."
September 15, 2023
3.5
v imaginative, quite silly, over all a good time
v imaginative, quite silly, over all a good time
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews