Teaser

Two times over, machines almost destroyed humanity. Now the Church of Ludd prevents these evil devices from returning. Yet for Keiron, machines are not evil. Machines are the tool that he will use to fly . . .

Review

Nobody wants to read through several pages of family history to get to a recipe. That is one of the greatest frustrations of food blogs. I’ve heard similar complaints about book blogs. ‘Stop talking about yourself, and start talking about the book.’ It’s a reasonable enough demand. After all, you want to find out how good a book is. The thing is, however, that my thoughts on whether or not a book is any good are informed by things beyond the control of the book itself. Maybe I was in a bad mood when I read it. Maybe I spent a hundred pounds on a special edition so went in with high expectations. Or maybe I just have a fun story about how I found the book that becomes tangentially relevant to the reading experience.

That’s a longwinded way of me saying that I bought my used copy of The Cloud Walker in the small Sussex town of Arundel. Specifically, from Kim’s Bookshop, which is easily one of the best used bookshops in Britain. Imagine my surprise when I started reading the book a month later and found that, despite taking place several hundred years in the future, the action largely takes place in Arundel. In fact, you are still able to pay a small fee to explore Arundel Castle, so you can actually visit the exact rooms this book takes place in, if you are so inclined.

The Cloud Walker belongs that that little corner of science fiction in which the world as we know it has ended, and a new dark age has befallen humanity. The most famous version of this story is perhaps Walter M. Miller’s A Canticle for Leibowitz. Cooper, however, has a far more cynical view of organised religion. Rather than being a repository for human knowledge, Cooper’s Luddite Church is a brutal organisation that stamps out any hint of technological innovation, and is not beyond torture and public executions to achieve its ends. This is a story in which turning your back on religion is not only the right thing to do, it’s the only way to survive.

Since I was already familiar with the area the story takes place in, I found the worldbuilding more fascinating than usual, but Cooper’s vision of a Britain divided into feudal seigneuries is surprisingly well-drawn for such a short novel. The story is focused on Arundel and the surrounding area, but we also get a decent look at British politics as a whole. Towards the end of the novel, we also get glimpses of how the wider world is faring, and I want to give Cooper credit for not just stamping every country with the same label. Nowhere has fully recovered from whatever disasters lie in their past, but all are recovering in different ways.

It’s that expansive approach that really makes this book work. The first half is a typical boyish adventure, with Keiron working on his flying machines, trying to please his tutors, and falling into an improbably romance. The latter half kicks off with violence and action, but towards the end it becomes much more reflective. We see the entire stretch of Keiron’s life, and the impact he ahs on Arundel, those around him, and the world as a whole. It has the feel of a protracted epilogue, but in a way that absolutely keeps the reader hooked.

It has been a long time since I first picked up Cooper’s work, but this second offering doesn’t disappoint. The Cloud Walker is an underappreciated gem of British science fiction.

Book Stats

• A Standalone Novel
• First Published 1973
• 223 Pages