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The Third Eagle
When the warrior Wanbli came of age, he cast his lot among the stars and left the world where he-d been born. Left it, he thought, forever. His odyssey led him to one ship, then another, and to another still. It brought him face to face with the far-flung members of the universe-s Seven Sentient peoples.
And, finally, it brought him to the colony ship Commitment. There, Wanbli learned the true purpose of his life-a mission so vital that it required risking the lives of everyone on the ship and the future of his home world. His mission meant returning to that world-but only if he could survive the deadly machinations of those who sought to stop him.
And, finally, it brought him to the colony ship Commitment. There, Wanbli learned the true purpose of his life-a mission so vital that it required risking the lives of everyone on the ship and the future of his home world. His mission meant returning to that world-but only if he could survive the deadly machinations of those who sought to stop him.
260 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1989
11 people are currently reading
130 people want to read
About the author
R.A. MacAvoy
18 books199 followersRoberta Ann (R. A.) MacAvoy is a fantasy and science fiction author in the United States. Several of her books draw on Celtic or Taoist themes. She won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 1984. R. A. MacAvoy was born in Cleveland, Ohio to Francis and Helen MacAvoy. She attended Case Western Reserve University and received a B.A. in 1971. She worked from 1975 to 1978 as an assistant to the financial aid officer of Columbia College of Columbia University and from 1978 to 1982 as a computer programmer at SRI International before turning to full-time writing in 1982. She married Ronald Allen Cain in 1978.
R.A.MacAvoy was diagnosed with dystonia following the publication of her Lens series. She now has this disorder manageable and has returned to writing. (see http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/non...)
R.A.MacAvoy was diagnosed with dystonia following the publication of her Lens series. She now has this disorder manageable and has returned to writing. (see http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/non...)
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
February 16, 2017
At first this book seems to be a fantasy, about a warrior of a privileged and constrained warrior class in a pre-tech culture. We quickly learn, though, that Wanbli, while a member of a warrior class, and one of the few to earn the cherished third eagle feather tattoo, is far in our future. His world is not primitive, but it is poor. His career options are basically limited to being a bodyguard for the same man his mother guarded, and who may or may not be his father. And while he's very, very good at it--witness his third eagle feather tattoo--he does not find the satisfaction and pride in it that he knows he's supposed to.
On the first day he's legally able to, he leaves his employer, heads for the city, and books passage offworld. His goal is to reach what is, for that age, the center of what is effectively their motion picture industry. He's going to be an actor.
Along the way, first on one ship, then on another, then on the world of the movie industry, working bit parts, he meets people and learns things that shake many of his core assumptions--including one of the core assumptions his planet relies on. Decades ago, his planet contracted for a space station which would make their world much less poor, by tying them in much more efficiently to the interstellar trade routes. They've been making regular payments ever since, awaiting the day when they are paid up and their station will be delivered. What they don't know, and Wanbli learns, is that the company they contracted with went bankrupt, and was sold to another company that, it turns out, is not legally obligated to deliver their station.
He's honor bound to tell his people.
In the course of trying to do so, he discovers a much bigger outrage, one that is causing deaths--and that might, paradoxically, contain the solution to his own world's problem.
That is, assuming he can get everyone involved, many of whom now want to kill him, to see things his way.
MacAvoy does a lovely job developing the characters and making us care, as well as making this fictional universe feel real and lived in. For those who remember them, there are hints that this may be the same universe that Alexei Panshin's Anthony Villiers novels are set in. That's just an added bit of pleasure for those who do remember them, though, and not at all necessary to following and enjoying the story.
Enjoyable, and recommended.
I bought this audiobook.
On the first day he's legally able to, he leaves his employer, heads for the city, and books passage offworld. His goal is to reach what is, for that age, the center of what is effectively their motion picture industry. He's going to be an actor.
Along the way, first on one ship, then on another, then on the world of the movie industry, working bit parts, he meets people and learns things that shake many of his core assumptions--including one of the core assumptions his planet relies on. Decades ago, his planet contracted for a space station which would make their world much less poor, by tying them in much more efficiently to the interstellar trade routes. They've been making regular payments ever since, awaiting the day when they are paid up and their station will be delivered. What they don't know, and Wanbli learns, is that the company they contracted with went bankrupt, and was sold to another company that, it turns out, is not legally obligated to deliver their station.
