What do you think?
Rate this book
The Forest of Peldain
Life was not possible on that watery world except on the Hundred Islands. The Empire of Arelia ruled them all - all except one. Peldain was entirely covered with a forest so impenetrable and so deadly that all attempts to explore it were disastrous. Then a man came out of that jungle - a human - who told the Arelians that at the center of the island a secret kingdom flourished.
There was nothing for it but to organise an expedition. However deadly the alien forest might be, if one man could get out, an army could get in. So Lord Vorduthe landed and began the assault on the great green enemy.
Nobody could have foreseen the horrors with which the forest defended itself. Nobody could have foreseen the price that would be paid by Vorduthe's men. And only Vorduthe himself would learn the incredible secret of the island...if his mind could stand it.
There was nothing for it but to organise an expedition. However deadly the alien forest might be, if one man could get out, an army could get in. So Lord Vorduthe landed and began the assault on the great green enemy.
Nobody could have foreseen the horrors with which the forest defended itself. Nobody could have foreseen the price that would be paid by Vorduthe's men. And only Vorduthe himself would learn the incredible secret of the island...if his mind could stand it.
- GenresScience FictionFiction
Kindle Edition
First published August 6, 1985
2 people are currently reading
29 people want to read
About the author
Barrington J. Bayley
72 books41 followersBarrington J. Bayley published work principally under his own name but also using the pseudonyms ofAlan Aumbry, Michael Barrington (with Michael Moorcock), John Diamond and P.F. Woods.
Bayley was born in Birmingham and educated in Newport, Shropshire. He worked in a number of jobs before joining the Royal Air Force in 1955; his first published story, "Combat's End", had seen print the year before in UK-only publication Vargo Statten Magazine.
During the 1960s, Bayley's short stories featured regularly in New Worlds magazine and later in its successor, the paperback anthologies of the same name. He became friends with New Worlds editor Michael Moorcock, who largely instigated science fiction's New Wave movement. Bayley himself was part of the movement.
Bayley's first book, Star Virus, was followed by more than a dozen other novels; his downbeat, gloomy approach to novel writing has been cited as influential on the works of M. John Harrison, Brian Stableford and Bruce Sterling.
Bayley was born in Birmingham and educated in Newport, Shropshire. He worked in a number of jobs before joining the Royal Air Force in 1955; his first published story, "Combat's End", had seen print the year before in UK-only publication Vargo Statten Magazine.
During the 1960s, Bayley's short stories featured regularly in New Worlds magazine and later in its successor, the paperback anthologies of the same name. He became friends with New Worlds editor Michael Moorcock, who largely instigated science fiction's New Wave movement. Bayley himself was part of the movement.
Bayley's first book, Star Virus, was followed by more than a dozen other novels; his downbeat, gloomy approach to novel writing has been cited as influential on the works of M. John Harrison, Brian Stableford and Bruce Sterling.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
June 19, 2019
The worst book of an author is of interest for the light that it sheds on the author's best books.
The Forest of Peldain is undoubtedly Bayley's worst book, and a disappointing follow-up to the spectacularly inventive The Zen Gun. It is poorly written and thinly conceived - none of Bayley's books are exactly well-written, even the best ones, but vivid and often outrageous conceptions were what he did well, and without their magic dust the book simply slumps into mediocrity. That is not to say that it is without incidental pleasures, but they are few.
This may be Bayley's worst book, but in its way it his most consistent. In his best books the overactive imagination elevates the plodding style and flat characterisation, creating an engaging tension and wonderful inconsistency - it is his defining quality. Here they settle to the same level. Bayley's greatest strengths are obvious by their absence.
Part of the book's trouble, I suspect, is that the fantasy framework doesn't allow for Bayley's usual science-fictional conceptualising. Perhaps its most interesting quality is the way that it adopts role-playing and gaming tropes, with its the generic fantasy challenges and final confrontations. It was the early 1980s and D&D was much in the air, I suppose...
