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Chase the Morning

(The Spiral #1)

Michael Scott Rohan

4.12 · Rating details · 263 ratings · 25 reviews

During a nostalgic visit to the docksides of his youth, Steve, an unassuming import/export agent, steps into another universe, where buccaneers, demigods, and mythic heroes mingle. Reprint.

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Mass Market Paperback, 352 pages

Published May 1992 by The Hearst Corporation (first published 1990)

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· 263 ratings · 25 reviews

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Apr 03, 2013 Alexandra rated it really liked it

Shelves: re-read, read-in-2013

I have loved this book for a fairly long time now, but have not re-read it in a rather long time, leading to some sweating over the possibility of the Suck Fairy waving her wand. Fortunately, overall that was an unnecessary concern...

The Good

This is still a rollicking fun adventure story. Pirates! Evil! Rescues! Fights! Sailing ships!!

I still adore the concept of ships that can set off at dawn or dusk into the cloud archipelago, and that places exist in both the Core and the Rim. That is, places ...more

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Aug 16, 2010 Avrelia rated it really liked it

Shelves: atmospheric, read-long-ago, sails-and-seas, fantasy, fantasy-in-cities, sff

I liked it for the atmosphere, and the idea that is at the base of it – that at the edges of our world exist everything else, and you can find it by turning another street, and that ships are sailing into the sky to go to strange places where time and space bleed together.

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Apr 02, 2011 Ron rated it it was amazing

Shelves: top-ten, science_fiction

Wonderful novel about a hapless middle-management type who finds himself inexplicably transported from modern Britain to an alternate world Caribbean full of pirates, voodoo, adventure and romance.

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Nov 14, 2014 Glen Engel-Cox rated it it was ok

A fun novel, recommended to me by Bob Gore, who knew that I liked pirates (especially as seen in Tim Powers’ On Stranger Tides). Bob said that Chase the Morning wasn’t as good, and he was right, but it was still worth reading, and worth examining to discover why it isn’t as good.

First off, the story. Steve’s a hollow young urban professional in some modern European city in which the residents speak English, visit pubs, drive nifty sports cars fast, and engage in shipping and receiving. Steve dec A fun novel, recommended to me by Bob Gore, who knew that I liked pirates (especially as seen in Tim Powers’ On Stranger Tides). Bob said that Chase the Morning wasn’t as good, and he was right, but it was still worth reading, and worth examining to discover why it isn’t as good.

First off, the story. Steve’s a hollow young urban professional in some modern European city in which the residents speak English, visit pubs, drive nifty sports cars fast, and engage in shipping and receiving. Steve decides to chase a whim one night and finds himself rescuing a diminutive fellow from the intent of three dark fiends. No fantasy involved however. The diminutive fellow is just a short guy, and the fiends are simple muggers. Wrong. These people were using swords. Steve tries to shrug off the incident, although it is the most exciting thing that has happened to him in quite a long time. And he can’t quite forget it, and finds himself again down by the shipyard. In no time, he finds himself involved completely, as he again saves the short guy’s life, watches some kind of voodoo creature escape from a bail of hay, and then has his secretary abducted by the fiends (the “wolves”).

It’s not On Stranger Tides or A.A. Attanasio’s Wyvern. There is a real sense of two different worlds colliding in Chase the Morning, rather than some alternate world (On Stranger Tides) or some new world that strangely resembles our own, but is consistent within itself (Wyvern). Chase the Morning is a fantasy novel in which someone from the real world finds fantastical things happening to them. This can be okay, except most readers are so familiar with the genre (which ranges from C.S. Lewis’ “Narnia,” to Stephen R. Donaldson’s “Thomas Covenant”), that the new author should know what’s been done. Rohan seems somewhat attune to the genre, but I think it’s obvious that he missed the Donaldson books in particular, and that his work suffers from it. In fact, trying to compare Chase the Morning with Lord Foul’s Bain better brings out the problems with Rohan’s book than trying to compare it with Powers, in which the only things really shared there is an idea of a milieu. That’s because Steve is supposed to be an anti-hero, like Donaldson’s Thomas Covenant. It’s tough to write a story in which your main protagonist is an anti-hero, because a reader’s first inclination is to identify with the protagonist of the story, especially in a field like fantasy, where the hero is often a thinly veiled wish fulfillment character of the reader (see Orson Scott Card’s widely successful “Ender” books for the clearest recent example of the same). Covenant works because he is an intensely unlikeable character; he is often so intensely unliked that readers can’t make it through the first part of Lord Foul’s Bain because they can’t, and don’t want to try to, understand Covenant. Donaldson overcomes the problem by allowing minor characters to become personifications of the reader: the mother of the girl he rapes in the third chapter (and who knows of his atrocity) takes Covenant to the lords not because of what he could mean to “the Land” but because she hopes that they will be able to punish him (which she is unable to do because of his “power”) or because she hopes that something good can become of his evil deed (that the lords can use him to save the Land). This is complex stuff for a fantasy novel.

