Banners of the Sa'Yen

by B.R. Stateham

SECOND COMING

He said he was a lost spaceman from the stars. They said he was the Lord's second coming.

He said he knew nothing about their world. They said their prophets foretold the denials.

He said he wanted only to return home. They said he would lead them on a great crusade to restore the Lord's true faith.

Then he found out that the only way to the stars was to uncover the truth about the ancient writers of the prophecies. And so together they raised the banners of the Lord Sa'yen to find the path to a forgotten cosmic past.

It's heroic science fiction adventure in the grand Tarl Cabot - John Carter - Dray Prescot tradition!

Genres: Fantasy, Science Fiction

207 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published July 1, 1981

About the author

I am a soon to be a seventy five year old writer of genre fiction. And yes, my portrait was used in 1931 for the original design of Boris Karloff's Frankenstein (well, maybe I'm stretching the truth just an itsy-bitsy bit).

I write hardboiled/noir. And fantasy. And someday . . . someday I plan to make a buck two ninety-five doing it. But I'm not holding my breath.

Reviews

[B.R. Stateham · Rating 5 out of 5]

My first published novel. Wrote it with the intent to honor one of my favorite authors; Edgar Rice Burroughs. A couple of people read it--and liked it! Amazing.

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

From the beginning I liked this book. The action starts immediately and the perspective is first person. The really big thing I liked was the narrator was not the protagonist but someone close to him. This was a sci-fi book in which a man from the stars falls to earth and some of the denizens of this world believe he is their promised messiah which he is not. The book is a great adventure story, my one big peeve about it is that before the story ends the narrator pauses the story until a later time. To my knowledge Mr Stateham has never finished the story. Almost like your new favorite show gets cancelled in the middle of the story arc.

[Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this but was hoping to like it better. Great world and set up for the story, but the plot was not as compelling as I might have liked. The writing is pretty good though, and the characters were good. Plus, the world itself is really interesting.

[Derek · Rating 3 out of 5]

You can check off the staples of the genre: Earth or near-Earth visitor to the world, airships with barely-lampshaded operative principles, city states in conflict, and heroism versus darkest villainy. Stateham changes things up by telling it from the perspective of a native instead of the "Sa'yen" of the title.

--Pet peeve: Indiscriminate use of apostrophes in invented words. Sa'yen. Wha'ta.--

The cleverness continues in that this apparently is a planet that occasionally receives visitors, each of which builds on the spiritual tradition of the Sa'yen. That the system contains statements like "the Sa'yen denies his godhood and that is how you shall know him" is of course highly story-convenient as well as slightly exasperating. Magdar the narrator grapples with his Lord's divine status.

Stateham even changes things up quite a bit by having no romantic partner for the Sa'yen, in a shocking twist.

It plays and reads like Lin Carter's Callisto series, but with more of a potential arc about the history of this planet and its relationship to the rest of the galaxy. Maybe the goal was to pursue the left threads in sequels, but unless a real surprise about the Ancient Kings or the escaped villains or even the flying ships were in order, then I found what exists to be enough.

[Ken · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked up this book at Mt Rainer when I was a kid as my parents were dragging me around Washington camping. This was the book that first made me love science fiction.
A “modern” man falls to a planet where he’s seen by some to be the prophesied savior of the world.
Great world. I loved it and have read it many times.
I still buy every copy at used book stores I come across in fear that I’ll lose mine.