Beyond the Resurrection

by Gordon Eklund

Why should New Morning School, in the year 2004, suddenly attract so much attention? Surely, by this time the Intensive Therapy theory upon which the school has been built has proved to be successful in turning out well-adjusted graduates to help augment the government’s growing powers. And since the founder and guiding spirit is in his eighties, the whole program is bound to die a natural death soon anyway. But somewhere there’s trouble, and it centers around a strange mutant named August. Just entering his teens, he seems to be coming into possession of ominous powers... in particular, an ability that allows him to fuse himself physically with other human beings. They, as a result, can see with his eyes and feel with his senses. Where August’s powers come from, where he decides to share them, how this affects such diverse people as a school girl, a madman, a teacher and a policeman... why August is felt to be a supreme danger to the state... these are some of the provocative situations that fill this unusual and compelling novel of a logically-possible future.

Genres: Science Fiction

202 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1973

About the author

Gordon Eklund is a Nebula Award-winning, American science fiction author whose works include the "Lord Tedric" series and two of the earliest original novels based on the 1960s Star Trek TV series. He has written under the pen name Wendell Stewart, and in one instance under the name of the late E. E. "Doc" Smith (1890-1965).

Eklund's first published SF short story, "Dear Aunt Annie", ran in the April 1970 issue of Fantastic magazine and was nominated for a Nebula Award. Eklund won the Nebula for Best Novelette for the 1974 short story "If the Stars Are Gods", co-written with Gregory Benford. The two expanded the story into a full-length novel of the same title, published in 1977.

In his teens, Eklund was a member of a Seattle SF fan club, The Nameless Ones, and in 1977, Eklund was a guest of honor at the 1977 SF convention Bubonicon 9, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The Cushing Memorial Library of Texas A&M University has a "Gordon Eklund Collection" housing the typed manuscript of the story "The Stuff of Time".

Eklund has retired from a long career with the U.S. Postal Service, and is considering writing full-time again. He's a member of the Fantasy Amateur Press Association and the Spectator Amateur Press Society.

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

Set in the future world of 2004, Beyond the Resurrection is a coming-of-age novel about a boy with empathic psi-powers and how he uses them and changes the lives of those around him. It's a little convoluted and confusing at times, but it's an ambitious story. It's kind of reminiscent of a complex Chris Claremont X-Men storyline, except without costumes. It was serialized in the April and June issues of Ted White's Fantastic Stories magazine in 1972, and Doubleday released it in hardback in January of 1973 with a not-very-appealing cover by Margo Herr. It wasn't well-received at the time and never got a mass market release, but it's not a bad story and is worth a look.