Richard Cowper is a British writer of science fantasy and science fiction. I read two of his novels from the science fiction book club in the 1970's.

Cowper's books are set in the British Isles. The preface for this post-apocalyptic tale tells me it was published by a researcher from St Malcolm's College, Oxford, June, 3798 (based on works circa 3300 AD). We soon learn that the story itself is set just before the fourth millennium and we approach New Year's 3000 with some trepidation. When 2000 arrived it was the "Drowning". Global warming had melted the icecaps and the world drowned. Here we are a thousand years later. What will happen at the dawn of the new millennium and what does a white bird have to do with it?

My copy of the book contains two stories originally published separately. The book opens with a 60+ page novella prologue titled: "Piper At The Gates of Dawn". How could this possibly not be a good, fun tale? Well, after reading it "fun" is not the right word at all. This is however a fantastic tale that could almost be set in the middle ages, but is instead set in the future after the catastrophic event of the Drowning. Place names still have the same place names as we go on the journey with the tale-teller and the piper. Some editions of the book apparently don't include the prologue, which would be a shame. Piper was first published in the March 1976 edition of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. It should have won all kinds of awards it was nominated in but only just had the nominations.

The short novel "The Road to Corlay" was published two years later. It can be read by itself but is much richer having read Piper. Without the introductory story I think I would not have been able to appreciate 'The Road to Corlay' nearly as much. The second story begins April 12, 3018. This story builds on the climactic events from the year 3000 in the first book. However, in the second chapter of the book we suddenly are in the past in 1986, before the Drowning, and we quickly can see how these two parts of the story are linked. I won't spoil the story but I'll leave a clue that is revealed early on. William Hurt in the film "Altered States". The part of the story set in the year 1986 is the weaker of the two by far and the characters in this time are much less interesting than the ones in the future.

I was caught up in both stories and enjoyed them quite a bit.

There are two additional books in the series which I plan to read. ( )

The first in the White Bird of Kinship trilogy. Note: the original Pan edition does not include "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn", the key story that sets up the trilogy. The author laments this in a note at the start. He doesn't say why but presumably it was because it was in the collection The Custodians. The Pocket edition does include this story.

Piper takes place in the year 3000 in a dis-United Kingdom. Climate change raised sea levels (this in a book from the 1970s) in the Drowning of 2000, and now there are seven kingdoms, separated by the sea, and civilization has returned to a completely rural status. The past is not completely forgotten but very dim. There is an underground movement that believes that the White Bird of Kinship will usher in a time when humanity unites, but they live in fear of the Church Militant. Piper tells the story of one boy with a magic flute who might be the key to the dream of Kinship. What happens is no surprise, but the telling is rich in detail and sympathetic characters.

Then the main novel begins. It does one very odd thing that cost it a half star for me. It sets up two story lines. The primary line follows what happened 18 years after Piper. The same detail and attention to character continues. The second story line is set in the present, i.e., the 1980s, when the rains have begun, but the sea level has not risen yet. The focus is on a small group of scientists doing a poorly-described brain reading experiment that has led to one of them functionally alive but apparently brain dead. Except there are these mysterious readings that suggest some out of body experience. This story line had no interesting characters for me, not even the fiance of the brain-dead victim who is the primary POV, The scientists were unbelievably quick to accept an out of body experience into the future. The SFnal element was 1930's -- an "Encephalo-Visual Converter" that is basically a television set that shows brain images so clearly a lip reader can tell what people are saying. I can't imagine why Cowper thought this second story line was necessary.

Still, this is highly recommended. ( )

http://speculiction.blogspot.sk/2014/07/review-of-road-to-corlay-by-richard.html ( )

Was I not included on the memo that mentioned this guy? How have I never heard of him? Whatever the case may be, Richard Cowper (aka John Middleton Murry, Jr.) is a fine writer. My edition of this book includes both the title novel and the novella "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn" which introduces us to the world and specific circumstances that will drive the conflict of the novel.

This is a story in the post-apocalyptic pastoral vein, a sub-set of the genre that I am finding is a lot more common than I had a first realized. It includes such works as Crowley's _Engine Summer_, Pangborn's _Davy_, Jefferies' _After London_ and others. In essence we see the world long after a disaster of some kind has laid waste to our society, but while the horror of that event is not diminished, the resulting world is often seen as the chance to start again and perhaps correct the mistakes of the past (or alternately relive them if the tragic mode is adopted). The apocalypse has, in effect, allowed us to start again with a more or less blank slate and thus there is a pervading optimism underneath the implied pessimism of the genre.

This story is a lyrically told one whose major themes are religious. The Church has remained as one of (if not the only) power centres of the old world left to fill the vacuum as it did in the days of Rome's fall. The world itself shares close ties with an idealized medieval one and in the introductory novella we meet the young piper Thomas and his Uncle Peter, an itinerant storyteller taking his nephew to be schooled in the Church. On the way he discovers his nephew's almost magical talent with the pipes and decides to use their journey as a chance to make some quick coin...his stories accompanied by the boy's music. They soon become a sensation, but the boy's piping proves to be more than it seems and it soon awakens a religious fervor in those who hear it and are awaiting the arrival of the enigmatic "White Bird". The boy ultimately becomes a martyred saviour figure and his uncle the first of his apostles, carrying his gospel to the world.

The novel itself opens with the fledgling religion in open opposition to the established church and one of its adherents (a Kinsman) attempting to evade the authorities in a quest to reach the last surviving founder of his sect as he carries a relic to be safeguarded. We follow his journey and also see the lives of the people he meets, both good and bad, as they become a part of his tale. Despite the religious nature and themes of the story it is never proselytizing or glibly allegorical. Cowper is simply telling a story of the numinous as it interacts with people and comes into contention with established authority.

I found the tale to be a compelling one, well told in a lyrical style that was a joy to read. The introduction of a past/future time travel element, as people from our time (just before the great flood that drowns the world) interact with those in the future in a mix of implied re-births and paranormal experimentation, was probably not necessary, but still not overly intrusive. I'd recommend this book and look forward to finding others in this series (called the "White Bird of Kinship" trilogy) as well as other unrelated books by the same author. ( )

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