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The Devolutionist
Heaven and Hell, Hoven and Holl.
Written in 1919, The Devolutionist is Homer Eon Flint’s third installment in the speculative fiction stories that cemented his position as a leading pioneer science fiction writer. In The Devolutionist, Homer further developed the Biblical theme addressed in “The Lord of Death” and “The Queen of Life”. Capitalists are determined to exploit workers but the workers revolt.
Written in 1919, The Devolutionist is Homer Eon Flint’s third installment in the speculative fiction stories that cemented his position as a leading pioneer science fiction writer. In The Devolutionist, Homer further developed the Biblical theme addressed in “The Lord of Death” and “The Queen of Life”. Capitalists are determined to exploit workers but the workers revolt.
180 pages, Hardcover
First published May 30, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 3, 2023
The author of this fairly well regarded example of Radium Age science fiction was Homer Eon Flint, an interesting personality who evidently met his untimely demise crashing a car he had stolen at gunpoint to commit a bank robbery. But I can't say he was a very good writer. I truly can't understand why he has enjoyed a fairly robust following among fans of early sci-fi pulps. "The Devolutionist" has all of the same problems I've encountered in his other works I've read.
First of all, Flint consistently makes odd choices in perspective. For example, in his novel "The Blind Spot," he writes from the first person POV of someone who hardly was present during any of the action, so he constantly had to resort to telling the story through interviews and journals of other characters. Then why not simply get rid of the first-person narrator? Same applies here. The main characters are passive bystanders witnessing all events in the narrative from the comfort of their living room through telepathic links to the actual heroes of the story. Why have this extra layer? Why not just tell us the story from the perspective of the characters actually doing all the things that matter?
Flint has no sense of space either. It's hard to explain unless you experience how he writes for yourself. He'll have two people flying in separate aircraft, for example, and then say that the one pilot shouted in the face of the other pilot, as if forgetting that the two characters are not together in a room. It's weird and sloppy.
He lingers on irrelevant details yet skips over crucial plot points. Seemingly important characters get unceremoniously dropped from the plot. A promising premise for sociopolitical commentary goes nowhere. Everything seems written as though by a 10-year-old who was trying to weave a plot too complex for their cognitive level.
This is likely the last book I'll read from this author unless someone can convince me otherwise. I would say you could easily skip out on his stuff, unless you are hell bent on reading every vintage science fiction title you can get your hands on.
First of all, Flint consistently makes odd choices in perspective. For example, in his novel "The Blind Spot," he writes from the first person POV of someone who hardly was present during any of the action, so he constantly had to resort to telling the story through interviews and journals of other characters. Then why not simply get rid of the first-person narrator? Same applies here. The main characters are passive bystanders witnessing all events in the narrative from the comfort of their living room through telepathic links to the actual heroes of the story. Why have this extra layer? Why not just tell us the story from the perspective of the characters actually doing all the things that matter?
Flint has no sense of space either. It's hard to explain unless you experience how he writes for yourself. He'll have two people flying in separate aircraft, for example, and then say that the one pilot shouted in the face of the other pilot, as if forgetting that the two characters are not together in a room. It's weird and sloppy.
He lingers on irrelevant details yet skips over crucial plot points. Seemingly important characters get unceremoniously dropped from the plot. A promising premise for sociopolitical commentary goes nowhere. Everything seems written as though by a 10-year-old who was trying to weave a plot too complex for their cognitive level.
This is likely the last book I'll read from this author unless someone can convince me otherwise. I would say you could easily skip out on his stuff, unless you are hell bent on reading every vintage science fiction title you can get your hands on.
March 6, 2016
Very intriguing novel of the Radium Age of science fiction; circa 1900-1930. Doctor Kinney and his three fellow space explorers use astral projection to reside in the minds of inhabitants of another world, where the rich class live on one planet, taking advantage of the workers of another planet kept in a tenuous, extremely close orbit with each other.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews