Changeling Earth

Empire of the East #3

by Fred Saberhagen

The third of a great new science-fantasy series, by the author of Berserker

The planet was Earth. The time was fifty thousand years from now. Magic and witchcraft worked and the Old Science didn't.

Why this was so nobody knew - it had always been that way during the long tyranny of the Empire of the East. During that same period there had always been little bands of rebels using fragments of white magic against the demonic armies. Rolf was the latest of these rebels - and he had on his side the mysterious power known as Ardneh.

The meaning of Ardneh, the climactic showdown of fifty millennia of cosmic contention, and Rolf's part in it, combine to make a thrilling adventure that continues the struggle between the Old Technology and the New Demonology, begun in The Broken Lands and The Black Mountain

Genres: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Fiction, Post Apocalyptic, Science Fiction Fantasy, Adventure, Dungeons and Dragons

187 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1973

About the author

Fred Saberhagen was an American science fiction and fantasy author most famous for his ''Beserker'' and Dracula stories.

Saberhagen also wrote a series of a series of post-apocalyptic mytho-magical novels beginning with his popular ''Empire of the East'' and continuing through a long series of ''Swords'' and ''Lost Swords'' novels. Saberhagen died of cancer, in Albuquerque, New Mexico

Saberhagen was born in and grew up in the area of Chicago, Illinois. Saberhagen served in the [[U.S. Air Force]] during the Korean War while he was in his early twenties. Back in civilian life, Saberhagen worked as an It was while he was working for Motorola (after his military service) that Saberhagen started writing fiction seriously at the age of about 30. "Fortress Ship", his first "Berserker" short shory, was published in 1963. Then, in 1964, Saberhagen saw the publication of his first novel, ''The Golden People''.

From 1967 to 1973, he worked as an editor for the Chemistry articles in the ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' as well as writing its article on science fiction. He then quit and took up writing full-time. In 1975, he moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico.

He married fellow writer Joan Spicci in 1968. They had two sons and a daughter.

Reviews

[Karl · Rating 3 out of 5]

(DAW Collectors #41

Cover Artist: Tim Kirk

Name: Saberhagen, Frederick Thomas, Birthplace: Chicago, Illinois, USA,(18 May 1930 - 29 June 2007)

Fred Saberhagen is perhaps best known for the "Berserker" series.

Part of the story in "Changeling Earth" centers on the mystery of the entity known as Ardneh.
the story establishes a short version of epic fantasy. "Rolf' is an interesting character, as are the enemies. This is installment #3 of the series "Empire of the East" and consists of:

"The Broken Lands" - [Empire of the East • 1] • (1968)
"The Black Mountains" - [Empire of the East • 2] • (1971)
"Ardneh's World" [Empire of the East • 3] • (1973) which is a variant of Changeling Earth.

The overall series turns Cold War panic into a fantasy setting. It’s literally the East vs. the West in the novels, and the West is notably more evil than the East. (A kind of An Evil Empire) The whole thing takes place 50,000 years into our own future, and Saberhagen lingers on the troop movements and leadership decision making, but it’s undoubtedly a fantasy novel. Magic has replaced technology, mostly, and if it hasn’t, then the technology has advanced far enough to defy the laws of physics ,so it might as well be magic.

Saberhagen reworked these books in the 1980s and the results were republished as The Empire of the East.

[Derek · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't realize until later that it belonged to a series. It's economical and self-contained, and now I'm not sure I want to pursue the other books. The slots where the previous books fit seem better imagined than actually read.

It takes a little work to get past the Thundarr The Barbarian aspects: postapocalyptic far future, magic works, there are metaphysical demons, etc., all of which add to the cheese factor, but once I got past it, I saw some interesting ideas. Orcus the master demon lord, born of a transformed atomic explosion, while he hates humanity and possibly his own existence, he greatly fears the larger darker forces dimly sensed in the vastness of space and will not leave Earth.

It had one of the more poignant and satisfying endings of any book I've read lately, especially the cataclysm of Ardneh's victory.

[Lúcio Pimentel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Changeling Earth (Terra alterada, numa tradução livre), de Fred Saberhagen, relançado posteriormente como Ardneh's World, fecha a série Empire of the East, e estranhamente somente esse terceiro livro é citado no Apêndice N. A trama se passa num futuro pós-apocalíptico, onde magia e criaturas fantásticas existem, e resquícios de tecnologia avançada antiga podem ser encontrados.

Continuando o embate entre o Império do Leste contra os Povos Livres do Oeste, a história apresenta um Rolf mais maduro, diferente do jovem camponês que se junta aos rebeldes depois que sua família foi massacrada no primeiro livro, ele até ganha um par romântico. Agora é um membro valioso dos insurgentes, principalmente por sua afinidade com a tecnologia e por sua conexão com a entidade misteriosa conhecida como Ardneh. Ele compõe um grupo de agentes que precisa roubar um artefato de poder de um condestável do Império e levá-lo ao um local desconhecido no meio do deserto.

Lorde Chup é agora integrante da rebelião, e infelizmente acaba perdendo grande parte do destaque que teve no último livro. O papel de mostrar o que está acontecendo do lado dos vilões acaba ficando com sua antiga consorte Charmian, que usa de toda sua dissimulação para se manter viva e de alguma forma subir na hierarquia do Leste. Os dois mantêm um complexo relacionamento, estando a beira de se matar em vários momentos. Também temos o ponto de vista de outros personagens interessantes, como o mago supremo Wood e até mesmo trechos na visão do arqui-demônio Orcus.

As “terras quebradas” do ocidente se tornaram um problema impossível de ser ignorado, e o imperador se envolve diretamente no conflito. As forças de ambos os lados sabem que o combate final se aproxima e não poupam recursos para atingir a vitória. Exércitos, corujas inteligentes, répteis alados, elementais, criaturas bestiais, maldições, demônios e poderes sombrios, tudo culminando numa disputa cataclísmica entre magia e tecnologia. Assim como nos primeiros livros, existe bastante ação e atos heroicos/vilanescos, com direito uma pausa para uma longa explicação de como o “Mundo Alterado” sofreu essa mutação.

Existe uma outra série do autor que se passa no mesmo universo lançada depois do Apêndice N chamada The Book of Swords que é considerada sua obra prima de fantasia. Ele também escreveu um quarto livro de Empire of the East, chamado Ardneh's Sword em 2007.

Na parte do jogo, é fácil ver influências diretas ao D&D. Orcus é dos dois príncipes demoníacos citados no complemento Eldritch Wizardry do old D&D (o outro seria Demogorgon, agora famoso devido ao Stranger Things), ainda que a criatura descrita na caixa branca seja mais um demônio clássico com chifres de bode e asas de morcego, enquanto que Saberhagen não descreva muito seu demônio, sendo mais uma força da natureza imaterial, é difícil imaginar que seja uma coincidência. A série descreve dois demônios de grande poder com nome e inúmeros demônios menores que podem ser convocados por magos. A habilidade desses seres de transferir a própria essência para um objeto, utilizada bastante nos livros como elemento narrativo, também aparece de forma bem parecida no Monster Manual. E não posso deixar de notar a presença de Grifos e elementais, outras criaturas clássicas.

O Alto Feiticeiro do Leste é tudo que se espera de um mago de alto nível de D&D, cometendo uma blasfêmia aqui, talvez mais do que os magos de Jack Vance. Ele consegue detectar magia, convoca e controla demônios, coloca seus inimigos em um sono profundo, se transforma numa folha para viajar grandes distâncias pelo vento e fica invisível para investigar o palácio. Além disso, ele e o imperador só detém tanto poder porque o acumularam ao longo de incontáveis anos, poucas vezes vi a experiência tão bem descrita.

Por fim, essa mistura de magia e tecnologia está presente em velhos módulos e, especificamente, um bom pedaço do livro se passa em um complexo subterrâneo tecnológico, o que pode ter influenciado diretamente na criação da famosa aventura Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, onde a masmorra na verdade é uma nave espacial (mas se eu tiver que apostar, acho que The High Crusade, de Poul Anderson, e sua nave espacial pilotada por cruzados, teve mais influência).

