- Hardcover: 224 pages
- Publisher: Barrie & Jenkins; 1st UK edition edition (July 1969)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0257650180
- ISBN-13: 978-0257650180
- Product Dimensions: 21.6 x 14.7 x 2.5 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 3,051,863 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback
I picked this paperback up for pennies in a second-hand store recently, entirely because of the author, having recently enjoyed "Where Late The Sweet Birds Sang (S.F. Masterworks)". It it begins in the homespun and gently satirical territory of John Wyndham and then expands wildly into something akin to the classic "Stranger in a Strange Land" by R.A. Heinlein. Wilhelm's issues still speak to a modern audience although her glimpses into the technological future sometimes fall flat.
Superficially, it's about a young doctor's family that adopt a baby, purportedly unplanned and unwanted by his mother, but in truth, he has been switched with the only survivor of an alien crash-landing. This unabashed prince-and-pauper device is then used to compare the weird upbringing of a normal child mistaken for an alien to the readjustments faced by the real star-child as he discovers his true nature and abilities.
But it doesn't stop there: At its heart, this a story about cultism and reactionary, evangelical partisanship that's seemingly always lurking somewhere in the psyche of the USA. This book is really about the anti-heroic Obie - a small-town kid with charisma, cunning and not a whole lot else on his side - as he becomes by turns an evangelist, prophet, religious leader and brainwashing despot. As his journey into power progresses, his motives progress from petty opportunism (and an almost-likeable entrepreneurial spirit) to lust for power, delusions of grandeur, and eventually a real faith, marred by Nixonian paranoia. Wilhelm is plainly satirising evangelism, but her theme is wider; she illustrates the devisiveness of all militant beliefs in society; when split into two fundamentalist, uncompromising camps, American fraternity fractures into violence.
It's all too ambitious; the plot is overcomplicated by the sheer distance Wilhelm attempts to cover after embarking from a cosy, small-town, soap-opera format. Large portions of this book work excellently and on the most part it's a delight to read, but the vast societal changes wrought by technological progress and the apocalyptic panic stirred up by Obie go a little further than my patience could tolerate. You have to admire her for trying, but her attempt to marry Wyndham's kitchen-sink catastrophes with Heinlein's vastly extrapolated future histories is doomed to failure.
Overall, this is a good read for classic SF fans and a real discussion piece. As ever, Wilhelm has served up a bit more than we can chew, which is a shame, because it's largely nutritious and tasty fare.
Superficially, it's about a young doctor's family that adopt a baby, purportedly unplanned and unwanted by his mother, but in truth, he has been switched with the only survivor of an alien crash-landing. This unabashed prince-and-pauper device is then used to compare the weird upbringing of a normal child mistaken for an alien to the readjustments faced by the real star-child as he discovers his true nature and abilities.
But it doesn't stop there: At its heart, this a story about cultism and reactionary, evangelical partisanship that's seemingly always lurking somewhere in the psyche of the USA. This book is really about the anti-heroic Obie - a small-town kid with charisma, cunning and not a whole lot else on his side - as he becomes by turns an evangelist, prophet, religious leader and brainwashing despot. As his journey into power progresses, his motives progress from petty opportunism (and an almost-likeable entrepreneurial spirit) to lust for power, delusions of grandeur, and eventually a real faith, marred by Nixonian paranoia. Wilhelm is plainly satirising evangelism, but her theme is wider; she illustrates the devisiveness of all militant beliefs in society; when split into two fundamentalist, uncompromising camps, American fraternity fractures into violence.
It's all too ambitious; the plot is overcomplicated by the sheer distance Wilhelm attempts to cover after embarking from a cosy, small-town, soap-opera format. Large portions of this book work excellently and on the most part it's a delight to read, but the vast societal changes wrought by technological progress and the apocalyptic panic stirred up by Obie go a little further than my patience could tolerate. You have to admire her for trying, but her attempt to marry Wyndham's kitchen-sink catastrophes with Heinlein's vastly extrapolated future histories is doomed to failure.
Overall, this is a good read for classic SF fans and a real discussion piece. As ever, Wilhelm has served up a bit more than we can chew, which is a shame, because it's largely nutritious and tasty fare.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
2 reviews
Xenophobic fanatics - all too real
15 Sep 2011
Format:Paperback
Rear cover synopsis:
"The alien starship landed in a cornfield. Its crew died rapidly, leaving only one survivor - a baby, conceived on an unknown world, carried in its mothers womb across space and delivered even as the mother died on a hostile Earth.
But the alien woman had given birth to more than a child. With her last act she bequeathed to the Earth that hated her and her kind decades of turmoil and strife that would come close to tearing the whole planet apart..."
Kate Wilhelm's Where Late The Sweet Birds Sang was the first novel I've read by the author. While considered science fiction, it didn't use the science as a a focus or as a crutch, but more as a tool for the plot. The same could be said for Let the Fire Fall. The inclusion of an alien in the plot isn't for the sake of using it for science fiction, but merely for the use of a tool in the plot, as a way to incite a drastic change in society.
After the spaceship lands and the crew begin to die, one particularly immoral young man, Obie, decides to base a religion on the hatred of the strangers. This same young man is the illegitimate father of a child to be born the same day in the same house as the alien baby (the mother jettisons away from the virulent craft to the doctor's house, where he tends to both mothers' needs). With society's fear of the plagued aliens rampant, Obie finds a toehold for his ersatz faith and declares himself a prophet of God.
The chapter passages tend to shift time periods and character POV in abutting paragraphs, making it jarring to follow coherently. And as Obie's religion spreads across the country over two decades, the span of time becomes important as to the development of the human child and the development of the Star Child, of whom Obie seeks to proselytize his farcical faith for him. The span of characters is manageable but the initial chapters are a tad confusing with the inclusion of nearly all the key players.
