Elephant Song is a science fiction novel by American writer Barry Longyear, published in 1982.
Elephant Song is a science fiction novel by American writer Barry Longyear, published in 1982.
In the novel, the O'Hara's Greater Shows interstellar circus is abandoned on an alien world. [1]
Stranded on a planet far from the spacelanes by Arnheim's sabotage of the City of Baraboo, the survivors of O'Hara's Greatest shows must struggle to survive on the unsurveyed world of Momus with no pioneering equipment and the show scattered across the planet. The Baraboo's shuttles (she was an adaptation of a regimental assault carrier) that had launched once orbit was achieved because the ship was desperately short of air had had to set down where and when they could; for instance, the shuttle assigned to the midway acts set down on an island continent halfway around the world from the rest of the show.
The focus of the novel is on the bullhands, the elephant handlers. They are facing a cruel reality. Although they had managed to get the menagerie shuttle with the animals that had survived following the sabotage down, one ironclad circus rule is only female elephants troupe with a show due to the danger of a male elephant going into musth and becoming uncontrollable. Without a male elephant to serve as a stud, sooner or later all of the "rubber mules" are going to die, and with them the bullhands' way of life. It focuses the reader on the last order given to the show's route book man, the Pendiian "Warts" Tho, by Governor John J. O'Hara as he lay dying: "Warts ... Never let these people forget who they are. Never let them forget that they are circus." [2]
As the years pass, the performers and support staff adapt to life on Momus, highlighted by their annual four day performance of all the acts in the show. And they watch with sadness as the number of elephants dwindles, until at last only one is left. Along the way, they learn some of the children have esper powers ranging from telepathy to telekinesis. Some of the descendents of the show become farmers and ranchers, but Warts is successful in obeying the Governor's final order. The people of Momus never forget that they are circus.
Michael J. Lowrey reviewed Elephant Song in Ares Magazine Special Edition #2 and commented that "Whether or not you've ever looked wistfully at the lives of circus performers, you will understand how a new and beloved world is built on the pride expressed in their three-fourths cynical, one-fourth heartfelt motto: 'Life with a circus is just one long uninterrupted dee-light!'" [1]
Barry Brookes Longyear is an American author who resides in New Sharon, Maine.
Expanded Universe, The New Worlds of Robert A. Heinlein is a 1980 collection of science fiction stories and essays by American writer Robert A. Heinlein, with a foreward for each. The trade paperback 1981 edition lists the subtitle under other Heinlein books as More Worlds of Robert A. Heinlein because the contents subsume the 1966 Ace Books collection, The Worlds of Robert A. Heinlein. The current volume is dedicated to William Targ.
The Face is a science fiction novel by American writer Jack Vance, the fourth novel in the "Demon Princes" series. It was published in 1979, nearly twelve years after the third.
Software is a 1982 cyberpunk science fiction novel written by Rudy Rucker. It won the first Philip K. Dick Award in 1983. The novel is the first book in Rucker's Ware Tetralogy, and was followed by a sequel, Wetware, in 1988.
Circus World (1981) is a science fiction collection by American writer Barry B. Longyear, about a planet descended entirely from the population of a crashed spaceship carrying a circus. It is the third book in Longyear's Circus World trilogy. Its two predecessors are City of Baraboo and Elephant Song.
Space Shuttles is an anthology of science fiction short stories edited by Isaac Asimov, Martin H. Greenberg and Charles G. Waugh as the seventh volume in their Isaac Asimov's Wonderful Worlds of Science Fiction series. It was first published in paperback by Signet/New American Library in October 1987.
Tales from the Spaceport Bar is an anthology of science fiction club tales edited by George H. Scithers and Darrell Schweitzer. It was first published in paperback by Avon Books in January 1987. The first British edition was issued in paperback by New English Library in 1988.
Involution Ocean is a science-fiction novel by American writer Bruce Sterling, published in 1977.
The Ruins of Isis is a novel by Marion Zimmer Bradley published in 1978.
After the Zap is a science fiction novel by American writer Michael Armstrong, published by Popular Library in 1987.
The Architects of Hyperspace is a science fiction novel by American writer Thomas R. McDonough, published by Avon Books in 1987.
The Ennead is a novel by Jan Mark published in 1978 by Viking Kestrel in the UK and Thomas Y. Crowell in the US.
Wheels Within Wheels is a novel by F. Paul Wilson published in 1978.
Eyes of Amber and Other Stories is a collection of short stories by Joan D. Vinge, published in 1979.
The Monitor, the Miners, and the Shree is a science fiction novel by Lee Killough, first published in paperback by Del Rey Books in April 1980.
Mayflies is a novel by Kevin O'Donnell Jr. published in 1979.
Michael and the Magic Man is a novel by Kathleen M. Sidney published in 1980.
Ariosto is a novel by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro published in 1980.
The Janus Syndrome is a novel by Steven E. McDonald published in 1981.
The Anvil of Ice is a novel by Michael Scott Rohan published in 1986.