City of Baraboo [Paperback]

Barry B. Longyear with his Circus World Trilogy has done more to preserve the history of the circus than any writer since Chappie Fox - and if you know anything about circus lore at all, you'll realize what high praise that is.

The basic premise: O'Hara's Greater Shows, Terra's last circus under canvas or otherwise, is in the cart (circus slang for 'in deep trouble'). They are a subsidiary of the Arnheim & Boon Conglomerated Enterprises (hereafter A&BCE), a soulless omnicorp that does not understand what they have; all they can see is a dismal return on their investment. The Governor (slang for the owner of the circus), John J. O'Hara, learns A&BCE plans to disband the show. He goes to A&BCE's Board of Directors with a novel proposal: He will take O'Hara's Greater Shows off their hands and off Earth, and assume its debts. Despite the howling objections of Arnheim, the Chairman of the Board, the Board goes for the deal. O'Hara then takes his circus to Ahngar, a world that appreciates showmanship, and in short order makes enough money to pay A&BCE completely off.

The Governor returns to Earth with the money and an idea: That A&BCE build him a circus starship so he can take O'Hara's onto the star road. A&BCE accepts the contract, and the future looks rosy.

However, Arnheim and his Board of Directors have a scheme of their own. While the circus starship City of Baraboo is being built (she was named by O'Hara for the birthplace and former winter quarters of the five Ringling Brothers and their famous circus) A&BCE secretly contracts with the Nuumian Empire, an ambitious alien government in the Ninth Quadrant, to sell the City of Baraboo to them. As she is built on the lines of a Terran regimental assault carrier complete with detachable landing shuttles, she would be a valuable addition to the Nuumian fleet. How O'Hara, his kinkers, joeys, spangle prats, canvasmen, windjammers and roustabouts manage to hijack their starship - and get to keep her - makes up the first story of the novel, which is a series of connected stories.

The rest of the novel is told in the main through the eyes of a First of May (circus first-time employee), "Warts" Tho, a Pendiian, who signs on with the show its second year in space to keep the route book, the daily log of the circus's travels and stands. Through Warts, Longyear leads the reader through many aspects of circus life, providing us with an insider's view of the circus. We meet the Advance Team responsible for advertising, flying a baby starship with four landing shuttles named for the old Ringling Brothers advance cars of centuries before; and watch them duke it out with other shows that have taken to space and planets far away. We get a look at the artistes (they used to be called freaks) and life on the Midway as opposed to the Big Top. We get to see, on two different planets, what happens when circus justice intersects planetery justice. We find out about circus nicknames - the story of how Stretch Dirak got his is priceless. We get to see the Governor help out his friend/patron, the King of Ahngar, by ridding Ahngar of a plague of gamblers, and without contaminating his show with them as so many dishonest shows of the 19th Century were tainted. We learn why every traveling show carries a fellow known as "The Patch," and how important The Patch is to helping th show to run smoothly. (It's worth mentioning that Robbie Robertson got the job of The Patch almost exactly right in the movie, Carny.) And finally,we see the circus having to cope with a catastrophe unlike anything that other chronicler of circus life, Cecil B. DeMille, could ever have imagined.

As Spider Robinson said, Longyear projected the circus into the future and thus gave it immortality. He makes us see just what the circus meant to the pre-television, nay, pre-motion pictures, world. And he gives those of us that love the Big Top and the daring performers hope that this art form will survive and even thrive in the future.

Of the three books featuring the Old One, as O'Hara's Greater Shows is known in that time's entertainment industry, this one is probably the best. Elephant Song because of its very nature is melancholy and the only one of the trio written as a novel; and while I am fond of the third book, Circus World, in my opinion only two of its stories meet the standard set by City of Baraboo.

By all means read all three of the Circus World novels. However, I think that as I do, you will as it were come again with the young 'uns and the old folks, back to City of Baraboo.

I highly recommend reading "The City of Baraboo". It is the story of a circus that takes the star road. Never before has an author researched and captured the soul of the circus like this before. It makes me cry because the circus has died. All the big circuses have long since surrendered their souls to the devil of the almighty buck. Sacrificing the high art and the heart of the circus for no better reason then to make money. Longyear has captured the soul of the circus and brought it back to life.

Longyear has given us a funny and dramatic look into what a circus on the star road would have to face. All the troubles and all the fun a company of fools would have to deal with. For S/F fans, cicus fans and for the child inside of everyone don't miss this book. Write to the publisher and demand a reprinting. It's worth any effort one has to go through to read this book.

Terrific book, as much of the feel of the circus as any could have - indeed, ALL three books ought to be printed together into an omnibus volume...