Book review: The Twilight of Briareus

By Richard Cowper, aka John Middleton Murry. I like this one; it is from my childhood. Wiki will tell you about it; and also that there is no star or constellation called Briareus.

The tone is "subtle, lyrical and moving" which is kinda fair I think; there's a sort of eerie tone not dissimilar to some of the faerie parts of Pavane. The story, read through from the start without foreknowledge, mostly works. Here's an enthusiastic Goodreads review with which I largely agree; or this one.

Reading it again but with foreknowledge, and as an adult, the gaps and oddities are more obvious. Quite what the "newcomers" want of us, quite what they are offering that is worth a risk of extinction, really isn't clear. Quite how our bodies have decided to shutdown reproduction, quite how our old brains have recognised something that our new brains have not, ditto. But never mind; one can still glide over these improbabilities. The ending jars; Calvin kills himself for no obvious reason, other than to fulfil some unclearly expressed prophecy; I don't like prophecy.

A consequence of the supernova is a shutdown of the gulf stream, leading to England becoming snowbound. That's a nice part of the story - it gives him a ready isolated environment for his characters - and isn't particularly implausible.