Remember "The Avatar" by Poul Anderson
Just finished reading "The Avatar" by Poul Anderson, published by Berkley Books back in October 1979.
As frequent readers of my reviews here on Facebook, Amazon, Goodreads, and other websites know, I had have begun what I call my "Great Re-Reading Of Favorite Books When I Was Young Project" about two years ago.
"The Avatar" was another book that I had purchased at Michelle's Bookstore in Jacksonville, North Carolina when it was first released in paperback back in late 1979. What I particularly remember foremost about reading "The Avatar" is returning home from Camp Lejeune High School and Mom was informing Mr. Branch on the telephone that she had had finally enough of his stupidity and that the next time he ever called her about me reading a book; or anything else for that matter, that he could kiss his job goodbye. Apparently Mr. Branch objected to "The Avatar" because the cover showed a "naked" Betan [an alien] and he thought I was being disrespectful when I refused to hand the book over to him. Mr. Branch was foolish enough to engage Mom one more time at my high school graduation when he demanded that I shave off my mustache before graduating, but she told him off. I should have stuck to my guns and not bother attending the graduating ceremony and just pick up my high school diploma later, but Mom won out. [Memories and life experiences also impact the book one is reading at a given moment in time.]
I should point out that I never read in class unless we had free time and I always kept my books with me because Mr. Branch had at one time even confiscated "Knave of Dreams" by Andre Norton during one of his routine locker checks - funny how Mr. Branch never bothered to check the lockers of the popular drug using students - and Mom forced him to buy me a replacement copy because he had destroyed it. Do keep in mind that I was a boring straight A-student who never got sent to the principal's office or reprimanded by a teacher.
I obtained my reading copy of "The Avatar" from Chamblin's Bookmine here in Jacksonville, Florida - the greatest and perhaps largest independently owned bookstore on the East Coast.
In bold print with capital letters, the cover hails "The Avatar" as Poul Anderson's long awaited masterpiece - even going as far as highlighting his name is highly reflective red letters.
Even back then, I didn't hail "The Avatar" as Poul Anderson's masterpiece. While it does follow Anderson's typical themes of manipulative people in government seeking to limit the growth of humanity by setting limits on exploration and development of new technologies - in this case the use of the gates - t-machines - left behind by The Others who created them as a means to expand across the universe. So when the first human exploration star ship Emissary returns from it's mission eight years ahead of schedule with an alien aboard - the powers that be in government decide to protect humanity by forcibly confining the crew aboard an abandoned space station. Fortunately for the crew of the Emissary, Dan Brrodersen, a businessman and billionare on the sole human colony world of Demeter had planned for such an occurrence and he launches a daring rescue mission that forces his crew and those they rescued into escaping into uncharted space via a gate and the only way home for them is to find The Others; but to in order to return home one crew member must make a choice once her true nature is revealed.
What makes "The Avatar" decades ahead of William Gibson's "Neuromancer" is that Joelle is a woman who through the use of technology and childhood training, can interface with computers and directly access and process their input.
Also of note, is that "The Avatar" was the first novel I read that used f-bombs and advocated a freestyle bed hopping philosophy - which probably would have sent Mr. Branch even further off the deep end.
"The Avatar" is a straight forward adventure story that really doesn't tread any new ground for Poul Anderson as a writer - though he does make Fidelio's - the Betan - culture and civilization a Polygamous Matriarchy with strong hints of bisexuality.
So how to judge "The Avatar" after re-reading it. It' was not the story I had been expecting when I first read it back in 1979, yet it lingered in my memory, so it was a natural choice to select it as one of the books in my great re-reading project. Aside from perhaps being the lengthiest novel Anderson had written at the time, it really wasn't a masterpiece as it proclaimed itself to be. I suspect that Mr. Branch's idiotic and stupid antics impressed it on my mind more than Anderson himself.
Still, it is a good introduction to Poul Anderson if you never read any of his works before.