[Gary Fortuin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a review of the first 3 books which were included in the collected edition I have.

In the edition I have there is an introduction and prologue written by Larry Niven and Roger Zelazny. They praise the work of Saberhagen in these first three books and compare it to the Lord of The Rings trilogy and even suggest these three books are better than those of Tolkien. Praise this high made me raise my eyebrows very skeptically as I dove into these books.
The writing is efficient. The story telling is tight. Saberhagen doesn't go into long winded descriptions even when his characters are travelling across the continent on their way to adventure. He gives you what you need to know, and very little more.
These are stories of adventure in a post-apocalyptic world ruled by magic, ancient supercomputers, and men who would fight for freedom against their overlords. The men are heroic and dastardly, the wizards powerful and helpless, the women beautiful and flawed. The tropes for adventure are all there even if they are fairly simple.
The second of the three books (The Black Mountains) is the best in my opinion. It really starts to flesh out the world and give a backstory to what the big picture of the stories is. The third book ends rather abruptly but is still highly satisfying.
Now- to the original question- are these three better than the Lord of the Rings Trilogy? No. Not in my opinion. However, the very topic deserves to be discussed and argued over a lot of beer in a bar sometime soon.

[Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stuff I Read - Ardneh's World by Fred Saberhagen Review

This is the third book of the Empire of the East series, which is the first of the book series set in this work. The Sword and Lost Sword series are also set in this world, though considerably farther in the future. But this book finally sets up what happened to change the world that we live in now to the one that shows up in the Empire of the East, and it does follow through with the promises that it made earlier. Mostly, the book is about the East trying to crush the western forces while a small group of Western warriors fights through to try and contact Ardneh, a powerful ally, and defeat the tyranny of the East.

And for that it works quite well. Rolf and Chup are both back, working together now for the west. Charmian also returns, and is once again the most interesting character of the series, because it is she who really saves the day, who really manages to do things and who cannot escape her own fondness for Chup, who in turn both hates and loves her. It's the most complex relationship in the series and the one that gets the most attention. Rolf gets his own romantic interest, but I didn't care for that as much. It seemed more to be that because they couldn't be intimate there was strain, but that seemed a rather tired thing.

Ardneh becomes a character, though, and explains what happened, and it's an interesting premise, that the world was turned all magic-capable as a defense against nuclear annihilation. And that the acts of violence caught in the change Wave became the demons, and that the most powerful was a nuclear bomb caught at the moment of explosion. Good stuff that made sense and added to the depth of the world. The plot itself was a little weak, though, as the villains made to kill Ardneh even as the former defensive computer used its death to take down the power of the East.

As a conclusion to the larger story it was rather satisfying, tying most things up with a nice bow and giving the characters their ends. It also sets the stage for the Sword books, especially with Ardneh's warning at the end, a warning that goes unheeded in the Sword books and leads to the troubles there. But the book was still good, and I enjoyed it, though again it wasn't as complex as it could have been. It was good, though, and a fitting end to the series, and so I'm giving it a 7/10.

[Richard · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not really an enjoyable read. I didn't like Saberhagen's writing style. I didn't really care what happened to the characters. The most exciting and/or interesting parts took place in the middle of the story while Ardneh was telling Rolf and Catherine about his conception and the war that followed. Not recommended.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like The Broken Lands, this final book in the Empire of the East trilogy seemed a bit slight to me. I enjoyed the first sequence proper, in which Rolf, Chup, and Loford infiltrate the High Constable of the East's rooms in a caravanserai, searching for a particular "gem" for Ardneh.

After that, however, the plot becomes a bit ho-hum: Rolf and Catherine (one of Charmian's lady's maids, whom Rolf "rescues" at the caravanserai) work to deliver the gem to Ardneh, evading the East's flying lizardmen, while Chup and the soldiers of the West harass the East's soldiers to help distract from Rolf's mission. Rolf and Catherine find Ardneh in an ancient bunker, while Chup is taken captive by the East's chief wizard and reunites (for the third time) with Charmian, who is back to hating him, mostly.

