Where Time Winds Blow

by Robert Holdstock

fine hardcover book & fine (as new) dw (dust jacket), Science Fiction Book Club

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Fantasy, Time Travel, Science Fiction Fantasy

250 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1981

About the author

Robert Paul Holdstock was an English novelist and author who is best known for his works of fantasy literature, predominantly in the fantasy subgenre of mythic fiction.

Holdstock's writing was first published in 1968. His science fiction and fantasy works explore philosophical, psychological, anthropological, spiritual, and woodland themes. He has received three BSFA awards and won the World Fantasy Award in the category of Best Novel in 1985.

Pseudonyms are Chris Carlsen, Robert Faulcon,Robert Black, Steven Eisler and Richard Kirk.

Reviews

[Len · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author begins with a standard form of SF adventure and world-building. Humans on the planet Kamelios. Its lifeforms, plant life, terrain are described with the appropriate sense of wonder to the reader. However, we quickly find that the humans living there lose their sense of wonder fairly sharply. They are there for a purpose. The Time Winds. They howl down the deep rift valleys distorting as they go. The valleys are full of the remains, architectural and technical mainly, of what seem to be previous Kamelion civilizations, but the Time Winds plough them away and replace them with new sets of remains. Thus the wonder is dissipated and the ruins have become a resource to plunder with the speed of rescue archaeologists in a city centre. No one can be certain when the next wind will strike and heaven help anyone who is caught in its path.

Everything is set up for an old-style adventure. Carson of Venus is beckoning. Just sit back and be absorbed by it. But no, the author has other things in mind. The final one I can't mention because of the obsession with spoilers – why not read the book first and the opinions of idiots like me afterwards? The force of the book is denying the supremacy of us – we humans – and the way we think and analyze the universe around us. Never mind Descartes thinking, therefore he is, or Protagoras insisting that man is the measure of all things. No. I think therefore I deceive myself. The measure of all things? No. Man is but a pimple of the backside of something infinitely greater than our greatest ambition. And that is what Faulcon – the main protagonist – finally comes to see in a revelation that could have driven a wiser man insane.

The book was first published in 1981 and today's readers may find the male dominance hard to take. Everything is man does this, man experiences that, man is responsible for achievement – or sometimes failure. The only female character of any note is Lena Tanoway, Faulcon's love interest, and vastly his superior. She should have pushed him down the refuse shute years earlier – she may have survived to more than a reunion with the weak-willed coward. Though Mythago Wood came three years later there is enough in this book to indicate that something outstanding was on the horizon.

[Carl Barlow · Rating 3 out of 5]

Winds rip up and down a valley, and where they pass remnants of ancient -and future- civilisations are deposited and again swept up in endless cycle. Alien chrononauts are thought by most to be behind the phenomenon, studying humanity in its blundering responses to their time winds - while yet keeping themselves aloof and invisible (though some claim to have glimpsed them in their shining golden pyramid machines). A mammoth mobile city is humanity's base of operations, sending out teams of armoured soldiers and scientists to investigate and plunder what is deposited, ever ready for a desperate dash to safety should the time winds rise again.

A fairly early Holdstock novel, this, evidenced by the slightly off pacing, slightly clumsy characterisation, and hazy elucidating. But it is solid world-building overall, and often very evocative, with some interesting ideas that definitely point the way to his later -and better- works from Mythago Wood onward. The conclusion is satisfying, and at least hints at a reason for the time winds that none of the characters -and not this reader, either- saw coming.

Worth any SF reader's time.

[Jeff Stoner · Rating 3 out of 5]

An early, mostly worthy effort by Holdstock. I read this because it is a tie-in to his wonderful Tour of the Universe. The situation that he imagines is very unique and evocative, and, it turns out, deceptive: the time winds of Kamelios are not what they seem to be. On the other hand, the narrative is verbose, and at times baroque, but without the texture and harmony required to make such prose delightful. In typical Holdstockian style, it is often difficult to tell if events are real or imagined, as the characters internal monologues are written in the third person, and frequently stray far afield from the actual events of the story. Holdstock perfected this voice in Mythago Wood, but in this earlier work it can lead the reader astray. Nevertheless, it is a worthwhile read, and compliments any Holdstock collection.

[Alexandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been a fan of Robert Holdstock for a while, both for the Mythago Wood series and his Merlin/Jason and the Argonauts books, which I still haven't finished... oops... I've had this book on my shelf for a very long time, and as part of my effort to deplete the TBR pile I've finally got around to it.

Interestingly, this reminded me of two books. Firstly, the idea of a planet with weird time distortions of course calls to mind Dan Simmons' Hyperion Cantos; this came first, and I can't help wondering about influence. Secondly, there's also a similarity to Kress' Steal Across the Sky, this time in its attitude toward the alien. Aliens were a means to an end for Kress, allowing her to explore different aspects of humanity or society; VanderZande's World allows Holdstock to do the same. The people are there because of the time winds that rips ng things from the past and the future and deposits them in the present (and presumably other times as well, but let's not think too hard about that)... but this oddity is mostly just a vehicle for Holdstock to explore humanity.

Humanity have settled on this world partly to explore, and learn to understand the time winds, and partly to colonise. The first is the focus of the story, although the second is touched on and is one of the most interesting issues. The main narrative focuses on a rifter - a man whose purpose is to investigate the stuff appearing after the time wind has blown through. His world starts to go a bit pear-shaped when a new recruit joins his team. Holdstock is interested in how people deal with stress, and how this impacts on relationships, and gradually reveals more of Leo's life and issues. Of course, things aren't even as normal-life complex as they initially appear, and Holdstock makes the issues of the past come through in such a way that makes complete sense with what has already been revealed.

Alongside this narrative, Holdstock gives tantalising hints at the world he imagines. It would be human-compatible, but its organic life creates pollens that are toxic. There are two responses to this issue (well, three, because there are also the people who don't bother to try and settle there): the colonists who are hoping to eventually evolve to the point of unassisted survival; and the manchanged, colonists who have artificially intervened into themselves in order to live without assistance now. The hostility between them is barely examined, but adds depth to the overall narrative as well as depressing believability.

The one problem I had with this book was about the last 20 pages. They felt rushed and forced, and wrapped up an issue in a way that neither felt integral nor necessary. So that left a slightly sour taste in my mouth, which is unfortunate given I enjoyed the rest of it.

[Angus Mcfarlane · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I bought some omnibus editions of scifi authors last year I was hoping to read some stories which went into strange - explorations of possibility which reimagine the universe and do scifi as something beyond futuristic western, thriller, etc. This is the first of the stories by holdstock, and I'm happy that it fulfilled the hope I had. Set on a distant planet, the key mystery is the time wind, an event which transforms a central rift each time it blows through, leaving artifacts from history, or the future, for the colonists to investigate. Local biology, other human trajectories (bioengineering) and some kind of future civilization feature in the background. A commercial approach would have taken this world and the story into a three part epic, but instead, the larger landscape is left as cameos. This limits character development and perhaps leaves the flow a bit disjointed, but it enables strange to remain a focal point. The outcome puts a nice orthogonal spin on the preceding events, cleverly illustrating that there is much we assume about our own existence which may not fit with the universe at large. Probably a 3.5 overall, rounded up for the strange factor.

[Rob Hopwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

Where Time Winds Blow by Robert Holdstock

Human civilization has expanded through the galaxy, and people have settled on planets far from earth. The strangeness of VanderZande's World, also known as Kamelios, attracts scientists, adventurers and fortune hunters who are all trying in different ways to satisfy their own desires through interaction with the local environment. But Kamelios is a dangerous place. Not only is the air poisonous to humans, requiring the wearing of breathing masks at all time when outdoors, mysterious storms called fiersig disturb human moods and can even change personality when they pass over. Furthermore, a particular rift valley is intermittently altered beyond recognition by winds and squalls which appear to fling objects and geographical locations backwards and forwards through time. If caught by these Time Winds, people disappear and are assumed to be dead. Human search parties wear special rift suits (r-suits) to search the valley for artifacts of monetary or scientific value after the winds have passed through. The unique atmosphere of the planet has caused odd superstitions to develop among the rifters, many of whom are convinced that a lucky amulet must be worn for protection. A wizened phantom figure, which may or may not be a figment of the imaginations of those who see it, haunts the valley.
The first two parts of the book are mainly devoted to world building and to establishing the identities of the main characters, Leo Faulcon, his lover and team leader Lena Tanoway, and new recruit Kris Dojaan. These sections describe the environment of the ever-changing rift valley and the human society which has evolved there. Although those who explore the ruins run the risk of being swept away with the winds, Kris feels that if he enters a time squall of his own free will, he will survive and be able to ride the winds to find his brother who was lost in the valley.
Compared with the first two parts, part three is much more introspective and philosophical.
After Leo’s life is tragically affected by the Time Winds, he travels to another area of the planet where a settlement of humans (the Manchanged) have rehabilitated themselves physically to be able to live outdoors unprotected. This colony of farmers proves to be in some ways a lot wiser and less superstitious than the technologically advanced society which lives inside the sealed metal city near the rift, and certain members of it help Leo to see more clearly to what extent his view of reality is merely a reflection of his own fears, desires and experiences.
But does Leo possess the courage of his convictions, and can he really face the ultimate danger in order to discover the truth about the Time Winds and perhaps even save those who have been lost?

