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The Gifts of the Gorboduc Vandal
Umber, a Gorbudoc scientist, breaks his people's code of honor by choosing enslavement rather than death, but behind what looks like selfish motivation on his part is a plan to slave Landsdrum's people
- GenresScience Fiction
210 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published April 13, 1989
22 people want to read
About the author
Paul O. Williams
26 books22 followersPaul Osborne Williams was an American science fiction writer and haiku poet. Williams was professor emeritus of English at Principia College in Elsah, Illinois.
His most notable science fiction works are a series of novels, the Pelbar Cycle, set in North America about a thousand years after a "time of fire", in which the world was nearly totally depopulated. The novels track a gradual reconnection of the human cultures which developed. Much of the action takes place in the communities of the Pelbar, along the Upper Mississippi River — in the general vicinity of Elsah. Several cultures, including the matriarchal Pelbar, join together in the Heart River Federation. Others, especially the tyrannical Tantal and slave-raiding Tusco, fall apart after suffering defeats. The predominant characters are change agents: Jestak, Stel and his wife Ahroe Westrun. All are Pelbar. Williams won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in Science Fiction in 1983.
He is also known as a writer of haiku, senryū, and tanka, and wrote a number of essays on the haiku form in English. In a 1975 essay, he coined the term "tontoism" to refer to the practice of writing haiku with missing articles ("the", "a", or "an"), which he claimed made the haiku sound like the stunted English of the Indian sidekick, Tonto, in the Lone Ranger radio and television series. Williams was the president of the Haiku Society of America (1999) and vice president of the Tanka Society of America (2000).
Williams died on June 2, 2009.
His most notable science fiction works are a series of novels, the Pelbar Cycle, set in North America about a thousand years after a "time of fire", in which the world was nearly totally depopulated. The novels track a gradual reconnection of the human cultures which developed. Much of the action takes place in the communities of the Pelbar, along the Upper Mississippi River — in the general vicinity of Elsah. Several cultures, including the matriarchal Pelbar, join together in the Heart River Federation. Others, especially the tyrannical Tantal and slave-raiding Tusco, fall apart after suffering defeats. The predominant characters are change agents: Jestak, Stel and his wife Ahroe Westrun. All are Pelbar. Williams won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in Science Fiction in 1983.
He is also known as a writer of haiku, senryū, and tanka, and wrote a number of essays on the haiku form in English. In a 1975 essay, he coined the term "tontoism" to refer to the practice of writing haiku with missing articles ("the", "a", or "an"), which he claimed made the haiku sound like the stunted English of the Indian sidekick, Tonto, in the Lone Ranger radio and television series. Williams was the president of the Haiku Society of America (1999) and vice president of the Tanka Society of America (2000).
Williams died on June 2, 2009.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 1, 2020
I don't remember much about this one, but I liked it enough to keep my copy. Reread sometime?
Here's an actual review: http://catb.org/~esr/sfreviews/RR0001...
Here's an actual review: http://catb.org/~esr/sfreviews/RR0001...
July 16, 2020
A supposedly hostile Gorboduc "raider" declines suicide, accepts slavery, then becomes a threat to the basic theological beliefs of Landstrum. However, his knowledge could save them all. What should they do with him? English professor Williams elevates SF storytelling. His 7 Pelbar books are even better.
July 25, 2015
Death or dishonor, for some it was an easy choice. Sometimes choices manifest at various points in time and history and the future of men, civilizations and history itself depends on them. The Gorboduc Vandals were feared, yet no one of Landsdrum has ever seen one. Then a lone Gorboduc freighter appeared in their star system and was destroyed. The captured survivors chose death before violating their sacred warrior code. All but one. Umber, the Gorboduc scientist chose slavery instead of death. Umber had other motives in mind. Then the Dark Raiders came, demanding tribute or death. Landsdrum now had a choice to make; trust Umber or perhaps perish by the hands of the Dark Raiders.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews