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Inquestor / Chronicles of the High Inquest #1
The Dawning Shadow: The Light on the Sound
The planet Gallendys is ruled by the Inquestors, unseen beings who are able to travel instantaneously to any place in the universe via tachyon bubbles
276 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1982
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
January 5, 2011
This was a re-read for me - but it's been over 20 years since I first read it. It's interesting to come back to something after so long. I'm happy that I still really, really liked it.
It's a reading experience that's more like experiencing a poem or a song than a typical novel. This is not to say that the plot is not clear and easy to follow (if anything, the plot might be overly simple, given such a rich and complex universe), but it is suffused with almost a synaesthesia of the senses, with music and glittering darkness. It's full of weird and wonderful imagery.
That said, perhaps some people might find it dated in some ways - personally, I found it giving me a nostalgia for the time period when it was written, which was much more filled with over-the-top fantasy, with an unabashed flair for the dramatic. Although this is sci-fi, it reminded me of when goth was all about beauty, decadence and playing at cruelty and power, skirting the edges of convention. Some people found goth rock too bombastic too. I don't.
I wish Somtow would write more SF. Being a conductor is all very nice and worthwhile, but.... More Books! :-)
It's a reading experience that's more like experiencing a poem or a song than a typical novel. This is not to say that the plot is not clear and easy to follow (if anything, the plot might be overly simple, given such a rich and complex universe), but it is suffused with almost a synaesthesia of the senses, with music and glittering darkness. It's full of weird and wonderful imagery.
That said, perhaps some people might find it dated in some ways - personally, I found it giving me a nostalgia for the time period when it was written, which was much more filled with over-the-top fantasy, with an unabashed flair for the dramatic. Although this is sci-fi, it reminded me of when goth was all about beauty, decadence and playing at cruelty and power, skirting the edges of convention. Some people found goth rock too bombastic too. I don't.
I wish Somtow would write more SF. Being a conductor is all very nice and worthwhile, but.... More Books! :-)
March 15, 2019
I first heard of Somtow over a decade ago when people would mention his book Vampire Junction as being one of the best vampire stories or even one of the best horror novels. A few years later I found out Somtow is a successful composer of operas and symphonies and that he's written quite a few fantasies. In more recent years I saw the fuller extent of his fantasy and science fiction books (unfortunately since he used write under the name Somtow Sucharitkul, sometimes databases divide his work between two different author pages), got a better sense of what he's done in music, film and television.
Some of the reviews, titles and cover art for his books are intriguing, he's very likable in his public talks... I feel an obsession coming on. I start with Light On The Sound, first part of the Inquestor series (4 books in the series, a 5th book is promised and 2 supplemental booklets about the series came out recently). Theodore Sturgeon calls it "no less than the greatest magnitude of spectacle and color since Stapledon"!
It's a story of an empire that travels the universe destroying utopias and creating extremely manufactured existences for the people they exploit. Most of the story is divided between three characters, the majority of it set on one planet, with a few brief trips to a couple of other planets. The dwellings of the Inquestors tend to be extravagant but the other characters live in very bare, deprived places which are nonetheless quite technologically advanced.
There's an invented language (explained in an appendix in impressive detail); Somtow is especially fond of joining words without hyphenating them; the perceptions of people who cant see or hear is very cleverly described in many chapters. Then there's poems and folk songs.
I absolutely adored this, I haven't enjoyed a book this much in quite some time. It's pretty close to the kind of thing I'm hoping for when I'm delving into semi-forgotten fantasy/science fiction from the 70s-80s-90s. It has the kind of scale and beautiful spectacle I to look for in fantastical weird fiction but also has these wonderful big rousing moments of a type that weird fiction authors usually don't do. This isn't weird/horror fiction but Somtow definitely can do that when he wants to. I was beaming with morbid glee at a couple of the things Lady Ynyoldeh does.
One of the best things is getting a taste of amazing things we're unlikely to ever experience. I wish I could ride the gravity devices, Udara and the Overcosm.