Recommended.
Three-and-a-half stars.
As frequent readers of my reviews here on Facebook, Amazon, Goodreads, and other websites know, I had have begun what I call my "Great Re-Reading Of Favorite Books When I Was Young Project" about two years ago.
"The Avatar" was another book that I had purchased at Michelle's Bookstore in Jacksonville, North Carolina when it was first released in paperback back in late 1979. What I particularly remember foremost about reading "The Avatar" is returning home from Camp Lejeune High School and Mom was informing Mr. Branch on the telephone that she had had finally enough of his stupidity and that the next time he ever called her about me reading a book; or anything else for that matter, that he could kiss his job goodbye. Apparently Mr. Branch objected to "The Avatar" because the cover showed a "naked" Betan [an alien] and he thought I was being disrespectful when I refused to hand the book over to him. Mr. Branch was foolish enough to engage Mom one more time at my high school graduation when he demanded that I shave off my mustache before graduating, but she told him off. I should have stuck to my guns and not bother attending the graduating ceremony and just pick up my high school diploma later, but Mom won out. [Memories and life experiences also impact the book one is reading at a given moment in time.]
I should point out that I never read in class unless we had free time and I always kept my books with me because Mr. Branch had at one time even confiscated "Knave of Dreams" by Andre Norton during one of his routine locker checks - funny how Mr. Branch never bothered to check the lockers of the popular drug using students - and Mom forced him to buy me a replacement copy because he had destroyed it. Do keep in mind that I was a boring straight A-student who never got sent to the principal's office or reprimanded by a teacher.
I obtained my reading copy of "The Avatar" from Chamblin's Bookmine here in Jacksonville, Florida - the greatest and perhaps largest independently owned bookstore on the East Coast.
In bold print with capital letters, the cover hails "The Avatar" as Poul Anderson's long awaited masterpiece - even going as far as highlighting his name is highly reflective red letters.
Even back then, I didn't hail "The Avatar" as Poul Anderson's masterpiece. While it does follow Anderson's typical themes of manipulative people in government seeking to limit the growth of humanity by setting limits on exploration and development of new technologies - in this case the use of the gates - t-machines - left behind by The Others who created them as a means to expand across the universe. So when the first human exploration star ship Emissary returns from it's mission eight years ahead of schedule with an alien aboard - the powers that be in government decide to protect humanity by forcibly confining the crew aboard an abandoned space station. Fortunately for the crew of the Emissary, Dan Brrodersen, a businessman and billionare on the sole human colony world of Demeter had planned for such an occurrence and he launches a daring rescue mission that forces his crew and those they rescued into escaping into uncharted space via a gate and the only way home for them is to find The Others; but to in order to return home one crew member must make a choice once her true nature is revealed.
What makes "The Avatar" decades ahead of William Gibson's "Neuromancer" is that Joelle is a woman who through the use of technology and childhood training, can interface with computers and directly access and process their input.
Also of note, is that "The Avatar" was the first novel I read that used f-bombs and advocated a freestyle bed hopping philosophy - which probably would have sent Mr. Branch even further off the deep end.
"The Avatar" is a straight forward adventure story that really doesn't tread any new ground for Poul Anderson as a writer - though he does make Fidelio's - the Betan - culture and civilization a Polygamous Matriarchy with strong hints of bisexuality.
So how to judge "The Avatar" after re-reading it. It' was not the story I had been expecting when I first read it back in 1979, yet it lingered in my memory, so it was a natural choice to select it as one of the books in my great re-reading project. Aside from perhaps being the lengthiest novel Anderson had written at the time, it really wasn't a masterpiece as it proclaimed itself to be. I suspect that Mr. Branch's idiotic and stupid antics impressed it on my mind more than Anderson himself.
Still, it is a good introduction to Poul Anderson if you never read any of his works before.
Recommended.
Three-and-a-half stars.
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