I found this story suitably engrossing, partly due to the central mystery regarding the true nature of the Time Winds. The author is clearly highly adept at world building, and the interactions between the characters felt convincing. The inconsistencies and contradictions in the thoughts of Leo Faulcon also added to the realism. My only slight complaint is that the ending felt somewhat abrupt. Although the conclusion did reveal the mystery, I would have felt more satisfied it the final chapter had been a little more substantial in content.

Below are some quotes from the book which I feel capture its general tone:

“That’s the trouble with progress; it forgets that people like the way they do things.”

“It’s excitement, I think. That sense of excitement, of wonder. The sort of feeling we had at school when people talked about other Galaxies, and all the worlds in our Galaxy that had only been recorded, never explored. It’s imagination, the feeling of mystery that you get when people tell you stories about distant islands, hidden asteroids, secret locations, secret lands where things are strange, and where we’re infiltrators, or strangers. There’s something so magic about the unknown, and I remember that it was the sense of the unknown, and the desperate need to penetrate that unknown just a little, that brought me out here. ”

“You’ve been totally content when you were happy and totally discontent when you were miserable; you’ve evaluated the moments of your life into good and bad, and you, and the billions like you, have never comprehended that there are no good and bad moments, only moments when you’re alive, moments when you’re experiencing life, being with life, no matter whether you’re in pain, or pleasure, or depression, or solitariness.”

“I don’t regret a day in my life. I don’t regret the waste of time when I oversleep, I don’t regret the missed opportunity, the lost love, the failed work. My memories of man are of a constant process of dissatisfaction, of regret, of resistance to anything that does not seem as if it’s going the expected way, of not living, Leo, of not ever being 100 per cent a part of life. I remember men as being a breed forever resisting its very humanness—its weakness, its flaws, its failures, its imperfections. Such resistance is the quickest way to self-destruction. It’s the easiest way to become trapped by the very weakness you try to avoid.”

“Nothing you can do or say is going to change one molecule of anything in the damned Universe, so is there really any point in brooding about it, or worrying about it, being beaten to death by it?”

“And besides, don’t you see that by delaying death, if that’s what you believe you’re doing, you’re eking out your existence from the point of view of fear of death, rather than from experience of life? You exist because you’re being buffeted about by just about every circumstance that the Universe can throw against you. We live up here because we create our own circumstances, we accept responsibility for everything. You fight against the inevitable … if you’re going to walk into the time winds, do you think you can do or say one thing that will change that? Of course you can’t. So why fight it, why be dragged fighting and screaming through the inevitable, only to emerge on the other side bloody and breathless, saying, ‘My God, I made it through.’ Don’t you think you’d have made it through anyway? And how much more enjoyable the passage would have been if you’d relaxed and experienced what was happening to you.”

It was too easy to dismiss that scattered memory, or imagery, or wordery that drifted through the waking mind as being mere day-dream indulgence. The fact was that internal conversations were often pointers towards important resolutions.

“The manchanged made me realize something when I was with them last. They said that natural knowing is the only knowing.”

“We are an impatient, edgy species, Ben. We can’t wait for things to happen; we have to make them happen.”

[Sam Worby · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disclosure: I'm a massive Holdstock fan, everything from Mythago Wood on is pretty perfect in my opinion. So I come to this book from a strange place.

From a fannish perspective this is an fascinating spin on his ideas, on the subconscious, alienness, love and quest. And I can't judge it apart from that context. If I try I would say it's odd, pulpy (not necessarily a bad thing), and a bit too heavy on meaningful monologues. My biggest disquiet was the way the plot-driven need for revelations/reversals/events meant the protagonist was unbalanced: all surface to start, all interior by the end.

With a bit of rearrangement, I could see this making an awesome space-horror film. If only ...

[Nik Morton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Robert Holdstock’s Where Time Winds Blow was published in 1981 – and on the surface it appears he is still haunted by time-displacement which he wrote about in Earthwind (1977).

We’re on an alien planet, Kamelios; the planet is quite like a chameleon; for example there are electric storms called fiersig – ‘the power-fields of change, twisted and distorted the stable mind just that little bit more, scarring the mind irreversibly in a way too insignificant to note at the time, but with mounting effect over the months and years’ (p27).

The archaeological team consists of the leader, Lena Tanoway, Leo Faulcon and Kris Dojaan. They can only venture outside Steel City when wearing protective masks. Steel City is unusual – ‘the city rise on its engines, and hover almost silently above the blackened crater that had been home for the last quarter year’ (p31). [Interestingly, Philip Reeve’s Mortal Engines (2003) concerns mobile cities].

The archaeologists investigate a particular rift valley where time winds blow and a phantom human occasionally lurks: ‘he had been snatched by time and flung somewhere, somewhen, some place and time where he had screamed and not-quite-died... a prison where the walls were centuries, where time itself was his gaoler’ (49). The winds deposited ancient buildings, or futuristic edifices, and then frustratingly swept them all away. These ephemeral deposits draw scientists and fortune hunters – all of whom risk being caught in a time squall and sent to oblivion. ‘Faulcon watched as white towers winked out of existence, to be replaced by moving spiral shapes that radiated redly as they turned... an immense spider’s web of girders was torn from vision, flickering a moment as a time squall knocked it into Othertime and back, and then it was gone and a hideous shape stood there, the carved, gargoyle-decorated gateway of a primitive era...’ (p185).

In the mountains were other humans who had been altered ‘to accept the organic poisons of the world, to be able to see without their eyes melting away, to breathe without corroding the linings of their respiratory tracts’ (p99). The manchanged.

The actual phrase ‘where the time winds blow’ is used on p202.

Holdstock’s world-building is excellent. The characters interact and are conflicted. There’s hubris, cowardice, bravery and (perhaps too much) philosophising.

A rewarding science fiction excursion from a brilliant mind.

And interestingly the prolific Holdstock wrote The Night Hunter series of supernatural thrillers using the pen-name Robert Faulcon!

[Mark Ludmon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Set in the distant future on a human colonial outpost, Where Time Winds Blow offers a portrait of the very alien world of Kamelios. It follows Leo Faulcon, a “rifter” who explores a valley where “time winds” regularly sweep through, changing the landscape with what appear to be the remnants and ruins of past and future civilisations. With colleagues Lena and Kris, he tries to understand what is going on and comes to realise that there is a lot more to the planet and its fauna, culminating in a surprising reveal. The story features intriguing ideas and imaginative concepts, with some exciting episodes, but it feels overwritten and gets bogged down at times with too much detail and philosophising.

[Larry Wegman · Rating 2 out of 5]

A rather strange sci-fi story that looks like it's about time travel, but isn't. Seems rather full of itself, and is definitely distracted from where it's going.

[Joachim Boaz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full review: https://sciencefictionruminations.com...

"We are plunged into a truly alien world. A planet, with an uncertain/shifting name, is possessed by time winds that flow down a massive valley. Strange shapes (perhaps from previous of future explorations) and mechanism are ejected by the winds. An unusual group of individuals willing to risk [...]"

[Matteo Pellegrini · Rating 3 out of 5]

E' un pianeta unico in tutta la galassia: oggetti del passato e del futuro si materializzano all'improvviso come fantasmi, portati dal soffio di quelli che sembrano veri e propri "venti del tempo". Obbedendo allo stesso principio, cose e manufatti del presente possono scomparire da un momento all'altro... dove? Scienziati e ricercatori, avventurieri ed esploratori arrivano sul pianeta dei venti del tempo con la speranza di risolverne l'enigma o di arricchirsi come nessun uomo si è mai arricchito prima. Ma qual è il segreto di questo mondo perduto fra le stelle? Robert Holdstock ricostruisce la sua fisionomia, le sue leggi, i suoi segreti con tanta abilità che anche per noi diventa un mondo vivo.

[Marko]

I have the german edition: Zeitwind