The Forest of Peldain is undoubtedly Bayley's worst book, and a disappointing follow-up to the spectacularly inventive The Zen Gun. It is poorly written and thinly conceived - none of Bayley's books are exactly well-written, even the best ones, but vivid and often outrageous conceptions were what he did well, and without their magic dust the book simply slumps into mediocrity. That is not to say that it is without incidental pleasures, but they are few.
This may be Bayley's worst book, but in its way it his most consistent. In his best books the overactive imagination elevates the plodding style and flat characterisation, creating an engaging tension and wonderful inconsistency - it is his defining quality. Here they settle to the same level. Bayley's greatest strengths are obvious by their absence.
Part of the book's trouble, I suspect, is that the fantasy framework doesn't allow for Bayley's usual science-fictional conceptualising. Perhaps its most interesting quality is the way that it adopts role-playing and gaming tropes, with its the generic fantasy challenges and final confrontations. It was the early 1980s and D&D was much in the air, I suppose...
July 13, 2009
Yes, even though its "science fiction" the science is so a) bad and b) not-there that it counts as fantasy. I said it. I'll say this too: Barrington J Bayley is a worthless writer. This book was: 130 pages of the Great Outdoor Fight (see Plant Destroy Man!), which got depressing after a bit, then 15 pages of wank, 10 pages of "intrigue", 15 pages of psychic sex in sexytime fantasy locations, 1 page of cannibalism, and then 2 pages of whaaaaa? Suffice it to say that they destroy the "advanced" "intelligence" by draining the lake in which it lives. Because nothing says advanced intelligence like living in a "lake" which is not water, but rather a biochemical soup of sentient, psychic blah. WARNING: they never use the word biochemical in the book.
April 15, 2008
I love how you can read a Bayley book in an afternoon. I did so with "Forest of Peldain", and it was good fun. It concerns a campaign into a forest to subjugate someone-or-another through force. The host goes in well-equipped and ready to whup butt - and find themselves routed by mysterious assailants. Given the title, you can imagine the source of this opposition.
Bayley invests his hero with emotions that give the story more weight than you might otherwise expect. The plot takes a neat turn towards metaphysical territory and introduces the kind of Big Idea that good science fiction provides. This was the second Bayley book I read, and it encouraged me to find others.
Bayley invests his hero with emotions that give the story more weight than you might otherwise expect. The plot takes a neat turn towards metaphysical territory and introduces the kind of Big Idea that good science fiction provides. This was the second Bayley book I read, and it encouraged me to find others.
November 22, 2014
For its fatal flower gardens, drainable demiurges & exploding body-count. My favorite Bayley.
January 12, 2019
Quite possibly the worst book I ever read. Seriously. The first third: "They walked through the forest and weird trees killed most of them". That's it. No character development. no thematic exploration, no psychological depth. Just trees killing people. Described in the most bland, ridiculously banal manner possible.
The protagonist is an idiot, the villain cardboard, the supporting cast less developed than the damn trees. Oh, and there's a talking lake, which is controlling every thing and every one.
Dumb. A waste of two hours. Mind-numbingly repetitious. Chose your pejorative or come up with one of your own. I'm sure it will fit.
The protagonist is an idiot, the villain cardboard, the supporting cast less developed than the damn trees. Oh, and there's a talking lake, which is controlling every thing and every one.
Dumb. A waste of two hours. Mind-numbingly repetitious. Chose your pejorative or come up with one of your own. I'm sure it will fit.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 8, 2012
It isn't a difficult book to read, but it is of a style now passé. No grand aim or vision, though there is room for a sequel. If you want to read man versus hostile environment SF, "Planet if the Damned" or "Dune" are better crafted. Other examples of this theme exist in my collection of read books too. This book like many other old pulp sci-fi novels I've read came from my dad's collection, it had a cover that intrigued me when I was a kid, now it goes on a shelf to be forgotten save this brief iPhone review.
July 1, 2009
Look i think Barrington J Bayley is one of the best bad sci-fi writers, but this book is just boring. Its 180 pages of 'riveting' men vs trees 'action' followed by 50 pages of classic B.J. Bayley wierdness. But there is still the first 180 pages of people getting eaten by trees. Its dull. Like watching grass grow or something.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews