A sequel to the novella 'Piper at the gates of dawn', establishing the 'White bird of Kinship' series. ( )

What do you get when you reinterpret a messianic tale, and blur the lines between fantasy and science fiction?

Well, I'm sure you can guess that since you're reading a book review for The Road to Corlay, what my answer will be.

Cowper has written a story based some 1000 years in the future. A flood wiped out most of the world, and the religious force rules all with an iron fist. Along comes a boy who can play the pipes well enough to enchant men's minds. He talks of things like Kinship and the White Bird, and the church sees this as heresy.

The boy dies from a wayward crossbow bolt, and is buried in a tomb. The man who killed him and the talespinner under whom the boy piped set off and established a new religion. The Boy, now capitalized, was revered as a messiah.

Years later, a man is found in the sea. His is Kin, a follower of the Kinship, which one can tell readily from his cloven tongue, in memory of the Boy.

Though, something sets him apart from the other Kin. Well, a few things do, actually.

First, there's the theory that this man, Thomas of Norwich, is in fact the Boy (named Tom, from Norwich), somehow resurrected. Second, there's this Michael Carver entity somewhere in the back of Thomas' mind. Michael, it is revealed, is a present-day doctor conducting OBE experiments, and somehow got trapped in Thomas' mind. Thirdly, he too can play the pipes to ensorcel men's minds.

While Thomas hides from the Falcons, the storm troopers of the church, he is assisted in his travels by Jane, a woman with whom he falls in love. Brother Francis, the Cardinal's right hand man, investigates the happenings around the day the Boy died. He discovers proof of miracles: blind getting sight and so forth, and has a Saul-like conversion. It is now his mission to deliver the original pipes to this Thomas, and hope that the Cardinal and his men do not find him and kill him first.

Cowper paints a tapestry here that has two sides. On one, we have a future that looks like the past, and on the other, we have a preset. Both have their own unique voices and unique colors, and it is amazing to see how Cowper shifts between the two seamlessly.

Recommended for fans of 70s fantasy. Not recommended for people expecting a redux of the life of Christ; you'll probably get offended if you look at it that way. ( )

This is a very compelling fantasy novel which had a profound impact on my psyche. Though it has an average writing style, I have been unable to get this book out of my head in all the years since I first read it!

Highly Recommended.

Reserved for Challenges. ( )

Wonderful spiritual adventure! ( )