He's honor bound to tell his people.
In the course of trying to do so, he discovers a much bigger outrage, one that is causing deaths--and that might, paradoxically, contain the solution to his own world's problem.
That is, assuming he can get everyone involved, many of whom now want to kill him, to see things his way.
MacAvoy does a lovely job developing the characters and making us care, as well as making this fictional universe feel real and lived in. For those who remember them, there are hints that this may be the same universe that Alexei Panshin's Anthony Villiers novels are set in. That's just an added bit of pleasure for those who do remember them, though, and not at all necessary to following and enjoying the story.
Enjoyable, and recommended.
I bought this audiobook.
December 20, 2016
“Ten years climbing a ladder to find nothing at the top.”
A young man who lives in a niche of a niche culture, chucks all aside one day and leaves: leaves his job, his home, his planet. Unprepared? Does being a galaxy-class martial arts expert count? Some.
“Hearing his death described as inevitable moved Wanbli not a whit. Everyone’s death was inevitable.”
Excellent sense of otherness. Language drift, Wacaan culture, day flower species. Then the earthies show up.
“An excellent translation of what [the stars] would look like if massless directionality were more adaptable to human experience.”
Good understanding and representation of the science of living in space. Though written in 1988, story has not gone stale--let alone rotten--by the rush of technology since.
“A lot of something that’s already out in space is better than a lot of something that needs to be lifted.”
Quibbles: On the third page he looks at himself in a mirror. Trite. More seriously, idiosyncratic paragraphing makes it hard to follow who is talking, think, acting.
“It has cost me a great deal to run nowhere as long as I have.”
A young man who lives in a niche of a niche culture, chucks all aside one day and leaves: leaves his job, his home, his planet. Unprepared? Does being a galaxy-class martial arts expert count? Some.
“Hearing his death described as inevitable moved Wanbli not a whit. Everyone’s death was inevitable.”
Excellent sense of otherness. Language drift, Wacaan culture, day flower species. Then the earthies show up.
“An excellent translation of what [the stars] would look like if massless directionality were more adaptable to human experience.”
Good understanding and representation of the science of living in space. Though written in 1988, story has not gone stale--let alone rotten--by the rush of technology since.
“A lot of something that’s already out in space is better than a lot of something that needs to be lifted.”
Quibbles: On the third page he looks at himself in a mirror. Trite. More seriously, idiosyncratic paragraphing makes it hard to follow who is talking, think, acting.
“It has cost me a great deal to run nowhere as long as I have.”
November 21, 2014
This book felt episodic, each chapter a new adventure in the life of Wanbli. Towards the end, he starts to reflect on his adventures and realizes he has learned from them, and we start to see the connecting threads. These threads wrap the story into a nice bow in the final pages.
Back to the beginning, though. Our hero, pictured on the uncredited cover, looks very much like Val Kilmer circa late 1980s. In the first few chapters, it feels as though his early movie roles are the inspiration for the character as well – Wanbli is cocky, charismatic and self-assured. Later in the story, women fall under his spell. Also like Willow's Madmartigan, he is a reluctant hero.
The setting of the novel is this: humanity has spread out from the earth at varying rates and in mostly cultural groups. Our hero's group was one that spoke Hindi (first revealed as 'Indi, which I thought of as a generic future language for most of the tale). There are other intelligent races out there, and between humanity (breeds like rabbits) and them, accessible space is somewhat at a premium.
Accessibility is through some sort of "string", the equivalent of a wormhole or faster-than-light travel lane. This plays a key point in the plot, and in fact the subtitle of the book (from the title page and not the cover) is "Lessons along a minor string".
Wanbli is a warrior who has succeeded in his "third eagle", very advanced training. Each comes with a tattoo of eagle feathers, and this training does factor into the story. Early in the first chapter, he fights two other warriors to defend his employer, sending them packing. This and other fights are well described and interesting – our hero is a flexible guy.
Each episode introduces other characters, and Wanbli makes connections easily. These subcharacters are mostly static, but like the lessons of the subtitle, our hero learns from these encounters more about himself and his universe. The last of these episodes is the one that ties the story back together, and brings about the major final confrontation.
