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The Last Starship from Earth
This novel is set in a dystopian society in the very near future. Although it is not obvious at first, this is also an alternate history story. In this world, Jesus Christ became a revolutionary agitator and was never subjected to crucifixion. He assembled an army to overthrow the Roman Empire, and established a theocracy that has lasted until the twentieth century.
181 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1967
7 people are currently reading
720 people want to read
About the author
John Boyd
14 books25 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
John Boyd was the primary pen-name of Boyd Bradfield Upchurch, an American science fiction author.
John Boyd was the primary pen-name of Boyd Bradfield Upchurch, an American science fiction author.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 62 reviews
July 13, 2024
This was John Boyd's first novel, certainly his best-known and arguably his best. I think it's his most polished novel, filled with interesting word choices and neat literary flourishes. It's dedicated to the memory of Henry Tudor VIII, for example. It's a Utopian story, influenced by Brave New World and 1984, in which a far future mathematician falls in love with a poet, a class mix which is not acceptable. It's a far-future space-faring tale that becomes an alternate universe story and ends with some satiric time-travel. (Hint: crossbow becomes cross.) It's a very good example of late-1960s political and religious satire and has aged better than many of his other books. Weybright and Talley published it in 1968 with a gorgeous green Paul Lehr wrap-around cover, which Berkeley had the good sense to keep when they released the mass market paperback in the following year.
June 12, 2018
A tricksy mix of dystopia, time travel, and WTF. The playful use of language is a real delight, and the twists and turns as it nears the end will leave your head spinning. You'll never think about physics or poetry quite the same way again. And Whitewater Jones, who is on stage for only about two pages, is one of my favorite secondary characters ever.
January 29, 2012
Ya'd think with a title like this there is a chance that this is all about the wipe out of a fleet of ships going into the far reaches of the galaxy or some crap. No. This is a book on control of the line of humanity to breed a perfect society with eugenics and manipulation. Some great patches in the book reminds me of Brave New World (caste system with numbers and letters), 1984 (virgins for the state, big brother types spying for aberrations) and maybe a little bit of Behold the Man (Jesus? Hey, we got a problem here, drink this).
This alternate earth uses the sign of the crossbow and the electronic pope to steer people towards doing the 'state' thing. Crimes against the caste are crimes against a balanced society. The math obsessed Haldane IV gets sucked out of the sex recreation gyms and into the world of poetry due to a hussy who dropped some math poetry crossover hints. The deeper you go, the weirder the history is, tying in with "murdering" the son of the greatest mathematician that ever lived, by...father? Things go bad when you mess around outside your math caste so there is a lot of looking over the shoulder and hints to the next meeting throughout (some major Orwell paranoia going on).
By the end of the book you get hints of relativity and how the crossbow can be made into the cross, giving the society a different bend on the Christ mythos. I don't want to spoil the finale too much, but the whole plot almost goes the full circle of doing everything speculative fiction is supposed to do in this book. Late 60s gem. Way outta print too? Good luck bub.
This alternate earth uses the sign of the crossbow and the electronic pope to steer people towards doing the 'state' thing. Crimes against the caste are crimes against a balanced society. The math obsessed Haldane IV gets sucked out of the sex recreation gyms and into the world of poetry due to a hussy who dropped some math poetry crossover hints. The deeper you go, the weirder the history is, tying in with "murdering" the son of the greatest mathematician that ever lived, by...father? Things go bad when you mess around outside your math caste so there is a lot of looking over the shoulder and hints to the next meeting throughout (some major Orwell paranoia going on).
By the end of the book you get hints of relativity and how the crossbow can be made into the cross, giving the society a different bend on the Christ mythos. I don't want to spoil the finale too much, but the whole plot almost goes the full circle of doing everything speculative fiction is supposed to do in this book. Late 60s gem. Way outta print too? Good luck bub.
June 15, 2014
I chose to read this book because I was seeking classic science fiction from a time when ideas were more important that character development or even plot development. In this, this book succeeds although it is dated and certainly not forward thinking in many areas. Some ideas are so hurried that it becomes a wild ride by the end where I was left wondering how it even got there. The tale is about a very specialized society where professional fields (and apparently everything else) are highly segregated. A young mathematician meets a beautiful poet class girl and of course becomes obsessed with her. Their forbidden romantic relationship is a crime against the state, apparently run by sociologists. Science has assumed prominence over religion as the pope in this book is a computer. (That certainly sounds naive in our time where the schism between science and religion seems to be growing for the most part.) Science and religion get mixed even more strangely but to my disappointment, it's really a rushed, almost afterthought to the more straightforward story of a forbidden love in a society that doesn't permit unions across these very segregated divisions. I guess it isn't a spoiler to state that the ultimate outcome does involve a starship from Earth. It's just too bad the part after that was so rushed. I expect this was daring enough when published in the late 1960's that the author just didn't develop it further. I would have liked to have seen more.
July 9, 2019
Set in a future society where citizens are split bewteen professionals and proletarians, and the state is run by a triumvirate of Soc(iologists), Psyc(hologists) and the Church.
A scientist named Fairweather discovered a Simultaneity Formula that made travel to the stars easily possible, yet the spaceships are used to exile those accused of "deviationism" to planet Hell, where Jesus Christ seems is worshipped in an unfamiliar way, the sign of the cross replaced by a mysterious sign of the "crossbow".
Selective breeding dictates that human relationships are restricted to the same class. Then a mathematician (Haldane IV, M-5 category) falls in love with a poet of the artistic class (Helix, A-7) with a speciality in 18th century romantic verse.
I decided to read this novel due to the enthusiastic quotes from Arthur C. Clarke and Robert Heinlein on the cover (indeed, without giving too much away, "Hell" bares a fair resemblance to the kind of place that Heinlein would consider as Heaven).