Rohan’s Steve, on the other hand, is a likable character. Oh, sure, he’s described as hollow, but I think most readers wouldn’t necessarily find that a damning description. Steve’s unlikable traits are always described (told) to the reader; when the action gets going, Steve’s always doing the heroic thing (shown). The reader translates this as Steve’s the hero, so when the plot rolls around to using the fact that Steve’s a dweeb who is worthless as a human, the reader’s inclination is to say, “What?” So Chase the Morning is a flawed book. Rohan is someone with potential, though, because he realized that without the anti-hero idea, his novel was just another rehash of the same ol’ dropping the modern character in the fantasy world. That is, Rohan is at least trying to go beyond formula, and while he fails, one should applaud the effort. ...more

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May 25, 2018 Adam Windsor rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2018, sf-fantasy

Michael Scott Rohan has a gift for evocative text. He paints vivid pictures with his words, and that's one of the real strengths of this book. The other is Mad Mall, who is great fun as a character. It's not a book without flaws, though. I can certainly see what he was going for with his 80s yuppie protagonist, but understanding that didn't make me warm to the man all that much more - especially in some moments where the racial and gender attitudes of that era come through. Also, the prose can s ...more

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Jun 22, 2016 Rosie rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Great Read.

I read this book ages ago and I was glad to find it again. It had the same hold on me as the first time I read it and I am looking forward very much to read I g the next on in the series.

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Sep 02, 2019 Ben rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: kindle

While perfectly enjoyable, this came as somewhat of a disappointment to me. I really wanted to really like, but instead I just enjoyed it. Better than OK, it comes nowhere near the excellence that is Rohan's work on the Winter of the World trilogy, which I have to admit, I did not fall in love with the first time I read it. Unusually, I found myself wanting to give this book a full five stars because of previous reading experiences, but ended up steadily shaving off a few points here and there, While perfectly enjoyable, this came as somewhat of a disappointment to me. I really wanted to really like, but instead I just enjoyed it. Better than OK, it comes nowhere near the excellence that is Rohan's work on the Winter of the World trilogy, which I have to admit, I did not fall in love with the first time I read it. Unusually, I found myself wanting to give this book a full five stars because of previous reading experiences, but ended up steadily shaving off a few points here and there, than my usual feeling of starting from a more neutral position and adding mental points.

So, what were the problems? I think I did not really fall for the central setting for one thing. Even as a child, I was never really in love with settings which blended our own world with a fantastical one, such as Narnia, but preferred wholly separate settings, such as Middle Earth. Not quite like this, here Chase the Morning is probably closer to something I consider to be Urban Fantasy - that is fantasy taking place in our world. While there is an element of that to the setting, most of the action takes place in the 'other world', though it is really just our own. However, as the book went on, I definitely became more taken with the concept of the Core and the Spiral.

I think I was a bit disappointed too by the language. Again, probably from comparison with his other work. Here I felt that while Rohan's prose was fine, it was not excellent. Clearly he was going for a different style. However, at times I did feel the pace was rather slow and without an interesting world to explore, or beautiful writing to admire, I really just felt like skipping over bits of monologuing to get to where something was happening. At times even some of the more exciting scenes suffered this way too...

In the end though, I am glad that I did not. There were some pretty interesting ideas in the book - though nothing that I felt I had not come across in some form or another before, and more to the point in books written before this one was published and perhaps influences on Rohan - and in the final few chapters some of these ideas come into full bloom.

Where this book really stands out, I think, is in the author's exploration of the central character. Initially rather odd, as the main protagonist is some kind of merchant banker who could virtually have stepped out of the 60's, and presumed presence in the 90's was only able to be deduced by the presence of computers in his office. However, as we move through the book, we see the character wrestling with his own issues - none of them massively sympathy inducing to the average reader, I would guess, but humanising. However, like any good book, the journey is essential, and it is only on arriving that we can understand how that journey has changed us, and it is the main character's understanding which is the main point to the book. Rohan deals with this well, and in a way which not only took me, if not by surprise then rather, in a way I did not see coming.

While not in a hurry, I am curious to read the second part of this and see if it grows on me... at some point. ...more

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Dec 21, 2020 Edoardo Albert rated it really liked it

Have you ever felt, with a sense verging on a conviction, that if you just took a different turning or went down another street, that you could simply walk right out of this world? Do you suspect that some among the lost and the disappeared, those who go and never come back, are some who did exactly that? Have you felt the shift of the world's scenery and thought that, for a moment, you glimpsed the other scenes upon other stages?

I have. I don't know if Michael Scott Rohan did to, before his de ...more

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Jan 08, 2020 Barbara rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: sf

I read this when it first came out and loved it. Re-reading it, the idea of sailing away on the dawn light east of the sun and west of the moon is as magical as ever. The message was a little more heavy handed than I remember though.