The denouement seemed to occur rather abruptly, and with little suspense. For most of the novel, the reader is led to believe that Ardneh's (and with it, the West's) victory is a foregone conclusion. Then, as we approach the end, Orcus (and the East) seem on the verge of certain victory. But then, of course, at the last moment we learn that Ardneh's defeat is, in fact, not just Ardneh's purpose but also the key to the West's victory. But I didn't find these reversals particularly compelling.

Part of why this might be has to do with the continuity (or the absence of continuity) among the three novels making up this trilogy. Although we follow Rolf as the main character through all three books, and Chup is a major character, Saberhagen doesn't provide much in the way of interpersonal bonds to hold his characters together, beyond the plot's requirements.

Chup, for example, is by far the most interesting character in the books (being a sort of Han Solo-type scoundrel), and his character growth occurs on the page, for the most part. But his evolving relationship to Rolf is elided completely. In the first book, Chup is essentially Rolf's nemesis. In the second, Chup shows Rolf a bit of mercy and unofficially switches sides, from East to West. In the third, Chup and Rolf are comrades, but how did they get here? Saberhagen provides no conversations between these two characters that aren't strictly plot related. To a lesser extent, Charmian's hatred of Chup, which was sparked by a single slap, swings wildly from complete detestation and a wish to commit violence against him, to admiration and disguised love--all without a single thought of Charmian's shared with the reader. She is, even in the end, a complete blank slate in terms of character.

Also, what happened with Rolf's sister? He loses her in the first pages of the first book, and spends much of that book thinking about saving her from the East. At the end of the second book Chup recognizes her from Rolf's description and some other details he's gleaned. But she is completely absent from the third book. Did she and Rolf reunite? Who knows? This is the kind of mundane human interaction that is missing from these books, which is a shame because it results in me not caring so much about these characters. Hence, the lack of suspense at the climax to the third book. Will Rolf and his friends triumph? Ultimately, I was along for the ride but didn't have much personal investment in the outcome.

I still think the second book is really good, but the first and third are only OK. And as a trilogy, unfortunately, it didn't work for me.

[John Mundy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this. A novella holding a mere 176 pages (give or take). I read it without realizing it was the final book in a trilogy, but regardless I feel like it holds its own much like Man in the Maze by Silverberg, you feel like you are dropped into a larger story whose beginning you don't know. However, it doesn't matter you'll be able to follow the story with what background is given to you along the way.

I suppose the characters aren't particularly deeply detailed, but very little of the writing is wasted. There's an evil overlord, demons, evil and good wizards, and a youth serving fighting against an evil invading empire. What more background do you need? If you enjoyed Zelazny's Changeling ( republished as the first half of Wizard World) or Jack Vance's Dragon World, you will enjoy this book.

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ardneh’s World is a pretty good conclusion to the trilogy, with more of the interesting interaction between magic and science that the series offers. A satisfying climax with decent wrap ups of most character arcs - though maybe I missed them but a few characters just seem to get dropped partway through? Ah well. It was competent, which is all I can ask for I guess.

[Matt Capizzi · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a wonderful read from an era when Science Fiction and Fantasy were one and the same. It read blazingly quick implied more than it stated and was the kind of read I long for. I will eventually read his other works as this one was such a pleasure.

[Jordan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The sort-of final book in the Empire of the East series (a fourth book was written over 30 years later), is a fun genre-spanning read. With it, the book cements its place as an influential read. Shades of it are present in any number of post-apocalyptic fantasy works.

[James Yoder · Rating 5 out of 5]

Utterly fantastic, the ending was amazing!

[Paul McNamee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great science-fantasy trilogy. 'Old school.'

[Athom · Rating 3 out of 5]

The trilogy is worth reading. The final book, though, is a bit of a disappointing end to the story. Things felt very rushed...

[James Joyce · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun.

[aly ^-^ · Rating 4 out of 5]

demons are nuclear particles (right?) which is cool enough to warrant 4 stars on its own. good to see draffut again, literally man’s best friend.

[Steve Smy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was under the title "Changeling Earth" when I bought it, many years ago - back when cover prices were much lower so I was able to buy the whole trilogy. A superbly imagined work from start to finish of the trilogy.