Those two worthies noticed the obvious Brave New World and 1984 influences, but seemed to have entirely missed the wretched dialogue and feather-headed prose, e.g. "She was a logical impossibility. He knew that she must have liver and lungs and a thorax that functioned as those of any girl, but the whole was greater than the parts".
Boyd certainly had an interesting idea, which only become clear at the end, but otherwise this novel is very much a product of that chauvinistic, semi-illiterate sci-fi school of the 1960's.
A scientist named Fairweather discovered a Simultaneity Formula that made travel to the stars easily possible, yet the spaceships are used to exile those accused of "deviationism" to planet Hell, where Jesus Christ seems is worshipped in an unfamiliar way, the sign of the cross replaced by a mysterious sign of the "crossbow".
Selective breeding dictates that human relationships are restricted to the same class. Then a mathematician (Haldane IV, M-5 category) falls in love with a poet of the artistic class (Helix, A-7) with a speciality in 18th century romantic verse.
I decided to read this novel due to the enthusiastic quotes from Arthur C. Clarke and Robert Heinlein on the cover (indeed, without giving too much away, "Hell" bares a fair resemblance to the kind of place that Heinlein would consider as Heaven).
Those two worthies noticed the obvious Brave New World and 1984 influences, but seemed to have entirely missed the wretched dialogue and feather-headed prose, e.g. "She was a logical impossibility. He knew that she must have liver and lungs and a thorax that functioned as those of any girl, but the whole was greater than the parts".
Boyd certainly had an interesting idea, which only become clear at the end, but otherwise this novel is very much a product of that chauvinistic, semi-illiterate sci-fi school of the 1960's.
August 13, 2012
In a society with strict class and career divisions, a poet and a mathematician cross specializations and break laws to fall in love, beginning a strange chain of events. The first line of my review notes reads, "Good my lord, what was that"--and I have no better way to summarize this book. A dystopia-cum-social commentary in line with Fahrenheit 451 or 1984, but plagued with vast inconsistencies of content, worldbuilding, and tone, it's hard to make much of The Last Starship from Earth. It's humorous in a flippant, almost whimsical way that largely serves to undercut its would-be serious content and it offers up a near-adolescent, vaguely problematic preoccupation with sex; its scope is ridiculously broad, leaving contradictions and gaps in its wake. On one hand, the premise aims high and the vast scope creates a constant sense of motion, and so the book is intriguing and quick; on the other, it seems to stumble into itself without forethought or proactivity, more interested in hitting a row of notes than making any sort of melody out of them. It's largely harmless, and has glimpses of potential, but there are better dystopias out there; I don't recommend this one.
Want to read
June 6, 2009"Rarely is it given man to know the day or the hour when fate intervenes in his destiny, but, because he had checked his watch just before he saw the girl with the hips, Haldane IV knew the day, the hour, and the minute." Thus begins the forbidden love of a theoretical mathematician and a poet.
June 9, 2020
I don't really know what to think about this book, because I'm not sure how much of it is serious, and how much is tongue-in-cheek. It takes place in a future where the state is run by Soc(iologists), Psyc(hologists), and the Church (led by a mechanical pope, a huge computer in a monstrous church building). People have their life and careers regulated by their family status, with the state assigning partners and keeping tabs. Also, there are starships that are only used to bring prisoners to the planet Hell. Apparently their history diverged from ours when Jesus didn't die young, but instead marched on Rome, successfully. (The divergance is tiny for that sort of change, but hey.)
The protagonist, a somewhat obnoxious brilliant young mathematician, Haldane IV, falls in love with a young woman from the artistic class, Helix. But falling in love is super verboten, so while she awakens his mind to poetry and emotions, they're in constant danger of getting caught. Then, of course, they get caught. It turns out that the protagonist has the "Fairweather syndrome", which means he is brilliant and dangerous to society, so they get shipped off to Hell. There it turns out everybody is flourishing, it's dissenter hell, intentionally designed into the system. And they have time machines, and have to send Haldane back in time to prevent Jesus from doing his thing. In a breakneck speed on the last couple of pages, he succeeds, and apparently spirits Jesus away onto the titular last starship, sending him to the colony on Hell, and choosing to stay behind as the itinerant Eternal Jew. Yes.
So here is a thing: For the first quarter of the book, I low-key expected a reveal that everybody was a robot, left behind on Earth, because everybody was terribly wooden and formal and unmoved and really very robotic. I guess that's meant to be due to their rigid social order, but I can't suspend my disbelief that much. Just like [Jo Walton can't believe Plato's Republic](https://books.rixx.de/reviews/2020/am...), I can't suspend my disbelief to assume a society where everybody behaves like this, where a total reglementation of marriages is accepted as common and good, and people following their, ugh, "primal urges" is basically unheard-of.
In the same way, you could attribute all opinions about Helix to the protagonist being pompous and raised in a terrible society, but they come across as too neat, too women-am-I-right-mate. Even with the final reveal that Helix was sent to get Haldane to Hell, and is really quite brilliant, it didn't feel like it made up for the bulk of the book. If you're charitable, you have to assume that we get an entire book presented through the lens of a pompous self-important mathematician, so you can just laugh it all off – but it didn't click for me. Maybe it's just that humour markers were lost in time, the 60s were another country after all. Anyways, I didn't enjoy it very much, even though parts of it – the mechanical Pope! – were creative and neat.
The protagonist, a somewhat obnoxious brilliant young mathematician, Haldane IV, falls in love with a young woman from the artistic class, Helix. But falling in love is super verboten, so while she awakens his mind to poetry and emotions, they're in constant danger of getting caught. Then, of course, they get caught. It turns out that the protagonist has the "Fairweather syndrome", which means he is brilliant and dangerous to society, so they get shipped off to Hell. There it turns out everybody is flourishing, it's dissenter hell, intentionally designed into the system. And they have time machines, and have to send Haldane back in time to prevent Jesus from doing his thing. In a breakneck speed on the last couple of pages, he succeeds, and apparently spirits Jesus away onto the titular last starship, sending him to the colony on Hell, and choosing to stay behind as the itinerant Eternal Jew. Yes.
So here is a thing: For the first quarter of the book, I low-key expected a reveal that everybody was a robot, left behind on Earth, because everybody was terribly wooden and formal and unmoved and really very robotic. I guess that's meant to be due to their rigid social order, but I can't suspend my disbelief that much. Just like [Jo Walton can't believe Plato's Republic](https://books.rixx.de/reviews/2020/am...), I can't suspend my disbelief to assume a society where everybody behaves like this, where a total reglementation of marriages is accepted as common and good, and people following their, ugh, "primal urges" is basically unheard-of.
In the same way, you could attribute all opinions about Helix to the protagonist being pompous and raised in a terrible society, but they come across as too neat, too women-am-I-right-mate. Even with the final reveal that Helix was sent to get Haldane to Hell, and is really quite brilliant, it didn't feel like it made up for the bulk of the book. If you're charitable, you have to assume that we get an entire book presented through the lens of a pompous self-important mathematician, so you can just laugh it all off – but it didn't click for me. Maybe it's just that humour markers were lost in time, the 60s were another country after all. Anyways, I didn't enjoy it very much, even though parts of it – the mechanical Pope! – were creative and neat.
January 24, 2016
This is such a surprising and bizarre book. I picked it up on a whim in the bookstore and found myself both intrigued and dismayed by the amount of unabashed bravado and sexism on the first page alone. To be clear, the book was written in a different generation for a different set of sensibilities. If you're politically sensitive, this might not be the book for you. If not, however, the book is a quick and interesting read.
What I liked about the book was the way it
For picking up a book on a whim, I was pretty happy with this one. I lost some sleep finishing it, which is high praise. Despite its faults, I would probably recommend it to anyone who likes their sci-fi spiced with some mystery.
Note: This book isn't hard sci-fi. If you need scientific realism, you'll likely be pretty annoyed.
What I liked about the book was the way it
For picking up a book on a whim, I was pretty happy with this one. I lost some sleep finishing it, which is high praise. Despite its faults, I would probably recommend it to anyone who likes their sci-fi spiced with some mystery.
Note: This book isn't hard sci-fi. If you need scientific realism, you'll likely be pretty annoyed.
August 21, 2013
Re-reading this book after a long time I am impressed just how well it has stood up. Although it was written in the 1960s it is still fresh and enjoyable. I've recently been introduced to Iain Banks and this is writing to equal Banks for that combination of sophistication with great readability.
I was a little worried by Robert Heinlein's comparison with 1984 and Brave New World on the cover. I can see why he did it - this another book about an all-controlling, totalitarian state - but I thought it meant the book might be a bit heavy, yet somehow the author makes it light and fun. My only criticism is the ending, which is terribly rushed (though quite a twist). But that does stop this being a great book, and Boyd should be remembered among the SF greats.
I was a little worried by Robert Heinlein's comparison with 1984 and Brave New World on the cover. I can see why he did it - this another book about an all-controlling, totalitarian state - but I thought it meant the book might be a bit heavy, yet somehow the author makes it light and fun. My only criticism is the ending, which is terribly rushed (though quite a twist). But that does stop this being a great book, and Boyd should be remembered among the SF greats.
February 17, 2016
This book is a good example of Hollywood-like realization of a possibly interesting sci-fi idea. Many issues resemble it as a being such, but main is primitiveness of everything is this book - dialogues, trains of thought, chess playing, depiction of social relations, knowledge of basic human psychology, trial, science... but the worst is the main twist:
Man, that's soooooooo naïve...
Man, that's soooooooo naïve...
May 15, 2022
Goes completely off the rails toward the end, and not in a good way.
July 24, 2014
This is considered to be one of the great classics of Science Fiction. It was written in 1968 right in the middle of the last large upheaval in European society. Students were demonstrating in most countries of the “Free World” against bourgeois restraints and in the US against the war in Vietnam. The idea that the world could be united in “Love, Peace and Harmony” didn’t sound that clichéd in those days.
This was his first and still his most famous novel. It starts out on a Dystopian world which is set-up in classes related to different major academic areas. Haldane (our hero) is a theoretical mathematician who is unhappy with the stringent structure presided over by the “Weird Sisters”. The sisters are Psychology, Sociology and the Church.
Haldane wants a more open society, and falls in love with a woman (Helix) from another discipline, which gets him into trouble with the ‘Powers That Be’. Eventually he is banished to a prison planet called ‘Hell’. At this point the book turns more to Space Opera and time-travel to create a better current world by altering the past. It gets a little convoluted at this point but it’s well constructed and plotted out.
There is a comedic streak planted throughout the book the book none better than when a Psychologist and Sociologist testify at Haldane’s trial. Their testimony is so confounded with non-sequiturs and non-speak (think Robin Williams spouting philosophy) that I found myself laughing out loud. The trial goes so badly that his lawyer is demoted to mopping floors in the Court House.
That this was Boyd’s first published science fiction novel is absolutely amazing, considering it was published when he was 49 years old (after having spent 24 years working for any engraving company) shows the power of his intellect. Thrown into the mix just for fun, is an explanation of the myth of the “Wandering Jew” and why Jesus was denied by Judas Iscariot.
Just a great, fun book. Shows how the power of an idea can change the world for good.
Zeb Kantrowitz zworstblog.blogspot.com
This was his first and still his most famous novel. It starts out on a Dystopian world which is set-up in classes related to different major academic areas. Haldane (our hero) is a theoretical mathematician who is unhappy with the stringent structure presided over by the “Weird Sisters”. The sisters are Psychology, Sociology and the Church.
