Nightwings
Robert Silverberg
Tantor Audio
Fiction, Sci-Fi
*** (Okay)
DESCRIPTION: There was a time when humans walked among the stars, working veritable miracles of science, considered equals among the many sentient races of the galaxy. Now, Earth is in its twilight years, the world a broken and faded memory of itself, the people living in cities riddled with remnants of former days of glory. A series of self-inflicted disasters devastated the climate and civilization, and though we haven't regressed completely to a planetbound existence, we're far from the giants we once were - and, technically, our planet is no longer our own, although the new legal owners have yet to arrive.
For over a thousand years, the Guilds of Earth have kept wary watch upon the skies, preparing as best they can for the impending invasion, but some have started to believe it's never going to happen. An aging Watcher, traveling with a winged Flier and a mutant member of the reviled underclass Guildless, has traveled far across the remnants of the world, and comes at last to the city of Roum, were fragments as old as the First Cycle of civilization itself can still be seen (though that's more the provence of the Rememberer Guild). He is here when at last the ancient threats come true, and the Invaders arrive to find our spirits as broken as our planet. As the Watcher struggles to find a purpose in this new, occupied world where his guild is no longer needed, he starts to wonder if he is seeing the last guttering embers of human civilization - or the first sparks of a new and rising glory.
REVIEW: Though this book feels like it might be in the same far-future milieu as the Majipoor books, it appears to be a standalone title, which is probably just as well. This is mostly a story of thinly-veiled religious concepts about sin, rebirth, and redemption, even if it cloaks it in terms like "the Will". The setting itself has some nice, imaginative (if rather dystopian) ideas, though it's saddled with certain markers of when it was written: old white guys lusting after barely-legal girls, women being either shy, delicate flowers of purity or selfish, vain, power-hungry vessels of pure lust and irredeemable sin, and a casual assumption that of course humans are divinely blessed above all else, that there is an aware Will guiding all, and the promises of primarily Abrahamic religions will eventually come to fruition even if the religions themselves have been lost to history. For all that, the story does at least acknowledge the deep and lasting damage done by cultures who consider themselves superior treating others as animals (or worse), plus warnings about attempts to control or alter global climates that have eerie resonance as we barrel headlong toward catastrophe in the here-and-now, and how the bill for both sins may be delayed but eventually comes due with interest. The Watcher is not always the most sympathetic of characters, though he does have to come to terms with his own faults, as well as those of his world. Around him are characters who are more archetype or symbol or metaphor to convey the Message than rounded individuals. I suspect that, if I were more literate in religion, I would see even more messages and symbolism pretty much everywhere and in every event, as that angle grows exceptionally heavy-handed the further into the tale one wanders. The ending... no spoilers, but I almost groaned out loud, as Silverberg dispenses of the sledgehammer and resorts to a metaphoric pile driver to pound the Lesson and Message home.
As I mentioned, there are some decent ideas and images, and there's something vaguely compelling about the fantastic vision of the future it presents. I just have a very limited tolerance for Message stories, particularly ones that seem primarily designed to gently soothe readers of a particular (assumed) cultural and religious persuasion that, yes, they really are the best and their Truth is the only Truth.
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