The plot was fairly predictable and many of the twists of plot were a tad absurd (the Star Child's private submarine private helicopter). Wilhelm even effectively kills off a major character (the obstetrician of the same-day babies) by putting him into cryo-sleep and metaphorically dusts off her hands for that snag in the plot. Those two instances are just samples of some of the things Wilhelm tosses into the mix in order to create an artificial change in the plot. It doesn't flow naturally.
Besides the terrible plot flow and paragraph flow, the premise is interesting at least and the books remains fairly readable though I wouldn't want to reread it. The fanatical xenophobic change in society when the aliens arrive is probably all too real. When the same xenophobes begin to turn against the human non-believers... again, it feels all too real. So, Wilhelm gets points for what I feel could be an accurate portrayal of first alien contact on earth. Definitely read Where Late The Sweet Birds Sang, but skip Let the Fire Fall.
"The alien starship landed in a cornfield. Its crew died rapidly, leaving only one survivor - a baby, conceived on an unknown world, carried in its mothers womb across space and delivered even as the mother died on a hostile Earth.
But the alien woman had given birth to more than a child. With her last act she bequeathed to the Earth that hated her and her kind decades of turmoil and strife that would come close to tearing the whole planet apart..."
Kate Wilhelm's Where Late The Sweet Birds Sang was the first novel I've read by the author. While considered science fiction, it didn't use the science as a a focus or as a crutch, but more as a tool for the plot. The same could be said for Let the Fire Fall. The inclusion of an alien in the plot isn't for the sake of using it for science fiction, but merely for the use of a tool in the plot, as a way to incite a drastic change in society.
After the spaceship lands and the crew begin to die, one particularly immoral young man, Obie, decides to base a religion on the hatred of the strangers. This same young man is the illegitimate father of a child to be born the same day in the same house as the alien baby (the mother jettisons away from the virulent craft to the doctor's house, where he tends to both mothers' needs). With society's fear of the plagued aliens rampant, Obie finds a toehold for his ersatz faith and declares himself a prophet of God.
The chapter passages tend to shift time periods and character POV in abutting paragraphs, making it jarring to follow coherently. And as Obie's religion spreads across the country over two decades, the span of time becomes important as to the development of the human child and the development of the Star Child, of whom Obie seeks to proselytize his farcical faith for him. The span of characters is manageable but the initial chapters are a tad confusing with the inclusion of nearly all the key players.
The plot was fairly predictable and many of the twists of plot were a tad absurd (the Star Child's private submarine private helicopter). Wilhelm even effectively kills off a major character (the obstetrician of the same-day babies) by putting him into cryo-sleep and metaphorically dusts off her hands for that snag in the plot. Those two instances are just samples of some of the things Wilhelm tosses into the mix in order to create an artificial change in the plot. It doesn't flow naturally.
Besides the terrible plot flow and paragraph flow, the premise is interesting at least and the books remains fairly readable though I wouldn't want to reread it. The fanatical xenophobic change in society when the aliens arrive is probably all too real. When the same xenophobes begin to turn against the human non-believers... again, it feels all too real. So, Wilhelm gets points for what I feel could be an accurate portrayal of first alien contact on earth. Definitely read Where Late The Sweet Birds Sang, but skip Let the Fire Fall.
The Odyssey of the Alien Kid.
29 Aug 2010
Format:Paperback
Kate Wilhelm (1928) write sci-fi, fantasy and mystery novels, she is best known by her Barbara Holloway series. Nevertheless she won three Nebula and one Hugo award for sci-fi short stories and novelette.
"Let the Fire Fall" (1969) is the first novel I've read from Kate Wilhelm. It is a very readable story with a dubious ending, for that reason I give her only four stars.
The story starts when Obie Cox a despicable youngster and Matt Daniels MD see an alien spaceship land in a cornfield nearby and converge to it before authorities arrive and get a glimpse of the aliens.
After the authorities set quarantine around the ship a combination of issues will mix Matt and Obie destiny. There are a couple of newborn, one Obie's bastard and the other an alien child. The Government sizes the alien and Matt adopt Obie's child.
Years pass by; Obie evolves into a charismatic hate-spite preacher conducting a crusade against the "alien brat". Blake, the adopted kid, develop into a brilliant child, is sequestered by Obie. After some time he evade his kidnapers and start a life all by himself, this stretch of the novel made me remember of Steven Gould's "Jumper".
Meanwhile Obie's preaching is driving the population mad and riots and confrontations among his followers and the "others" menace to rip the country apart.
The novel follows these developments till its end.
It is an interesting and well written book, commendable for sci-fi buffs and general public too.
Reviewed by Max Yofre.
"Let the Fire Fall" (1969) is the first novel I've read from Kate Wilhelm. It is a very readable story with a dubious ending, for that reason I give her only four stars.
The story starts when Obie Cox a despicable youngster and Matt Daniels MD see an alien spaceship land in a cornfield nearby and converge to it before authorities arrive and get a glimpse of the aliens.
After the authorities set quarantine around the ship a combination of issues will mix Matt and Obie destiny. There are a couple of newborn, one Obie's bastard and the other an alien child. The Government sizes the alien and Matt adopt Obie's child.
Years pass by; Obie evolves into a charismatic hate-spite preacher conducting a crusade against the "alien brat". Blake, the adopted kid, develop into a brilliant child, is sequestered by Obie. After some time he evade his kidnapers and start a life all by himself, this stretch of the novel made me remember of Steven Gould's "Jumper".
Meanwhile Obie's preaching is driving the population mad and riots and confrontations among his followers and the "others" menace to rip the country apart.
The novel follows these developments till its end.
It is an interesting and well written book, commendable for sci-fi buffs and general public too.
Reviewed by Max Yofre.
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