Haldane wants a more open society, and falls in love with a woman (Helix) from another discipline, which gets him into trouble with the ‘Powers That Be’. Eventually he is banished to a prison planet called ‘Hell’. At this point the book turns more to Space Opera and time-travel to create a better current world by altering the past. It gets a little convoluted at this point but it’s well constructed and plotted out.
There is a comedic streak planted throughout the book the book none better than when a Psychologist and Sociologist testify at Haldane’s trial. Their testimony is so confounded with non-sequiturs and non-speak (think Robin Williams spouting philosophy) that I found myself laughing out loud. The trial goes so badly that his lawyer is demoted to mopping floors in the Court House.
That this was Boyd’s first published science fiction novel is absolutely amazing, considering it was published when he was 49 years old (after having spent 24 years working for any engraving company) shows the power of his intellect. Thrown into the mix just for fun, is an explanation of the myth of the “Wandering Jew” and why Jesus was denied by Judas Iscariot.
Just a great, fun book. Shows how the power of an idea can change the world for good.
Zeb Kantrowitz zworstblog.blogspot.com
May 16, 2019
The Last Starship from Earth (a novel) by John Boyd
Back in the late sixties early seventies I joined the science fiction book club and this was one of many offerings. I still have the 1968 edition they sent me and it's in fair condition. What wasn't so much intact was my recall of the story; so I had to reread it. I was seventeen in 1968 when this was published and I was going to Junior College while just barely becoming eighteen. This book creates for me the feeling of a literary epic. It's written in the time of cold wars and civil uprisings and government conspiracies. All a perfect back drop for a dystopic tale of a parallel universe. A universe where Christ didn't die as a martyr and the church took the world by storm rather than suffering persecution as happened in ours. A 'what if' story that begins in a far different version of 1968.
This book has a lot going for it in that it has a sort of twisted poetic bent that lends itself nicely to the prose of the author. What it lacks is consistent background on what might have wrought all the changes to bring us up to Haldane's world where space travel is already accomplished and we have the perfect society guarded by the "Weird Sisters" Psychology, Sociology and the Church. Sure: there are other disciplines such as Mathematics and Poetry [those are two that drive the story]. What this book also lacks is involvement with what could have been the most important character. Part of this might well be the times it was written and the rest would probably fall to being a part of the continued tropes that trapes through all of histories diverse tomes.
I'm giving this book high marks for entertaining me and making me think and even a bit for nostalgia. I have to be honest and note that I didn't go happily down the trail of reading John Boyd's later works and in part that may be for the strange twist in structure that caused the plot to become un-potted at a certain point and an orphaned epilogue at the end that almost adds insult to injury in light of the fact that the entire book requires the reader to think upon the 'what if' proposed and realize that there is no true logical progression to how John Boyd got from there to where he did; which leaves it to the reader to do some research or at least have some understanding of the impact of Christianity upon western development. Even so it's left to the reader to determine how things took such a left turn because of the difference in how Christianity took foot.
So if Christ was not martyred on the cross and his movement brought down the Roman Empire without the bulk of Christianity being persecuted, that might change some things. One can only guess that perhaps the strength of the church and lack of humble roots may have excluded the reformation and the Protestant movement. But somehow the church and its two sisters Psychology and Sociology have slipped into a near socialistic totalitarian society whose highest judge is a mechanical Pope created by the worlds leading Mathematician Fairweather I, which is perhaps why John Boyd chose to make this a story of adolescent forbidden love between the Mathematician and a Poet. Forbidden love: lust perhaps would be allowed but not love and certainly there are taboos on any thought of an offspring from such forbidden union. Our young man, Haldane, makes a wrong turn on the way to a Mathematics conference and ends up at a museum where he meets Helix [the essence of a spirit that might rival Helen of Troy]; and his inexplicable love at first sight only drives home the importance of this character he has fallen for.
After a comedy of errors where the reader is left wondering, after a ream of logic about where Haldane could accidentally run into Helix on purpose only to find that she's not there, 'is she avoiding him. As it turns out while he's searched where she might be she seems to be searching where he should be and the two are going in opposite directions until she stumbles across his father and sets up a chance to meet Haldane through him. There's a lot of time and detail spent on the logistics necessary to create the illusion that any time they spend together has some logic to it and this becomes the part that reads like the average dystopic tale where the players move in the shadows trying to avoid detection of the secret police. Suffice it to say there will be a day of reckoning and when that comes there is a twist because Helix is pregnant and that makes things that much worse.
A trial ensues and this is where John Boyd drops the ball with Helix. She becomes a none entity as Haldane is taken to task for the wretched deed and he is worked at by the forces of Church, Psychology, and Sociology until they offer him the out, by placing all the blame and responsibility on Helix shoulders and denying his own love for her. He even refuses to recant when it becomes rather muddily clear that Helix may have been part of an entrapment that was set up to bring him down and expose his nature as a sufferer of the Fairweather Syndrome [named after Fairweather I's son Fairweather II (who was proven to be a most heinous criminal in society)]. With no cure: the only outcome for Haldane is to be deported to the planet Hell. This is all confirmed when the mechanical Pope asks Haldane if he loves Helix; Haldane can't deny it and is relegated to hell for the admission.
This is where our author, John Boyd, fell a bit more, because the next part takes some major twists and the first is with Helix. Without much real background of a character that is treated as backdrop; the story loses out. I could easily attribute this treatment as a part of the era this is written since the world prior to 1968 was still pretty primitive in some notions about women. And since this parallel world is in 1968 that seems to track okay in that the women may be treated as Helix is in this story. Still there is this whole notion that Helix has an effect on Haldane and she is compared to Helen of Troy and she deserves much more than she gets, but this is Haldane's story and this is how John Boyd chose tell it.
