A Hostage for Hinterland

by Arsen Darnay

They rode to the floating urban structure city on horseback. Ecofreak tribesmen in beaded leather suits. Their long hair was braided, their faces tanned; and gilded red Crestmore bibles hung from their belts.

They had come to negotiate with urban leaders for the helium so desperately needed to keep the structures aloft.

At least, that's what everyone thought...

But the truth was that they had come to fulfil a prophecy—a prophecy of death and carnage that would sweep the powerful urban structures from the face of the Earth forever!

Genres: Science Fiction

248 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published November 12, 1976

About the author

Arsen Julius Darnay. Hungarian-born writer, in the USA from 1953 and a US citizen from 1961. He resides in Michigan with wife Brigitte Theodora nee Schulz, retired reference publisher, also born in Europe. They have 3 children, 5 grandchildren, and 2+ great-grandchildren.
http://www.isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/B...

Since age 7, he has considered his "calling to be a writer, even poet". His first sf story, "The Splendid Freedom", appeared in Galaxy in 1974; his first novel, A Hostage for Hinterland, set the pattern for much of his work: in a Post-Holocaust USA, where floating Cities depend upon land-dwelling ecofreak tribesmen for the helium that cools their reactors, crisis erupts into a bleak and somewhat metaphysical confrontation, at the end of which the cities die. A similarly abstract dichotomy, set on a Rimworld, is destabilized in The Siege of Faltara (1978). The Splendid Freedom (collection of linked stories, 1980) carries its protagonists, who are linked through Reincarnation, into a variety of Dystopias. Darnay did not publish fiction 1981-2009.

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Hostage for Hinterland was serialized in three issues of Jim Baen's Galaxy magazine April - July (there was no May issue for some reason) in 1975 with the title Helium. Del Rey released it in mass market format at the end of the following year with this different title, presumably to avoid confusion with Burroughs' John Carter books, and with a striking Boris Vallejo cover. It's a post-apocalyptic political story that's somewhat dated; remember the phrases "peacenik" and "ecofreak"? The characters are fairly well handled, and the positives and negatives of all parties are presented, though it seems to have more than a little of a libertarian flair. It's a little hard to follow at times, but it's not bad. I gave it two-and-a-half and rounded up.

[Derek · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm mystified when a book has a Boris Vallejo cover and is not filled with "Boris Vallejo action". The cover scene shows the events of the first few pages and then the book dives into the political conflicts between and among the various power groups of this ill-described, weirdo society. Scene after scene of dialog and rumination between people you don't care about over things you don't understand.

There's merit in an intricate story, methodically constructed from the push and pull of the constituent characters and how they all lock together, and merit in the mystery of dumping the reader into an environment full of unknowns. Doing both? Ambitious and fraught with risk. And Darnay does not pull it off.

[Eric N. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reminiscent of Dune as post-apocalypse Earthers battle for control of Helium. Lots of talk and world building,little action.

[Richard Gombert · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wow this is a bad book.
This book is very creedist, sexist and racist.
I find it amazing that this was published in Galaxy magazine back in the 1970s.

[Adam Lamar · Rating 5 out of 5]

A favorite of mine since the Vallejo cover art seized my imagination as a teenager.

I loved the book and have re-read more times than I can remember.