The book "Jero's Journey": reader reviews

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

The novel dilogy "The Journey of Hiero" by Sterling Lanier has long been a classic of science fantasy. It's fantasy, not science fiction. An amazingly organic combination of the chivalrous atmosphere of the Middle Ages and modern technologies, reasoned inclusions of information from the field of chemistry, physics, neuropsychology only add color to this already amazing work. Having become a bestseller and a novel that forever inscribed its author in the list of the best American science fiction writers, Hiero's Journey became the forerunner of many cult works, not only in the field of literature, but also in the field of painting, music, and cinema.

Despite a revolutionary stylistic radicalism for its time, the novel received high praise from such recognized masters of the pen as Frank Herbert, Ray Bradbury and Isaac Asimov.

The very philosophy of medieval asceticism and monotony in the world of modern technology is already intriguing and attracts the reader's attention, not to mentionon the merits of the artistic style used by the author.

Readers' reviews of the book "Jero's Journey" have repeatedly proved the demand for literature of this kind in the circles of thinking people.

Writer

Sterling Lanier is a figure that has always stood apart in the literary community of the United States. Although Lanier was a science fiction writer who was considered a special elite creative caste at the time, he always kept his distance from art per se, rarely giving interviews and hardly participating in any literary events.

In addition to writing, Sterling devoted a lot of time to self-development, sports, and sculpture, in which he succeeded a lot. Sometimes he returned to his first job - editing and proofreading scientific and journalistic articles.

Biography

The writer of Jero's Journey, Lanier was born on December 18, 1927, in New York City, the son of a worker and a maid. The family of the future writer was rather poor, and he was forced to work hard in various shops and eateries, trying to help his parents pay for his education. At the age of eighteen, Sterling moved to Maryland to live with distant relatives, thanks to whom he was able to become a fellow at Harvard University. Teachers immediately notice a gifted student, and Lanier gets a job at the department, holding the post of editor. At Harvard, Lanier spent a lot of time studying cultural studies, philosophy, history and anthropology, payingspecial attention to the history of the Middle Ages. The experience gained will later be useful to him when writing the famous book "Jero's Journey".

Early years

In 1951, Sterling graduated with honors from Harvard University and takes a job at the National Museum, taking the post of research historian. Scientific work completely absorbs the future writer, and Lanier has been working in the same place for about ten years, periodically refusing offers that came to him from various universities around the world.

All the while, Sterling has been working tirelessly on an as-yet-un titled novel that will be titled Jero's Journey in the future. The writer also creates a large number of stories, short stories and short cultural essays on medieval Europe.

In 1961, Lanier decided to publish one of his works in the famous magazine Asimov's Science Fiction. A short story for a couple of pages attracts readers with its originality and dissimilarity to other works from which issues of this magazine were usually compiled.

Lanier and Dune

In the mid-sixties, having retired from the museum, Lanier spent some time looking for work, until he finally got a job as an editor at one of the small publishing houses called Chilton Books. It was there that in 1965 the then-unknown Frank Herbert turned, who proposed the novel Dune for publication. The management of the office rejected the work of the young writer, but Lanier stood up for him, vouching for the literary opus. In early 1966 "Dune"was published, but sales of the book left much to be desired, and the irate director fired Lanier as editor.

Writing a book

Disappointed with the office system itself, Sterling Lanier locks himself at home and begins sorting through his ten-year-old archives, which contained a large number of concept sketches dedicated to the author's universe, containing elements of both modern technology and the paraphernalia of the Middle Ages.

Gradually, the very idea of the book "Journey of Hiero" began to emerge from scattered fragments - a wanderer's journey in a dangerous world full of difficulties, hardships and hardships.

Of course, then Lanier had no idea what his future work would be like and what impact it would have on science fiction literature in general.

Jero's Journey

A post-apocalyptic novel by Sterling Lanier tells of the aftermath of a monstrous nuclear disaster. The world, irreparably affected by such a large-scale cataclysm, is on the verge of death, tormented by mutants, monsters and various monsters sent by the Unclean. The goal of saving the world and protecting it from the hordes of the Unclean is set by the warriors of the Abbey of Kanda, who have vast knowledge and experience, but all their attempts remain unsuccessful, since an unknown weapon is required against the forces of evil, and Hiero Destin is sent to search for it. Destin is a telepathic warrior with a phenomenal ability to see the future and excellent combat skills.

Booktells about his adventures, adventures and constant moral choices that he is forced to make, carrying out a difficult assignment from his spiritual mentor.

He is forced to constantly engage in battle with various evil spirits, often showing not only fortitude, but also the necessary cruelty, thanks to which innocent people and good Christians remain alive.

People rarely give shelter to a wanderer, and this shows his service, selfless and modest. Iero is not proud of his work.

Partly it is the use of such themes by the author in his work that can explain such a large number of positive reviews for the book "Jero's Journey". Thanks to the straightforwardness of his character, Sterling Lanier managed to create a morally pure world in which there is no “middle side” or subconscious “two worlds” of heroes. In the universe of the novel, there are only two sides - light and dark, so the plot of the book itself is already a moral conflict of the author's world.

Criticism

The new work, just released from the pen of a young science fiction writer, was immediately submitted for discussion by the most venerable literary critics in the field of science fiction. The majority left positive reviews for Hiero's Journey, because, despite some shortcomings of the work, the author not only created a new genre, but also consolidated it with a worthy dilogy, equal in volume to Herbert's first three books about the world of Dune.

Such eminent science fiction writers as Isaac Asimov and RayBradbury, respected the work of the young author, noting that Lanier's work bears all the features characteristic of a new type of literature, and is, in fact, a link between the literature of the past and the fantastic worlds of the future.

Reviews

Reader feedback on Jero's Journey has been mostly positive. People who liked the novel noted an interesting concept, a carefully crafted world of the author's universe, interesting plot moves, and most importantly, characters with incredibly detailed characters.

Readers who were dissatisfied with the work wrote that the novel was too long, the language of the narrative is rather dry, similar to medieval knightly chronicles.

However, their opinion is not so important now, because "The Journey of Hiero" not only passed the test of time, but also became a classic of foreign fiction.