The Third Eagle wasn't nominated for any awards, but it is listed on author and reviewer Ian Sales "Mistressworks" site, an answer to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Masterworks series. From what I have read elsewhere, this was MacAvoy's only published science fiction novel. I am looking forward to trying out a fantasy novel from this author soon.
Back to the beginning, though. Our hero, pictured on the uncredited cover, looks very much like Val Kilmer circa late 1980s. In the first few chapters, it feels as though his early movie roles are the inspiration for the character as well – Wanbli is cocky, charismatic and self-assured. Later in the story, women fall under his spell. Also like Willow's Madmartigan, he is a reluctant hero.
The setting of the novel is this: humanity has spread out from the earth at varying rates and in mostly cultural groups. Our hero's group was one that spoke Hindi (first revealed as 'Indi, which I thought of as a generic future language for most of the tale). There are other intelligent races out there, and between humanity (breeds like rabbits) and them, accessible space is somewhat at a premium.
Accessibility is through some sort of "string", the equivalent of a wormhole or faster-than-light travel lane. This plays a key point in the plot, and in fact the subtitle of the book (from the title page and not the cover) is "Lessons along a minor string".
Wanbli is a warrior who has succeeded in his "third eagle", very advanced training. Each comes with a tattoo of eagle feathers, and this training does factor into the story. Early in the first chapter, he fights two other warriors to defend his employer, sending them packing. This and other fights are well described and interesting – our hero is a flexible guy.
Each episode introduces other characters, and Wanbli makes connections easily. These subcharacters are mostly static, but like the lessons of the subtitle, our hero learns from these encounters more about himself and his universe. The last of these episodes is the one that ties the story back together, and brings about the major final confrontation.
The Third Eagle wasn't nominated for any awards, but it is listed on author and reviewer Ian Sales "Mistressworks" site, an answer to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Masterworks series. From what I have read elsewhere, this was MacAvoy's only published science fiction novel. I am looking forward to trying out a fantasy novel from this author soon.
March 20, 2023
I had read one other book by MacAvoy and enjoyed it so I bought this one. It started off sort of slow but once I started to understand the world that the author created it was very interesting. Set in the future, Wanbli lives on a world settled long ago but it is poor since it doesn’t have direct access to other worlds as it has no space station. Wanbli has been raised in a culture where he is trained to kill but basically he is a security guard — one with exceptional physical skills. He has earned his third eagle tattoo, something that is exceptional. He decides to leave his world and venture out — to become a movie star! They are called Shimmers but they are basically movies and of course Wanbli is sure he could be a star. Of course, the path and ambition are not straight and Wanbli grows and learns.
October 18, 2020
The protagonist, Wambli, is a wonderful and engaging character - a warrior reluctant to kill, naive but principled. A number of intriguing alien species make appearances, perhaps too fleetingly, but the main interaction is with other human cultures. The denouement is fitting (perhaps slightly telegraphed, but only by a few pages) and satisfying. A smooth read.
July 22, 2016
(3.5 stars)
A sci-fi tale of Wanbli the Wacaan
This is the first sci-fi tale by MacAvoy I've encountered. It's not something I would preach on the streets about, and it lacks the epic-ness of other works (e.g. this is no Iain Banks), it's pretty good.
A sci-fi tale of Wanbli the Wacaan
This is the first sci-fi tale by MacAvoy I've encountered. It's not something I would preach on the streets about, and it lacks the epic-ness of other works (e.g. this is no Iain Banks), it's pretty good.
June 28, 2019
One of my favorite R.A. MacAvoy books, this one tells the adventures of Wanbli.
July 24, 2024
This sci-fi book plays out a western gunslinger kind of story, with a strong, honorable, deadly protagonist... who is a bit naive. He heads across the universe and meets friends and foes along the way; and then "frees two birds with one key." I really liked the interpersonal interactions and the problems solved; I enjoyed this page-turner of a book. I think, however, if I'd seen the cover of the book that Goodreads has for it, I would have been repelled, and that would have colored my entire reading. As it was with just a stylized Eagle on the cover from the digital edition, as I read it, references to the people of Earth seemed fine for some far flung fantasy centuries after now.
Here's a quote that has direct relevance to my own private life this week:
“He asked Reynaldo, who was older and with a child besides, whether he believed in love of a man for a woman the way the shimmers [movies] had it: love that destroyed reason, that overturned dignity and swamped the vessel of the soul.
