Wheelworld

To the Stars #2

by Harry Harrison

Book 2 of the To the Stars Trilogy

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Dystopia, American, Audiobook

188 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published October 1, 1981

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Harry Harrison (born Henry Maxwell Dempsey) was an American science fiction author best known for his character the The Stainless Steel Rat and the novel Make Room! Make Room! (1966), the basis for the film Soylent Green (1973). He was also (with Brian W. Aldiss) co-president of the Birmingham Science Fiction Group.

Excerpted from Wikipedia.

Reviews

[Bradley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even though we get the feeling that the planet is brutal, at least through conversation, this isn't an immersive terraforming/crop-saving SF that ends in revolution against the ruling (and reality-ignoring) elite.

So? Is it any good?

Well, it's a farmer-led revolution on an alien planet, saving the social structure and changing the way things are done for the benefit of men and women. It's pretty light, fast-paced, and satisfying if you have a taste for rising up and pulling the rest of your downtrodden farmers up by their bootlaces.

[Deb Omnivorous Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

The brilliant second in a beloved trilogy: In this one Jan has been on Halvmork for some years. It is his prison planet, he can never return to Earth without being executed, but as part of his sentence no one may know. He is a respected technician but still an outsider.

When the ships that normally come to take the grain are delayed without explanation Jan must force people to move despite tradition: Halvmork is on an elliptical axis and at the end of four years people must pack up their belongings and scramble to the other pole to avoid being fried to a crisp by the four year day.

This is a really exciting adventure, with some great science background for the planet, a flawless rationale for the world and it's conditions.

This was my favourite of the trilogy when I first read them, though each is excellent in it's own and different way, this one is the most SF of the adventures.

[Al "Tank" · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the second book in Harrison's "To the Stars" trilogy. Jan Kuozik has been banished to a hellish world where the people live in the winter section of the planet because the rest is too hot to survive. The planet has a "year" that spans several of Earth's and they have to migrate to the other pole through the perpetually hot section of the world. The people are controlled by the heads of the major "families" who have total power over them. They're there to raise a hybrid corn to feed the rest of Earth's empire of planets. But this year, the ships didn't come when the harvest was in.

Jan, one of the few who has enough technical know-how to keep the machines running, has to cajole them into doing things "differently" to save the crop and their lives and in doing so, he drags them out of their rut and makes powerful enemies of the family heads. It could cost him his life.

It's an "epic journey" story filled with problems and drama. Worth a read.

[Jeffery · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first time I read this book, I was in highschool, about twenty-five years ago, and it was the fond memories of this one that spurred me on to finally read the entire trilogy. I remember the image of the great trains making a desperate run from the north pole to the south before the four-year summer cycle began. Having reread it now, there's so much more that I can appreciate.

The great run constitutes the largest part of the action, but the tension of the book is built around the protagonist's clash with the stagnet, ultra-conservative rulers of the human settlement. When the people's normal cycle of harvesting corn, migrating to the other pole, and delivering the food to ships is disrupted, the ruling class clings to its old ways. Jan, our hero, realizes this is basically suicide. They must change or die - new situations call for new actions. So the power struggle begins. It is interrupted by the many obstacles and hazards they must face on their trek, but it always re-emerges. It's also interesting in this volume to see Jan, who was at the top looking down in Homeworld, on the bottom side of things looking up. If book 1 taught him about the injustice of his world, book 2 is all about preparing him for the battle to come. More than anything, though, this book reveals the dangers of ignorance. The ruling families rule by keeping knowledge away from the population, and as the book ends, Jan's battle for freedom begins with education.

I very much look forward to the final volume, Star World. As for Wheel World, I have to give it an extra star, not only for nolstalgia's sake, but for having a more complex and exciting plot than its predecssor.

Enjoy!

[Sean Randall · Rating 3 out of 5]

This second installment takes off a few years after the first finishes, and sees our intrepid engineer isolated on a backwater planet with plenty of freedoms except those of speech and departure. he seems to be quite virile, too - the Don Juan of the spaceways, do we think? Sarah's quite easily left behind and although jan foments revolution and stands up for his rights, much of his anger at the authorities is still pent-up and unreleased.

[Wendy · Rating 5 out of 5]

loved the "homeworld", "wheelworld", "deathworld" trio. Amazing imagination provoking. My favorite series since Ender

[Adrian · Rating 5 out of 5]

'You know nothing at all here on Halvmork. This is a dead-end planet, a concentration camp world at the end of nowhere, been nowhere, going nowhere. Settled by forced migration probably, or with political prisoners. Doesn’t matter, it’s in the records someplace. Just an agricultural machine filled with dumb farmers designed to churn out food for the other planets for maximum profit at minimum input. Earth. Now that is something else again. With the elite on top, the proles on bottom and everyone in between fitted into place like plugs into a board. No one really likes it except those at the top, but they have all of the power so things just go on and on for ever. It is a trap. A morass. With n0 way out. I am out of it because I had no choice. This planet — or death. And that is all I am going to tell you.’

