Fire Time [Anglais] [Poche]

"Fire Time" is a 1974 novel by Poul Anderson, a prolific and pretty consistent SF author. No one of his best books (like Tau Zero, The Broken Sword or Brain Wave) but better than a handful of others that I've read (e.g. Operation Chaos, Mirkheim). Its typical Anderson: there's some flaws, but its readable and a good break from say, Victor Davis Hanson or Barry Malzberg. It takes place on another planet, with an alien race (the Ishtarians) described compellingly enough to be featured in Barlowe's Guide to Aliens, which is a Hall of Fame of sorts in SF literature.

There's a lack of internet discussion about "Fire Time," that I could find today, despite the fact that 1.) it did get nominated for a Hugo back when it was published (1974) and 2.) it was written during the ugly concluding years of the Vietnam War, a time unfortunately more and more relevant to our current situation. Books like "Star Fox" made Anderson a pretty popular SF writer, but one who drew criticism for his supposedly pro-war attitude. I read somewhere that "Fire Time" was a kind of response to this criticism, even mentioning the main character of "Star Fox" in its pages.

It would be a mistake to view "Fire Time" as an anti-war book. There are two wars going on here: one is between the nomadic barbarians desperate to avoid the devastating effects of climate change (the "Fire Time" of the title) and their semi-nomadic semi-civilized counterparts that interact with human colonists, and the other is an interstellar war between the huamns and another technologically advanced race. The human colonists on the planet in question contend with local sympathies and bureaucratic thumb-twiddling, and leave some time to explore their (ugh) feelings for each other. The larger human war receives the criticism in this story, while the Ishtarians' war is mostly described in heroic terms. Anderson shows that the technology and complexity take the honor and soul out of battle, and that war by proxy is poison to civilization.

The story is complex, multithemed but readable in a way that all Anderson novels are. Briefly, here are some of the typical Anderson themes at play.

- Tragic heroism. The Ishtarian leaders that oppose each other are depicted are given rich characterization, and they both have their noble aspects. This is an important feature of Anderson's work, where the honor is usually found in what would be the biggest villian of the tale.

- Distrust of remote government. The human colonists are constantly at odds with the Earth hands that feed them, especially when an overarching war bleeds their resources. A Libertarian theme that also runs though "Star Fox" and the van Rijn series.

- Aliens shaped by physics. Anderson paid a lot of attention to the environmental consequences of the astronomical setup of the planets, carrying on the tradition of writers like Hal Clement. Discovery of and interaction with the alien races make up some of the best parts of this and many other Anderson books.

- Characters with moral struggles. 1974 was the year the celebrated Robert Stone novel Dog Soldiers was published. That book featured Vietnam veterans returning home to deal heroin, and featured a collection of truly repulsive and amoral characters. Books like "Fire Time" and "Dog Soldiers" may represent the polar opposites of viewpoints regarding how much moral control people could be expected to have over their actions. I've read only one of Stone's books and over 20 of Anderson's.

There are multipile shortcomings (the 1950's era coyness when describing the human relationships, stretches of boring narration at the beginning, internal dialogue that's overused), that keep this from being a classic. He appears to handle the stoic characters better then the emotional ones. However, this novel is worth finding and reading, and it's nice to see that Baen reprinted it some time ago.

This book is about what happens on a planet with three suns (the main sun, a dwarf sun, and a wandering sun), when the wandering sun comes too close. On this planet, called Ishtar, humans and the indigenous centauroid aliens co-exist. "Firetime" is coming, as it does at intervals, and civilization has always collapsed at these times, due in large part to the "barbarian" Ishtarians whose lands are the hardest hit when the rogue sun comes around. They leave their baked homelands and go rampaging into the more "civilized" lands elsewhere on the planet. This time around, humans are there (this is their first Firetime), and they want to stop civilization from being destroyed again.

Several thought-provoking ideas come out in this book. For one thing, we are made to wonder whether the "barbarian" or the "civilized" Ishtarians are in the right. We sympathize with the "barbarian" desire to escape their unliveable homeland, but also with the "civilized" desire to keep civilization intact. This book isn't simply about one group (the good guys) fighting another group (the bad guys).

It takes a bit of time to get enough into the story that you can understand what's going on. However, once you do, it's worth it.

One of the most impressive books I have ever read. At first it is just a well rendered science fiction adventure novel. Two wars are depicted - one is far away, while the other is close at hand. The war far away is not shown in detail. Actually just one scene describes it close up. A human pilot who goes down with his craft on an unknown planet in an uncontrolled descent after sustaining a hit in a space battle is all the action the reader gets from that theatre.
The war close at hand is different. Some human researchers made friends with aliens of a civilization they study. This civilization is hard pressed by barbarian tribes of the same race. The technology of the human researchers could make all the difference but they are not allowed to interfere. Anderson supplies a lot of action, suspense and moral conflict.
A good novel but why did I call it impressive? The way in which several characters just vanish is really frustrating for the reader in a good way. In real war there are usually no heroic scenes, famous last words and other moving fine points of loss... Anderson rips characters from the plot in a way that the reader is often kept in the dark to their final fate. He skillfully conveys loss and fears and doubts which assault those left behind. The pain of the characters in the novel that are left behind is shared by the reader and that makes it impressive!