Author
Philip José Farmer
What They Say
Ishmael, lone survivor of the doomed whaling ship Pequod, falls through a rift in time and space to a future Earth – an Earth of blood-sucking vegetation and a blood-red sun, of barren canyons where once the Pacific Ocean roared. Here too there are whales to hunt – but whales that soar through a dark blue sky….
Hugo Award-winner Philip José Farmer spins a fascinating tale of whaling ships and sailors of the sky in a bizarre future world where there are no seas to sail and no safe harbor to call home….
The Review:
I am tempted to call The Wind Whales of Ishmael an interesting relic of an earlier time. It’s DNA stretches back to one of the earliest and greatest works of American literature. It oozes the style of the pulp serials of the early twentieth century, and is penned by a well known science fiction author from the late twentieth century. Rereleased now under Titan Book’s ‘Grand Master’ label, which has been republishing many of Farmer’s works, it seems anachronistic.
Taking it’s starting point as the ending of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, it casts that novel’s protagonist adrift once more on the sea. Ishmael, the lone survivor of a doomed pursuit finds himself inexplicably falling into the distant future of a dying earth. The subject of why and how this happens isn’t broached, and there’s no real explanation that would’ve sufficed anyway. The story is more fantasy than science, and it’s setting the scene for a tale of survival.
I’m a huge fan of ‘dying earth’ settings, and Farmer’s portrait of the earth in the end times doesn’t disappoint. A world where the oceans have dried up and the atmosphere has been scrapped away, until the last denizens of earth are forced to adapt to living in a world of scarce resources. Rocked by persistent earthquakes and unusual tides, it’s a world heavy on carnivores where everything appears to eat everything else.
When you strip away the trappings and history of the protagonist, the narrative arc is disappointingly simple. It’s a story that was old long before Farmer decided to tell it: an outsider male promises to save a kingdom of savages and declares himself their new ruler after falling in love with their princess. The arc doesn’t deviate far from it’s mold, although more modern sensibilities and tastes keep the protagonists more politically correct and not as cringe inducing as older pulp adventure stories. Amazingly, that makes sense in context as Ishmael was a worldly traveler and would have been exposed to more cultures. It doesn’t blunt the disappointment once you realize that the story isn’t going to reach any further than just an adventure romp.
The pace starts off slow and more introspective. Farmer loves describing all of the wondrous and dangerous creatures of the world. Likewise, he also goes into detail on describing the dying earth’s peoples air ships with great detail, almost too great. I’m still not quite sure what the air ships looked like because of all the nautical terminology being applied to them, but I can tell you they don’t look anything like the dirigible on the cover. When it comes to describing emotions, culture and people, far less time is spent. Their whole economy is hunting wind whales, and their religion is based on idols carved from their ambergris. Eventually the pacing becomes breakneck, anything that isn’t action is glossed over, and unfortunately character development is nil.
The action scenes are perhaps the strongest parts of the novel, which often involve the strange creatures trying to devour the protagonists. Battles with man eating air jellyfish and invading an enemy stronghold make up best scenes in the book, although the stakes come off as hollow once you realize that Farmer didn’t bother to give secondary characters a role other than a name and a job description.
Titan prefaces the text with a foreword by Farmer’s biggest fan, Michael Croteau, and ends with an afterword from Farmer relative Danny Adams, who is also an author. Both men seem to acquiesce that the novel is a light adventure romp with a neat theme, and that as long as you’re not expecting anything more you won’t be disappointed.
In Summary
The Wind Whales of Ishmael is an amusing throwback to the pulp adventures of days long past. In a modern context, it reminds me most of James Cameron’s Avatar, minus the metaphysical bullshit, which will either send perspective readers running away screaming or curious to pick it up. While I wish that the fiction was a bit more grounded in the science aspect, the real disappointment is how flimsy it feels in character. It’s an action movie in book form, and not Farmer’s strongest work, but for someone looking for an old-school adventure to sweep them away for a few hours it’ll satisfy that itch.
Grade: C
Published By: Titan Books
Release Date: March 12th, 2013
MSRP: $9.95