This book, the second in the To the Stars series, finds our hero Jan Kulozik living out his days on a remote farming planet. His rebellious streak has been curtailed and he uses his engineering skills to keep the machinery in check. However, after a few cycles, the corporation ships don't arrived as scheduled to pick up the produce.

The local authority, led by the 'family' heads, don't know how to deal with this disruption and it falls to Jan to take charge and ensure that the inhabitants both journey to the other hemisphere and have enough corn to give to the ships when they arrive. He comes up against much resistance and finds few allies as the general populace are too used to just following the 'family' orders.

The story could, for the most-part, be an independent tale, however Harry Harrison sows enough seeds so that as it reaches its climax we are thrown right back into the dystopian nightmare he began in Homeworld. This series will be re-read, as I often do with George Orwell's 1984, Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, and Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451.

A great middle to the series. 5 stars!

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the second book in the "To The Stars" trilogy by Harry Harrison. In this one Jan Kulozik has been exiled to Halvmork, a farm planet, where he is to use his engineering skills to keep the machinery of this hostile planet running. This planet has two habitable zones, at each pole, that are capable or supporting human life and also are capable of being used to raise huge amounts of food to support the Earth and the other Earth colonies. The problem is that because of Halvmork's eccentric orbit only one section of the planet is habitable at any one time. Every four years the entire population must move by train 27,000 miles to the other pole or be burned by the suns extreme heat. The population is run by the family heads who rule with an iron fist. When the ships from Earth are many weeks late it is up to Jan Kulozik to move everyone and the corn crops too, because when the ships finally do show up they will desperately need the food to feed the Earth and it's other colonies. The family heads are against this plan but Jan forces their hand. Needless to say they don't like this idea and have plans to rid themselves of Jan after he accomplishes his goal. This book is very different from the first book in the series but nevertheless a good read and I recommend it to fans of Harry Harrison.

[Michael Bafford · Rating 2 out of 5]

My favourite part of this book was the planet Halvmörk. Living where I do I enjoy the fact that the name is Swedish for "Half Dark", but more importantly it's such an environmentally challenging world that whatever drama takes place there is in a degree forced into the background.

And the drama is, in my opinion, pretty deficient. This is not funny like the S.S.Rat series, or Bill, the Galactic Hero, chilling like the Deathworld series, nor is there the scope and vision - and epic quality - of Make Room! Make Room!.

This is a throwback to the "Golden Age of Science Fiction" when men were men and women were lovely and needed a strong man to lead them. Back when only one man could save the world and fists were nearly as important as brains. This is, when I think about it, pretty much where most SF movies still are. Still, the adventures were varied enough and the book was thin enough to make reading it a pleasure. I really did enjoy the fact that this was only 180 pages long! That is so unusual in this age where even simple stories are swollen to King size.

[Kevin Phyland · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jan Kulozik has been exiled to the harsh planet Halvmörk, whose inhabitants must grow food for the regular Terran Commonwealth ships in exchange for the necessities to survive. It is a kind of serfdomn which Kulozik has tolerated with ill grace. The remaining settlers are docile and work under powerful Family Heads, and the most powerful is the elderly crone The Hradil. The planet is larger than Earth but tilted about 40° which makes it extremely hot at the equator and periodically frozen at the poles. When the Terran ship fails to arrive Kulozik convinces the settlers that they must take their corn and travel south before the summer arrives and burns it. What follows is an epic trip by giant road trains, beset with trials and tribulations and the opposition of many Family Heads. With a plotline reminiscent of Zelazny’s Damnation Alley, it is a fast-paced adventure with the usual Harry Harrison motifs and denouement. Needless to say the boy wins the girl and the evildoers get theirs. Much better than the first book in this series of three. Not the worst way to spend an afternoon.

[Cliff Ross · Rating 2 out of 5]

Quite a tedious read. Not much action or adventure. Even less humor. This tiresome story and vapid plot left me unsatisfied. Most of the story details the people’s journey from one end of the planet to another. They’re traveling in some sort of train on wheels. The author goes into meaningless detail about their trials and tribulations. All rather pointless. The first and third books in this series are pretty good. I suspect this was just filler.

[Michaelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Instead of continuing the story on Earth and how the planets in the Earth Commonwealth are liberated, the majority of the book is about traveling from one hemisphere to the other and even that wasn't told very well. The first trip is described in too much detail and the second trip in too little detail. It was as if the writer was trying to hurry and wrap up the book, so he could write the next one. Very disappointing.

[Charles Harrison · Rating 3 out of 5]

Same protagonist but vastly different setting. Most of this book is a journey with problems being overcome one at a time. Despite the peril of the situation most of the interesting factors are social and the climatic ending is worth the wait. I don't think whoever wrote the tagline read the book...

[a-aj-zkf · Rating 3 out of 5]

Second in series but basically starts over. A revolution story taking place on a remote planet and involving a train ride with families broken up into “factions”. Gets more actioney than the first (think Mad Max). The ending is a bit disappointing but its a fun read with a pulpy flow.

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

A huge change from the earlier novel, this time the protagonist is on a prison planet when the off-world ships do not arrive and he has to figure out how to make the people do what they need to do to survive.