To go much further would contain all the spoilers that would make reading this redundant and I think that every lover of dystopia's should read and love this story. There are a few more twists before the epilogue and I would have been just as happy if I'd been left with the final twist in the final chapter. The epilogue can only be described as a corkscrew of twists that could boggle the mind on any thoughtful or thoughtless reader and was probably not necessary though it adds a certain flavor to the Haldane character that almost seems at odds with the one the reader has become intimate with.
I recommend this to all lovers of Science Fiction Fantasy with the caveat that not everyone will be happy with it and you will have to ask yourself if it's a deficiency in the author's writing or perhaps your own attempt to read too much into a story the author has left so much wiggle room for the reader to imagine.
Really good story that reflects some of the time it was written in, while still meeting the test of time.
J.L. Dobias
Back in the late sixties early seventies I joined the science fiction book club and this was one of many offerings. I still have the 1968 edition they sent me and it's in fair condition. What wasn't so much intact was my recall of the story; so I had to reread it. I was seventeen in 1968 when this was published and I was going to Junior College while just barely becoming eighteen. This book creates for me the feeling of a literary epic. It's written in the time of cold wars and civil uprisings and government conspiracies. All a perfect back drop for a dystopic tale of a parallel universe. A universe where Christ didn't die as a martyr and the church took the world by storm rather than suffering persecution as happened in ours. A 'what if' story that begins in a far different version of 1968.
This book has a lot going for it in that it has a sort of twisted poetic bent that lends itself nicely to the prose of the author. What it lacks is consistent background on what might have wrought all the changes to bring us up to Haldane's world where space travel is already accomplished and we have the perfect society guarded by the "Weird Sisters" Psychology, Sociology and the Church. Sure: there are other disciplines such as Mathematics and Poetry [those are two that drive the story]. What this book also lacks is involvement with what could have been the most important character. Part of this might well be the times it was written and the rest would probably fall to being a part of the continued tropes that trapes through all of histories diverse tomes.
I'm giving this book high marks for entertaining me and making me think and even a bit for nostalgia. I have to be honest and note that I didn't go happily down the trail of reading John Boyd's later works and in part that may be for the strange twist in structure that caused the plot to become un-potted at a certain point and an orphaned epilogue at the end that almost adds insult to injury in light of the fact that the entire book requires the reader to think upon the 'what if' proposed and realize that there is no true logical progression to how John Boyd got from there to where he did; which leaves it to the reader to do some research or at least have some understanding of the impact of Christianity upon western development. Even so it's left to the reader to determine how things took such a left turn because of the difference in how Christianity took foot.
So if Christ was not martyred on the cross and his movement brought down the Roman Empire without the bulk of Christianity being persecuted, that might change some things. One can only guess that perhaps the strength of the church and lack of humble roots may have excluded the reformation and the Protestant movement. But somehow the church and its two sisters Psychology and Sociology have slipped into a near socialistic totalitarian society whose highest judge is a mechanical Pope created by the worlds leading Mathematician Fairweather I, which is perhaps why John Boyd chose to make this a story of adolescent forbidden love between the Mathematician and a Poet. Forbidden love: lust perhaps would be allowed but not love and certainly there are taboos on any thought of an offspring from such forbidden union. Our young man, Haldane, makes a wrong turn on the way to a Mathematics conference and ends up at a museum where he meets Helix [the essence of a spirit that might rival Helen of Troy]; and his inexplicable love at first sight only drives home the importance of this character he has fallen for.
After a comedy of errors where the reader is left wondering, after a ream of logic about where Haldane could accidentally run into Helix on purpose only to find that she's not there, 'is she avoiding him. As it turns out while he's searched where she might be she seems to be searching where he should be and the two are going in opposite directions until she stumbles across his father and sets up a chance to meet Haldane through him. There's a lot of time and detail spent on the logistics necessary to create the illusion that any time they spend together has some logic to it and this becomes the part that reads like the average dystopic tale where the players move in the shadows trying to avoid detection of the secret police. Suffice it to say there will be a day of reckoning and when that comes there is a twist because Helix is pregnant and that makes things that much worse.
A trial ensues and this is where John Boyd drops the ball with Helix. She becomes a none entity as Haldane is taken to task for the wretched deed and he is worked at by the forces of Church, Psychology, and Sociology until they offer him the out, by placing all the blame and responsibility on Helix shoulders and denying his own love for her. He even refuses to recant when it becomes rather muddily clear that Helix may have been part of an entrapment that was set up to bring him down and expose his nature as a sufferer of the Fairweather Syndrome [named after Fairweather I's son Fairweather II (who was proven to be a most heinous criminal in society)]. With no cure: the only outcome for Haldane is to be deported to the planet Hell. This is all confirmed when the mechanical Pope asks Haldane if he loves Helix; Haldane can't deny it and is relegated to hell for the admission.
This is where our author, John Boyd, fell a bit more, because the next part takes some major twists and the first is with Helix. Without much real background of a character that is treated as backdrop; the story loses out. I could easily attribute this treatment as a part of the era this is written since the world prior to 1968 was still pretty primitive in some notions about women. And since this parallel world is in 1968 that seems to track okay in that the women may be treated as Helix is in this story. Still there is this whole notion that Helix has an effect on Haldane and she is compared to Helen of Troy and she deserves much more than she gets, but this is Haldane's story and this is how John Boyd chose tell it.
To go much further would contain all the spoilers that would make reading this redundant and I think that every lover of dystopia's should read and love this story. There are a few more twists before the epilogue and I would have been just as happy if I'd been left with the final twist in the final chapter. The epilogue can only be described as a corkscrew of twists that could boggle the mind on any thoughtful or thoughtless reader and was probably not necessary though it adds a certain flavor to the Haldane character that almost seems at odds with the one the reader has become intimate with.