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Mar 12, 2020 Tracy rated it liked it

A pretty confusing read, but really creative. I'm interested to see how the second book picks up from here. I except most of the same characters. ...more

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Feb 10, 2012 Fyonfyon rated it it was amazing

Shelves: all-time-favourites, altered-reality

This book (and the two others in the trilogy) have a lot to answer for - especially in the eyes of my parents. I loved this book from the first time I read it - despite the first person narration - due to the brilliant characters and writing style. The plot, featuring as it does, pirates, voodoo and a variety of locations will probably feel more familiar to people post POTC than it did to 17 yr old me. I loved the way in which our lead character - essentially a corporate shell by choice - is dra ...more

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Dec 06, 2010 Alexey rated it it was amazing

Shelves: reviewed, solo-protagonist, character-driven, epic

This is a beautiful book but it's not for teens. And not because it's boring or complicated, nothing like that, it's about the identification with the main character. I really felt like I was akin to Steve, where life is perfect by the normal standards but you remember those childhood days when everything was surprising and on summer days the time felt like goo and eyes were sparkling with wonder.

What is this book about? Pirates? Yes, formally speaking. But for me it was mostly about feeling ali ...more

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Apr 25, 2016 Wolfgarr rated it it was ok

Can not say i hated it but i surly didn't like it that much. The author's use of old and made up language makes this book hard to read. If the author had not resorted to this tactic and stuck with plain English the book would definitely be much more enjoyable. The story it self though was interesting what one can make of it that is. It is quite confusing, and leaves one shaking their head thinking "Wtf". 2 stars.. Because like i said ..I didn't hate it.. But i didn't like it all that much. So it ...more

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Jul 03, 2012 Alan Denham rated it it was amazing

Shelves: just-paper

Brilliant book (first of a trilogy, with some associated shorts). This is a nice approach to a parallel worlds scenario, with the earth we know at the centre of The Spiral - and things getting wierder the further from the centre you get, with much of the action for this first one set in the days of sail - Nelson's Navy rather than Tea Clippers. A limited amount of credible magic, principally Voodoo, and a lot of nice twists on obscure bits of folklore. Michael Scot Rohan has found his strength! ...more

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Mar 03, 2016 Jonathon Dean rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Slow, flowery prose. I genuinely didn't care about any of the characters or what happened to them. The central plot was a quest to rescue a character we'd barely met, launched upon by an apathetic office drone. Combine that with 40+ pages per chapter, and it felt like a chore for the most part. ...more

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May 04, 2011 April marked it as didnotfinish

Shelves: fantasy, urban-fantasy

I stopped about 2/3 of the way through - I just didn't care whether the rescue was successful or if the main went home or stayed or what was about to happen on the next page. Just, meh. I guess I just wasn't in the mood for it. ...more

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May 31, 2012 Chris rated it really liked it

Been a while since I've read this book, it's a long time favourite. But reading it now the "real world" sections feel terribly dated whilst the fantasy section is as strong as ever. It's a strange contrast. ...more

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Oct 27, 2015 Arun rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, read-2015, will-revisit, pirates

Clear writing, great characters, superb dialogues, brilliant magic and more than that - a work that ponders with the 'emptiness' we feel, stuck in a rut of salary-rent/mortgage-date-love-children life, against a backdrop of a swashbuckling adventure story. Absolutely loved it. ...more

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May 05, 2011 Wayne rated it really liked it

Very good book. Pirates, loas, zombies, magic, sailing ship battles, a demon, Wolves, and a businessman named Steve -- there's something for almost everyone. The battle between magicians was fascinating and different than any I'd read before. ...more

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Feb 17, 2011 Ice Bear rated it liked it

Shelves: fantasy

Readable for holidays

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May 03, 2014 Jens Walter rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Das Buch hat mich sofort in seinen Bann gezogen. Die Idee, dass alte Orte eine Verbindung in die Vergangenheit behalten, fand und finde ich immer noch ich großartig.

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Dec 24, 2015 Bill Kte'pi rated it really liked it · review of another edition

One of the most intriguing takes on the "hidden world" trope I've read, though I'm ambivalent about the way voodoo is handled here. ...more

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Apr 22, 2015 Yupa rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Baah!...

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Sep 30, 2011 Dave Millard rated it it was amazing

Once in a while I like a good fantasy book, and this one I really enjoyed. The concept of an alternate universe sort of blended into ours was a cool concept, and fun to read.

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Jun 18, 2012 Tim Boman rated it it was amazing

A favorite, I've read it several times. ...more

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SW rated it it was amazing
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Jan 25, 2012

Jason rated it really liked it
Sep 15, 2016

Kim rated it liked it
May 10, 2012

Saskia rated it really liked it
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About Michael Scott Rohan

Michael Scott Rohan

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Michael Scott Rohan (born 1951 in Edinburgh) was a Scottish fantasy and science fiction author and writer on opera.

He had a number of short stories published before his first books, the science fiction novel Run to the Stars and the non-fiction First Byte. He then collaborated with Allan J. Scott on the nonfiction The Hammer and The Cross (an account of Christianity arriving in Viking lands, not t ...more