I also like the way it explores the mentality of the Inquestors, their ideas ingrained over centuries that even heretics have trouble shedding.
Quibbles:
Characters too often survive and progress through incredible luck.
Why doesn't the girl recognize crying? What would have stopped her? And how did she learn to talk so fluently in such a short time?
It seems like too many instances of risks being taken for the sake of action. Why were the Inquestors so careless in going to the Dark Country? Their soldiers have so much power and they could have easily avoided this. Why was the inexperienced boy left with the sensor panel?
Some people have issues with the dialogue. It is a tad unnatural sounding at times but it's set in a very different time and place.
Some parts of the big plan near the end are ridiculous, initially this dampened my enthusiasm but there's promise that it isn't all it seems. This is probably a hook for the sequel.
One reviewer said it takes too much from Dune. I only know the Lynch film version. The brain whales are certainly similar and at one meeting with them, Dune is clearly referenced. Some of the villains are reminiscent of Dune villains but not that much. I thought there was a few other more muted references to other science fiction books. But I'd be surprised if that many of Somtow's other inventions have much in common with the Herbert books.
Cant wait to read all Somtow's other books. I might go to the Riverrun trilogy, Vampire Junction, Jasmine Nights or a collection before I read the next Inquestor book. All his books are available from his print-on-demand company.
A real buried treasure, should have a much bigger following.
Some of the reviews, titles and cover art for his books are intriguing, he's very likable in his public talks... I feel an obsession coming on. I start with Light On The Sound, first part of the Inquestor series (4 books in the series, a 5th book is promised and 2 supplemental booklets about the series came out recently). Theodore Sturgeon calls it "no less than the greatest magnitude of spectacle and color since Stapledon"!
It's a story of an empire that travels the universe destroying utopias and creating extremely manufactured existences for the people they exploit. Most of the story is divided between three characters, the majority of it set on one planet, with a few brief trips to a couple of other planets. The dwellings of the Inquestors tend to be extravagant but the other characters live in very bare, deprived places which are nonetheless quite technologically advanced.
There's an invented language (explained in an appendix in impressive detail); Somtow is especially fond of joining words without hyphenating them; the perceptions of people who cant see or hear is very cleverly described in many chapters. Then there's poems and folk songs.
I absolutely adored this, I haven't enjoyed a book this much in quite some time. It's pretty close to the kind of thing I'm hoping for when I'm delving into semi-forgotten fantasy/science fiction from the 70s-80s-90s. It has the kind of scale and beautiful spectacle I to look for in fantastical weird fiction but also has these wonderful big rousing moments of a type that weird fiction authors usually don't do. This isn't weird/horror fiction but Somtow definitely can do that when he wants to. I was beaming with morbid glee at a couple of the things Lady Ynyoldeh does.
One of the best things is getting a taste of amazing things we're unlikely to ever experience. I wish I could ride the gravity devices, Udara and the Overcosm.
I also like the way it explores the mentality of the Inquestors, their ideas ingrained over centuries that even heretics have trouble shedding.
Quibbles:
Characters too often survive and progress through incredible luck.
Why doesn't the girl recognize crying? What would have stopped her? And how did she learn to talk so fluently in such a short time?
It seems like too many instances of risks being taken for the sake of action. Why were the Inquestors so careless in going to the Dark Country? Their soldiers have so much power and they could have easily avoided this. Why was the inexperienced boy left with the sensor panel?
Some people have issues with the dialogue. It is a tad unnatural sounding at times but it's set in a very different time and place.
Some parts of the big plan near the end are ridiculous, initially this dampened my enthusiasm but there's promise that it isn't all it seems. This is probably a hook for the sequel.
One reviewer said it takes too much from Dune. I only know the Lynch film version. The brain whales are certainly similar and at one meeting with them, Dune is clearly referenced. Some of the villains are reminiscent of Dune villains but not that much. I thought there was a few other more muted references to other science fiction books. But I'd be surprised if that many of Somtow's other inventions have much in common with the Herbert books.
Cant wait to read all Somtow's other books. I might go to the Riverrun trilogy, Vampire Junction, Jasmine Nights or a collection before I read the next Inquestor book. All his books are available from his print-on-demand company.
A real buried treasure, should have a much bigger following.
April 12, 2015
I really enjoyed this when it was first published, and I was afraid it wouldn't hold up nearly 30 years later. It does, at least for me.
December 6, 2020
I was immediately drawn in by the vivid world-building created by Somtow. Gallendys and its wonders are very well conceived, as is the larger, vast Inquestral universe. Kelver and Darktouch were characters easy to sympathize with and I foound myself rooting for them in their ever-expanding journey. Davvyrush (not sure if I spelled that right or not) seems to have been a tragic character right from the beginning, and you feel for him being frustrated and taunted by his fellow Inquestors and the thinkhive.
As others have said, it does have something of an epic poem-type feel to it. Reminds me a little of Attanasio or early Samuel R Delaney, in that it is a beautiful, unique reading experience.
Looking forward to the others in the series!
As others have said, it does have something of an epic poem-type feel to it. Reminds me a little of Attanasio or early Samuel R Delaney, in that it is a beautiful, unique reading experience.
Looking forward to the others in the series!
April 24, 2014
In a host segment during one episode of “Mystery Science Theater 3000,” Crow T. Robot has the guys read a spec script he has written for a space opera. It is full of names like “Thringmar of Likkimus 13, ruler of Littikrankafranks” and words like “klangdorn” and “krellenkankafus.” I thought of that sketch frequently while reading this novel.
That’s probably unfair to Somtow Sucharitkul, who, judging from the Appendix on “Inquestral Highspeech,” is rather a more accomplished linguist than I (just the fact that he was born in Thailand and educated in England probably puts him ahead of me, for that matter). But, there’s no getting around it, “Ton Davaryush z Gallendaran K’Ning” makes me think of “Thringmar of Likkimus 13.”
It’s possible that I was distracted so easily because Sucharitkul chose to devise such a familiar plotline: this book is essentially “Dune” without the obvious religious overtones. The Sandworms have been split in two: there is a race of “Delphinoids” that is crucial to interstellar travel and a race of “al’ksigarkar” (sic) that inhabit the desert and are crucial to the survival of the natives, but dangerous to others. Some other elements have been shifted around, and, since this is just the first book in a less visionary tetralogy, Paul, or “Kelver,” makes less internal progress, but, really, it’s all pretty familiar ground.
The most damning thing I can say about this book is that I’m pretty sure I read it twenty years ago, but reading it this time, nothing came back to me about that reading. Usually there’s one image or sentence in any novel, even a bad one, that stays with me and can be readily re-invoked, but this time, nothing. I guess I just don’t get it, and that I didn’t then, either.
That’s probably unfair to Somtow Sucharitkul, who, judging from the Appendix on “Inquestral Highspeech,” is rather a more accomplished linguist than I (just the fact that he was born in Thailand and educated in England probably puts him ahead of me, for that matter). But, there’s no getting around it, “Ton Davaryush z Gallendaran K’Ning” makes me think of “Thringmar of Likkimus 13.”
It’s possible that I was distracted so easily because Sucharitkul chose to devise such a familiar plotline: this book is essentially “Dune” without the obvious religious overtones. The Sandworms have been split in two: there is a race of “Delphinoids” that is crucial to interstellar travel and a race of “al’ksigarkar” (sic) that inhabit the desert and are crucial to the survival of the natives, but dangerous to others. Some other elements have been shifted around, and, since this is just the first book in a less visionary tetralogy, Paul, or “Kelver,” makes less internal progress, but, really, it’s all pretty familiar ground.
The most damning thing I can say about this book is that I’m pretty sure I read it twenty years ago, but reading it this time, nothing came back to me about that reading. Usually there’s one image or sentence in any novel, even a bad one, that stays with me and can be readily re-invoked, but this time, nothing. I guess I just don’t get it, and that I didn’t then, either.
September 28, 2013
This was a re-read for me - but it's been over 20 years since I first read it. It's interesting to come back to something after so long. I'm happy that I still really, really liked it.