I recommend this to all lovers of Science Fiction Fantasy with the caveat that not everyone will be happy with it and you will have to ask yourself if it's a deficiency in the author's writing or perhaps your own attempt to read too much into a story the author has left so much wiggle room for the reader to imagine.
Really good story that reflects some of the time it was written in, while still meeting the test of time.
J.L. Dobias
February 13, 2023
I enjoyed this example of late 1960s sci-fi, even though parts of it borrowed heavily from George Orwell's 1984. In a sincere evocation of that era of sci-fi writing parts of it were reminiscent of Philip K Dick and others of Ray Bradbury at their best. The writing is a little uneven but still contains some excellent sections. Sexist language and ideas in the book have agreed poorly. But overall I found the story engrossing and the plot entertaining. A nice holiday read to start 2023 with.
June 27, 2017
One thing this book does quite well, is language. He uses a lot of uncommon words (and occasionally just makes up words) which makes the actual text interesting to read. This is really helpful because the story itself is much harder to enjoy.
In general, the story is vague. He spends a lot of time discussing the various things he does and places he spends his time while trying to track down Helix. Then he speeds through other things like how and why their society is what it is.
Another thing that always gets me with classic sci-fi is the complete lack of civil rights development. Science has pushed over religion making a robotic pope. The Fairweather negativity theory is going to unite Newtonion physics and Quantum physics. You have space travel. You even technically have time travel, and yet black people and women are still disparagingly unequal? I understand it is still supposed to be the same time just with an alternate history, but I still feel like great advances in one area need to be followed by great advances in another. Especially when a third of the ruling government is sociology and oppression breeds revolution.
Overall, this is not the worst and not the best classic sci-fi book out there. I think the premise was actually very interesting, but I wonder how thoroughly it was actually thought out because it seemed to be pretty hastily put together and presented unclearly.
In general, the story is vague. He spends a lot of time discussing the various things he does and places he spends his time while trying to track down Helix. Then he speeds through other things like how and why their society is what it is.
Another thing that always gets me with classic sci-fi is the complete lack of civil rights development. Science has pushed over religion making a robotic pope. The Fairweather negativity theory is going to unite Newtonion physics and Quantum physics. You have space travel. You even technically have time travel, and yet black people and women are still disparagingly unequal? I understand it is still supposed to be the same time just with an alternate history, but I still feel like great advances in one area need to be followed by great advances in another. Especially when a third of the ruling government is sociology and oppression breeds revolution.
Overall, this is not the worst and not the best classic sci-fi book out there. I think the premise was actually very interesting, but I wonder how thoroughly it was actually thought out because it seemed to be pretty hastily put together and presented unclearly.
January 27, 2019
This is a fun time travel story showing what the world was like before Judas Iscariot is sent back in time to prevent Jesus of Nazareth from going to war against the Romans.
Judas puts Jesus into his time travel machine before it disappears and thus initiates the historical timeline of our world.
Boyd imagines an alternate timeline for Earth in which an all-powerful Christian Church controls human reproduction. Mathematicians must marry other mathematicians, leading to genetically planned lineages that push the rate of scientific advance ahead at a quicker rate than here in our timeline. For example, lasers already exist during the life of Abraham Lincoln. A technology is found that confers practical immortality on people, particularly the protagonist of the story (Haldane IV) who gets sent into the far past on a mission designed to break the stranglehold that the Church has on human freedom. He then spends a couple of thousand years waiting for advanced technology to once again be developed on Earth.
The only reason I do not give this novel five stars is because I've never understood what the protagonist (Judas) was supposed to be doing on Earth during all his long centuries on Earth (he does not age).
http://wikifiction.blogspot.com/2019/...
Judas puts Jesus into his time travel machine before it disappears and thus initiates the historical timeline of our world.
Boyd imagines an alternate timeline for Earth in which an all-powerful Christian Church controls human reproduction. Mathematicians must marry other mathematicians, leading to genetically planned lineages that push the rate of scientific advance ahead at a quicker rate than here in our timeline. For example, lasers already exist during the life of Abraham Lincoln. A technology is found that confers practical immortality on people, particularly the protagonist of the story (Haldane IV) who gets sent into the far past on a mission designed to break the stranglehold that the Church has on human freedom. He then spends a couple of thousand years waiting for advanced technology to once again be developed on Earth.
The only reason I do not give this novel five stars is because I've never understood what the protagonist (Judas) was supposed to be doing on Earth during all his long centuries on Earth (he does not age).
http://wikifiction.blogspot.com/2019/...
June 16, 2009
Upchurch wrote this, his first, novel as "John Boyd". If the description is accurate, it sounds very interesting. I recall buying it at a resale shop in the Andersonville neighborhood in Chicago while visiting Mother there, but cannot recall the contents.
January 16, 2016
A thought-provoking science fiction novel which makes you consider how a fascist regime does not need to be overtly oppressive to control and also how the human spirit conquers
June 1, 2017
Some interesting world-building hidden under a lair of misogyny not uncommon for the time of its writing. The plot doesn't save it from itself.
January 13, 2020
Just no. The main character's disdain for the "female brain" is just too much. Don't ever bother reading this.
May 16, 2010
I'm rereading this now. It reminds me of Heinlein.
February 8, 2026
(7 February, 2026)
The best of possible worlds? There is no such thing, we live in the world we live in, it's crap but we're crap, no surprises there. An alternate history dystopia with a terribly written budding romance turns into a disaster when trying to reconcile the whole thing into a facsimile of our world. How Boyd gets there is a mess.
