Helliconia Winter

This was the shortest book in the magnificent Helliconia series by Aldiss. It is very pessimistic about human nature - the visit to the planet Armageddon in particular was depressing - but it is done with such a fantastic, sweeping vision. I loved how Aldiss opposes the lives of the humans going to......more

This final book of the trilogy plays out similar to the first book, but in reverse order. The circumstances of the climate change are well known and understood by this point so this book focuses on a single character over about 20 to 30 years of his life. Obviously over such a short period of time l......more

This probably ought to be called "Autumn" rather than "Winter" as it mostly concerns the Sibornalese civilisation's preparations for the forthcoming "Weyr"-winter, rather than life in the depths of the planets centuries long "mini ice-age". Technology hasn't quite advanced as far as one would hope e......more

The world of Helliconia is moving away from the supergiant star Freyr. The Great Winter is about to descend on the planet with full, unmitigated fury. The tropical continent of Campannlat is ill-prepared to deal with the falling temperatures, and the defeat of their armies by the forces of the harsh......more

My feeling about this is that Aldiss was running out of steam by Book Three - and why not? It is an absolutely magisterial trilogy; encompassing the best of world-building, almost before that phrase was invented, superb anthropology and biology, not to mention complex cosmology and wonderfully absor......more