They were in Reynaldo’s den, which had been walled and paved in bricks, regardless of expense. The black man laughed and curled his toes in his slippers. That was exactly the sort of love he had for his wife, he said, and in proof of it, if he didn’t tell her so once a week, she would see to it that all reason in the house was destroyed, his dignity spun like a top and the vessel of his soul sunk without salvage.”
Here's a quote that has direct relevance to my own private life this week:
“He asked Reynaldo, who was older and with a child besides, whether he believed in love of a man for a woman the way the shimmers [movies] had it: love that destroyed reason, that overturned dignity and swamped the vessel of the soul.
They were in Reynaldo’s den, which had been walled and paved in bricks, regardless of expense. The black man laughed and curled his toes in his slippers. That was exactly the sort of love he had for his wife, he said, and in proof of it, if he didn’t tell her so once a week, she would see to it that all reason in the house was destroyed, his dignity spun like a top and the vessel of his soul sunk without salvage.”
October 22, 2022
Science Fiction - first book by this author and my 1980's science fiction selection. MacAvoy tries to combine too much into one novel. Wanbli visits two or three different planets, is picked up by a random explorer vessel and then it is all tied into one untidy bow at the end. The cover art is over the top. The Earth reference at the end seems quite forced.
No pharmacy or Canadian references.
No pharmacy or Canadian references.
Read
September 24, 2019Did not finish
March 16, 2017
It was a pleasure to read a simple story. Fresh, different and predictable toward the end.
3.5 stars
3.5 stars
June 15, 2014
Sometimes you can judge a book by its cover. Take The Third Eagle, for example. The picture on the cover shows the main character, Wanbli of the Wacaan tribe on a dusty planet, looking muscle-bound and lantern-jawed and staring off into the distance. (You can't really see his garnet eyes, though). Behind him is a motley collection of improbable aliens, including a pair of simians dressed up like bedouin, a lugubrious reptilian fellow, and a fat man with a stumpy elephant trunk riding some kind of futuristic go-cart.
If this image appeals to you, I think you would enjoy the book. If you think it looks hokey and silly, then this tale of a back-planet warrior who leaves home to be an actor (the entertainment business on New Benares does a brisk trade 3D movies called the "shimmers"), and ends up saving the day instead, is probably not for you.
If this image appeals to you, I think you would enjoy the book. If you think it looks hokey and silly, then this tale of a back-planet warrior who leaves home to be an actor (the entertainment business on New Benares does a brisk trade 3D movies called the "shimmers"), and ends up saving the day instead, is probably not for you.
October 13, 2014
I can't help but feel the book missed the potential of being a really good adventure. The author doesn't make you care or feel for the characters and it's a bit of a cumbersome read. The lead character Wanbli (a “safe” and Anglicised version of a Native American) is neither likable nor dislikeable, he's just there leading us through the story. We are introduced to some interesting species and settings along the way. The author keeps the story focused and the book starts to pay off towards the end.
May 18, 2025
Probably Ms MacAvoy’s weakest novel to date. It starts with an interesting premise, becomes a picaresque tale of a naive young man’s travels in the known galaxy then takes a sudden turn into a novel that I wish had been hinted at or teased all the way through, rather than lumped upon the reader a little after halfway through. This second part is great - taking an SF trolley problem and turning it on its head - and it’s here where we get the sort of novel that we re used to from this author.
June 1, 2015
anyone expecting something as good as Tea with the Black Dragon or The Book of Kells will be vastly disappointed. it's like a first novel - potential, still undeveloped. I never really cared one way or the other about the protagonist, it needed editing, and I skimmed more than I read after I got about half-way through. If she hadn't already had a 'name', I doubt it would ever have been published.
May 19, 2010
I love the way this author writes- she makes the narrative really sound like it's coming from the point of view of the main character. I've only seen Terry Pratchett do better. That being said, I'm not really that into Sci-Fi anymore, although there was an interesting ethical dilemma about whether to reanimate a person in suspended animation.
January 14, 2025
Wanbli, a young warrior, leaves his home planet, seeking a better life as a shimmer star. He learns more on his journey than he ever could have on his backwater planet. His return home is perilous, but he manages to make it and brings new hope with him to his old home.
January 29, 2008
A fun adventure story.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews