Book Review: The Transformer Trilogy
I must have blinked when this came out last year because I completely missed it until now.
M. A. Foster has been on my mind lately for some odd reason. Most of his work was published in the 1970s and 1980s. Then he stopped writing manuscripts. I read somewhere it was a case of "crash and burn", or perhaps it was because his novels were never big hits. Either way it's too bad because all his works were wonderful. I understand he continues to write and has had something to do with various comics / graphic novels.
In any event, I have to admit I don't actually own this book, nor have I actually read The Transformer Trilogy. I own the original books. The Trilogy is a reprint of The Morphodite, Transformer, and Preserver that were originally published in 1981, 1983, and 1985 respectively. As science fiction they remind me of the older, pulp fiction sci-fi stories of an earlier era. They are not, but there's something in the style that makes me think so.
In both The Morphodite and The Warriors of Dawn, Foster reveals his fascination with predicting the future. The Morphodite uses a series of complex calculations that boarders on magic to alter reality. The effects are specifically designed to analyze a group, such as a government, and find the "key" person around which the group revolves. This is not always a leader or someone considered "important". For instance, by killing a young man met briefly on a train, the Morphodite causes a planetary government to fall.
In the Warriors of Dawn, a young lady, part of a breed of humans (yes, "breed" - there are those that keep humans as pets) known for their intelligence, creates a hand held device capable of revealing past and future events - all with string, beads, and shadows. It is probably not all that interesting since both novels come from the same author but I was struck with the similarity. I always wondered why Foster had this theme in both sets.
Just about everything about Foster's worlds are unique. Oerlikon is a changeless world in a near perfectly circular orbit without seasonal changes and no interesting star patterns. Dawn, however, wobbles and turns on its axis at a horrible angle, causing severe climate changes.
I included references to the other reprint of a second series. The Book of the Ler contains the original The Warriors of Dawn, The Gameplayers of Zan, and The Day of the Klesh. The Ler are an engineered species designed by humans but have lived on their own planets for centuries. Warriors is your typical Human Boy meets Ler Girl and they try to save the universe, which is probably the absolute worst way to summarize the book. It is so much more.
These novels were written for adults with lots of premarital hanky-panky, which is probably what reminds me of pulp fiction sci-fi. But really, most authors include such things. Remember the original fan-base: Geeks. I recommend these novels but admonish you to heed this warning as you would for any secular fiction.
M. A. Foster has been on my mind lately for some odd reason. Most of his work was published in the 1970s and 1980s. Then he stopped writing manuscripts. I read somewhere it was a case of "crash and burn", or perhaps it was because his novels were never big hits. Either way it's too bad because all his works were wonderful. I understand he continues to write and has had something to do with various comics / graphic novels.
In any event, I have to admit I don't actually own this book, nor have I actually read The Transformer Trilogy. I own the original books. The Trilogy is a reprint of The Morphodite, Transformer, and Preserver that were originally published in 1981, 1983, and 1985 respectively. As science fiction they remind me of the older, pulp fiction sci-fi stories of an earlier era. They are not, but there's something in the style that makes me think so.
In both The Morphodite and The Warriors of Dawn, Foster reveals his fascination with predicting the future. The Morphodite uses a series of complex calculations that boarders on magic to alter reality. The effects are specifically designed to analyze a group, such as a government, and find the "key" person around which the group revolves. This is not always a leader or someone considered "important". For instance, by killing a young man met briefly on a train, the Morphodite causes a planetary government to fall.
In the Warriors of Dawn, a young lady, part of a breed of humans (yes, "breed" - there are those that keep humans as pets) known for their intelligence, creates a hand held device capable of revealing past and future events - all with string, beads, and shadows. It is probably not all that interesting since both novels come from the same author but I was struck with the similarity. I always wondered why Foster had this theme in both sets.
Just about everything about Foster's worlds are unique. Oerlikon is a changeless world in a near perfectly circular orbit without seasonal changes and no interesting star patterns. Dawn, however, wobbles and turns on its axis at a horrible angle, causing severe climate changes.
I included references to the other reprint of a second series. The Book of the Ler contains the original The Warriors of Dawn, The Gameplayers of Zan, and The Day of the Klesh. The Ler are an engineered species designed by humans but have lived on their own planets for centuries. Warriors is your typical Human Boy meets Ler Girl and they try to save the universe, which is probably the absolute worst way to summarize the book. It is so much more.
These novels were written for adults with lots of premarital hanky-panky, which is probably what reminds me of pulp fiction sci-fi. But really, most authors include such things. Remember the original fan-base: Geeks. I recommend these novels but admonish you to heed this warning as you would for any secular fiction.
Comments