I really liked this. It had some pretty cool ideas for post-apocalypse societies, but I'll admit, I liked the truthful speakers the best. I got a little bored and distracted at Dr. Boots' List, which is a shame, because it ties in really well with the main story. I hope I didn't miss anything because of it. I very much liked the idea of Path, and the Filing System, and I was intrigued by the League of women. Quite interesting! ( )

Crowley, John. Engine Summer. 1979. Gollancz, 2013.
Engine Summer is set in a deep post-apocalyptic future in which a young man, Rush that Speaks, from an idyllic sustainable community sets out on a quest to reunite with his lover, Once A Day. He finds that his world is a stranger place than he imagines. Will he one day become an Angel, a being remembered only for his story? The style of the novel is self-consciously poetic. You have to be in the mood for something uplifting. 4 stars, if you are in such a mood. ( )

Rush That Speaks is a dweller in Little Belaire, a self-sufficient community of Truthful Speakers in a post-apocalyptic world. He leaves this inward-looking place to seek truth in the wider world, where he pieces together stories of the Angels and the Storm which overwhelmed their world. The post-apocalypse world is a mostly peaceful and strange one, with few inhabitants. I like that the attitudes of these inhabitants are very different to today's. It reminded me of the very end of Doris Lessing's 'Shikasta'. I really enjoyed the language of this book, and I dreamed about it. ( )

Sometimes I forget just how good science fiction can be when is not Cowboys in space. A post apocalypse world is what you have dropped into and then you journey deeper into it. I am always amazed by how simple this seems when it is done so well. You do not have to wade through page after page of boring description to get a very clear picture of the world in which you find yourself. Come to think of it, I have read lots of non-science fiction novels in which you have to wade through page after page of boring descriptions when they are talking about a world we know so well. If you don't read or have never read science fiction I'd recommend picking one up and giving it a go. ( )

I almost want to go back and re-read this one immediately because there are a lot of revelations at the end that completely change how you understand the rest of the book. This book is going to haunt me for a long time.

It is set in a post-apocalyptic future, where some disaster has wiped out most of humanity. The story is narrated by Rush That Speaks in his old age, being interviewed about his youth. He grew up in a communal society, where people struggle to understand the lives of the humans who came before, who they call Angels. They still have some discarded Angel technology and artifacts, which they revere but do not understand (one character spends most of his life in a quest to understand "crostic words"). The human society was clearly far more advanced than ours, and there are elements of magic too - the people don't have to grow food, but can survive by smoking stuff they harvest from weird trees that were left by aliens.

As a teenager, Rush That Speaks goes on a quest, hoping to become a Saint. In his travels he learns different ways of understanding the world: in his native culture, he was a truthspeaker. He encounters other people who see the world in terms of dark and light instead of truth. He encounters scavengers who see the world in utilitarian terms. All along, he is trying to understand the world, and trying to form a relationship with Once a Day, a girl he played with as a child. His pursuit of her is part of his quest to understand the world.

All along, the reader gets more and more hints about how the world came to be how it is. It takes some sleuthing to piece them all together, and I'm sure I missed a lot of it along the way because I couldn't see how it was relevant.

The book can be mysterious and confusing, and sometimes as a reader you feel a bit unmoored and it's hard to follow what's happening, but it's still compelling. Rush That Speaks and his fellow people have a childlike wonder and innocence that makes the novel sparkle, even in the dark parts.

It all comes into sharp focus at the end, so if you're feeling lost, stick with it because it does all eventually make sense.

I love John Crowley's books. With this one, just like all of his others, I feel like I'm not quite smart enough to totally appreciate everything he's doing, and I might need two or three readings to fully appreciate it, but it's well worth two or three readings. ( )