Earth is now a totalitarian regime, government control is pervasive, so much so that even despairing about the state of affairs is badly done:
A critique of concepts and ideas ossifying into dogma. From that, societal pressures turn it into cultural norms and, eventually and almost inevitably, state oppression. Here, it stems from religion but the source doesn't matter, it can come from anything as long as it's strong enough to bend the minds of enough people (id est the unthinking masses). Haldane IV is an original thinker and could pose a threat to the status quo but he needs to be put through the gauntlet first. How things change is a WTF moment for the ages.
The ass-backwards ending is truly awful and almost completely ruins everything.
The best of possible worlds? There is no such thing, we live in the world we live in, it's crap but we're crap, no surprises there. An alternate history dystopia with a terribly written budding romance turns into a disaster when trying to reconcile the whole thing into a facsimile of our world. How Boyd gets there is a mess.
Earth is now a totalitarian regime, government control is pervasive, so much so that even despairing about the state of affairs is badly done:
"That aynrandistic independence of action was smothered... "Rand's Objectivism is justification for being blind to the plight of others. The losers who follow it are incredibly shortsighted as the conditions that allow for their riches are the same conditions that create the downtrodden, the impoverished and the unlucky. Every Objectivist owes their good fortune to them and must donate to philanthropic efforts. Individualism of that kind is better left on the dung heap of history. Wishing for its return is a testament to the shitshow that is the Soc, Psyc and Church triumvirate.
A critique of concepts and ideas ossifying into dogma. From that, societal pressures turn it into cultural norms and, eventually and almost inevitably, state oppression. Here, it stems from religion but the source doesn't matter, it can come from anything as long as it's strong enough to bend the minds of enough people (id est the unthinking masses). Haldane IV is an original thinker and could pose a threat to the status quo but he needs to be put through the gauntlet first. How things change is a WTF moment for the ages.
The ass-backwards ending is truly awful and almost completely ruins everything.
September 9, 2022
Eughhh. I picked this up because it's mentioned in Jo Walton's Among Others. I have to say, I didn't enjoy it very much. I know it was written in the '60s and it was a different time and all, but there is an annoying mysoginistic flavor to the whole thing that made it hard to take the rest of its ideas seriously.
From page one, Haldane gets sucked into this whole story because of sexual attraction to Helix. It's not like he is sexually unsatisfied or anything, as the state provides comfort houses (of which Haldane is one of the most prolific users). It's just, he wants THIS woman. And when he realizes she's forbidden due to her category, his brain goes into overdrive trying to find ways to get close to her anyway. He eventually comes to appreciate her brain and the literature and poetry she loves, but all that is a side effect of him wanting to have sex with her. Then as the story goes on, we find it's all part of a bigger plot. He gets mad and feels Helix has betrayed him, and yet, when they are reunited he says in his inner monologue how he doesn't want to alienate his source of "entertainment" on a planet with much fewer women. Gross!
Not that I should expect anything different from a book where, just a few pages in, the protagonist muses to himself that "for the first time ever, a female had said something witty."
For me, this attitude put a big damper on any other message the author was trying to relay. I appreciated that Helix got to have some agency, that she wasn't being manipulated into her choices, but wow, this book went off the rails by the end.
From page one, Haldane gets sucked into this whole story because of sexual attraction to Helix. It's not like he is sexually unsatisfied or anything, as the state provides comfort houses (of which Haldane is one of the most prolific users). It's just, he wants THIS woman. And when he realizes she's forbidden due to her category, his brain goes into overdrive trying to find ways to get close to her anyway. He eventually comes to appreciate her brain and the literature and poetry she loves, but all that is a side effect of him wanting to have sex with her. Then as the story goes on, we find it's all part of a bigger plot. He gets mad and feels Helix has betrayed him, and yet, when they are reunited he says in his inner monologue how he doesn't want to alienate his source of "entertainment" on a planet with much fewer women. Gross!
Not that I should expect anything different from a book where, just a few pages in, the protagonist muses to himself that "for the first time ever, a female had said something witty."
For me, this attitude put a big damper on any other message the author was trying to relay. I appreciated that Helix got to have some agency, that she wasn't being manipulated into her choices, but wow, this book went off the rails by the end.
October 3, 2019
Veamos. ¿Qué narices acabo de leer? Este es un libro extraño de ideas más que interesantes (por eso empecé a leerlo) pero de ejecución... peculiar. Mientras leía no podía librarme de esa sensación de creer estar perdiéndome algo, de no estar percibiendo y entendiendo algún detalle importante que me ayudase a esclarecer esos diálogos tan crípticos. ¿Será que no me gusta la poesía?
Tampoco es que una "historia de amor" en una sociedad "distópica" sea mi tema favorito. Lo mejor del libro (o al menos la parte que me ha entretenido e interesado más) es el interrogatorio a Haldane, cuando la historia realmente parecía ir hacia alguna parte. Mi personaje favorito, el abogado. ¿El más odioso? Los hombres en general.
La verdad, no creo que este libro haya envejecido bien. Está plagado de tópicos como el de la mujer manipuladora, o prostituta, o cuerpo a merced del hombre. En la parte final del libro el resultado es simplemente escandaloso. El racismo también huele en esta obra. Odio cuando las historias de ciencia ficción siguen planteando en mundos nuevos las viejas ideas de siempre: el sexo débil, la fuerza y habilidad del macho...
En cualquier caso, el libro ha sido muy interesante y entretenido y, total, me costó 1 euro de segunda mano (bendita Gigamesh). Muchos dicen que es este un clásico de ciencia ficción, y será que llego tarde a él o que simplemente soy mujer, pero no puedo entenderlo. Quizá en unos años vuelva a intentarlo (incluso en inglés), quién sabe...
Tampoco es que una "historia de amor" en una sociedad "distópica" sea mi tema favorito. Lo mejor del libro (o al menos la parte que me ha entretenido e interesado más) es el interrogatorio a Haldane, cuando la historia realmente parecía ir hacia alguna parte. Mi personaje favorito, el abogado. ¿El más odioso? Los hombres en general.
La verdad, no creo que este libro haya envejecido bien. Está plagado de tópicos como el de la mujer manipuladora, o prostituta, o cuerpo a merced del hombre. En la parte final del libro el resultado es simplemente escandaloso. El racismo también huele en esta obra. Odio cuando las historias de ciencia ficción siguen planteando en mundos nuevos las viejas ideas de siempre: el sexo débil, la fuerza y habilidad del macho...
En cualquier caso, el libro ha sido muy interesante y entretenido y, total, me costó 1 euro de segunda mano (bendita Gigamesh). Muchos dicen que es este un clásico de ciencia ficción, y será que llego tarde a él o que simplemente soy mujer, pero no puedo entenderlo. Quizá en unos años vuelva a intentarlo (incluso en inglés), quién sabe...
September 2, 2021
Un libro escrito en el lenguaje arcaico de la Edad de Oro, no sé si catalogarlo como utopía o como distopía, los personajes son estereotipos con un tono de rebeldía de los 60's, no puedo evitar catalogarlo como sexista .
El tratamiento psicológico de los personajes no solo es chocante, sino que en ocasiones es involuntariamente cómico. En fin, que esta novela ha envejecido muy mal.
Las escenas sexuales no pasan de ser momentos picantes o subidos de tono, que no llegan a las formas sensuales de otras novelas de esa época («Los amantes» o «A vuestros cuerpos dispersos» de P. J. Farmer; por ejemplo).
No me arrepiento de haberla leído, aunque las cien primeras páginas me costaron trabajo.
El tratamiento psicológico de los personajes no solo es chocante, sino que en ocasiones es involuntariamente cómico. En fin, que esta novela ha envejecido muy mal.
Las escenas sexuales no pasan de ser momentos picantes o subidos de tono, que no llegan a las formas sensuales de otras novelas de esa época («Los amantes» o «A vuestros cuerpos dispersos» de P. J. Farmer; por ejemplo).
No me arrepiento de haberla leído, aunque las cien primeras páginas me costaron trabajo.
January 20, 2019
In world of dystopian novels, here's one with a twist.
At first I though this was just a run-of-the-mill dystopian story of boy meets girl, falls in unauthorized love, and is caught by an all-seeing state. But along the way things get interesting. The boy, Haldane IV M-5, is mathematician and student of theological cybernetics. The girl, Helix A-7, is a poet. As they discuss the history of math and poetry, the reader begins to realize the time line and dates don't quite match up to our reality. And in their world the Pope is a machine that has ruled the Church since 1881. After the lovers are caught, one of them is tried by the state for the crime of love and both are sentenced to Hell, a frozen planet at the other end of the run for the only starships that exist. Once they get to Hell, things take several unexpected turns and you could almost believe Robert Heinlein wrote the last third of this novel (apparently he read it and rated it as a "terrific" book - I can see why). I found it an unusual and enjoyable read. Recommended.
At first I though this was just a run-of-the-mill dystopian story of boy meets girl, falls in unauthorized love, and is caught by an all-seeing state. But along the way things get interesting. The boy, Haldane IV M-5, is mathematician and student of theological cybernetics. The girl, Helix A-7, is a poet. As they discuss the history of math and poetry, the reader begins to realize the time line and dates don't quite match up to our reality. And in their world the Pope is a machine that has ruled the Church since 1881. After the lovers are caught, one of them is tried by the state for the crime of love and both are sentenced to Hell, a frozen planet at the other end of the run for the only starships that exist. Once they get to Hell, things take several unexpected turns and you could almost believe Robert Heinlein wrote the last third of this novel (apparently he read it and rated it as a "terrific" book - I can see why). I found it an unusual and enjoyable read. Recommended.
August 8, 2019
My Rating: 3.0-3.33
This is one of those books where the first 12 chapters were great, and the last two just don't work for me. I actually loved almost everything about this book at the very beginning up till nearly the very end. It was well written, had great pacing, a really interesting plot and great characters. However... the last couple chapters just break the story for me. In fact, if this story had finished at the end of chapter 12, this would've easily been a 4.75 star book, with only minor complaints.
This is one of those books where the first 12 chapters were great, and the last two just don't work for me. I actually loved almost everything about this book at the very beginning up till nearly the very end. It was well written, had great pacing, a really interesting plot and great characters. However... the last couple chapters just break the story for me. In fact, if this story had finished at the end of chapter 12, this would've easily been a 4.75 star book, with only minor complaints.
March 3, 2020
Full review: https://sciencefictionruminations.com...
"John Boyd’s The Last Starship from Earth (1968) is a forgettable and predictable alternative history/science fiction novel incorrectly described by some reviewers as a lost classic. The basic divergent point in history (which is only mentioned near the end) is the only redeeming feature of the work because the society he’s created becomes slightly more cohesive and realized. However, [...]"
"John Boyd’s The Last Starship from Earth (1968) is a forgettable and predictable alternative history/science fiction novel incorrectly described by some reviewers as a lost classic. The basic divergent point in history (which is only mentioned near the end) is the only redeeming feature of the work because the society he’s created becomes slightly more cohesive and realized. However, [...]"
December 11, 2022
Heavy with 1984 overtones this 1967 novel presents itself as a tale of forbidden love in a structured eugenic-based totalitarian Earth. However, as the narrative unfolds it rapidly becomes apparent that this is an alternate history predicated on the consequences of the antithetic actions of a significant historical figure. The reveal in the final quarter is audacious, perplexing and a marvellous surprise. The mannered prose is a delight, imbued with arch humour. Stunning. I really liked it. A lot.
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