[Jay · Rating 3 out of 5]

i don’t think the main character ever wore the bad ass leather jacket he is depicted as wearing in the cover art. but he is the type of space man who would wear one if he had one.

[Dave Clarke · Rating 3 out of 5]

The second in the series and the protagonist is now o a distant world with an unusual set of problems... Enjoyable holiday book Sci fi IMHO

[MacWithBooksonMountains Marcus · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this in high school as a pocket book version. I was fascinated by the female life-like androids. Lol

[Ike · Rating 2 out of 5]

One word = setup

[Chaz Wyman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good little yarn, well told. A refreshng change from the doo-stop tomes of many modern sf writers who think more is necessarily better.

[David William · Rating 3 out of 5]

The ending could be better, though this makes better sense.

[Simon Forward · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a strange way, in this second To The Stars instalment we have crossed over into the Deathworld series. But as it turns out, this is no bad thing.

Jan Kulozik has been shipped to the world of Halvmörk (or Beta-Aurigae Three) as a prison sentence. But for us and Harrison, it serves to free us up.

Earth’s police-state and associated struggles are, on the surface, immaterial and irrelevant here. It’s all about survival on a planet with a pronounced axial tilt and Harrison’s back in one of his favourite playgrounds, extrapolating the various hazards and disasters that might face a migratory work force on a world with extreme four-yearly climate shifts.

The society in which Kulozik finds himself imprisoned is artificially rigid and chained to customs and tradition, so he’s automatically at loggerheads with the established hierarchy. Needs must when the devil drives though and they bend to his better judgement to a degree in the interests of their survival – and a drive is exactly what is in store. A massive trek from one hemisphere to another along a huge terraformed Road. And given that it’s a highway that only sees use every four years it’s in need of repairs. Throw in submerged sections, seismic disturbance, mechanical failures, the unexpected dangers of alien roadkill and heat like a microwave oven then you have tensions and challenges to rival the most epic disaster movies.

All it’s missing is a cast of better-characterised individuals, people we’re meant to grow attached to before their carefully orchestrated demise. But no matter, because there’s enough laid in the path of the great caravan to fully engage you in this struggle.

Kulozik becomes more like other Harrison ‘heroes’, with his never-failing resourcefulness and extensive grasp of mechanics. In this case, his engineering background is clearly established and he certainly doesn’t have the DinAlt or diGriz cockiness.

There’s also more than the survival of this community at stake because they’re transporting grain, vital to the continued survival of mankind. The ships that routinely show up to collect the grain are missing, but Kulozik determines to make sure the crop is there for them when – or if – they do. And therein lie the seeds of where the fight at home come into play. It’s no great surprise when we discover that the rigid society on Halvmörk is just a facet of the prison architecture put in place by Earth authorities, designed to keep this planet of agricultural labours producing like sheep.
Ultimately, Kulozik is pitted against this status quo and his actions provoke rebellion. In this instance, he’s instrumental in the resistance and in respect of the series progression he has grown. It’s in typical Harrison fashion that just when it’s all doomed to fail Jan is rescued from impending execution by the intervention of external forces.

Rebels have arrived to secure food supplies for hungry worlds that have finally risen up and thrown off the shackles of their Earth-bound oppressors. And that’s why the expected ships never arrived. It all fits! Okay, the timing is a mite too neat and convenient for Jan, but it’s forgivable in what has been a rollicking good ride.

And, of course, Jan Kulozik is kind of needed alive for the third in the trilogy.

SAF

[Excel Lifestyle · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you’re one of those dudes that becomes a child when you see a big truck and you’re on the verge of divorce because of your crippling model train addiction, you’ll love this.

We join our hero from the previous installment on a backwater world where the sun rises every four years and when it does, it gets so hot they have to move everything across the planet by train. The main plot is that our hero knows the galaxy is ruled by a corrupt government but he’s been sentenced to silence, but could plant the seeds of rebellion. The setup is pretty cool but the problem is that 80% of the book is just about dudes driving trains, then getting out to fix stuff. While there are some tense moments where the trains are on the verge of disaster, the trip takes up space from any interesting world building and overall plot development. Basically think of this book as ice road truckers storytelling but in space.

[Eric Lawson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wheelworld, by Harry Harrison, continues the To The Stars trilogy and the story of Jan Kulozik. Jan has been exiled to the world of Halvmork. After his association with rebels was discovered in the first book, his knowledge and experience was put to use, rather than having him killed. Halvmork is a world where the seasons last 4 years. For 4 years farmers grow food at one of the poles, then travel to the other pole before the long summer makes the area uninhabitable.

Jan grows in this book, he stands against the conservative rulers who hold everyone down, and finds love along the way.

[Richard Beasley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Better than home world.

I'd describe thus as 'proper'sci-fi. Great stuff. The physics works, good story. Pretty much independent of predecessor, and different (more scifi). But reading to the stars as trilogy best way

[Jay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting, enjoyed, I thought well written.

[Sarah Sammis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read on a trip to Utah.

[Henry · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am so glad that I have started to read this series. I can't wait to read the final book.

[SciFiOne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Grade B+. Book W2.

[Peter · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well written as you would expect from Harrison - this series just didn't grab me