Thomcat
3/5/2023
Won a Nebula award, nominated for a Hugo, and released while the author was just 25, this mythic novel of a future earth benefits greatly from a knowledge of myths. Or maybe it requires a bit too much.
In this future earth, humans have left for an interstellar life - to the point of leaving their bodies behind. Aliens somehow take up residence on the future earth and in these bodies, more or less. This is not well detailed, and is not the point of the story. In face, the protagonists could be human (more or less) without changing the story much.
These characters have a solid knowledge of human arts, at least up through 1967. Not much science in this science fiction - the focus (as stated before) is myth. Is the main character doomed to repeat the myth or change it? Which myth specifically?
That's the rub. There's Campbell and Greek and even religious myths here. The main characters spend a lot of time discussing those myths (and Ringo Starr), and the whole story becomes a meta-myth. It also becomes a bit irritating for that. The ending comes fairly quickly, and I found difficulty figuring out which mythic character had prevailed at the expense of another. In fact, in the end I wanted it done more than I wanted to figure things out.
Beautiful writing, some definite thought on stories, endings, and the myths, it was a good book (or novella) but I probably won't be rereading it. For me the best part was the connection to the title.