It's a reading experience that's more like experiencing a poem or a song than a typical novel. This is not to say that the plot is not clear and easy to follow (if anything, the plot might be overly simple, given such a rich and complex universe), but it is suffused with almost a synaesthesia of the senses, with music and glittering darkness. It's full of weird and wonderful imagery.
That said, perhaps some people might find it dated in some ways - personally, I found it giving me a nostalgia for the time period when it was written, which was much more filled with over-the-top fantasy, with an unabashed flair for the dramatic. Although this is sci-fi, it's definitely aesthetically influenced by the goth scene of the time, and reminds me of when goth was all about beauty, decadence and playing at cruelty and power, skirting the edges of convention. Some people found goth rock too bombastic too. I don't.
I wish Somtow would write more SF. Being a conductor is all very nice and worthwhile, but.... More Books! :-)
For now, I think I'll re-read this entire series.
It's a reading experience that's more like experiencing a poem or a song than a typical novel. This is not to say that the plot is not clear and easy to follow (if anything, the plot might be overly simple, given such a rich and complex universe), but it is suffused with almost a synaesthesia of the senses, with music and glittering darkness. It's full of weird and wonderful imagery.
That said, perhaps some people might find it dated in some ways - personally, I found it giving me a nostalgia for the time period when it was written, which was much more filled with over-the-top fantasy, with an unabashed flair for the dramatic. Although this is sci-fi, it's definitely aesthetically influenced by the goth scene of the time, and reminds me of when goth was all about beauty, decadence and playing at cruelty and power, skirting the edges of convention. Some people found goth rock too bombastic too. I don't.
I wish Somtow would write more SF. Being a conductor is all very nice and worthwhile, but.... More Books! :-)
For now, I think I'll re-read this entire series.
September 9, 2017
The first time I ran across the author was in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine back in 1980. That time period was heyday of SF/Fantasy for me. Every issue brought forth splendid writing. One of my favorites was Somtow Sucharitkul. A feature of his writing that entranced me was his use of color and music. Come to find out that he was a musician before he became a writer. I haven't reread any of his works in years. Light on the Sound, as all of his works, makes you think. The main character hunts down and destroys utopias out of the compassion of the Inquest, the powers that be. But, is the Inquest wrong?
January 19, 2019
A beautiful space opera fantasy in the grand tradition The writing is gorgeous, and the scale, epic. Probably my favourite book in the series. It has withstood the test of time (I first read it back in the dark ages of 1982 or so), despite sometimes a bit heavy-handed didacticism.
April 22, 2021
"Light on the Sound" is a most entertaining read especially for anyone wanting a light and fairly short read and who loves science fiction. I read the book a number of times over the last 30 or so years. Somtow Sucharitkul writes in a unique way that is part prose poetry with elements of synesthesia possibly relating to his career in music in Thailand. I first encountered his writing in the short story compilation called "Fire from the Wine Dark Sea" and novella "I Wake from a Dream of a Drowned Star City" (both highly recommended) where the author's concepts have consistent themes, some not for the faint of heart. The novel's plot and characters are not deep but I feel the whole package (including the other books in the Dawning Light/Inquestor series) is a memorable one, a unique vision and depiction.
May 13, 2008
I loved Sucharitkul's unusual Inquester series. Such strange worlds he creates - they stay with you, years later.
I will say though, that when I read these books as a teen in the '80s, I liked them, but didn't understand them like I do having read them 20 years later. Try it yourself...
I will say though, that when I read these books as a teen in the '80s, I liked them, but didn't understand them like I do having read them 20 years later. Try it yourself...
January 18, 2011
This book started out slow for me -- and was hampered by a substantial overuse of sentence fragments, not to mention misused semicolons! But it was conceptually interesting, and as the story went on, I grew impressed by the author's ideas and the strength of his world-building.
September 6, 2021
Wildly imaginative and epic in scope only begin to describe this work. Dark, deep social commentary, everything scifi is supposed to be. I recommend this in every way possible.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews